expanding our pack

We're adding another hiking buddy to our pack of boys this summer. Baby Smith is due in July!

Surprise! I'm pregnant! (Emphasis on the surprise!) And yes, I lugged a tripod into the woods to take this picture, and it was extremely awkward, but I made sure we were deep enough into the trees so no one else could see us.

I'm 16 weeks along, and comfortably out of the first trimester, though I have yet to feel the "magical burst of energy" that was promised to me in the second tri. In fact, I'm just now starting to feel the slightest bit of relief from the absolute crushing fatigue that plagued me from weeks 7 through 15. I spent all of December and January lying on the sofa taking multiple naps each day and proclaiming to Larry that I felt like "rotten garbage." My rotten garbage analogy took on a life of its own when Larry would try to come up with a more disgusting analogy each day: "Do you feel like dirty poop today? A truck stop bathroom? A leaky porta-john?" Yes, yes, and yes. And it's a good thing we're having a boy because we both seem to have the sense of humor of five year old boys ourselves!

When I told Larry I was pregnant, he laughed. Then he said "You know one thing our kid will never do?" and I said "Go to Disney World?" and he said "How did you know?!" and then we high-fived and laughed. So we're already on the same page when it comes to parenting. Sorry, kid - we'll take you to as many national parks and foreign countries as we can afford, but never Disney!

Larry and I are both still in shock over the news and I probably will be until I give birth/for the next 18 years/forever.

Him: I don't think I'll believe you're pregnant until I have proof!
Me: You mean like seeing a human come out of my va--
Him: No! Like when you have a belly!
Me: Well I kind of already have a belly...
Him: No, I mean A BELLY. Like THIS! (Pats his own belly.)
Me: How many weeks gestation is that?
Him: 46 years!

Yeah, I went there. And I'm finding that the secret to surviving pregnancy (and I'm assuming childbirth and parenting, too) is to have a sense of humor. I'm so glad I have Larry to keep me laughing when I feel like rotten garbage.

P.S. I definitely don't plan on turning this into a baby blog, but right now this pregnancy is a big thing happening in my life, so I should probably document it. I know I'll be glad I did in a few years. This is a blog about my life and my family, so our baby will definitely appear here, but hopefully interspersed with and included in posts about our other interests: travel, art, books, music, food/cooking, hiking, etc. My goal as a parent is to integrate our child into the lifestyle we already enjoy and to include him in the things that we already love to do. But right now, I'm too mentally and physically exhausted to have other interests - the double whammy of pregnancy during my winter hibernation season left me unable to read, watch TV, put on real clothes, or do anything besides listen to music while lying under a blanket. Hopefully I'll be back to blogging the backlog of trips we've taken over the past few years soon, but I'll also share a couple posts per trimester about the pregnancy.