Had a blast with Gayla and Beks today. Started with hot cider at Starbucks. Other than that, it's just the waiting game. As the year ends, and my pregnancy with it, there's a lot of retrospection going on. SO, because I'm a cheeseball, here's our year (and pregnancy) in review.

January: We celebrate the New Year at the family cabin in Colorado. Ryan starts his job with CapGemini, and nearly misses his flight to Dallas for training because of the Colorado snow storm. I start the spring semester.

February: I plan a trip to Chicago for Valentine's day. Ryan takes me to Tiffany's and makes some amazing dinner reservations at Bistro 110. We decide to start "not not trying" for a baby and see what happens, and commemorate the decision with a penguin picture frame from the Chicago aquarium. I surprise Ryan with a party for his birthday (complete with pizza delivered from the place in Chicago we loved).

March: Still using protection to let my body reset from the birth control, because I'm completely paranoid about another miscarriage (and mine has most often been attributed to getting pregnant the month following going off birth control).

April: We stop using any protection and get pregnant.

May: See Cake in concert with some fabulous friends. Find out we're pregnant on Mother's Day and tell the visiting family right away. We make the rest of the family wait until we can tell them in person. Much to her...er... their irritation. One month of the first trimester down. I start the summer semester.

June: I'm dying for the first baby appointment, but can't make it till the end of the month. The sonogram showing a heart beat at 8 weeks significantly reduces my miscarriage fears. I have some nausea, but don't actually get sick. Crave berries, hamburger, and limeade.

July: The last month of the first trimester is exciting, because we finally tell all our friends at a BBQ at home by putting out a picture of the sonogram and wearing snarky tees. Takes about an hour and a half for the first person to get it. I help Ryan prepare chicken for the BBQ and start crying that one of the chicken legs is broken and it may have suffered. I also stop eating eggs because we both have yolks, which makes me cry. Ryan spends a lot of time trying not to laugh. We hire our midwife, Suzanne. I get to use Gayla's extra ticket for Starlight and see a bunch of musicals.

August: We go to New England to visit my dad for a few days, and have a lovely time. Then we get home for a week before heading to Paris for my birthday. We spend 8 days in Paris, and it's lovely and amazing. I start the fall semester. We enter the second trimester, much to my relief, and I start showing, much to my annoyance over the loss of my clothes. I start feeling her move around. We find out she's a she.

September: My friends Christie and Daniel get married. I do some more traveling, but now I can't remember where. We finish the nursery floors, which are the final big project. We start taking Bradley Birth classes.

October: My friends throw me a fabulous baby shower in Kansas City. I continue to get big and gigantic.

November: Ryan and I drive out to CO with his mom, and I go see Wicked with the Ewing ladies to celebrate his grandma's birthday. When I get home I fly out to New England for another fabulous baby shower and visit with my dad. We spend Thanksgiving in Oklahoma with my mom, and then I swear off traveling.

December: We cancel our annual Christmas party due to tiredness. We go see the Barenaked Ladies with Kristin and Justin. I get B's in all my classes, which is lower than usual, but ok with me seeing how pregnant and distracted I've been. Flutterbug starts giving lots of evidence of arriving early, which I try to ignore so that I can maintain sanity and not get impatient. Ryan goes to Washington state to spend a week with his brother. We confirm via sonogram that she's still a girl.

That's it! It's been a lovely, exciting year. I'm looking forward to taking the next semester off and hopefully preparing for and moving back east. I really like that she's coming in January. There's something about all the beginnings that I appreciate.