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1) Nobody has offered me a seat yet. However, none of my jackets fit, not even my spring jacket. I am growing straight out. From the front, if I am wearing a solid-colored shirt, you cannot tell in anyway that there is a baby in there. But if I turn 45�, it looks as if I have stuffed a volleyball under my shirt. So I am at least proving one old wive's tale true here, although Romulus has yet to grow to true basketball-sized proportions. That will come, of course.

2) The kicking and rolling and so forth has gotten way, way more intense in the last week or so. Romulus also chose not to sleep at all today, preferring instead to practice his kung-fu moves from the hours of 9-12 (during my class). He went for a quick jog around the 'hood from 12-13, and then went back to kung-fu as soon as class started again at 13:30. On two seperate occasions he actually made me jump. ME! Jumping from the impact of a not-yet-two-pound creature. I honestly love all the motion and commotion and am just amazed at how much I can feel, but there was a moment today when I said to him, "Hey... buddy. I'm trying to concentrate. Jump around if you like, but just try not to scare me anymore."

Freakily enough, he listened. For the rest of the day, he would just thump around, and now I think he's decided that was enough for today. Well, at least until I finally get to lay down, at any rate, when I am sure he will pull out the trampoline for his midnight jump-a-thon.

3) My doctor asked me to take out my belly ring before the next appointment. I don't know if that is really medically necessary, but once I got online and started reading horror stories about belly piercings getting infected, or - God forbid - "migrating" out of the skin while pregnant, I decided to just take the damn thing out. That was weird, as I've had it for ten years and have not thought a whole lot about it since it healed 9 years and 11 months ago. Now my belly feels sort of tight and stretchy where the hole was -- I would have thought it would be the opposite feeling but whatever. Bottom line: the belly ring is gone. I think I'll be able to pop it back in come, oh, October, but who knows what kind of state my stomach will be in by then. In the meantime, I took one last photo.

4) In an effort to save money, I have been looking at some baby goods on Ebay. I have only bought one thing thus far, but the whole experience is so addictive. I think Ebay makes at least half of its money on people with addictive personalities.

5) Eating is getting more and more difficult. I'm STARVING in the morning, mildly hungry by lunch, and then I have general hunger but nothing serious for the rest of the day. I absolutely cannot eat an entire dinner in one sitting, so I have ended up breaking my evening meals into three. First I eat a little something upon my return from work, then I eat a little portion of the dinner I cook (or reheat, as I am not finishing dinners nowadays so we often have leftovers), and then I have a yogurt or something an hour or two before bedtime. My stomach just feels stretched and tight at night, and I think that what is going on at a superficial level (the skin) makes me feel as if I can't fill my stomach anymore on an interior level. Maybe some of you mamas can relate to this. I know I am still eating plenty (oh yes, no worries there) but it's sort of aggravating not to be able to have a solid meal at day's end. I hear it's only going to get worse.

6) For the past week, I have been overcome by this obnoxious, giggling, spouting sort of joy that is actually starting to make me feel a little kooky. I have also become completely obsessed with keeping the house clean, which is not easy when you have a ten-year-old who loves to draw living at your house. Neither he nor his father are particularly organized types, and I find myself suffocating the urge to rearrange his suitcase or put away his soccer ball (where would it go?). He's only here for four days, I think I can live with a little mess. Right? Hrm. I find the whole thing so funny (namely, my own maniacal cleaning) that I spend most of my time laughing to myself about it. They're not in on the joke, of course (I can't even really drum up an explanation of what the joke is, exactly) so they just watch me nervously as I get progressively more and more giddy.

Last night, I got on The Boy's case because he eats a banana per day. I know this because I find a banana peel NEXT TO the garbage can every day. Never IN the garbage can. Always on the counter RIGHT NEXT to the garbage. Now tell me, what the hell is that? Just, what IS that?

I pointed this out to The Boy and said that it is absolutely unacceptable (the whole time half-giggling and unable to be serious for a second) when he turned to The Little Guy and said, "She's crazy." (in English)

The Little Guy, who speaks pretty good English for a ten-year-old Belgian, laughed. And then I said, "Maybe, but you're lazy!" and I spent the next half hour tee-heeing about my jeu de mots.

See what I mean by obnoxious and giggly? It doesn't make any sense, and it's not really even funny, but I can't stop laughing. Did anybody see the Angelina Jolie interview with Ann Curry? She was in Africa somewhere, and she basically spent the entire interview giggling. And Ann was like, "What's so funny?" and she said, "Brad tells me I've had the giggles since getting pregnant. I just can't stop them!"**

And that's how this week has been. I think Brad's medical diagnosis is spot on: I've got the giggles.

It's pretty fun for me, but I think others are going to have to take me in small doses for awhile.

**Update: Here's the Angeline Jolie interview. They're in Namibia, by the way. I should have remembered that.

UPDATE TWO: That "Grey's Anatomy" episode was weird, but I still managed to cry. It was less cathartic this time, because it got me thinking about the importance of tenderness in life and how everybody needs some, but we are often so stingy with it. So I was sort of saddened by that, even though the overall message was a good one.

I would also like to say, for the record, that I cannot wait for Addison and Alex to get it on. Alex has been my favorite boy on the show for awhile (ever since he saved that baby by doing the sports announcer thing) and Addison has become my favorite chick character in recent weeks. (I also teared up when she was "there" for Derek when he started to breakdown outside of Ellis Grey's hospital room). So this Alex-Addison thing is looking extremely promising. Also: again, Cristina! So much love for Meredith! I cried again, of course.