our weekend and warm wishes

(and for your viewing pleasure, one of my favorite television Halloween moments)

good night, moon

it's 9:36 p.m. and i am ready for bed.

just plain tuckered out. but really, with so much excitement, how could you blame me?

what excitement? (you say)

oh, you know, hoping i can figure out how to be one of these little guys for halloween,

it's an entire guild dedicated to lollipops!

learning that the little one likes online shoe shopping (for her, of course),

planning to celebrate the completion of another test for the devoted pharmacy student tomorrow evening,

knowing jonesy doesn't have another test for more than a week (it's a miracle!),

and hoping that the husband will take me somewhere cheesy and fall-themed this weekend.

aren't you exhausted just thinking about it all? i know i am. i think it's time we all turn in.

against all odds

evidence this child could be male:

jesse has all boys in his family. his dad has seven brothers. my dad has four brothers. i have three brothers. you could say we come from a line of male-dominated families.

out of the ten previous davis grandchildren (offspring of my immediate family), seven are boys.

the chinese lunar calendar predicted it would be a boy.

my all-knowing supermom sister told me i had to have a boy so our children could be BFFs.

all nicknames given to the baby have been male-oriented (such as "shank" and "moon doggie").

this baby kicks. hard. it makes its presence known.

i just had "that feeling" that it was a boy.

but, against all odds, we are thrilled to know we are having a beautiful BABY GIRL!

(which has to be announced in green because, according to gilmore girls, everyone knows that green is the new pink.)

to my unborn child -- a plea

dear baby,

at 19 weeks, you are supposed to look like a large mango covered in greasy cheese. i don't mean to be rude, but you sound a bit disgusting. sometimes, though, i find myself daydreaming about a really adorable, greasy mango and it makes me smile.

on tuesday, we get to find out which of two varieties of human you are. you will go from greasy mango to boy or girl -- that's quite a step up! it seems to be in vogue to choose not to know -- some prefer a surprise and some find superiority in declaring that women didn't know for thousands of years and were just fine. i have never been one for waiting, and i figure thousands of years ago i wouldn't have access to lots of medical care that lets me experience this, so we will be finding out. besides, your dad always says it will be a surprise to us come tuesday.

i mostly can't wait to see you again.

the doctor says that you are a rebel. you wiggle too much when they tried to find your heartbeat, so we had to do an early ultrasound (and you scared me to death, young man or lady). during the ultrasound, the doctor exclaimed, "that is quite a bit of fetal movement! you have a very active one on your hands!" you don't seem to behave as they would like you to for these routine procedures.

so this is me pleading. if my center of gravity weren't so messed up, i would even get down on my knees. please, please behave. this is the only time i will ever ask you to share your unmentionables with a room full of strangers.

we pled so much to be able to have you at all, so this kind of pleading seems a bit silly. no matter what, you are the most amazing blessing. and we can't wait to see you. even if you come out looking like a greasy cheese-covered mango.

love, mommy

you may be seeing more of me

two nights ago, jesse and i returned from a one-week hiatus (that i will refer to internally as a vacation) at my parents' house. sure, they were the ones in europe, but we got to babysit my 17-year-old-senior-in-high-school-too-cool-for-school little sister annie.

when we got back to our other temporary little home (you know, the one with our bed in it), i realized just how cold eastern idaho gets in early october. apparently the snow on the ground earlier that day wasn't reminder enough. i went to turn up the thermostat in various rooms in the house, only to learn that the husband and i have varying ideas of what "warm" means. to me it means comfortable. to jesse it means survivable.

so i confidently set the thermostat in one room in the home. the room where my little iMac resides, along with half of our belongings and some leftover storage from the true owners of this place (and yes, we will be trying to fit a baby in this place).

so you may be seeing more of me. or maybe not. but at least now you understand why i look like this.

and for diane, here is the belly approximately one week ago. (so... 18 weeks?)