Pregnancy Comments

While I'm quoting my kiddos (see previous post), how about some other quotables for you? As many of you mommies know firsthand, being pregnant makes you a sudden magnet for colorful comments from strangers and acquaintances. Here are some of the good ones I've gotten this time around.

Where and When: On the sidewalk down the street from our house, three days ago
An Interaction With: Our six-year old neighbor, Aurie
Aurie: You look like you're pregnant!
Me: (smiling) I am pregnant! What do you think this big belly is?
Aurie: (Evenly, looking me straight in the eye) A big belly.

Where and When: Chipotle, our date night two weeks ago
An Interaction With: Our cashier, a young man in his early twenties
Cashier: What are you, m'am, about seven months along?
Me: (surprised) Oh, uh... yes! Yes, I am! Good guess!
Cashier: Yeah, my girlfriend looked about like that... well, she maybe wasn't quite that big, but, man, she sure got grumpy around that time!

I'll leave it to you to conjecture whether his comparison was in reference to my shape or my expression. And speaking of shape, I've saved my favorite moment for last.

Where and When: Panera, sometime last month
An Interaction With: A fortyish woman I'd never seen before and her kindergarten-aged son, as we were both waiting for our food
Woman: Excuse me, could I borrow your tummy for a minute?
Me: Excuse me?
Woman: Could I borrow your tummy?
Me: (A little uncertain) Ummmm... sure!
Woman: (To her little boy) Hey, come here and look, buddy. See this lady? This is what a pregnant lady looks like. See her shape? It looks like she has a basketball under there, right? But see how she's tiny every where else?
Boy: Uh-huh!
Woman: (To me) We've been having this little problem with him approaching strange women who are just, um... a little heavier and asking if they're pregnant, so I'm trying to show him what the real deal looks like.
Me: Ohhhh, I see.
Boy: (Touching my tummy reverently) You gotta baby in there?
Me: I sure do. She's a little tiny thing right now. She's got to get a lot bigger before she comes out.
Boy: She's little tiny?
Me: Yup, she's about (holding my hands 12 inches apart) thiiiis big.
Boy: (Measuring his hands against mine) This big?
Me: Yup.
Boy: Wow.

Really liked the part where the lady said I was "tiny" everywhere else. I cherish those kind words as I now grow out of all but the stretchiest of my stretchy jeans. (No maternity pants this time around--or at least, very few. I am carrying this child so high that every kind of paneled pant slides right down to my hips and hangs there uselessly.) Meanwhile, I just keep thinking, "Tiny. I'm tiny. Tiiiiiiiny! Really, I am."