Put Another Nickel In...

A few months ago, I had a very strange sensation.

I am no longer alone in my body.

As time has gone on, it's been clear that this little person is not me, and doesn't have the same thoughts, opinions, or likes as her mother. She moves when she wants, she wakes when she wants, she sleeps when she wants, and reacts to stimuli on her own.

I've wondered, what will she be like? What kind of personality will she have? Will she be like me? Her father? Her aunt, uncle, grandparents? Will she be like my mom? Who is this little one?

Despite her early food inclinations, her tastes seem to be quite similar to my own, although a bit heavier on the ice cream, chocolate milk and brownie side, but she also loves Thai food (especially Panang coconut curry with chicken), craves hummus and kofte, and likes her coffee black, no sugar.

Like her mother used to be, she is a night owl. I am hoping that once my body is no longer swollen to gigantic proportions, I will be able to sleep for longer periods at a time without waking due to either having to pee like a racehorse, having a stomach that is demanding food right now, Missie, or with aching hips, knee and lower back. Right now I am happy to make it past 7 AM on the weekends, which is rare for the girl who used to have to fight to wake up before 10, and couldn't possibly fall asleep before midnight (which now has changed with this pregnancy--now I am lucky to make it to 10 PM without drooling on the couch.)

But the real question for me is music. What will she like?

As a music teacher, and especially as a sub, I am exposed to a lot of styles of music every day. I like all styles of music, including rap (if it's clean--no gangsta for me, and I do admit to having an eensy weensy crush on LL Cool J. He's just plain hot. At least that crush I can explain--very few people understand my crush on Lyle Lovett.) There's not a lot of music that I can't appreciate, although if you play Ricky Skaggs in my presence, I may run from the room screaming and take it out on you later. (His voice is nails on a chalkboard to my ears.) But, I regularly listen to classical, jazz, funk, pop, folk, and even a little ska. Our CD collection is quite varied, although some of the CD's are not my favorites. Dr. B is an avid punk fan, of which I am not very tolerant, because he enjoys the 15-second super-fast punk song that has 4 words, of which 3 are of the 4-letter variety. However, I do enjoy the Sex Pistols, the Ramones (Dr. B's ringtone is "I Wanna Be Sedated"), the Dead Kennedys, and the Dead Milkmen ("...we'll dress like Minnie Pearl, just you and me, Punk Rock Girl").

Yesterday I was subbing at a school and the local high school's social dance class came to perform for the children as their final exam. Dr. B and I love to dance, and I was grooving in my chair and missing the days of a strong knee and a normal center of gravity. They did the rhumba, the swing, the cha-cha, and then moved on to teaching some line dances to the kids, including the electric slide and the macarena. Then they started the tango.]

And so did Zizou.

Who knew I'd be giving birth to a young Morticia Adams?