99 reasons

Well Gizmo, now that we have successfully avoided the dreaded September 11th birthday date, I think you should starting putting together your exit strategy.

In order to help you motivate, I have compiled a list of wonderful things that are waiting for you out in this great big world. Things worth leaving your little watery hidey hole for.

1. clean, fresh sheets

2. great summer thunderstorms

3. DQ

4. Christmas Eve

5. Harry Potter

6. french fries

7. iphones

8. puppy dogs with really soft ears

9. vacations

10. the beach

11. first snow of the winter

12. fireflies

13. mystery trips

14. the Olympics

15. pancakes for dinner

16. your nephews

17. the smell of fresh cut grass, cookies baking, and coffee

18. movies

19. presents

20. finding $5 you forgot all about in your coat pocket

21. cookouts

22. hot chocolate with marshmallows

23. Chicago in the summer

24. trick or treating

25. birthdays

26. us. me and your dad and the rest of our family and friends who can't wait to meet you.

Ok, so it's not exactly 99 reasons. I'm no Jay Z. But it's a pretty good start. You will just have to come out and discover the other 76 reasons for yourself.

Come out, come out wherever you are.

awwww, FREAK OUT!

So in less than 24 hours, babe, we will have only 2 weeks left until your due date. How is that possible??!! I'm not gonna lie, Giz, I ........ am ....freaking ....out! I mean, logically I know you aren't going to stay in your little hidey hole forever, but I didn't expect for your eviction date to sneak up on me so fast. I may be the only pregnant woman in the history of the earth to say this, but please, please stay put a little longer. I need you to just chill and not come out, or at least wait until I can get a pedicure. I really cannot have my feet up in stirrups looking the way they currently look.

In all seriousness baby, I will miss you and all of our time together. But I have started to think about you, the actual you, a lot lately. And despite all of my freaking out, I am really excited to meet you. I feel like I know you pretty well already....I know you like oatmeal raisin cookies, I know you come alive during the hours of 6-11 pm, I know you like to hang out on my left side, and I know you do NOT like this hot summer we are having....but I know there is so much more to learn about you. And I want to learn it all Giz, every last itsy tiny detail that makes you you. I can't wait to meet you baby boy.

....I'd just prefer to meet you a little closer to your due date.

You in your hidey hole at 38 weeks....well technically 37 weeks, 6 days and some change.

spooky, scary

Uh Giz, I might have bought you a Halloween costume. Blame it on work being slow, or me spending one too many Halloweens with your Halloween-obsessed-Auntie-Emily. Whatever it is, I just couldn't help myself.

Really, you should just make your peace with it now I guess. What good are kids if you can't dress them up and have a good chuckle at their expense now and then?

So in just two short months, you will be donning this

That's right, baby sushi! Don't worry, I had your "ginger and wasabi" put on a more masculine looking hat instead of that headband. That headband would just look ridonkculous.

rotten to the core

So baby Giz, looks like you are going to follow in your mama's footsteps and end up a spoiled rotten child. In case the one perfect baby shower we had wasn't enough, you got three more. My work threw you one, and your papa's work threw you two, one in Chicago and one in Texas! I would have loved to see your dad at the baby showers, I'm pretty sure he didn't quite know what to do with himself.

Anyways, everyone was so sweet and made just the biggest fuss over you. I'll tell you babe, once you are here and old news and we stop getting all this attention, I am in for a very rude awakening.

Here are some pictures of my work shower. I tried to get some of your dad at his, he swears they exist, but I have decided getting pictures from a boy is more difficult than squeezing water from a stone. So these will have to do.

ummmmm Sweet Mandy B's cake. Thank you Monica!

My most adorable Godkids, Cam and Hud, came all the way down just for your party (and probably for the cake too). They were quite the hit. Is it just me or do I look like I am going to topple over in this picture??!!

They couldn't be any cuter!

By the way babe, don't ever let anyone make you feel bad about being spoiled. I'm totally cool with the spoiling, I think I turned out just fine in the end. Your dad may have a differing opinion, but what does he know anyways.

go ahead and smile

I have noticed that when you are pregnant people smile at you a lot. They look at you, look at the belly, and then just sort of smile up (or down) at you. In a city where I am automatically weirded out when a stranger says “hello” to me, it is really sort of a sweet occurrence.

I find myself wondering why the smile? Does much of humanity just love a pregnant lady? Are we all just sort of in awe of the whole pregnancy and new life thing? Are they remembering their own experiences with their children? Maybe they are just smiling in thanks that it is me and not them.

I wonder if people smiled at the mothers of Idi Amin, Pol Pot, and Stalin, and Charlton Heston while those women were pregnant with them (and yes, I consider Charlton Heston worthy of that group). Huh, if those people knew then what they know now….

looking so long at these pictures of you

Gizmo,

Today we had our 34 week appointment and one of our coolest ultrasounds yet. A 3D one, which was a total surprise. You are a boy, a real boy! No longer do you look like a sea monkey or Mr. Peanut, you look like a full fledged baby. Today we learned:

1. You have hair! I LURVE hair on babies! The more the better. My ideal baby would come out looking like a troll doll. I already have visions of faux hawks dancing in my head.

2. Your testicles have descended. We saw them ourselves, full on. I guess that's good. Your dad seemed proud. Baby balls. Weird.

3. You are head down, butt up by my left ribs, and feet out under my right ribs. Excellent work. Genius even. Now just stay that way.

4. You are about 4 lbs 14 oz. which is the 50th percentile on the nose. Perfectly average. No shame in that baby. The tech thinks you are on track to be an average size baby, somewhere in the 7-8lbs range. I like it. 7-something sounds very manageable to me.

So without further ado, I give you....you.

p.s. The tech assured me that is not an accurate picture of your nose. You are smashed in there so your nose looks bigger. You may just dodge that Roman nose yet that seems to run on my side of the family.

head, shoulders, knees and toes

Petite Giz,

You are all body parts these days. We are 33 weeks into this ride and I think your watery home is getting a bit cramped. Your donkey kicks have turned into different movements. Sort of squirmy, I-can't-get-comfortable-in-here movements. Also, little parts sort of jab out now, and if I press back on these knees/feet/elbows/butt you usually retract...sometimes though you ignore me and continue to stick out. Try and stay within the lines Giz!

Probably the most fun though, and by fun I mean torture, is the way you love to crowd my lungs. Ugh. At some times of the day you are all jammed up in my lungs and I find myself huffing and puffing. I worry that I sound like some kind of a pervert what with all the heavy breathing I have to do! So feel free to do that "lightening thing" and drop down a little, just try not to land on my bladder.

oh good times Gizmo, good times.

We have your 34 week check up next week. I am going every 2 weeks now. We are having one last ultrasound at that appointment and it will be crazy to see you again. It's been 13 weeks since we last saw you and I think we will be blown away at what a little butter ball you have turned into. It would make me particularly happy if we learned at that appointment that you are head down.

So work on that, and head towards the light babe.