The Things I'm Hearing These Days

I'm getting to that stage in my pregnancy where people, even perfect strangers, are taking delight in making comments about my freakishly large belly. I don't mind, really. I find it rather amusing, actually, and figured I'd make note here of some of the things I've heard of late...will make for some interesting reading someday once this baby is grown and starts asking questions about when he/she was in here. Let me also just state for the record that he/she is doing some strange rolling & nudging maneuvers under the right side of my rib cage at this very moment...

About 2 weeks ago we went to eat at our favorite local Chinese restaurant, where the owners have gotten to know us pretty well -- they are always welcoming & very friendly. This particular night we walk in and then wife flashes us a huge grin and says, "Oh, the baby is coming THIS month!" I said, "No, end of December..." She sort of does this sideways glance thing, checking out the rotunda and says, "But it's so BIG!" And so it began.

A day or so later my doctor confirmed that it's so BIG when I measured 38 centimeters at 32 weeks -- for those of you that don't know, at this stage of pregnancy centimeters are generally equal to the number of weeks, though measuring off by a centimeter or 2 is not unusual. Off by 6? Yeah, that's BIG. Doctor said, "Surely you've noticed...I mean that's a BIG jump in 2 weeks..." Well, now I've noticed, so thanks.

Saturday we were at Best Buy and a saleswoman approaches and says, "Any day now, girl!" I think I scrunched up my face or something because she said, "Right? I mean, when are you due?" "December 30th," I said. "Oh NO, girl. You're BIG! You're going long before then. Oh, and it's another boy," she said, tousling the blond hair on the 2 boys at my sides.

Just yesterday our errands took us to Lowe's where the very young salesman who was being ever-so-helpful, stopped dead during his speech about floor tile and exclaims, "Hey, would you like a chair!?! I can get you one from the desk! It's small, but if you'll be more comfortable...I don't want you to pop or anything." Oh, but popping in Lowe's sounds like fun, don't you think?

So that's it. For now, anyway. I've realized I should expect these comments daily from here on out. In fact I found myself a little disappointed that I didn't get any today...oh, except for from Laurence at bed time. He didn't embellish, just stated the obvious, "Mom, your belly is BIG. Good night."