Hello dear readers,

It’s true, I’ve been terribly remiss in not posting for so long. I apologize. One of you poked me on FB to give you something fresh so here I am. A few new belly pics first:

I can’t remember exactly when this was taken. A couple weeks after the last one, week 21, I believe. Peanut’s starting to grow fast. I’m a lot bigger than this now.

This was about a week later.

And this was yesterday. 24 weeks. I was hoping Andrea would be around to take it because I was really happy with my outfit. It made me think of Jessie and how much I’d have liked to show it off to her (especially how I completed the outfit with the lovely charm she gave me on my necklace).

I felt like I was really taking belly out for the first time in a big way in this outfit, because it’s very form-fitting. And I should explain that I’ve been hearing from other expats that Florentines don’t exactly give us pregnant ladies any special treatment or anything. The extent and range of their snobby rudeness is downright creative. Anyway, having heard all this I was very pleasantly surprised by how I was treated on the tram and the bus on my way to work. I was offered seats everywhere I went! This was only my second time taking Florence’s fancy new Tramvia early in the morning, because it’s so darned packed at that hour. But this time I got a seat the whole way. I’ll be honest, I don’t feel at all burdened by my belly yet, so I don’t *really need* to sit down. But man, I’ll take it! I did notice for the first time that the sign on the bus indicating to passengers to give up their seats for various less-able-bodied stick people includes ol’ preggers.