Belly Shots, Twin-Style

I am in my 28th week, muddled enough that I needed to look up where exactly I am. I have been meaning to take more pictures of my belly, but have not gotten around to it. Last pregnancy I made Chris take the pictures, but most of those shots are not ones to share on the internet. No good could come of posting those images taken late at night of a no make-up, tired face pregnant woman, sometimes in her underwear. No good can come of thinking about them, for that matter.

After puttering around for 2 trimesters, I am taking the reins, or at least the auto-timer, into my own hands.  But because I can't just take pictures of my belly (and because I love a theme), I have decided to take each picture wearing a fancy hat. Most of these hats were my grandmother's, though the first one came from my friend Ann in Chicago. I think it might have originally been her grandmother's. She can remind me if I am right about that.

I started a set on flickr. Though I will probably weekly upload several photos to the set, I will probably not post 4 pictures to the blog each week. However, as this was my first week I am indulging myself as I work out a few kinks. To wit:

Take 1: Smiling pregnant woman, but pulling my shirt down creates one long line from breast to belly. To avoid what I have come to see as a "brelly" I'll fix the shirt. Also, the hat on the mantle is a little distracting, placed as it is exactly behind my head.

Take 2: Better, but what else have you got? And man, I know you are carrying around a basketball  but could you try to stand up straight? Who's going to want to marry a hunchback?

Take 3: I took off the cut-off tee I wear to deal with the gap between the bottom of my shirts and the top of my pants. Without it - wow, what a belly! That is a little obscene, and this is only week 28. Can we do something about that?

Take 4: That's a bit better. I pulled the pants up a bit and the shirt down a little. Despite the return of the brelly, hopefully this shot gives you a sense of my girth without scaring young children.

Wait, who am I kidding? Young children may be the only ones not scared. Ada (who loves me anyway, I know) routinely comes up and hugs my waist while giving the babies a kiss. Really, what could be more endearing?

Recently other kids seem intrigued now that my belly is "hard to ignore" size. Last week a kid at Monkey Boy's school ran up and asked excitedly "is there a baby in there?" When I said yes, she seemed a bit at a loss about what to do next, and I moved on before she asked for my autograph. Mrs. French's son, who sees me fairly regularly and until now must have just thought I was getting fat, today noticed that I have a baby belly.

Note on the hat: As I mentioned, this hat came from a friend. I always want to wear it backwards, to better show off the pink ribbon that is correctly worn at the nape of the neck. The hat is a lovely gray velvet that feels so good to wear.