I think, I think, spring has sprung. The CTA has turned on the air conditioning on the red line, so instead of the aroma of warm and stale urine wafting in from the remote corners of the cars, it smells a little less so.

(I am not making public transportation sound very appealing, am I? Rest assured that I love not having a car, especially this week when I have been driving a company car for a few days and spent as long driving from work to home as I did trying to find a parking space in a densely populated neighborhood.)

(And while I am speaking in parentheticals, Chicagoans park for shit. There was one block I drove by in a huff where only six cars were parked, with just enough space between each car so no other cars could park in there. “Fuckers,” I said to Josh. “In New York, you could have easily fit another six cars there. How lame.”)

***

Things are going well by us as the spring finally, uh, springs. Josh is done with classes for the semester in a few weeks, a fact for which I am insanely jealous as I won’t be done with my busy time until this child comes. On the pregnancy front, today I am 25 weeks and 2 days pregnant, which amazes me to no end, as I feel like it was just yesterday when I was yawning at my desk with pregnancy test in hand, having woken up at an insane hour to go to the bathroom. And here we are, 25 weeks. I’m slowly turning round, the baby kicks all the time - the baby is big enough now to kick upwards, toward my ribcage, which is an odd thought entirely - and in fact, last night kicked Josh in the face, which I am still giggling about. I eat red meat like it is going out of style, and there might be a small piece of me that thinks that instead of having a baby boy, we will be having a wee little cow. I crave cheeseburgers like they’re going out of style.

We are slowly getting ready for this child to make its appearance in our lives. The first real thing we bought about six or seven weeks ago was a panda bear. The baby needs a bear, right? Since then, we’ve arranged for cloth diapering service (I am amazed that there are people who, for a fee, will come and pick up dirty diapers and give you clean ones in exchange). I have two breast pumps (I know, two! One is for me to keep at work and the other is for occasional home use). We got a Maya Wrap sling in the mail today, and I played the DVD and tested it out on the aforementioned panda. And the two pieces that amaze me the most - we have a carseat for the baby’s arrival home and a portable playpen type thing for the baby to sleep in. I’m leaving it up for now, so Ava can get used to it, but wow. It’s weird to think that there will be a child soon who will sleep there.