Bye bye bellybutton

My bellybutton is slowly being consumed by my ever expanding abdomen. Several weeks back it appeared ready to totally disappear. Now, it's much the same... although every day I check and think I see movement. Then when Chris gets home from work he checks for me too and laughs and tells me it's exactly the same. I think he's lying.

Either way, what was once a perfectly formed innie (really... I had quite a nice bellybutton) is now a lopsided, shallow indentation in the middle of a large watermelon sized growth on my front. I can even see the back of my bellybutton without pushing on it. Scary. It's like seeing the end of the universe.

Spring has sprung

Have I mentioned lately how wonderful New Mexico weather is? It's the middle of March and temperatures have been in the 60s and 70s for two weeks. I love this place.

We're having a fun time watching our yard develop, since we saw it for the first time last June. Spring is a whole new season to us. Who knew that the almond (or olive?) tree would be awash in huge showy pink flowers? Or that the scary almost-dead tree by the house was an ornamental cherry, with delicate white blooms? The biggest suprise to me is that the awful ground cover -- in my book, all ground cover is, by nature, awful -- produces gorgeous purple flowers tucked in among the greenery. I'm still bent on pulling out each and every tendril of ground cover, but perhaps that will wait until after next Spring. Sadly, our grass is still quite dead looking and yellow. Maybe it's a late bloomer.

Pictures soon!

I continue to grow...

I am now at the stage where everywhere I go people smile at my belly and ask me when I'm due. I ususally say the end of May and the response is either 'Oh my goodness, you're so big. You have a long way to go' or some form of niceity like 'good luck'. I think I like the latter better, because when people tell me I'm huge I have to explain about twins and then I find myself in a 15 minute discussion with a total stranger. It's odd. Being pregnant makes you a public commodity. Like we're all in it together for the future of the human race. If that were the case, I would think that by now, someone else should have taken up this pregnancy so I could get some sleep at night and not be so achy. But anyway, here's me at 26 weeks:

Dragon

She is the queen of the house, and don't you ever forget it.



We are continually grateful that Dragon allows us to live with her, love her, and cater to her every need.

The flower that makes you feel like a woman

When I was growing up, every Christmas my mom would receive flowers for Christmas from my grandmother or aunt. Not cut flowers; these were little packaged amaryllis bulbs that my mom would grow into flowers. She would take them out of the cardboard packaging and pour water over the little compact disk of nutrients and put the plastic pot on the windowsill. In about six weeks we would see a green shoot poking up and a few weeks later have a beautiful red or white flower towering over the paper towels and counter clutter.

This year, my mom and brother came to visit around New Years and my mom brought me a amaryllis bulb in the same packaging that I saw every year as a child. She thought it was a hokey present and told me she wrapped it just so there would be more for me to open (who said that mom's don't worry about present equity when thier children are grown?!).

I hadn't thought about these flowers in years, but over the past two months, I have really enjoyed watching mine grow. It's like I have been validated as a woman. I mean, my mom used to get these when I was a kid. Now I'm getting them. I have arrived!



It doesn't hurt that the flower is just about the most beautiful I've ever seen...