Is there really a need for me to be sick right now? I mean is this really necessary?

100% of the morning sickness is officially gone. What do we have in its place? Well, a few things. First, funky little painful twinges. Second, a myraid of digestive problems… I keep thinking I feel the baby move and I get very excited. Then I take some Phazyme (anti-gas medication approved during pregnancy because you allegedly don’t absorb it) and the magical moving goes away. Damn it. So other than the occasional bomp or quick kick, there’s nothing happening in the movement department. I’m really really impatient for the movement part. It’s the best part. Oh but! Other symptoms. I’m having a few little headaches and things but really the main symptom worthy of note is that I want to eat the world. With brown gravy and cornbread dressing. And mashed potatoes. And a cheesecake worthy of extensive commentary by Carl Sagan.

Overall, despite the whole restricted activity thing, right now I feel amazing. Pregnancy does wonderful things to my brain. If I could take a drug that would make me feel like I was in the second trimester every day for the rest of my life, I would absolutely do it. I’d be willing to pay a bunch of money. Heck, I’d show the pharmacist my boobs if that’s what it took to get refills. Which would be especially effective if I was taking that drug. For reasons I won’t say because I’m pretty sure my dad reads this and he has high blood pressure as it is. He really doesn’t need to read about the size of his daughter’s boobs on the internet. Eeek, I’ve said too much.

1. I make felt! My fingers have blisters on them from rubbing wool fibers. Rubbing and rubbing and rubbing. Felt is amazing. Just when you think it’s never going to work and it’s never going to turn into anything but a big fluffy mass of animal hair, all of a sudden something weird happens and it all scrunches down flat and – yayy felt!

2. As soon as I no longer have to restrict my activity, I have a project in mind for my photoblog. For a week, I’m going to post pictures in the styles of other photobloggers. So far I’m planning to emulate Jinky, Chromasia, Alec Long, Heather Champ, Ryan Flynn, Kathleen OConally, and Noah Grey. Just some of my favorites, in a wide variety of styles. I’m hoping to improve my own skills with the exercise, and pay a little homage to some kickass artists at the same time.

3. I feel compelled to publish these somewhere because I like them even though they weren’t chosen. These are two of the mockups I did for a recent assignment – I was asked to design a mousepad for a software company. At first the assignment was to do anything I wanted, so long as IT people would put it on their desk. I submitted these two along with a few other ideas. The guy in charge of the assignment loved them but when he sent them out for approval, the feedback he received was “Are you serious?” and “Tone it down.” We ended up going with something that looked neat but isn’t the least bit funny or weird. Ah well…
* Mousepad mockup number one
* Mousepad mockup number two (My personal favorite)

The child patiently waits for his mother to put down the dang camera and give him his Wendy’s cheeseburger.

This morning Nicolaus woke up acting like a crazy person. Sometimes he is extra super duper two years old. He talks in this weird high-pitched voice and gets into things and doesn’t listen and generally makes a major pain in the ass of himself. That was our morning… or more accurately, it was Kevin’s morning since I had to get ready and go to the doctor for a great big check up which was awesome by the way.

Kevin took him to the store, where he was as naughty as a person can possibly be within the confines of a shopping cart basket. They bought frozen shrimp and brought them home and when I left they were eating shrimp for breakfast, and Nicolaus was spinning in his chair and talking in the chipmunk voice with a mouthful of shrimp, and I’m pretty certain I saw a faraway look in Kevin’s eyes that made me wonder for a second if he might be very, very drunk by the time I got back.

But when I came in the front door, I was greeted by a much mellower kid. “Ah! Hi Mama,” Nicolaus said in his normal voice. He was wearing a different shirt, no pants, and a pullup. I was impressed with the relaxed vibe in the house. “Well?” I asked Kevin.

“He peed all over the floor,” Kevin reported. “And he got a time out for throwing a huge fit.”

“Well it seems like the time out did him a lot of good. He’s so much calmer.”

“Yeah. Well, he went in there and he cried. Then when he came back out he said, Daddy I woke up this morning and I looked outside, and all I had was gone.”

Somehow this was not what I expected Kevin to tell me our child had said. I don’t know why I’m ever surprised anymore, but I am. Like I said, it takes me a long time to learn anything. “What?”

Kevin repeated the line for me: I woke up this morning and looked outside, and all I had was gone.

And apparently when Kevin asked him where he heard that, Nicolaus answered, “In your truck. Your truck says that.”

It’s a line from a BR-549 song that he hasn’t heard in a long time. I need to pay closer attention to the music we listen to when he’s around. Then Nicolaus started filling in his own words, “I woke up this morning and I looked outside, and I saw a squirrel.”

After that his mood improved, and the day continued without us killing him afterall.