quickening

I felt the baby move for the first time, about 20 minutes ago. Actually, it's been fluttering around for the past 20 minutes. Every minute or two, there's this feeling like a miniscule nerve spasm, in the lower right hand corner of my abdomen. Kelly assures me this is the quickening.

According to pregnancy.about.com, my calculated quickening date (the date you first feel the baby move) is Dec. 29, so if I'm right, and the Little Lump is starting its acrobatics, it's pretty much right on schedule. Or at least my recognition of it is. Apparently, mothers on their second, third, fourth, etc. pregnancy recognize it much earlier because they know what they're feeling.

So far, it's been easy to forget that I'm actually with child, since there's not much of a bump yet and I haven't been plagued with mood swings or morning sickness. This new little milestone is a cool little message: "hey, I'm in here - don't forget about me."

Can't wait for it to happen again. . . .

buying spree

Well, it's started. We held off as long as we could, but recently Kyle and I caved and started buying clothes. For the baby, that is.

He or she is now the proud owner of four winter dresses.

Yes, it's a risk, not actually knowing the gender of the Little Lump, but what could we do? They were $14.50 each! And so classic they'll never go out of style. So even if it's a boy, hello, future shower gifts!

So we got two dresses to fit a six-month-old and two to fit an 18-month-old. And we learned an important thing in the process. You see, we originally went to the counter with four different sizes: 6 months, 9 months, 12 months and 24 months. But just before the cashier ran them through, I realized something. The baby is due in June. Which means he or she will be 9 months in the spring and 12 months and 24 months in the summer - not such a good time of year for velvet and tartan! This shopping business is more complicated than I thought. So we trudged back to the rack and did the math and came home with four more appropriate sizes.

Here they are:

lori-anne bobs her hair

I made a vow, just out of university, after chopping off my almost-waist-length tresses, that I would never grow my hair long again. Despite my love of long, luxurious locks, my head seems capable of shooting out only thin, limp, stringy hair that, when braided or secured in a pony-tail, amounts to roughly a quarter of a good head of hair.

But in the last couple of years I succumbed to the lure of long hair once again, naively growing it as though this time would be different. Of course, it was not. If anything, it may have been worse because hair (as several friends keep sharing) looses its luster with age. I don't know that mine is any worse - one of the possible blessings of having hair that can't get worse is that it doesn't - but it's still thin, still limp and still stringy, even with a $120 spiral perm - the remnants of which have been mercifully removed.

So a few weeks ago, I surprised everyone (including my husband, who forgot I had warned him it would be gone) and lopped my mid-back-length hair off into a 1920's reminiscent bob. And still it's stringy and still it's thin, but at least it feels healthy and like it has some body and style instead of lying there like a plague on my head.

I'll probably keep it like this for a while before experimenting with other styles. But please, please dear readers, dear friends - if it ever looks like I might be growing it again, just tie me up and take some scissors after me. I'll only thank you for it in the end!