Now Visibly Pregnant

Now Mom is visibly pregnant and people are really noticing. Mom read that her uterus is now the size of a soccer ball. A soccer ball! Can you believe that? Everyone (even lots of strangers) inquires about me and what Mom knows about me. Mom tells some people about me being a girl and how excited Dad and she are.

Things have been pretty calm lately. Mom is serving on a Grand Jury in Brooklyn, which is a lot of sitting around in the same chair, the same position, all day long. Its kind of boring for me, but sometimes in the afternoon, I move around a kick a bit to get a little exercise. I especially like kicking Mom in the bladder. Its fun and it gets quite the reaction.

Dad took the picture at the top of Mom's growing belly (thanks to me). This was taken after lunch last Saturday on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. This picture is on Lafayette during the Saturday-Car-Free morning thing they are doing right now, to allow a place for people to bike, roller blade, etc freely for a little time in the morning. Its only on one street going up/down town and seems to be quite the hit. this is at the end when they are closing it down and getting ready to allow for traffic.

After this picture was taken, we all went to Dick Blick to pick out some canvases for my room. Mom is planning to paint pictures for me and any future siblings I might have.

Dad was pretty excited about getting my room ready, so they chose colors and went to Benjamin Moore and picked up some "organic" paint colors for my room. Mom took a picture of Dad painting the room, so she's posting that, too. They chose these two greens that they liked a lot. Mom acted as foreman and bossed Dad around all day about hitting the light spots. He was really appreciative of all of her help (yeah, right).

Mom has been experiencing a lot of new things now that people can tell she's pregnant. People tell her all of the time what is best for pregnancy and babies, what the best products are, and all kinds of mostly unnecessary and unwarranted advice. Some of it is helpful, but its pretty amazing how people really want to push their ways onto others. If you know my Mom, you probably know how much this annoys her. And when you know me eventually, you'll know that I'm not the same as all of these random peoples' babies. I'll be funkier, hipper, more fun, and so much cooler (and smarter, thanks to these prenatal vitamins). Mom's trying to stay positive and take it as everyone just trying to help any way they know how.

Since Mom got called to Jury Duty, she has to be gone from work for two whole weeks. It kind of worried her at first, even though she knew there was nothing she could do about it. If she got out of it this time, it would be guaranteed to be back sooner than later, so she assumed it was best that she just do it now. Once you get drawn for Grand Jury Duty, you stay in that pool until you serve. And Grand Jury runs for either two weeks, four weeks, three months, or six months. So Mom really lucked out by getting two weeks. Plus, now she's done for 8-10 years (with Petit Jury, you're only guaranteed 3-4 years off). On a Grand Jury, you don't decide guilt or innocence, you decide whether to indict or dismiss charges against someone. So you hear multiple cases over your time on the jury. Last week alone, the Grand Jury that Mom's on, heard at least 18 cases. Some aren't that big of a deal (drug charges, larceny, robbery), but some are pretty tough to take (attempted murder, rape of a child, etc). So that being said, Mom will be very happy when its time to get back to work.

So Mom has chosen an old associate to take over for her while she's on maternity, and he's helping with design projects now while she's on jury duty. It turns out this is pretty great to get him situated and acquainted with Mom's colleagues. He's doing a fantastic job and everyone seems to like him quite a bit. Its really helped Mom with less stress during jury duty.

Mom and Dad are really excited about me and seeing all of my progress throughout the pregnancy. Dad feels me moving a lot and sometimes I do some real tricks when he's touching Mom's belly. He's being such a sport. Mom is having a hard time getting socks and shoes on lately, so Dad ties her shoes for her, when she needs help.

Well, time for dinner!