Gestational logorrhea: 23 weeks

OK, after that lull in posts I'm sure my readership has dwindled down to the bare essentials. (Oh wait, it was there already.) A lot has happened lately. I got over my sadness about the need to evaluate Jonah, temporarily went insane observing his aberrant behavior (because once someone spots something, suddenly you think everything is amiss), but got over it in time to enjoy our trip to San Francisco more than I ever thought possible. Travel with a toddler is exhausting, and while Jonah's head didn't literally explode, I think we overwhelmed him with so many activities in such a short time. He only talks about one or two of the things we did, not all 8,000. Which is fine - you don't travel with a 2-year-old and expect them to remember everything, or else you'll go mad. Even though we had no means of going out alone in the evenings, it was just as well, because by 9 p.m. we were done for and ready to sleep. We ate and ate, drank good coffee, and enjoyed many scenic uphill and downhill trips in the car.

The baby is starting to get more assertive, now that it is the size of a large mango (or thereabouts). I can feel it moving on a regular basis, and there are certain stimuli that consistently rouse it to move: loud music, loud older brother, or other voices nearby. In the morning I like lying in bed and feeling the kicks, goofy grin on my face. But I am not yet able to visualize this thing emerging from me, or where we are going to put it, exactly. However, I am pleased to report that I (and it) are now vaccinated against both H1N1 and seasonal flu.

After the trip I spent about a week recalibrating my system, and then suddenly my nesting instinct kicked into gear (which it never did with Jonah). I actually made a to-do list this week. And I actually did: go through Jonah's closet, empty a very tall & dangerous shelf in his room that we need to get rid of, sort through baby clothes (where did all the staples go? looks like I just kept the "cute" things), and did some research on which mattress to buy for his Big Boy Bed, which we're buying tomorrow at IKEA. I'm apprehensive that his sleep will go to shit once he's in a bed that he can climb out of, but he's much too tall for the crib and it's getting a little treacherous when he doesn't want to be there (e.g. at 6:15 AM). I also hit the gym twice this week, and did yoga today. I cooked a fabulous dinner which yielded two days worth of leftovers. I made contact via Facebook with an Italian author whose work I have long admired, and hinted that I would love to translate his work. I'm exhausted just thinking about all I did, and wondering when this energy is going to dissipate.

During the round robin at the start of yoga class each woman tells how many weeks she is, and any aches or pains she's having. Knock wood, no aches/pains here (save for gym-inflicted ones), and thankfully, no swollen ankles yet. I hope this blissful injury-free state isn't going to change on a dime.