Good morning! Two weeks and three days left! I’ve gone from feeling as if it’s too early to do things to feeling as if it’s too late to do things. I’m so tum-heavy and immobilized, what I work on now is the exhausting task of finishing all the ice cream before the baby gets here. I only have three more appointments left: one more routine OB appointment, one pre-op with the OB, and one pre-op with the anesthesiologist. And there are three half-gallons of Breyer’s. I think I can make it.

Last night William was up crying and saying his ear hurt, so this morning we’re headed for the pediatrician. I hope he does have an infection, because that means we’ll have to go to Target to pick up the prescription, and I can do a little shopping while we wait. Also, the other possibility is that he has so much wax in his ear it’s causing him pain, and that’s grosser, harder to fix, and more seemingly indicative of neglect and filth, so I’m voting for the infection and the cruising of clearance end-caps.

Thank you to everyone who gave input on the 2-in-1 shampoo/conditioner issue. I’ve bought five different kinds, and I’m trying each one for a week; I’ll do a report when all the results are in. I recommend this experiment to anyone waiting out the last few weeks of pregnancy. It’s fun and it’s distracting, and it leaves you with a bunch of 2-in-1s for after the baby is born and you feel like you have about 30 seconds to shower before the baby’s crying drops you to the floor in a seizure.

You know what else I recommend for the last few weeks? EARRINGS. From the neck down there is nothing to buy: it’s not worth it to buy more maternity clothes at this point, and shoe shopping is pointless if your feet are larger, wider, or puffier than you hope they’ll be after the baby is born. But earrings! You can still buy and wear pretty earrings. Target has about a zillion pretty pairs that cost in the $6 range. I’m trying not to go completely nuts.

Mother’s Day sure is a busman’s holiday, isn’t it? I was reading blogs last night and this morning, and so many of us spent the day collecting our paper cups of dandelions and then doing laundry and wiping down the counters. I discovered that my little Mother’s Day gift to myself was getting to do today everything I didn’t do yesterday. I read a column a few years ago by a mom who wrote, basically, screw the sweet little cups of weeds, I want to see some WORK done around here. She got such negative feedback from people saying she should appreciate the loving gestures, but I get her point: sometimes the way to show love to a mother is by not expecting her to do all the crap work.