For years I’ve found myself in baby stores staring at registry forms trying to figure out what kind of bottles my friends wanted. I’ve double checked and triple checked lines of numbers and indecipherable descriptions like LAY WHT SET JOG 3MTH trying to decide if I’m looking for a pack of onesies or a stroller accessory.

Now I get to go into baby stores for myself. I’ve never had so much fun.

My mother and I went to a massive consignment sale in September and I ended up making out like a bandit. I bought a bathtub, bouncer, piano play gym thingy, diaper pail and several assorted toys and supplies. Mama and I have also bought a good amount of unisex clothing. (Although she cheated and bought little girl clothes weeks before we found out about Sophie.) Last weekend, Ben and I found an online coupon and ended up buying a stroller set that is now sitting in my living room. Ben had a good time putting it together. Kinda. Sorta. Actually, he sat amongst various stroller parts yelling alternately at the Cowboy game and the instructions. He said that this has all made him really start feeling quite Dadly.

Seeing all of this baby stuff sitting around, having a valid excuse to go into Babies ‘R Us every weekend and parking in the “Expectant Mothers Only” spots has been kinda surreal. Combine that with the sonogram pictures and the constant kicking of my kidneys and it’s all becoming quite clear.

We’re having a baby.

People, I need assistance on a domestic problem. I have mop issues. I’ve tried rag mops, swiffer wetjet and various other sponge types. I’ve never really found one that I like. How do you guys mop? Any good suggestions on how to get good clean floors?

I’m sitting in the office enjoying my pregnancy fueled dinner of pork and beans while watching Law and Order. Again. Some more. I hear my husband began laughing uncontrollably in the living room. He then comes back to the office with a laser pointer on the carpet. (This is the cat’s favorite game.) He is still giggling so much that he can barely get the words out. Finally he sits down and I get the story.

Background: Boo loves that laser pointer. We keep it on the coffee table and she knows it. If you touch that thing then Boo sits up on her hind legs and mews. It’s really very cute.

Ben started reaching for the laser pointer on the table. Boo popped her head up on the other side of the coffee table looking for her toy, mewing expectantly. As soon as her little head was visible, Ben bopped her on the head with a roll of paper towels. She ducked and mewed angrily. He did this three or four times or until the tears from laughing so hard made it difficult to see the cat.

So, to recap, a grown man that I willingly married whose genes my baby girl has already inherited…plays Whack-a-Mole with the cat. I’m a lucky woman.

Well, Noodle finally cooperated for the first time in her tiny little life.

That’s right. HER.

Sophia Sakura Dyer will be here at the end of February. She will be greeted by a happy mommy, a happy but slightly worried daddy and a grandmother who is foaming at the mouth at the thought of her first granddaughter. Ben is maniacally excited about having a girl but knows that he is doomed.

I’ve sat here for 10 minutes trying to think of something else to say and I’m coming up blank. We’re having a little girl. I can’t stop smiling.

Today is the 20-week sonogram. Everybody pray for a really showy baby. More later!