27

I turned 27 today. To commemorate the occasion I took another dreaded belly picture to satisfy the demands of my more far-flung friends and relatives. Here I am, looking a little worn at the end of a 10 hour day, but standing tall in my new Nine West chocolate-with-a-hint-of-gold snake-skin-textured 3 1/2" heels. A marvelous $20 find at T.J. Maxx a few weeks ago.

As you can see, at 25 weeks The Belly has exploded onto the scene and graduated to proper noun status. It is an entity unto itself and demands attention the minute I turn to the side. At my 24-week check-up last week I horrified to find I had gained 12 pounds since my 20-week appointment. Twelve. My doctor wasn't concerned as my total weight gain so far was well within the average, but I continue to be mildly appalled. Not that that stopped me from eating six cookies yesterday when JP had Tiff's Treats delivered to my office as an early birthday present.

It has been a good day. I enjoyed a cookie for breakfast (with my tea, a calorie free beverage, so it all evens out), a nice french-fry filled lunch out with co-workers, some red velvet cake from my secretary at 3:00, and finally Double Dave's pizza and my traditional funfetti cake at home. I'm eating a salad tomorrow. A very big one.

In non-food-related birthday events, I finally had my year-end performance review and it was very good. I walked away with that slightly buzzed feeling I used to get after finding out a grade on an exam that I'd thought I'd done well on but then got nervous right before grades were posted only to find that I'd exceeded what I'd originally dared to hope for. It's almost as good as the feeling you get after a few margaritas. Man, do I miss margaritas.

So, a good day. Landon was VERY excited about my birthday (partially because for a while he thought it was his birthday too). When I picked him up at daycare his teacher said that Landon told all of his friends that it was his mommy's birthday and next thing she new all the kids were running around claiming it was their mommy's birthday. It's the cool thing to do. Later, he sang me a beautiful rendition of "Happy tooooo Youuuuu Mama" while eating his cake (quite literally while eating it, but it was beautiful nonetheless), followed up by multiple hugs and an encore of "Happy to You" as he went up the stairs with daddy for bedtime. He likes to recite his morning plan before bed- usually some version of "I wake up, come downstairs, see mommy daddy, get my milk." Tonight JP told me that he laid down on his pillow muttering, "wake up, come downstairs, see mommy daddy, eat cake!"

And that's pretty much my plan too.