Birthday Week

My birthday is today. Hopefully, this is my last birthday without kids. My last birthday where it’s just me and Cody.

I don’t feel any older, as usual. 27 kind of freaks me out. It seems so close to 30. Cody was 27 when we first met - and boy, does that seem like eons ago.

I had just turned 20 - or maybe I was still 19? He seemed sooooo much older. 27 sounded practically geriatric to a college sophomore working a minimum-wage job, her future plans all over the place. We became fast friends, though, and pretty soon I was head-over-heels crazy for him.

That seems almost like another lifetime. We’ve survived a global pandemic, lost jobs and gotten new ones; I’ve finished undergrad and law school with him by my side; I took the Bar exam and failed the Bar exam; we’ve adopted two dogs and gone through so many major life events in the short 5 years we’ve been married. And now we’re expecting our first baby. Life seems sweet.

Anyway, baby bean is about the size of a grape. Less than one week until my first scan - I’m on pins and needles! I just want to know everything is okay. Still not much of a bump.

I haven’t told my little ballet dancers yet. Soon my big ol’ belly will be a dead giveaway, whether I tell them or not. There ain’t no hiding a belly in a leotard.

I so hope baby bean is a little girl. How precious, to have a little ballerina twirling around in a pink tutu?! I’m praying first of all for a healthy baby, second of all for a baby girl.

I’ve eaten horrifically the past couple of days. Chocolate chip cookies, cheesecake, two visits to the Chinese buffet, Biscoff chocolate dipped in cookie butter, and Brookside pomegranate chocolate. I feel a little queasy even typing it out. I justify my decisions - baby bean wants it, it’s my birthday, I had spinach this morning, my coworkers surprised me with it so I technically have to eat it - all valid, right?

Oh well. This is my first birthday as an expectant mother. Lord willing my last without children. I always thought I’d have two or three kids by this age. Ha.

27 is off to a glorious start.