Yesterday was a day for tornados and touching. In school, we all knew the drill. Usually, teachers had us line up in a fetal position in a non-windowed area. It was usually near the lockers at my schools. When I was teaching, we would all pile into this small passage way between mine and my mentors classroom. Of course, the students thought this was great and someone always either pretended to fart or actually farted. I never got to actually use all that training……
The sirens went off here on the mountain right around lunch. Ironically, human ears are not able to hear the sirens from indoors so most of us did not know they were going off. These sirens are so eerie sounding. If you’ve ever watched or played Silent Hill, they sound just like those sirens. I half expect the world to change in front of my eyes to death and metal linked fences. I heard the sirens here at Sewanee because I was getting out of a car. So we rushed inside to find most of the seminary hanging out in the downstairs hallway and we joined them. It was sort of “lock-in fun” and only lasted about 30 minutes. The wind was fierce and the rain was swirling around outside. I don’t know of anyone that got hurt (thank goodness) but there were definitly trees down and power outages.
So, that was that. I went to my EfM group that night and one of the other members pretty much molested baby Keith. I am totally fine with people touching the baby bump, talking to the baby bump, even had someone kiss the baby bump. This lady….she might as well have been applying body butter to it. She was all over the place with her hands, getting awfully close to things not yet related to baby. I, being way to polite, just smiled and waited for the buffing to end. She didn’t even ask! It is weird how a baby bump is seen as everyone’s property.
At the doctor’s office this morning (we went for our check up), I totally got busted! The doc was all, “Your glucose levels are kinda high. Did you eat a sugary breakfast?” Um….yeah. I had a pop tart. A chocolate Fudge Poptart. So I got a little bit of the food guide pyramid speech. Somebody sue me!
Oh, Mama! I just never got the baby bump is everyone’s property…sorry folks are so silly. Maybe it’s to prepare you for when people come and grab the baby or kiss the baby without your permission. Get ready. They’re out there and somehow it’s even more infuriating when its your baby or child. Anyway, I’m so glad you’re okay after all kinds of storms!
Ooh. Don’t worry too much about the poptart. I had to confess that I was eating almost nothing but peanut butter Captain Crunch for a week. It was about all I could stomach. Yeah, Dr. OB was none too happy about that one!
On the touching, I’ve decided that only Bishop Desmond Tutu is allowed to touch/talk to/listen to the baby bump without asking. Everyone else, look out! Fear the rage of the Hormonal One! Luckily, when you’re pregnant and you snap one someone, usually they just say, “Awwww!”
Evelyn kisses her little brother (in my tummy) ALL the time. Elanor mostly walks past me and runs into my massive round shelf with her head. I’ve got a real weapon attached here. It’s like it’s own free floating planet that happens to have what used to be my belly button on one side of it. I scratched my belly coming out of the shower door the other day and didn’t even notice b/c I think my skin is so stretched it’s lost all feeling. Our bodies are pretty darned amazing, aren’t they? Who know you could actually get this huge and survive? And THEN…actually return to normal!? OK, don’t think about that a month postpartum, you definitely won’t be normal. But eventually, it’s possible. Amazing. I love that we are in this together Mananders, even though we’re so far apart. I wish I could see you all the time over the next years, to watch you as you grow into your self as “mommy”.
Missing you – love and belly rubs to you and the wee one!! 