For those of you who didn’t see it on the news, today’s headlines from Richmond, Virginia:

State of emergency, 3 dead, about 20 blocks condemned after Gaston
Three deaths were reported after Gaston battered Virginia, and the governor declared a state of emergency.

Major bummer. After Mike and I got married, everyone met us down at Havana 59 in Shockoe Bottom for dinner and drinks. As of last night, Havana, and the entire Farmer’s Market in front of it, was under 10 feet of water . . . very depressing. As I said to a friend, seeing new buildings destroyed is always sad, but to find out that historic churches, buildings, and restaurants like Bottoms Up are gone is just heartbreaking. The Bottom is one of the most historic places in Richmond, and watching cars float down Cary and Main Street was beyond bizarre. I was very glad that our current office space was at higher ground, but felt sorry for all the people stranded in buildings last night. No one I knew was prepared - even after Isabel. I don’t think anyone really understood what was going to happen or that we were going to get up to 14” of rain in 10 hours . . . or how fast water rises when you are truly in a flood emergency. I ended up stranded on the Southside last night.

I think it’s my parents - since they moved here last July, we’ve had one of the worst hurricanes in Richmond history (Isabel), the biggest flood ever (yesterday), and more rain and bizarre weather than I can remember. Maybe they should return to South Carolina and take their funky vibes with them . . . .

Every week Lily’s vocabulary grows, and mornings like today, I’m shocked when she answers me back, especially when the answer involves stringing two or more words together. I told her hello this morning and she said, quite clearly, “Hi, Mama”. Very freaky! Sometimes Mike and I will be having a conversation in the car and she will start parroting what we are saying. That would be fine save the fact that Mike’s english is sprinkled with very New Jersey-like expletives. Lily’s first sentence will probably be one of those famous “pass me the f’ing salt” or something like that. We have to really be careful.

I’ve got a little less than 8 weeks to go before the bun comes out of the oven and I am more than ready. I remember how I felt last time with Lily and oddly it is no comfort. “Huge and lumbering” are the only two adjectives I can think of to describe my mood, and I reassure myself daily that this is the last time I will have to feel this way. If one more person asks me if I’m sure I don’t want to get a pregnant a third time, I will slap them. I couldn’t be more positive. Some women glow and are thrilled to be pregnant - I simply grit my teeth and get through it because obviously the end result is worth it. I was also reassured when talking to my friend Susan, who recently had a baby (#2 as well). She told me she is sleeping more now that she has a newborn than when she was pregnant. I can relate - I haven’t slept more than 1-2 hours at a time in over a month and it starts to catch up with you. Between the constant peeing and shifting my belly all over the place, it’s a wonder pregnant women can sleep at all. I know, a little cheese with that whine?

Below is a picture of Lily with her new favorite toy - crayons you can use in the bathtub (and they even draw on skin, so her belly is her favorite canvas). After the bath, you can just wipe the walls down with a damp cloth and it comes off. The real problem comes in separating Lily from the crayons, and now every time she goes in the bathroom, she screams “CRAYONS!”

Lily found out about bathtub crayons last night. They are the coolest thing - you can write all over the shower/tub and they rinse right off. The only problem with them is getting the child to release them from her deathgrip in order to towel her off or wash her hands. I wonder if giving them to her isn’t creating a major problem - how will she know the difference between bathtub crayons and regular crayons? I can see her decorating my mother’s house with primal art on the walls.

We’re leaving for Asheboro tomorrow, to see my aunt and uncle and take Lily to the zoo. Saturday we’ll go to Pinehurst for a quick stopover and then head back to Richmond on Sunday. It will be interesting to see how she does at the zoo, or if she’s even interested. I love looking at the animals so at least I know I’ll have a good time! My silly uncle was concerned about all the walking I would have to do there - you know, in my pregnant state and all . . . I guess if I can’t haul my fat butt around efficiently they can get a wheelchair for me and just pull me around, or I can try to fit in Lily’s stroller with her.

Look at this hamhock of mine. Grandma was joking around and told her to lie down and stretch out, pretending to be getting a tan, and she did!

She just makes herself comfortable wherever she is. She had a great time yesterday and today. We are just waiting for the hurricane rains to get here and flood the James River. We have had more rain this summer than in the past three combined, I swear. We’re all a little tired of it, but I’ll take the rain over Isabel any day.

Could pregnancy be any more fun? In addition to feeling like a large cumbersome whale, I now seem to have developed pregnancy-related PICA. My partner here, Jennifer, told me that I had Pica, but I had no idea what she meant. My generation looks everything up on the internet, so a brief overview of some Pica websites informed me that mostly kids, or crazy people, have Pica - an overwhelming desire/craving to eat non-food items. One woman I read about craved plaster and picked at her bathroom wall for so long that they ended up having to replaster the entire thing. She must have eatens POUNDS of the stuff. Kids usually eat dirt, markers, crayons, chalk . . . and sometimes it can point to a vitamin deficiency (in the case of one woman, who was eating metal and rust). In my case, I’m fortunate (really?) to be cursed with a craving for Ivory soap. So far I have managed to avoid taking a bite out of a bar of the stuff, but it’s terrible. I guess it’s what smokers feel like when they need a cigarette really badly. The nurse midwives just laugh and say that anywhere between 30-60% of pregnant women have Pica symptoms and to just try to avoid eating paint, buckets, plaster, chalk, or crayons. In my case, I don’t think eating soap will be nutritionally beneficial to me or the baby, so I just settle for sniffing a bar of it every night. I really thought I had lost my mind, but apparently it’s more common than I ever thought. I figured I’d go public in case anyone else out there is wanting to chow down on a box of Tide Soap Flakes. Girlfriend, YOU ARE NOT ALONE! If you are not pregnant, however, seek immediate professional help.

Lily’s vocabularly is positively bursting. Most of the time she says words I didn’t even know she knew. We are trying to get her to use “please” when she requests something, although the excitement of her just being able to ask for what she wants often takes over my need to instill good manners in my daughter. Now if I could just get her to tell me when she needs to poop BEFORE she does it, potty training would be a snap. Some new words this week: horse, octo (for octopus), Aunt Jenn, Delilah (Li for short), tie, shirt, skirt, shoes, socks . . . and of course she tells us the color of all of these items, whether we want to know or not.