If you haven't read Dan's blog (Mostly There) in the last week or two, you can go now and read his latest update. Yes, I know, we are both terrible about updating, so I cannot blame you for not noticing last week's update. Still, I like how he worked in our little bit of 'news' in, so go check it out. Then come back and read mine. OK? OK.

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Assuming you all know now (having read Dan's spectacular announcement, complete with evidence of us being terrible potential parent candidates), I get to throw in my own two cents and thoughts on the matter. It's hard to know where to start, really. I know we're certainly not the only ones with a child on the way, and we certainly won't be the last. Still, we're pretty excited and every week brings something new like finding out that our kid is probably about 6 inches (add 3 inches with the Sharda freakishly tall factor), or today, when I heard via the doppler his/her heartbeat and a little kick. It's hard to explain why, but that kick made this all hit home in a way like never before. And I didn't even feel it!
I could go on and on about other biological changes and the amazement that is a growing and developing life inside me, but if you haven't experienced it, no words do it justice (and hopefully you'll experience it on your own someday!) and if you have, great! You can relive your own fond memories, as they are most likely very similar to my own.

I'm tempted to say "I can't wait" which is true, but I must also crank out a few chapters for my thesis by April, so I'm sure the great delivery day will come in good time. The plan (concocted by humans, so no guarantee that any of it will happen) is to get most of the thesis written by April (due date) and hopefully I can defend sometime in the summer. We'll see if that coincides at all with the overruling plan (concocted by Someone with greater powers of execution than myself--thank goodness). I kind of doubt it (none of my plans ever make it to the drawing board upstairs).

Anyway, so that's the latest from the middle of PA. I'm excited to finally have something other than seed dispersion and the human body to blog about. Forgive the upcoming pictures that I'm sure will be an overload of Shamoji and his/her cuteness. Although, hm. Considering I looked like an elf/hobbit and Dan looked like a sumo wrestler at birth, we may have to screen Shamoji pictures before publishing them. (Maybe we should have put more thought into this...oh well, it's too late now.)

That's it. Gotta head home before it gets too dark. Of course, I'm not alone walking home, but my wee companion is not going to be much help to me if I'm mugged by some football-crazy drunk undergrad.