Babies on the brain

Ever since my friend Heidi's baby shower in January, I've had these four plastic babies on my desk as a type of good luck charms.

Apparently they worked pretty well, my quadruplets.

Months ago there were times when I'd forget I was pregnant, but it's hard to forget now. I feel like I've got a bun in the oven, even if it's not noticeable yet and I'm still wearing my regular clothes. I'm nearly 17 weeks pregnant..the baby is the size of a turnip.

I picked up some baby board and soft books at a garage sale today. I'm trying to prepare myself to read to the baby as soon as he/she can hear, which from what I've read that's at about 22-24 weeks pregnant. We'll see if I can talk Nels into reading to my belly. :)

A school board member told me Monday about a conversation she had with the district's literacy collaborative coordinator. The woman told her by observing adults she can pick out which adults hadn't been read to as a child....and she accurately pegged this board member as one who hadn't been read to as a child. She was one of eight children and her parents didn't have time to read to her... freaky. I wouldn't have guessed that. She seems pretty articulate to me.

So I plan to do some reading on early childhood and literacy and make sure our little guy/girl has a little library before birth, to give the baby a jump start on life. We just have to remember to take the time to read the darn books...something I didn't do as well with Erika.

But then, Erika's a straight-A student...apparently my inattentiveness as a parent wasn't too crippling in her life.

BTW, Nels is off buying my birthday present as I type this. As always, not a surprise. I'm getting a video camera. My birthday is Sunday and I'll be a whooping 37 years old.

Scary.