Another Milestone

The books and webpages I've been reading say that the first kicks feel like butterflies in the stomach or gas. Well, I've been feeling a lot of that; unfortunately, there has been no time that I have not had gas, so I couldn't tell if it was the baby or my lunch.

Today in yoga, I was doing a very mild supported bridge (on your back, feet and shoulders on the ground, hips in the air), which caused my spine to push my uterus forward. I felt a little gurgling, put my hand on my stomach, and felt a definite kick! It was a small class so I said,

"Oh, I felt a kick."
"You're kidding!" (Jesse, the teacher)
"Yeah, the first one!"
"No way!"

He immediately jumped up and put his hand on my belly, but it was way too soft for him to have felt it. I'm sure they'll be plenty of opportunity later. One of our guests last night was saying that near the end or her sister's recent pregnancy, you could actually see a foot move under the skin, or the whole belly shift right to left and back again.

Why has no one thought of this?

They need to make maternity pants wit suspenders because a drawstring or
belt around the bottom half of an egg is an inherently unstable
situation. Not to mention that anything binding enough to stay put is
pretty uncomfortable. I don't need any additional pressure on my tiny,
tiny bladder, thank you. So I'm thinking I might have to find a pair
(?) or two of whimsicalsuspenders to keep my yoga pants from pooling
around my ankles.

Last night while pulling pumpkin seeds out of the oven a lightbulb went off in my brain and I blurted, "I just realized that I'm barefoot, and pregnant, and in the kitchen!" Too bad Bill was the only one that got it. We had to explain the cliche to our non-American (French, Dutch, and Mexican) guests.

Perfect Fall Day

Just barely cool enough for a sweater, brilliantly sunny, slight breeze. You would never guess that it was snowing like crazy yesterday.

We're having our pumpkin party tonight, so I'm thankful for the extra daylight savings time hour to get ready. We spent the morning rearranging the computer area; it's been something of a disaster since we got the new coffee table. In doing so, about ten pound of gross dust was uncovered. I will be so glad when the renovations to the house next door are done - they are making such a mess. The house does look a million times better, a huge improvement over the boarded up windows look visible in our move in pictures.

Too Soon

First snow of the season today, and I have to walk through it to get to yoga.

Time for new luggage

After wrestling with the broken zipper on our carry-on, I gave up and pulled the contents of the bag out through the partially open slit. That's one more thing for the christmas list.

Reposting email: the lazy way to blog

I emailed Grace an update on the rest of our trip to CA after we had a BBQ at her place on Saturday, and figured I could get a blog entry out of it, too. Clarification in Brackets where necessary.

[What I would have said at the beginning of the email if I had any social skills at all: The BBQ was a bunch of fun. It was so great seeing you, and Mel and Jose, and Marianne, and Tammy; we don't get together often enough.]

The wedding was beautiful. [The reason for the trip was that one of Bill's roommates from college, Sasha was marrying his highschool sweetheart, Megan.] Heather Farm is gorgeous - a lake with fountains, a huge rose garden, vine-covered gazebo, and other smaller gardens - and the weather was perfect. They kept the ceremony nice and short and used non traditional music that really suited them; their party favor was a CD of the music. We didn't know, but Sasha's mom had died this spring so he read a ee cummings poem in her honor that made me cry.

Monday Sasha, Megan, and Marc [another college roomie] came over to hang for a while and Tuesday we went up Mt Diablo, which I had never done before. Since it was the middle of the week we had the peak to ourselves. If you've never been, you should consider it; the view is amazing, supposedly the first or second largest in square mileage in the world because the area around it is so flat that you can see really far, instead of just to the next peak over, like in most mountain ranges.

Baby's same. Bill's parents agreed to store the diaper genie [gift from Grace] until it's born, so we can keep the extra 2 square feet for now :). Monday I'm going to the meet the midwives night at the birth center, and if it meets my expectations, I'll probably switch my prenatal care over to them as soon as I figure out if I need a referral and other insurance hassles.

