Under 100

I never thought I'd utter these words as a reference to this pregnancy: but time, it is a'flying! As of today, I'm 98 days from my due date. 98. Something about seeing a two digit number standing between us and this baby is very, very exciting. I'm 26 weeks, the 3rd tri begins this week, and everything appears to be trucking right along. I'm looking big, and feeling great. Baby is very active in there most days. His kicks get stronger each week and my new favorite hobby is staring at my bare belly, watching as he pokes and prods and bounces beneath my skin.

The trip was fun filled and action packed. And tiring. And cankle-inducing. In a nutshell: watched as baby brother graduated, cried with realization that our little Binky Boy is off to do his own thing and make his own way, celebrated said graduation, flew to CA with mom and my sister, ate a whole lot of bacon, lettuce, and avocado sandwiches at our favorite cafe, spent countless hours taking in the sun and the totally vacation-esque view from the deck, flew back, did laundry, repacked, hit the road for ND, hung out on the farm, hit the road again, met up with friends and remembered just how lovely my friends are and how much I miss them, rejoined the family for the beautiful wedding festivities of my beautiful cousin/sister, played DD for a very rowdy group of margarita enthusiasts twice my age one night and my grandparents (YES- my grandparents) the next, drove through hellacious thunderstorms back to WI, spent a day crying into my Taco John's potato oles about leaving and never returning to Madison, endured not one but two cancelled flights, rebooked on a 5am flight and boarded looking crustier than crusty has ever looked....and at long last....returned home to (the very summery) Austin.

And what a welcome home. In good ways and not so fun ways. The good: Well, first and foremost, seeing J and the pets! Funny how you don't realize how you miss people (pets are people too) until you see them again. And the even good-er: J and his dad started the nursery and blew me away with their efforts. Gone is the allergy-inducing carpet....replaced with beautiful cherry wood floors. The walls are a most gorgeous shade of blue and there's an airplane rug chosen by J, all by himself, that brought tears to my tired eyes. The man truly outdid himself. Not that I didn't already know this, but he is going to be one HELL of a daddy. The not so good: I broke an unspoken rule between Ralph (my emotionally unstable cat) and myself (a rule I don't remember agreeing to) and left him alone for a week or two too long. His recourse? Urine. Stinky, potent kitty pee in the least convenient of places. My Pottery Barn sofa, atop dear husband during the middle of the night, my brand new silk drapery, and as a grand finale, inside my adorable pink luggage. To the vet we went, his diagnosis: emotional instability. The vet believes, in essence, Ralph is showing me what's up. "You ditch me lady? I ruin your shit." I'm sure he'll be thrilled when a tiny, screaming, demanding new "pet" joins the household in 98 (+/-) days. As we work through his "issues", he's on anxiety medication. His affect in his medicated state is not unlike that of stoner friends I had in college: "duuuude....where the eff am I?" Did I mention the dog also needs a root canal? If they keep this up, we'll be pushing baby in our rusty wheelbarrow instead of that $500 stroller I was all set to buy this week. Damn, that's not going to look good.

In other news, my mom-mobile is on its way to me next week! Out with the ginormous SUV and its correspondingly ginormous gas bill. In with a smaller, more functional SUV that I'm very excited to haul baby around in. And actually be able to park downtown without causing a traffic jam and/or lots of needless anxiety.

I'll close with a few photos...

The nursery begins:

The bump at 24 weeks:
With the bride: