Make Way for the Duckling!

The end is nearing, my friends. I can't believe it! It has been so fast and so slow all at the same time. It's just like anything else big and exciting in life, I suppose. But it really is coming to a close. In fact, there are only 11 more days until my due date. Wow. (Although I think that may be miscalculated, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if he was a week "late" or so. I must say, however, that I would prefer him to be a week early. I'm a little antsy.) In the last couple of weeks I have really popped out. If I thought my belly was big before I had no idea! Logan just grins (or laughs) whenever he sees me now. It's getting huge. I can't imagine what it would be like to have more than one in there! Yikes. One of my friends at church told me that when I got up on Sunday during the meeting to go sing with the church choir her husband audibly blurted out, "Whoa!" :) Thanks to this rapidly expanding belly 'o mine I am now going to the bathroom about 75 times a day (and night)....and waddling. I managed to go pretty long without giving in to the waddling, but I can resist the urge no longer. They say it's the loosening of ligaments that does it, but I think the real reason is because pregnant women always have full bladders! Trying to walk quickly with your legs close together is near unto impossible with a full bladder and a belly that is already pushing on it, let me tell you. So I just waddle slowly down the hall and sigh with relief as the bathroom door looms ever nearer. This summer we lived in Boston, and my absolute favorite thing to do was to go to the Public Garden (by Boston Common) and watch the ducklings. I had a duckling obsession...to say the least. The Public Garden is where the adorable, classic children's book Make Way for Ducklings is set, and there really are ducklings there all summer living on Duck Island. CUTEST! I love that book and it always reminds me of my mom, who read it to us when we were little. The other day Logan and I were hurrying into a store and he stopped to wait for me and started grinning from ear to ear. "Make way for the duckling!" he announced. I couldn't help but laugh. At least I know I'll never be as duck-footed as my father...even if I get pregnant with quadruplets! :) (Sorry, Dad, but you know it's true.) Since then "The Duckling" has become Logan's new pet name for me, only occasionally swapped out for "Gui Gui." Gui Gui was the name of my baby turtle during the semester that I spent teaching English in China. One of my students had the tiniest turtle imaginable in class one day and I squealed and made such a fuss over it that he gave it to me as a pet. (I gave it back before we left.) Logan calling me Gui Gui came about one day when we were snuggling on our bed and he got up to get something from the other room and I rolled onto my back...and couldn't really get up. I hollered that he had stranded me like a turtle on my back, and the name Gui Gui was reborn. So, I guess the moral of this entry is that,apparently, I am an animal. A rather large animal, named ironically after some very, very small animals.

Only 11 days and counting!

Best Thing Since I Last Blogged: They fixed our radiators! We also had a great Valentine's Day. We went out for a nice dinner and then a friend at church who plays in the St. Louis Symphony hooked us up with some free tickets. The picture above is of me on that night. I really wanted a pic of us together, but we don't know our neighbors. Bummer.

Worst Thing Since I Last Blogged: I have started getting some major sciatica pains. For those of you who know what that is....OUCH, OUCH, OUCH!!! Hopefully Little Callum will debut sooner rather than later!