Still life in motion

-14 WEEKS

And today marks T-minus 100 days to my due date.  Time to begin the double digit countdown!  Still hasn't sunk in yet, but luckily we get 40 weeks to attempt to fathom it before we have to suddenly fathom the s--- out of it.

I'm still not totally sure how I feel about the moving and kicking and twisting and writhing stuff -- miraculous? yes. interesting? yes. reassuring? yes. weird? YES.  I'm getting used to it now, but at first it was startling and strange.

A few months ago when I tried to imagine what The Quickening would feel like, I mused about this completely new sensation, unmatched in my proprioceptive repertoire.  But as it turns out, again, my speculations make no sense.  It just feels like what it is, someone moving and touching me, but THE CALL IS COMING FROM THE INSIDE OF THE HOUSE.  Ahem.  But yes, the novelty factor is not that it's a different sensation, it's that it's from an unexpected angle.

Things I do that make Bug Child squirm like a crazy person:

• eat a big meal (i.e. larger than 2 bites of apple)
• try to fall asleep
• wake up
• shift between any two positions
• sing
• sit quietly

 Things I do that make Bug Child instantly fall asleep and float quietly:

• tell Ben that Bug Child is moving around a lot, so he should put his hand on my tummy so he can feel Bug Child move

Go west, young woman.

-16 WEEKS

PHEW.  Goodbye Chi-Town...

...hello sweet California.

I may be singing a different tune after a year or two, but from where I am right now, I'm not convinced I'll ever get used to how SWEET it smells here ALL THE TIME.

Irises already there to greet me

Our Lisbon lemon tree

And the lemon flower is sweet

Chicago usually smells like asphalt and diesel.  I'm not saying you never get a whiff of freshly mown grass, or sparkling lake air, or petrichor.  I'm just saying it doesn't happen all day, every day (even e.g. December 3rd, from what I hear).

~~~
All things told, the drive was not so bad.  The road trips in my most recent memory all involved 10-12 hour days, so 8 hours per day was refreshing.  Even if it was 4 of them in a row.

We saw planes and trains, 

 

Mr. Lincoln,

some fallen snow, 

some falling snow (which was actually a huge problem),

 

storms gathering,

 surreal, other-worldly saltscapes,

postcard-worthy scenes,

downright Windows-desktop-lookin' postcard-worthy scenes,

 and we even picked up a hitchhiker (all the way from Nebraska to Sunnyvale).

(shhh, don't tell the CDFA)

 ~~~
 And now I live in a gorgeous house...

...that TOTALLY DOESN'T still look like this everywhere but in the carefully framed photo above I SWEAR.

~~~
 Thanks to Granny Annie for all the wonderful photographic evidence of this adventure!