"Mamma!"

As this pregnancy moves along, I'm finding that things I thought would bother me aren't really bothering me at all. (See the "Grandpa calling me fatty" reference a couple posts down.) In fact, they're kind of delighting me. A hidden blessing of infertility? Who knows.

Anyway, the coolest thing happened to me last week. The Mr. and I were in Boston, strolling around in the North End -- Boston's Little Italy -- after dinner. We stopped for some gelato (baby needs ice cream), and while I was waiting for the Mr. to pay, an older woman rounded the corner, and as she passed by she briefly touched my belly, smiled, and said, "Mamma!" And just kept right on walking.

I was grinning from ear to ear for the rest of the night. And totally surprised -- I always thought that having people touch my belly would piss the hell out of me. But there was something so sweet about that moment, realizing that I was now pregnant enough that the rest of the world could notice. And because I've never seriously thought I would get to this point, I'd never anticipated a moment like that. And that made it all the sweeter.

The gelato wasn't bad, either.