Thankful

This year I am thankful for my family, far and near, for good food and abundance and especially for this new life growing inside me.

Note, this is unfortunately not MY actual pregnancy test. The cross on MY test is already unreadable. This is someone else's pregnancy test, courtesy of Google Images. However, it's the same brand (good old Walmart generic.) Mine looked like this, except the cross had a bold horizontal and faint vertical (and then the horizontal completely faded- go figure!) Next time I'm getting First Response even though they're more expensive. They seem more definitive. Isn't this an absurdly long caption?

I believe that at one point I had several catchy ideas in mind for this post, but of course when it comes to the point of writing they've all escaped me. What should I tell you? My due date is August 1st, I'm completely thrilled to be pregnant again, and I think this time it's a boy. There's nothing the slightest bit physical signaling that last point- just a purely inexplicable intuitive feeling. A sense of urgency that we really need to come up with a boy name this time. We've discussed a couple of possibilities, but Nate wants to keep a lid on it until further along (like maybe when we [hopefully] find out the baby's gender at 20 weeks.) However, you are invited to help our discussion in coming up with a pre-gendered nickname for our little embryo-baby; at the moment his nickname is Truman. There is no reason his nickname is Truman; it just is. It has nothing to do with the president. But if you have a brilliant alternative suggestion, I'm quite open to hearing it!!

We are here at my parents' house in Maryland until Sunday, and Madelaine is enjoying lots of attention, particularly from a lick-happy canine that inhabits the basement. Can you remind me later that I owe you all the following posts?

*Maddy's First Birthday post (before she turns two, hopefully)
*A post about Nate as a dad (this one's been simmering on the back burner over a year now)
*A few key points about things I've learned about life from motherhood
*The post I've been leading up to recently- the haircut, outfits, and shoe posts were all related- I need to write a long post with some philosophizing on the topic of Appearance
*A related post (part 2?) about materialism, gratitude, and living in a world of need
*A really long impossibly difficult post about all the places I've lived

Yeah, that's definitely enough material to keep me busy writing until 2009, and then some. But for now, this Mama of 2 is getting tired and ready for a few leftovers and reading and then bed. Hope you've had a beautiful holiday with people you love,
Neb

PS Overheard in the middle of the night last night:
Neb: "I'm hungry... your son wants more roast beef."
Nate: "He's supposed to be sucking on your uterus."

And tonight: Neb: "Hey honey, can you take your daughter downstairs for me? After all... [suddenly beaming with brilliance], I am carrying our OTHER child."