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!