Updately

In the shortest ultrasound ever, I was told that my placenta is not only not at all of concern anymore, but it's now in the best possible position. In fact, my midwives were surprised at such a dramatic change in six weeks. So. No more concerns there.

Right now my only concern is how large I am. Probably connected to the fact that I never stop eating. But, my midwives say I'm measuring right on for how far along I am. So I'm told not to worry about how big my belly (or the rest of me) is. One of my midwives did say that if I think I'm larger than previous pregnancies, it's probably because I have basically no muscle tone left. Was that supposed to be comforting or an insult? I'm not sure.

By the way, what are we going to name this baby girl?

We've just moved Edmund into a toddler bed. Yes, he's been in a crib until now. We also moved him into the room Johnny used to share with Charlie and gave Charlie Edmund's room. Got that? Well, it's all going swimmingly. The past two days, Edmund has put himself down for a nap at the appropriate time without even being told. Too good to last, I know. But I'll take it while I can.

Lately, if Edmund is napping and I feel the need to rest my pregnant self or put my pregnant feet up (or both), Johnny will often come and lie down next to me. He falls asleep so easily around 3 o'clock in the afternoon. And I love it. I get a nap with my 5-year-old snuggler. Then I usually wake up before he does and have a little quiet time to myself before Charlie gets home and everyone wakes up.

Johnny entertained himself for quite a while today blowing bubbles on our back porch. It was warmish today (for winter) and he wanted to be out. His goal was to blow a bubble bigger than his own head. He nearly succeeded, I'm sure. It my entertainment to watch him. Every time he blew a very large bubble, he would exclaim, "WHOA!" or "What the!?" and laugh. I just sat there, soaking in his joy, watching his face, and being glad he's around.

Charlie was so excited to get him own room. We told him a dozen times that this wasn't permanent. You will have to share a room again, my son. Still, he was so ecstatic I almost wasn't sure I should do it. He collected all his books from among the picture books on the book shelf and moved them with him. That was the first thing he wanted to do. Never mind his bed and clothes and all that. Books.

We have a genealogy chart on our wall and Charlie likes to study it. Yesterday he told me he'd found the name Ethel on there. That's a girl's name, he asserted, because it was right next to George and he knew that wasn't a girl's name. So Ethel had to be. And did we want to use Ethel for our baby girl when she comes? I told him I'd check with Dad, who promptly vetoed it. Today Charlie told me that Darrell William Darrington (Charlie's great grandfather) was born the day after him in 1915. (You know what he means, right?) I asked him how many years before his birth 1915 is. He figured that out. I stopped him once in the middle of his figurings to ask if he wanted to write it down, but no, he'd much rather do it in his head.

I have written today about mostly good things. I have not written about how whiny Johnny gets when he's doing his homework. I have not written about the pain, the absolute agony Edmund suffers when his brother fetches his sippy cup for him instead of whichever parent Edmund asked for it. I've also neglected to discuss how good Charlie is at that task of all tasks for big brothers--tormenting the younger ones. So please be advised that I haven't given you a very accurate picture of my life at all.