Umm... My eyes are up here!

You know, women always complain about men who stare at their chests when trying to have a conversation and I'll be honest ~ I've had my share of men (and women, for that matter) who are distracted from my wit and intelligence by my bust.

Now, being pregnant, I'm faced with a different problem. I've been left with even more generous cleavage than before, but for whatever reason people are way more interested in my growing stomach than my boobs.

I can't get a person to look me straight in the eyes when they are talking to me!

I'll be walking down the hall at work and I see people taking a sidelong glance at my tummy to see if Sparky is making his presence known yet. Discriminating judgements are made, I'm sure to compare my progress to the other woman at work who is expecting, although she is a month ahead of me and expecting twins. People comment that I'm not "showing" too much, but compared to her, I hope I'm not!

I've noticed that this is somewhat contagious. At the mall yesterday, I found myself inspecting almost every woman's waistline, even those not obviously pregnant. I'm amazed at the number of young women with protruding tummies, which probably wouldn't be too noticeable, except for the teeny shirts that they wear with accompanying muffin tops.

I've decided that those people who know that I'm pregnant can obviously tell a difference, but the general stranger on the street probably just dismisses me at this point as a woman who needs to cut back on the Cheetos and do a few extra sit-ups. At 20 weeks pregnant, Sparky is halfway done cooking, and I know that being able to hide the fact that I am pregnant is quickly going to evaporate.

C'est la vie. :o)

Lucky...

A nine-year-old came up to me this morning in tears. We distributed progress reports a few weeks ago and she still didn't have hers signed and returned to me, which meant a loss of game time during home room.

She told me about how her family is now living in a hotel room. They had been staying with some friends, but a neighbor reported that there were too many people residing there, so they had to leave. Her mother and mom's boyfriend and their combined four kids are now staying in a single hotel room.

This nine-year-old explained to me how her mother spends her father's child support payments on rent and cigarettes, but they never have money for new clothes. The last new shoes that she had were bought by her paternal grandmother. She told me that she thinks that she would be more responsible with the child support payments than her mom is.

She is concerned about her five-year-old sister's teeth. She said that her mom doesn't make her sister brush her teeth and she thinks they might be decaying from all the juice boxes. Her mom only buys mint-flavored toothpaste and her little sis doesn't like that kind, so her teeth go unbrushed.

The baby sister has asthma, but that doesn't stop mom and boyfriend from smoking in the house. Now, the whole crew is in a single room. Not a lot of circulation for that cigarette smoke.

She's already decided that when she turns 14, she is going to move in with her dad. She told dad that they are staying in a hotel room and he is going to talk to an attorney... He talked to the attorney the last time they were homeless, but, for some reason, was unable to do anything about it. Her mom's boyfriend has said that he will live in a paper box before he lets her and her sister move in with their dad.

It broke my heart to hear her story. I think about how lucky Dave and I are... No matter what happens between us, our child will never have to go without new clothing or a place to call home.

I'm going to stop at Walgreens this afternoon to pick up some bubblegum flavored toothpaste. I'm not really quite sure what else there is to do.