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One month left before my due date. Hard to believe sometimes. But at the same time, it's not, since it has been smooth sailing thus far.

Today I booked my mom's flight and received word of my dad's itinerary as well. Claudia is sandwiched in between there somewhere, but she's had her stuff planned since way back in March or something. That's my girl.

My mom will be getting here the last week of this month, which seemed like so long ago and now seems so soon. If baby cooperates, she'll be here for the birth to keep Caleb company. I'm glad she quit/retired from her j-o-b earlier this year, because she'll be able to stay longer than if she would have had to return to work. This gives me more time to recuperate after the birth and be confident that Caleb is getting enough attention. Of course he loves his Grandma M'isa!

I, of course, miss MY mommy. I call her on a regular basis. Most of the time it is for no good reason, sometimes it's to ask how to cook something, sometimes it's to share what funny new thing Caleb is doing. Is that a middle child thing? I don't know. I love my mom. We get along pretty well. She's a laid back sort of person, happy to do things on her own, happy to do things with me (Bryan & Caleb too of course). She is the kind of person who needs quiet time alone, which works out great in a house-sharing situation because everybody doesn't get on everybody's nerves that way. Peaceful.

And my mom is a good cook, too. She's the type that follows her inspiration more often than a recipe. I guess I have a little bit of that in me. I'm probably not as confident about it, but it's there. So while I plan to have a few things in the freezer, I'm hoping she won't be against whipping up a meal here and there. I'm also holding my breath til she gets here so we can take a drive out to Concord. There is a Peruvian (!) restaurant there that Bryan took me to once. I thought it was great, since it's been LITERALLY years since I had Peruvian food. This a top reason for wanting to take a trip to Peru asap.

ASAP of course will probably be 2008. Next year our unvacation is the biennual family reunion. Have I mentioned before that any trip with family or to see family is not a true vacation? Not that they're not fun or enjoyable trips, but to me a VACATION is a time of relaxation. That's my view on it, anyway.

So back to this baby. He seems to know I'm talking (typing) about him. I'm having a Braxton-Hicks contraction as I type this. I never had any of those with Caleb, but I've had them with this little guy since probably my fourth month. It's a good thing I'd experienced the real mccoy before, or else I would have probably worried. They are uncomfortable annoyances, but "they" say it's practice or something. I'd buy that, except I know how labor contractions feel and I don't think I'm personally getting any practice out if these BH ones. Maybe it's my uterus practicing on its own? Will it remember? I can't imagine it would be terribly comfortable for the baby, but I am unsure if they'd help HIM practice in any way. Maybe he'll get used to the squished feeling and not worry during ACTUAL labor? Who knows?

My old Madigan roomie, Dena, sent me some newfangled 4-D ultrasound pictures of her little peanut. He's not SO little, actually. The pictures were just amazing. I'll have to see if she'd mind me sharing one. Her baby's name is Ryan. He's actually got a longer name than that, he'll probably be one of those kids who will run out those little boxes on forms one often has to fill out. I think he's got two middle names. I can't recall them off the top of my head. I just know we are having the opposite problem. I'll post more on that later on.

Anyway, my back is killing me, it's well past my bedtime, and I'll have a spunky little monkey to take care of in the morning, so I'm going to bed!! Goodnight!