Yesterday was my niece Brooke's baptism and, appropriately enough, I think she looked like an angel:

Could she be any more precious??

And, to boot, she behaves like an angel.  She did not make a peep the whole day.  My sister said she sometimes scrunches her face up like she's going to cry and then she rethinks it and is fine (I saw her do this once yesterday at lunch, and that was it).  It's amazing what a contrast she is to TJ, who has never hesitated to let you know exactly how he's feeling every moment of the day.

Although, appearance-wise, I am continually struck by how much they look alike.  (Okay, okay, I know - they're siblings - but they just look SO much alike and genetics is utterly fascinating to me.)  This is TJ at his baptism a year and a half ago:

At the same age (both about 3 months in each photo), they look like twins to me. And, just for good measure, this is TJ now (well, yesterday) with my dad:

That picture makes me melt.  TJ loves his Pop-Pop, who loves him back even more.  We're having a bit of tough times in my family right now - nothing I can really ever write about here (which, for me, makes it even harder because this is where I come to process things a lot of the time) - but TJ is the constant shining light of joy in all of our lives.

Okay . . . *wipes tears* So anyway...

As I look at TJ and Brooke and they so clearly look like the other kids in our family, I can't help but wonder what our child will look like.

The hubby, me, and Brooke
(And, no, I don't know what that face is I'm making; I'm probably talking.  I'm always talking.)

Naturally, the talk of the day yesterday was babies.  Brooke wasn't the only baby in attendance and there were a lot of other kids around, mostly under the age of six.  This was also the first time I've seen a lot of family friends since I've been pregnant (I wasn't kidding when I said I didn't get to see friends that often) so there was a lot of "How are you feeling?"

A LOT of "How are you feeling?" Like, I think every single person in attendance asked me that.  Before I was pregnant, I don't think I realized that that's "the thing" to ask pregnant women, but I suppose it is.

So it was a lot of, "I feel great!  No, really, great!  Yeah, never any morning sickness.  No, not really many aches or pains.  Yeah, basically my nose is kind of stuffy - so, yeah, I feel great!" I kind of felt bad about it after a while, like people were looking for something worse.  Especially when they'd say, "Well, it is still early, you have a while to go" and I'd say, "Yeah, four months to go!"  And their face would blink a smidge and they'd say, "Four months?  Really?  Wow, that went fast!" and then, inevitably, they'd look down to my stomach.

Seriously?  I had to laugh about it and am even chuckling about it right now.  (Ah, yes, a good blog post brings both tears and laughter.)  And, I am happy to announce that I had my first "uninvited tummy touching" yesterday!  We showed up to church and my aunt promptly put her hand on my belly and asked - you guessed it - how I was feeling.  The funny thing is I didn't even realize it at the time and, in truth, it didn't bother me!  I always, always thought I'd be one of those, "Please do NOT touch me" pregnant women because I'm not a very touchy-feely person at all - but now that it happened, it didn't even faze me.  So, go figure, yet another prediction I had about my own pregnancy that ended up being completely and utterly wrong.  I clearly have no idea what I'm talking about.

One of R.E.M.'s most famous songs is, of course, "It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I feel fine)."  When they perform this in concert, Stipe really yells the "And I feel fine" part at the second and third choruses... so, of course, so do I (because, at R.E.M. concerts I sing along as if I think I'm auditioning for co-lead singer).  Once I yelled it so loudly and with such force that I almost passed out because I totally winded myself.  I think I actually expelled 97% of the air that was in my lungs.  But, after a few seconds - wait for it - I felt fine.  (Har, har.)

So when someone asks me how I feel, that's what I think of now.  I FEEL FIIIIIIIIIINE!  Let's hope it stays that way.

Note: all photos by my friend Kate, who is basically our official family photographer