So when are you coming to visit again?

Brief political interlude

This is embarrassing for my hometown "newspaper".

I give up

I know it's what my OB told me to do, but sitting with my legs not crossed is impossible, I tell you, impossible!

Sci-fi Movie Meme

Ok, I'm not really a meme person - I ususally yell at people who forward me crap - so I'm not going to tag anyone else, but I couldn't resist posting the Sci-Fi movie canon, as picked by John Scalzi in his Rough Guide to Sci-Fi Movies, which I first saw on WWdN in Exile.

The movies in bold are the ones I've seen. Clearly I've got a lot of work to do. Better go rearrange the Netflix queue.

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension!
Akira
Alien
Aliens
Alphaville
Back to the Future
Blade Runner
Brazil
Bride of Frankenstein
Brother From Another Planet
A Clockwork Orange
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Contact
The Damned
Destination Moon
The Day The Earth Stood Still
Delicatessen
Escape From New York
ET: The Extraterrestrial
Flash Gordon: Space Soldiers (serial)
The Fly (1985 version)
Forbidden Planet
Ghost in the Shell
Gojira/Godzilla
The Incredibles
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 version)
Jurassic Park
Mad Max 2/The Road Warrior
The Matrix
Metropolis
On the Beach
Planet of the Apes (1968 version)
Robocop
Sleeper
Solaris (1972 version)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
The Stepford Wives
Superman
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
The Thing From Another World
Things to Come
Tron
12 Monkeys
28 Days Later
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
2001: A Space Odyssey
La Voyage Dans la Lune
War of the Worlds (1953 version)

Ultrasound

The ultrasound today was to figure out if I was having twins or not, since my uterus was a bit bigger than expected. Turns out the fetus is just about the size of a 14 week old, rather than the 13 week old it is, so no twins, thank god.

This is really happening

Today I had my first appointment with the obstetrician. Bill and mom got to go with me to hear the heartbeat, which sounds like a very busy freeway, with a couple of cars whooshing every second. The doctor said my uterus was a bit bigger than expected for being 12w, 6d, so she scheduled an ultrasound for Monday, which mom will be able to go to too, since she doesn't leave until Tuesday.

We've been maternity clothes shopping and comparing strollers, since that will likely be my only major piece of baby accessory for a while: no crib, bassinet, car seat, high chair, etc. Doesn't seem to be much between the $100 piece of junk and the $800 does everything but change it's diaper, but we're still looking.

On Sunday night we're going up to Rockport for the night. They're having their harvest festival this weekend and mom wanted to see a bit of the shore.

I'm off to get my hair cut now - finally, it's been more than a year. Toodles.

Ig Nobels

As you may be aware, the Igs were awarded last Thursday night, for such studies as "Will people swim slower or faster in syrup" and "Pressures produce when penguins pooh". The winners only get a minute for their acceptance speech, but yesterday in a series of short, informal lectures, they each got five, and took questions. As it was only about a 10 minute walk from our place, Bill and I decided to go.

All of the speakers had a great sense of humor, and their work was actually pretty interesting. The author of "The Significance of Mr. Richard Buckley’s Exploding Trousers" explained how the spontaneous combustion of clothes on the line and seats in the saddle (really) was due to an herbicide used in New Zealand becoming combustible when mixed with the natural fibers, like wool or cotton, of some clothing, and an audience member asked if the sheep roaming the fields ever exploded. It was two hours of fun science with oreos at the end.

Good to be back.

Coming home and doing laundry is such a let down after vacation. So, we're back, and yes, we had a fabulous time; I wish we could always spend 24/7 together. We took a few pictures, and as soon as we finish off the second roll and get them developed, I'll post.

I have a head cold, and can't take any medication for it, so everything's a little jumbled, but I can say that the food in Prague is delicious, and we had a lot of fun riding a seesaw in Croatia and laughing about how the word means "tit" there.

For now, I'm going to rest up for Mom's visit, which starts on Saturday, and pay some bills: fun, fun.