I just noticed that there are 180 days left in the pregnancy. That’s a whole school-year! That’s a long time. However, school years only count school days, this is every day. Wow, still. That’s a lot of days!

So, some of you know I have a belly ring (”navel piercing”). Many people, mostly my sisters-in-law have asked me what I will do with it. I told them, I'’m hoping to fly under the radar and leave it in the whole time. They looked skeptical.

See, I don’t want to take it out. I love my belly ring, it feels like a part of me. I got it when I had my 21st birthday in Venezuela. I figured, I wasn’t going to go out and get wasted so I might as well do something a little shocking. Hence the piercing. I almost lost it within the first month due to infection, but thanks to some seriously strong anti-biotics I was taking for my stomach parasite, the infection went away.

Ever since I have enjoyed revealing it to people to either shock them or to produce a sense of camaraderie between myself and slightly more wild people. My Venezuelan friend couldn’t believe I got it, because I never wore midriff shirts. I told her, that’s not the point. I just want to have it. And I have never regretted it. I love my belly ring.

So, I’m just going to wait and see what happens to it during my pregnancy. I might have to take it out, but have no doubt that once the baby fat is gone, it will return.

Otherwise I'’ll just get a tattoo.

Babylyman’s looking more human all the time, no? Anyway, according to generic stats, the kid weighs about 1.6 ounces and is about 3.5 inches long, not including legs.

Why in the world don’t they include the legs when measuring length? Does this strike anyone else as odd? To cite an exact quotation, the measurement is taken “from crown to rump.” That’’s just plain weird. When else in the kid’s life will he/she be measured to the rump, but no further? Legs matter! Measure the legs!

We’re going to start a new feature on the blog, giving a generic update on the growth of babylyman every now and then. For anyone who’s interested, I’m getting these images and accompanying information from a website called Kids Health.

So anyway, in week 13, Meg’s body is providing babylyman with oxygen, nutrients, and waste disposal. By now, the baby’s eyelids have fused together to protect the eyes as they develop, and he/she might be able to suck his/her thumb, though the sucking muscles aren'’t completely developed yet.

The lease on our current apartment comes up in September, and we’re probably going to move. One thing we’re considering is moving further into Philadelphia, into one of two neighborhoods. One of them is called “Center City,” and is appropriately named for obvious geographical reasons. The other is called “University City,” also appropriately named, but less geographically obvious. This is the neighborhood surrounding the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University.

Both of these neighborhoods are very urban, and while that really appeals to me (and to Meg), I’ve been wondering lately about the pros and cons of raising a child in a thoroughly urban environment. There are lots of things that I love about it, nothing that I really hate, and a few things that I just wonder about.

So here are a few things that I love:

And here’’s a few things that you might reasonably think I’d hate, but don’t:

And now, for the things that I just wonder about:

Anyway, those are just a few thoughts I'’ve been having recently, and I thought I’d share them with you all. Any comments or insights?

Well, we had our second visit to Dr. Castelli today, and with the data he received from our ultrasound back in May, he pushed Meg’s due date up a couple of days. So now, it’s officially set at December 28th instead of the 30th. I’ve updated the “Due Date Countdown” clock accordingly, but the stupid thing will still be wrong by two hours. Killing me. Killing me.

As the 2006 World Cup gets underway, I find myself hoping that there’s something prophetic happening. I can’t imagine a better time for our first child to be growing and developing than during the greatest sporting event in the world. But the truth is, I live in fear that our child may not grow up to be a soccer player.

Now, I know that soccer is way more popular now than when I was a little kid, and so the likelihood is pretty strong, but I have this sense that there’s some kind of karma in operation that’s going to come back to bite me for not playing any of the sports that my family loved.

See, my dad was quarterback in high school, and my whole family plays tennis very well. Myself, I’ve really never played anything other than soccer. Sure, I’ve dabbled in other things during the off-season - one year of tee-ball, a few awful seasons of basketball, and even some track and field in high school. But the truth is that none of them have ever held a candle to my love for soccer.

I love this game. I understand this game. Meg and I both feel the same way. And so I live in terror that our kid will have the same regard for soccer that I’ve had for tennis. What can be done? How can I gently nudge him/her into a love of the game without blowing it? As I look back on my own experiences, it had everything to do with coaching. I’ve always had great soccer coaches. Anyway, here’s hoping for some soccer-loving offspring. Maybe I’ll name the kid “Striker.”

Now that I’m pregnant, I notice pregnant ladies wherever I go. But it does go further than that. I actully know four other women who are due within 4 weeks of me. Unfortunately, three are in WDC and one is in North Carolina, but I do find it quite funny that we’re all bunched together like that. You’d think that we were all shut in our houses during the months of March and April or that something very romantic had happened, but there was nothing as far as I can tell.

I also love how I can get away with anything when I’m pregnant. Anything from saying I’m tired, to crying for no reason, just saying my feet hurt or that I want to go home are all acceptable now that I have something the size of a half pencil in my uterus. Nice! Sadly, as the baby gets bigger my real complaints will increase. Hmm, I should take advantage of my powers while I can….