Gracie has been in the doghouse since she ate, not only the macaroons I brought back for myself from Paris, but the gorgeous green box they were in that I was going to use in the nursery. She also tried to eat the stuffed penguin I received from my friend, Grace (I was carrying it and she thought it was for her), and took a snap at a fuzzy baby onesie.

So, she's dealing with some hard new rules. She's not allowed in the kitchen, she has to stay in whatever room we are in so she can be monitored. She's back to being crated when we're not home (although all these incidents happened while we were home, her penchant for baby stuff makes me think she's not going to be trustworthy around an open baby room when we're not home). She's also going to start riding in the way-back of the station wagon in preparation for when there is a car-seat there. We want her to get used to these new rules before the baby arrives so she doesn't blame the baby, and to ease some of the transitions that are going to happen.

There's just no hope for Maggie. She's going to be miserable. Who knows, maybe she'll surprise me. Right now she's trying to get at my blueberry muffin by using her cutest face and little mews, rather than moving.

My first day back to class after vacation was much easier than expected. I have a great professor who teaches two of my classes (the two involved ones, the third is Hitchcock and just movie watching). She told me to spend the next couple weeks coasting in one class and didn't have much for me in the other class, so I think I timed the trip perfectly for missing the least amount of stuff.

She also told me I'm an excellent Ph.D candidate and she's going to help me look at Political Comm programs globally. It was very encouraging.

Still feeling great! Pregnancy seems to agree with me. I haven't been uncomfortable. I've had a tiny amount of heartburn, but Tums fixes it and it's unpleasant at the worst. My belly sneaks up on me in the shower in a "whoa! Where did that come from" kind of way, but I'm getting used to it.

I bought a maternity dress and shirt in Paris, but don't need them yet, as most of my clothes still fit, including cocktail dresses (go figure!). Jeans still button, just sticking to longer shirts. The two maternity shirts I bought at Target are still big, too. I think I look bigger in some of the photos from Paris because of what I'm wearing and the angles, because I'm not that big yet. I'm showing, but I'm not huge. In a loose shirt, I just look fat. ;)

Oh, fun pet peeve. In the last month I have seen people interchanging 'loose' and 'lose' constantly. Drives me nuts. Educated people. It's almost as annoying as "congradulations."