I write good

It's Thursday and I feel like I'm just now recovering from last weekend, but at the same time, I can't believe it's almost next weekend. That's one thing I'm starting to notice - 26 weeks into Project Ellie, the old gray mare ain't what she used to be. I hate to admit it, but I may have to consider slowing down a little. On Friday, I flew to Houston to take a technical writing seminar. I really liked our instructor because she's a grammar freak like me. I'm all about English rules - not necessarily when I write my blog because it's sort of a free-flowing consciousness, but when I'm writing at work, I'm the Hitler of the English language. She did say one thing that upset me... it's "okay" to end a sentence with a preposition. It most certainly is not. She lost a little credibility with that one.

I think Ellie is going to be a lot like her mother and here's why: I had to take a really early flight, so I ate breakfast at 5:30am. I got to our Houston office right in time for the class to start at 9:00 and by 10:30, I was starving. That's 5 hours of no food. Ellie is usually pretty quiet and just hangs out, but when that baby didn't get fed for 5 hours, she started violently kicking me like she had never kicked before. She kept ramming me until I had a bagel. At least I know this before she's born - always have snacks available.

On Saturday, I registered at Target and Beatings 'R Us. Okay so it's really called Babies 'R Us, but they might as well come clean and call it what it is: a baby megastore designed to make new mothers think that they need everything under the sun. Pregnant women roam the aisles of Baby Wonderland with glazed eyes. I knew their game so I took two veterans, Kristine and Leslie, with me to help me weed through all of the options. Since I was already tired from Friday, I would have scanned everything just to get out of there if I didn't have them with me. I didn't take Lee with me so he'll never know how grateful he should be that he didn't have to spend 5 hours with all things baby. There is so much crap there - I found myself missing wine again, but it's probably frowned upon for me to walk in with a giant stomach and a brown bag around a California Cab.

I did find something useful at Beatings - a new bedtime companion. I don't know how in my whole life I ever slept without this thing. I think I actually smile when I sleep now. Last night, I didn't move at all. It takes up half the bed, but that's okay. I think Lee's a little jealous of the Snoogle, but he wants one at the same time. He's torn. He tells me he's taking it after I have the baby, but he is sadly mistaken.

If you'll look to the right, you'll see that I have a new addition to my blog - a baby counter. I can't decide if I like it because the floating baby is sort of weird looking. Trust me - she does not float. What I need is a pictorial of a baby throwing a right hook at me when I bend down to tie my shoes shoved into an area the size of a soccer ball. I wanted to call it "Rosemary's Baby", but didn't know if anyone would get the joke.