The Curious Case of Belly Button

Your Mom's Belly Button just keeps getting more and more curious. She was sure a couple of weeks ago that it was going to pop from ( to ) , and so we started Belly Button Watch 2009. The crowd has been gathering every night with bated breath and front row seats, waiting for it to pop to an outy...but as you can see, the crowd has lost it's interest.

You see, we don't even know what Day of the BBW it is, but I do know that that thing is STILL an Inny. But, it's becoming a very weird inny. You know what the bottom of a balloon looks like when it's tied off? Well, of course, you don't know what it looks like right now. Maybe a little bit like a spleen? I don't know. Here's a picture of one:
So, that little purple tip really is a good example of what your Mom's belly button looks like.

It's shallow, it's textured, it's flat, it's rubbery, it's the top piece of a bulgy, round orb.

Don't believe me? Fine. Take a look at this and tell me it's not the most curious belly button you've ever seen. Now, the belly button is remarkably hard to take a picture of, so you may have to use your imagination a little bit.
But seriously, is it going to pop or just keep getting more and more shallow? Is it going to start talking to us? Is it going to wink? I don't know! But, we'll keep monitoring the situation. Hopefully something more interesting will happen with it (like a POP..OUTY!) so the dogs' efforts wont have been in vain.

So, even though this is supposed to have been the month of your Mom's fastest growth, we still have a shallow inny on our hands, and a curious one at that.

But, we do have an ever-growing belly. In fact, I think the belly even grew from last week to this week. (Thanksgiving food certainly must have helped).

What do you think?

WEEK 25


WEEK 26

And maybe sometime soon, your Mom will have one of these protruding from her shirt: )

If you Can't Stand the Heat...

You know that old saying. Oh wait, you don't? Because people aren't born with knowledge of colloquialisms? Okay. Well, the old saying goes "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."

Well, look who's still in the kitchen:

Look, winter is fast approaching, and I'm starting to get cold. Sometimes I need to turn the heat on in the house or the car, but your Mother protests.

Why does she protest? Because her hormones have thrown her entire body's thermometer out of whack and at any given moment, especially the given moments when I'm freezing cold, she feels like she is on the surface of the sun.

Now, it's not just my word against hers as far as the temperature is concerned. At work, when everyone is freezing, your Mom is, again, burning up.

One could get pretty comfortable calling your Mom the "Human Torch," and attributing this newofound warmth to some sort of pregnancy super power.

But, as luck would have it, when it's actually warm, your Mom is freezing- which just goes to show you that this whole pregnancy hormone thing makes absolutely no sense at all. Her body is a glitching. If it were a PC, I would hit CTRL+ALT+Del and reboot the system.

But no such luck. Instead of that, I get to endure such fun things as:

+ Waking up in the middle of the night burning up because SOMEONE has pushed all of their covers on top of me, so I'm, in effect, sleeping under two sheets and two comforters.

+ Turn off the heat in the house or car when my fingers are blue.

+ Walk around with my nose running because it must be kept at the temperature of a meat locker in our home.

Now, it's not all bad, though. One cold morning, driving to a Doctor's Appointment, I was really cold. So I did my norm, and cranked the heat all the way to the end of the dial.

About 3 minutes later, your Mom exclaimed: "What are you trying to do? Smoke me out?" And she turned the heat back down to a compromise level of tepid warmth.

But my hands were still cold.

So, we used her super powered heat hands and my mere mortal susceptability to the elements to solve our mutual problems. By clasping hands, her warm mits heated my frozen fingers. In return my frigid digits cooled her hot hands.

The only problem was that no one was holding the steering wheel. So maybe that wasn't a good idea.

This trick also works for cold hands giving soothing hot foot rubs and hot hands warming a cold headachy noggin. This trick does no favors in cold hands touching the belly though. I have to wear mittens or rub my hands together to warm them up before I can do that!

As winter comes and Dallas gets colder and colder, though, I know your Mom is going to be a hot commodity, literally. We can keep warm together; and maybe I'll be able to roast a few marshmallows over her head.

So even though your Mom can't stand the heat, and I can't stand the cold, we're both staying in the proverbial kitchen because, well, to continue the cooking metaphor, we've got a bun in the oven!

All Hands on Deck: Pre-Thanksgiving Edition

We've made it to week 25, and you've finally graduated from papaya to the next produce item on the list. That's right, buddy, in perfect time for Thanksgiving, you're, no, not a turkey, but an eggplant! (Mimi makes the best Eggplant dish on Thanksgiving...so, it's not a total non-sequitor)

That doesn't mean you're a purple, moslty mushy food that hardly anybody likes; It takes a LOT of effort to get as mushy as an eggplant. What this does mean, though, is that you're growing- probably about 1.5 pounds and 13.6 inches long from head to toe.

But we don't need to play guessing games to know you're there or that you've grown. We can see AND feel that just by watching and touching your Mom's belly.

Over the weekend you were kicking for what seemed like 10 minutes at a time and we both just watched and felt in amazement. In fact, you seem to react a lot to music too! Your Mom and I were playing Beatles Rock Band and at this one point with a lot of bass your Mom saw you dancing along. But more on that later.

We can't help but smile every time we feel you kicking. This show was too good to keep to ourselves, so we had to take it on the road.

At a Pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving feast at the home of our friends BJ and Kari, we were all just sitting around talking after the meal. I went over and put my hand on your belly to feel you kicking and then your Mom grabbed Michelle's hand to let her feel too. She felt you kick and, also, couldn't help but smile and laugh! Michelle said she could almost even feel a little foot kicking her hand!

Next thing we knew, everyone wanted to feel you kick and squirm and move, and you didn't disappoint your future "Uncles" and "Aunts" and friends: they all got to feel you kick, and all reacted differently. Uncle Jeremy didn't even realize it when he felt you kick- he thought it was just a muscle spasm!

But everyone overall loved "meeting you"-- and they, like me and your mother, can't wait to meet you for real.

Feeling you kick definitely makes your arrival seem more real...but it still seems so unknown, so far off and altogether UNreal. That is to say, we still can't fathom what it will be like when you're here, nonetheless, we still can't wait for it!

To feel you kicking and hold your feet and see your eyes for real will be beyond words; but for now, feeling and seeing you kick against your Mom's belly is incredible enough and, on this week of good food and family, seeing you kick, feeling you move, watching you grow and knowing you're in there definitely and being able to share that with everyone gives me something to be Thankful for.

And THAT's how you get as mushy as an eggplant!