5:16 AM

I'm up, eating some pop-tarts (they're organic, remember? No trans-fats. It's okay!) and having some random thoughts on this current state of mine. Pete just updated my photo gallery with pictures he had backed up. Looking through those has brought out a range of emotions.
First of all, the update. Still pregnant. Three days past the due date now. I have an appointment today (a full twelve hours from now) and I imagine we'll have to start planning for an induction. I'm still hopeful it won't go that way.
Sometimes I feel like this:
But lots of times I feel like this:

These photos were not staged. This is me being caught coming out of the bathroom. The look on my face is not "I'm so sleepy" it's " Good God! Why are you taking my picture right now? I'm sick of this!" The first shot is actually the second photo taken, where I'm staying "Okay, I can smile and pretend to be all pleasant and crap."

I'm big. My belly is big enough for a small boy to hide behind- and this was taken over a month ago! I like to call this photo: " 'Member? I used to be skinny. Ellen had a sunburn and damn, I loved my dress!"
This one I call: " Oh yeah, I can do this. Even if the baby is big and I have to be induced."
And this one reminds me that I'm not the only one who has been waiting a long time and preparing for the new arrival.
So, I'm pretty much feeling ready. Any time this baby wants to present itself. I've tried spicy food and other things I don't need to go into detail about here. My toenails are painted and I got my hair cut. We've been cleaning and organizing and the baby might as well just learn that that's a job that's never done. My bag is packed, baby's bag is packed (with baby's own new outfit to come home in) Pete's bag is packed and even has extra camera batteries. Mom thinks perhaps we're too prepared and baby wants to catch us off guard. I think today I may have to go stride with the mall walkers.
I keep running into students from my class and parents of former students...."you're still pregnant?" Yep.
Sometimes I sleep great. Other times not so much. Tonight I was wiped out, in bed by 8:00 and still couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep for more than what felt like 27 minutes at a time.
That red sweater and the blue sweater that you see above are my basic pregnancy uniform. Those, my jeans with the humungo waist that comes up above my navel, and my slip-on Halflinger clogs if I have to leave the house. The Danskos? Forget about it. They haven't fit my feet for a month.

Here's a non-pregnancy related story (though, now that I think of it- maybe Baby is just waiting for the caucuses to be over). Last night at dinner there was, of course, much caucus talk around our table. Henry was mostly quiet, or talking about other things. When he got up from the table, however, he suddenly said "Now I'm going to show you how Barack Obama dances!" and he started busting a move. I'm just guessing, based on what I know about most political candidates, that Henry's got better moves than Obama. It goes without saying that it was a hilarious moment. He's never mentioned Barack Obama before- maybe months ago when we would say "can you say Barack Obama?" But this was completely unprompted.

So....once again....here's hoping that the next time you hear from me it will be with some baby news!