More than a week since my last post! Sorry about that.

We spent the weekend in chore mode, running to Lowe’s and Home Depot for various little projects. Patrick has started painting the nursery (a lovely apple green, to go with the green dots in the bedding) and can be heard in there at night with the doors closed, singing at the top of his lungs as the brush goes back and forth.

As for me, I’ve been getting organized by starting our taxes, laying out the year’s budget and getting rid of old files. Sort of a beginner’s nesting phase.

Ooh, I’ve also found a new favorite Web site. Paperback Swap lets you list any old books you have lying around (they don’t have to be paperbacks, despite the name) and other users can request them from you. When someone requests yours, you drop it in the mail (at the super-cheap media mail rate) and get a credit to request one from someone else. I listed 20 books or so on Friday night and this morning I’m headed to the post office with 10 of them. So that’s 10 books I get to order in return. I’ll never pay for a book again, at this rate!

Speaking of books, last week I finished Water for Elephants, which was set in a 1930s traveling circus. What a lovely book — I highly recommend it.

Now, I’m the last person on Earth to finally read The Kite Runner, a story of two boys who grow up together in Afghanistan in the 1970s. On Saturday morning I came to an incredibly heartbreaking scene and had to put the book down and have a good cry. It’s supposed to get happier toward the end. It better!

On Saturday night, I was on the couch reading next to Patrick when Joe suddenly gave me some fierce kicks in the belly. I pushed my waistband down to see if I could see it from the outside, and I did! I grabbed Patrick’s hand and put it there so he could feel. Of course, Joe immediately stopped. Then as soon as Patrick took his hand away, BOOM BOOM, Joe kicked me again. It’s happened every day since and while I love staring at my belly and seeing the little lumps pop up, I wish Patrick could see and feel it too. Soon!

This morning I have an ultrasound, a follow-up to the one we had two weeks ago (was that just two weeks ago?) so that they can get a better look at Joe’s heart. I hope I’ll come away with more photos to share (of the cute profile variety, not the scary Skeletor kind).