This past Thursday was my birthday, and I went to dinner at Shady Grove with my wonderful friends and my husband. Here's a photo from that night, after I ate all the food I could get my hands on.

Last week ended in a cool way. Two Thursdays ago, I had breakfast with a woman and her 10-month-old son. He was so cute. We were feeding him some strawberries I had and he kept making really cute faces. He shut his eyes, puckered up his lips and kind of smiled and held his head up. It was a sunny day and we sat outside, and it was such a good vibe. I kept thinking of his little faces he was making and it made me smile all day. Then I took dinner to a family that just had a baby. She let me hold the new baby girl, who was just five weeks old, and it was amazing to think we're soon going to have a baby! Anyway, between those two kids, I felt really excited about having one of our own soon. That would have killed me if we were still trying to get pregnant, so I'm glad we're close.

The next day, Friday, I went swimming for the first time since this started. I woke up that day feeling like I must have grown overnight, so I didn't think it'd go very well. I thought there'd be a lot of drag and being pregnant would really slow me down, but it actually felt AMAZING. I think the extra buoyancy may even be making me a little faster than usual! It's the only place where I feel like I can move normally and don't feel clumsy, and after three nights of not sleeping, I slept through that entire night, I was so tired out from it. So I went back Monday and Wednesday this week and joined the gym Friday. I think it helps to stretch me out, which is good, and sometimes when I'm underwater, I wonder if that is what it's like for our kid right now. Anyway, we're leaving for Maui in two days, and I'm really looking forward to spending a lot of time snorkeling and swimming this week.

This week was a little weirder. Tuesday the one yucky pregnancy problem that I thought I could will not to happen happened, and that night I woke up screaming in the middle of the night because of a really intense cramp in my calf. I Googled it and talked to other moms about it and evidently it's common. It hurt for two days. I think both things that happened are probably because I need to drink more water and stretch more.

I am also getting hungrier, which I thought wasn't possible. I think I scared the hell out of a guy at Schlotzky's Thursday. I had to make an emergency trip there because while walking with my friend I suddenly became so hungry I had to stop and leave to eat. It was so sudden and intense I knew I wouldn't make it home and have time to make something quick enough, so I went to the sandwich shop and told the guy I wanted the biggest veggie sandwich they had. I ate the entire thing in about a minute and proceeded to eat a bag of chips and some cookies I got with it, once I got home. I can't believe how hungry I get and how fast it hits me, but I've now stocked my purse with granola bars so I can avoid this happening again.

A neat thing that happened this week is one of my dogs, Peepa, came up to me and rested her head on my stomach. She's never done this before. She stayed there for about 15 minutes, just standing there like that. It was weird, but she did it again the next day, so I don't think it was a fluke. I think she knows there's a baby in there. They say dogs can sense it, but this is the first time she's really done anything like this. It seemed really protective. I hope I can get a picture of her doing it. It's so cool. Also, we were talking to some families that were playing in their yards in our neighborhood yesterday, and both Peepa and Matty were really good with the kids, even when they were poking around their faces. Peepa really seems to enjoy them, and Matty seems like he is willing to put up with it. So I think they'll really be great with the baby.

I am back by popular demand and better (bigger) than ever. For all of you who asked for a photo of me knocked up, here it is (thanks to the lovely Zhenya). I will put a second photo up next time I post, which will possibly be tomorrow.

The beginning of my pregnancy was particularly rough. I didn't want to blog about it because I didn't want to complain non-stop publicly. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago something really neat happened and I thought it'd be a good way to start up my blog again, so here's that story:

A stranger I met on the Internet through a Yahoo group gave me a whole bunch of baby clothes she was done with. I thought it'd be a few things, but when I got home and went through it, I nearly cried I was so overwhelmed by her generosity. We won't need to buy a stitch of clothing for this kid until it's probably 9-12 months old, she gave us so much stuff. I've never even met her before! It was such a random act of kindness, it totally renewed my faith in humankind. Along with the mountain of clothes, she gave us a bunch of hats, socks, swaddling and receiving blankets and waterproof pads. It really was amazing, and I'm looking forward to passing all of it on to someone else who needs it when we're done with it. It'll be neat to do it for someone else.

Then I went to the school where I volunteer on Thursdays with some second graders. They were really on. First they asked me if I'd stay for lunch after we were done. I said that no, I had to meet a friend to go for a walk. They asked why and I said I needed to get some exercise. The little boy asked why I need to lose weight and one of the other little girls said, "Yeah, you're skinny!" I told them everybody needs to exercise to stay healthy, not just to lose weight, and it's like their gym class. I hope that was a decent answer.

At the end of the session, the other little girl I work with came up to me and whisper-asked if I am pregnant. They are in second grade, so I was pretty amazed. I said yes and expected all kinds of weird questions that I wouldn't know how to answer in an appropriate way (they come from pretty bad backgrounds, so who knows what kind of stuff they've heard at home). She asked if I'm having a girl. I said it's a surprise and she asked again, "So are you having a girl?". It was pretty funny because they're all so matter of fact about everything they say. I could have kissed them all!!! It was great!