Surprise Baby!

Quick recap... here's photo of the Baby Surprise Jacket I finished a week ago...

Cute, eh? And soooo soft and cuddly. I asked you to guess who it's for, but no one dared to make a wild guess (chickens!). Since I can't keep mum about it much longer I'm just gonna blurt it out, right after I go through a list of candidates.

'Cause candidates there are many! Besides three tiny ones born to friends just recently, there is big time baby news in the family.

First, there's a November baby on its way. Proud mamma: my step-sister.

Second, a boy is arriving in December. Surprised papa: my little brother (barely out of his own diapers! school).

Third, a January baby is also on order. Its tentative name: Beanie. Its over-joyous, over-the-moonish parents are... drum rolls... champagne cork pops...: moi and the Hubs. We! Us! Beanie parents! YAY!!!!

That's three cousins all being born in the span of three months! My poor father, who says he doesn't much like kids (which we don't believe, since he is a great dad to us), is a bit overwhelmed by the prospect of triple grandfatherhood. Tee hee. I, on the other hand, couldn't be happier--for my brother, my step-sister, but most of all for us! The Beanie--who got its name at the first ultrasound, where it looked like a two centimeter long lima bean--has long been awaited, mostly in talk. When we got down to business, so to speak, we didn't expect that the Bean would turn up within just a few months. We found out in May, and what I remember from our England trip most vividly are the frequent stops to Boots to get more pregger tests: I successfully peed on sticks in London, Oxford, York, and Manchester!

Perhaps now you can guess why there wasn't much knitting or blogging in June. 'Cause I was in the bathroom, thank you very much. Morning sickness translated in my case into afternoon-evening-night sickness, although it's gotten much better over the last couple of weeks. Now I throw up only at midnight. Progress!

I'm totally fascinated by the pregnancy changes. I mean, you hear this stuff about weird appetite and the whole morning sickness thing, and it's all true (creamed herring bites, anyone? Some OJ with that?). But the craziest thing is my sense of smell, which especially during the first two months was über-human: I could smell California from here. Now that I'm in my second trimester things are returning to normal. I suppose this will change again once there's a bump to carry in front of me. (Hel-lo bump.... where are you?)

Good night now. The Beanie needs sleep. 'Cause this week it's growing from "medium peach" to "small grapefruit" size--and that's a lot of growing!

(Oh... the cardi? Yes, for the Beanie. Can't you tell? It's green! Like green lima beans!)