With apologies to my mother

I received a gently reproachful email from my mom this week telling me it was time to update the ol' blog, so I hope you will all forgive my extended absence. You've figured out how this works by now, though, right? Surely you don't really expect regular updates anymore? I just disappear for a while, then post a picture of something baby-related and pretend to be a blogger. See?

This is a picture from today - 25 weeks, 2 days. That means I'm just over 60% pregnant.

The last month of pregnancy has been really, really fun for me. Normally when I say things like that, I'm being sarcastic, but this time I'm serious -- I am LOVING this stage. Baby Ben is moving a lot more, which helps overcome that giant hurdle of his general invisibility. I guess I don't really know if it's all the movement or if it's some other maternal sense kicking in, but I've felt much more connected to the little guy in the past few weeks. It's still hard to believe he'll be here in just over three months, though.

Other happenings:
*I painted the nursery last Friday. I love the color, especially in natural light. I've been spending a lot more time in there lately because it feels much more like a nursery now, and I like to soak in the baby excitement of it.

*Our very dog-like cat has always been in love with Daniel, but he's started showing signs of interest in me this week. We think it's because my belly is now bigger than Daniel's, so the cat likes to cuddle up to it.

*I was in my hometown (yeah, North Little Rock!) two weekends in a row recently for two beautiful friends' weddings to wonderful men. On the second trip, we had two baby showers for Ben and me. Both were so sweet and fun, and I'm feeling much better prepared than I was (although, since I was flying, I had to leave a lot of the bigger things for my parents to drive out later).

*If you weren't paying close attention to that last bullet point, there were two trips halfway across the country, two weddings, and two baby showers (all in two weekends!) since I last posted. Does that make it easier to forgive my absence? No? How about two more pictures?

Wedding #1, my cousin and dear friend Whitney. The guy on the left is not the groom (though he will be someone else's groom next summer!). That's our friend Tim, who also happens to be American Idol winner Kris Allen's brother-in-law, a fact that scored us free cheese dip after this wedding.

Wedding #2, my not-cousin but dear friend Angela. This wedding was outside at a park on the Arkansas River, and it was beau.ti.ful.

*Daniel's brother and sister-in-law and their four kiddos are coming tonight to visit for about a week. If you pester me enough, I might post some pictures of their cuteness while they're here.

*And finally, happy Father's Day (even though I don't think any males read this blog)! Daniel got these gems in honor of his first sort-of Father's Day (the one on the right reads "Happy Reformation Day" below that lovely picture of Martin Luther):