Our Coming Attraction

Coming in May, 2009: Baby Chawan! We don't know whether Baby will be a boy or a girl, but we know Baby's on the way. We're nearly 18 weeks into the 40 week wait and I've entered the Maternity section of the store (thanks to a widening waistline that doesn't seem to like being constrained by regular people clothing anymore).

So far, the journey has been mostly uneventful. The first six weeks (two of those on the clock without anything even having happened... I guess they think you deserve a head start) were cake! We found out very early on and just kept things to ourselves--a happy little secret!

The next six weeks were the opposite. If a bus had run me over, reversed, then parked on me... that was how I felt. Worn out beyond belief, nauseated all day and night -- unless eating something bland every 2-3 hours, unable to be in the kitchen because the smell of any real food was enough to about knock me over.

Unless that smell was Cheese Whiz or steak. The cravings went in fits and starts. Cheese Whiz on toast one week, tomato soup the next, nothing but red meat and cheese another. No salad, no black beans, no chicken or fish, no nothing that had been a usual part of the daily diet. Rather NOT my usual self.

I was amazed that something the size of a chickpea could possibly cause so much havoc in the life of an adult! I mean, really, from 6 weeks until about 12, I wondered why something I wanted so badly was trying so hard to kill me. It didn't seem right, but apparently becoming a parent is the utter end of life having the potential of being 'fair.'

So, "Chickpea" was born as these discussions of tiny terrors filled our conversations. And, even now that Chickpea is much bigger than its namesake legume, the name has stuck and we're waiting to find out whether this is a little pink or blue chickpea, waiting for chickpea to start really kicking around from the inside, waiting ... so, we wait!