When you're growing a human.

You might be wondering why I'm not writing something that features Alice's first birthday, or the fact that I'm about 9 weeks pregnant.  Yes, 9 weeks!  The answer to my blogging hiatus is just that: I'm pregnant.  And with my pregnancies thus far, there comes a certain, debilitating, fall-over-dead kind of exhaustion.

I've also contracted a cold -- and so has Alice -- from taking care of sweet lil germ-infested kids in a nursery that I've been helping in once a week (they can't help it).

Do you know that it feels pretty rockin' to be lying down, sleeping, trying to sleep, or wishing you could sleep, while your house is quite disorderly?  Well, it does.  What makes me feel even more rockin' is that, aside from my cold, my main complaint is "I'm tired."  I'm not puking my guts up like most pregnant women, nor am I experiencing back pains or something else that sounds more legitimate than, "Eeeeeh, I'm tired."  But you know what?  It takes it out of me to take a shower.  It's everything I can do to get dressed in the morning.  This is the epitome of power.

My standards of quality have come to such great heights in the past 9 weeks, that I feel very accomplished after putting the wet laundry into the dryer.  I feel an audience surrounding me in applause when I make the bed.  And I feel like roses should fall from the sky when I wash the dishes (without a dishwasher).  Something that all of these tasks have in common is bear bones necessity.  These are not weekly chores like dusting... these are things people must do in order to not revert back to a caveman mentality.  So all I do is keep up.  There are some days I feel super productive, and I look around to see that Alice's cloth diapers have been cleaned, the dishes are done, and the bed is unmade, there are toys everywhere, dinner hasn't crossed my mind, and the tablecloth still hasn't been yanked off the table and washed.  Yet I feel like a superhero for doing the bloody dishes.  Duh.

So there it is.  Pickle and I, just keepin' it real.  I've really got it together over here.  I'm kind of keeping sane, our house hasn't caved in, and Alice is happy.  Big pat on the back for this neat lady.  I'm a role model for all of mankind, what can I say?  Ya know.