23 weeks - May 11, 2007

This week, your Dad went to Melbourne for a day for a work related event and afterwards he got to spend some time with Uncle Mike, who gave us a beautiful Walt Disney Story book for my birthday. Dad read you the story of the "Turtle and the Hair" when he came home with the book. We read to you every night after dinner a story or two and lately we have been reading the stories of Winnie the Pooh and each of us reads a page from the story.

The weather has been a bit cooler these days and so I have not gone to the beach for a swim. I hope that next week's weather will be a bit warmer and not as rainy and cloudy as I really like going to Cronulla's ocean pools and doing a few laps with my kick board.

While I am pregnant, I would like to read beautiful books and a friend of mine loaned me "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom. We finished the book last week and it was such a beautiful true story of how to fully appreciate life. I was really touched and realized that my Aunt Veronica was in fact my Morrie as is my dear friend Xavier Vargas Vanoni. There is a beautiful story in this book about a wave that I would like to type here as it is something that I would like for you and I to remember as we live our lives.

Excerpt taken from "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom, p. 179

"I heard a nice story the other day", Morrie says. He closes his eyes for a moment and I wait.

"Okay. The story is about a little wave, bobbing along in the ocean, having a grand old time. He's enjoying the wind and the fresh air--until he notices the other waves in front of him, crashing against the shore.

"'My God, this is terrible,' the wave says. 'Look what's going to happen to me!'

"Then along comes another wave. It sees the first wave, looking grim, and it says to him, 'Why do you look so sad?'

"The first wave says, 'You don't understand! We're all going to crash! All of us waves are going to be nothing! Isn't it terrible?'

"The second wave says, 'No, you don't understand. You're not a wave, you're part of the ocean.'"

I smile. Morrie closes his eyes again.

"Part of the ocean," he says, "part of the ocean." I watch him breathe, in and out, in and out.

One day this week, when your dad came home from work, he said to me, "It looks like Mommy has swallowed the moon." My belly is getting a big more rounder and distended as you grow up, up, up and right this moment, I can feel you moving around inside me. It is so nice to feel you swimming around in there and I really look forward to each new stage of this pregnancy.

On Wednesday, we went to a sign language workshop for parents so that I can learn to communicate with my hands and voice. It seems that you will have a greater chance of communicating with me with your hands at first and so Dad and I are going to use sign language with you so that you can tell us what you need and want and therefore, may not get as frustrated when you can not verbalize your needs. It was a lot of fun and I gained confidence in my ability to sign with you.

I also try and go to the float center at least every other week and have a float with you to relax. It is such a nice way for me to spend time with you and with myself in the quite darkness of the floating tank.

It seems that we have finally come up with two names that we like for a boy and a girl. If you are a girl, we will call you, "Maia," which means "Goddess of the Spring." And if you are a boy, we will call you, "Kiran," which is of Hindi and Sanskrit origin meaning, "Beam of Light." Your dad and I really liked the name "Kieran" but in Gaelic it means "Black," and I didn't want your name to mean "Black" as you are a little light in our life. So how sweet that by changing the spelling, your name will actually mean, "Beam of Light."

I still am not sure if you are a boy or a girl and if I was going to have an ultrasound, which I am not, I would probably find out your sex, whereas your dad does not want to know. In one way, it will be the best surprise of my life, on the other hand, I would like to just be able to call you by your name or know which sex I am relating to. Sometimes, I get excited that you are a girl and then I think, immediately, gee, I would also be happy if you were a boy. So there is this constant back and forth that goes on, when I am relating to you trying to encompass both genders. Laugh. I really don't know if you are a boy or a girl. Most of our friends and family think you are a girl. Uncle Mike, can't quite figure it out, and he is usually pretty good at figuring out the sex of the baby. As a joke he invented the "Sex-O-Meter" and each week, he gives us his reading, last week was a girl, this week is a boy...sometimes I think that it would be a nice surprise for the family if you were a girl as Nanna Power had two boys and it would be great to get some more girl energy in the family. Then, on the other hand, you Dad is such a kind-hearted and loving man, it would be lovely to see him raise a son.

Well, tomorrow, we are going to Nanna's to celebrate Mother's Day with her and so I need to start getting the house in order and lunch prepared as I want to pack a lunch for Nanna to enjoy on her special weekend.

Keep growing my little one. You are doing so many important tasks this week and we want you to grow healthy and strong.

Love,
Momma