Whoa. What!?

So, we don't have a full length mirror in our house.  In fact, the only mirrors I have access to in the village are small bathroom vanity mirrors that show me from, um, boob up.  The only view I have of my body is looking stright down it.  Honestly, until a few days ago, I thought I wasn't really showing.   My clothes still fit about the same, and I haven't gotten stuck in any doorways yet, so I figured maybe I just look a little pudgy, but not.....pregnant.  So one day, I put on a dress that isn't tight (that's never really been my thing) but it hugs in just the right places.  Or should I say it USED to hug the right places!  I thought it was fine by my downward glance, but I went in to town and caught my reflection in a big store window and SHABAM!  I got a baby belly goin on!!  I stopped dead in my tracks and had to make sure the white girl I saw in the reflection was really me.  At first I was a bit taken aback, felt like I might start beeping if I backed up.  Apon closer inspection however (yes, I crossed the street to be closer to the window) things aren't looking too bad!  I very quickly became very proud of that baby bump, and now I am just loving showing it off.  I am so glad that people no longer have to wonder if I am pregnant or just eating too much rice and beans.  And that I don't have to wonder if they are wondering....  Also, I have been wanting to make friends with some pregnant women in the village, maybe start a walking group, but I always worried they wouldn't think I was pregnant enough.  I expressed this to one of our new volunteers and she assured me with a once over that "oh no, your are surely more that enough pregnant!" So that's my new goal: make some pregnant women be my friends and convince them that pregnancy is not an illness and no, they do not need to go on partial bedrest the entire 9 months, as is common practice here.

Not the black dress I was referring to, and you can't really see the bump...oh well!!!

Also in baby news, we have got a boxer soccer player extraodinaire on the way!  I finally felt the baby move, and Patrick has been able to feel movement on the outside too!  Mainly it moves when I eat, so pretty much all day long.  No but really, after a meal this baby gets movin'.  We went to the beach this weekend and as soon as I was floating in the waves, kickboxing for fetuses started up full force.  Is there such a thing as double weightlessness?  I don't know if it was a coincidence or if the baby just really likes to swim, I haven't been back to the beach yet to test it out.

My mom flies in tomorrow for a visit and I am so excited to show her around our little slice of heaven (just a saying, we still live in a poverty stricken village).  Included in the trip is a trip to the clinic to have the THE  ultrasound done.   I should be able to post by Tuesday if we've got a Jack or a Jill on the way!  

Lasly, I have to give a shout out to my best friend Cat(herine).  Most everything has paled in comparrison to this baby, but Cat's recent engagement and July 2012 wedding just has me all twitterpated!    I miss her so much, and coming home to have the baby is a really good excuse to be in the same state for four months!