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Baby Talk

Sorry about the one week hiatus. Time just got away from me last week. I don't think anything noteworthy happened. Well - I suppose there is the issue of the fact that I am now 19 weeks pregnant (out of 40 weeks for those of you who've never had a child and get annoyed with the odd time intervals future and current parents use to communicate about children) and I figured out that many of Ryan's friends still don't know we are expecting. It came up when one of his friends called to confirm Friday night dinner plans and suggested enthusiastically that we bring the wine so we can all get nice and sloshed. I refrained from saying anything over the phone as Ryan had indicated that he wants to tell all of his friends in person. I guess I just figured he would have seen a few of them in the past couple of months. I guess I shouldn't think too much about it because he came back from dinner with a friend on Thursday night with the news of a child due in August. It could be worse!

On Saturday morning, we took a walk around our neighborhood to measure walking time to nearby playgrounds. Seeing as we live in the city, I was surprised to find three separate playgrounds with nice equipment within a 10 minute walk of our house. I know that we won't need said playgrounds for quite awhile, but city neighborhoods have a family unfriendly reputation so I was surprised to find I was wrong about that on at least one count. The second thing I had to check was the prevalence of broken glass and bottles wrapped in brown paper sacks discarded around the playgrounds, and even though it was Saturday morning, the playgrounds were all clean! Double good news! Now if we could only get a school nearby that could hold on to accreditation...

This weekend, I got to put my anti-tummy touch strategy into play. My mother-in-law greeted us Saturday morning with her hand extended and ready to pat the belly. I warned her verbally that she touches my stomach, I touch hers. She hesitated, but decided it was still worth it so I returned the favor. Since she's family, it is forgiven, but I have the feeling I'll be testing this strategy again soon. People are eyeballing my stomach like crazy. My second strategy is to make the moment really uncomfortable by squatting down just as they reach for the belly so instead they touch my boobs. While it is even more intrusive to me, the look of shock on most of their faces would be classic. Other thoughts?

11:32 a.m. - June 30, 2008

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