Speaking of the cat, he has been cracking me UP lately. He�s getting more affectionate (i.e. less of a spaz) as he gets older, and even likes to curl up on our laps when we�re watching TV. The other night, I was lounging there and he was lying in the crook of my arm (Milo is quite indignant over the growing bump in the middle of my stomach) and started fretting in his sleep. Aw. It was SO CUTE. He was making these little growling/sighing noises. At first I was giggling about it, but then I started to feel bad that he was having a bad dream or something so I woke him up. I swear, all of my developing maternal instincts have been directed towards the cat as of late. He is going to be so, so sad once the baby comes and usurps the attention.

Milo has these quirky routines that he does. For one, every morning when I get up, the first thing I do, of course, is go to the bathroom (pregnant bladder=desperate need to pee). Ever since he was big enough to jump, Milo has decided that this gesture is the invitation to show us how much he missed me during the night (we shut him out of the bedroom at night to avoid waking with paw prints across our faces) and always jumps on my lap for a morning purr session. He�s like, �Hey, a lap! Sweet!� Funny how it doesn�t occur to him that someone might have an acutal, you know, PURPOSE in forming said lap other than him. Unfortunately, he�s very friendly and not very particular, so if we have company over and he happens to get in the bathroom with them, they always come out looking a little bewildered: �Um, your cat kept trying to jump on my lap in the bathroom�� A little unnerving, I�ll admit.

Another weird thing he started to do is hide behind every single open door in the house. He looks like a paranoid schizophrenic. This was my fault too. I noticed once that he was watching me from the crack by the hinges of the bathroom door (again with the bathroom) so I took a couple of sheets of toilet paper and teased him with it until his paw shot out through the crack and shredded the paper. Now the instant a door is opened, he runs behind it and waits for us to tease him with toilet paper. Not a cat toy, not string, but it MUST be specifically toilet paper, or His Majesty will not play. I think the shredability factor of the TP makes him feel a bit less neutered and more of a badass.

One of his favorite games is to hide in a bag and then wait for one of us to walk by when he ATTACKS! and then immediately RETREATS! back into the bag. Beware the Mighty Hunter.

Also, if we�re home, he refuses to drink from anywhere except directly from the tap of the bathroom sink (okay, apparently the cat has a bathroom fixation). Like he�ll sit by the sink and meow until we turn the water on for him. I know, I know, once again my fault. So spoiled.

Of course, he can drive me crazy too. I wasn�t going to bother with Christmas ornaments on the tree because I knew he would have them down in a second, but J wanted at least a few. Sure enough, the next morning our living room was littered with bows and balls.

What a goofball.

:::

On the pregnancy front, things are going really good. The baby has been kicking up a storm. J is still the cutest about it all. He hadn�t been able to feel the baby kick yet. Every time he would put his hand on my belly, the baby would stop and he would get tired of sitting there waiting. But the other day, we were sitting in church, of all places, and the baby started to kick so I took his hand and put it on my stomach (we were the only ones in our row). A second later the baby kicked and you should have seen the look on J�s face. His eyes got HUGE and he turned and looked at me with his mouth hanging open. It was so funny, I started giggling uncontrollably right there during the service. He was like, �Are you kidding me?! That was the BABY??� Yes, dear. It really is in there after all. How funny.

On the downside, I have started to get a few stretchmarks. I don�t have any on my stomach (knock on wood), but I have some on my boobs. Because, you know, going from a size �A� to a ginormous size �B� can just be SO DAMN TAXING apparently. Sigh. Stupid boobs. The other night it dawned on me that it might be of some help if I slept with a bra on, and a real bra, not just the flimsy demi-cup ones that I usually wear. That has seemed to help some. And while part of me thinks this is all a huge pain in the ass, another part of me is like �how fun, I get to play �I have real boobs just like everyone else.� � Good times.

It�s also fun starting to show. It really starts to seem so much more real. It�s not that I forget, exactly, that I�m pregnant, but I guess there are times when I look in the mirror and see my belly and it really hits me. I am a Pregnant Woman. Weird.

Here is a stomach shot. I�m just shy of 24 weeks in this one. I�ll put the 17 weeks one up before it for comparison.

I�m really excited to get to 27 weeks since I guess that is the stage where the baby could be born premature and still have a pretty good chance of surviving and being healthy. I don�t know why that makes me feel better, but it does. Just a few more weeks!

before ~ after