Behold the belly!

It still stuns me to realize that I am at the age where my friends are actively discussing pro-creating. Indeed, what would have been considered sordid TMI details a couple of years ago are now discussed no differently from talking about which new recipe we want to try for dinner.

One of my closest friends is due to give birth next month and I am thrilled to be a pseudo-auntie to her unborn. From the moment she said she and her husband were considering getting started with increasing their family size, I just knew she was going to be one of those happy pregnant women who just make it look so damn easy. None of that throwing up, hot flash, pickle craving business. Sure enough, she's 6 weeks out and is still happily tottering along in her heels, albeit more tired than usual, while proudly announcing that her baby is "the size of a pineapple". Of the pregnant women I've known, few have shared her perpetual pregnant glee...and I can only hope that I make it look that easy when I'm in the same position!Anyway, I was thrilled when she asked me to take her belly pics. I've never done maternity shots before, but was excited to oblige. In addition to the required B&W shots, I suggested we take pictures in the park seeing as she grew up in the Northern California wine country and it seemed fitting that she should be frolicking outside.

They're supposed to be a surprise for her husband's birthday this month so I went to her house fully prepared to be ninja-like. Camera bag was hidden in the car, his offer to drive us over to the coffee shop (where we were supposedly going to spend the next hour or so yapping incessantly about female stuff) politely declined, and we were in the process of devising a plan to get him out of the house later in the day to do nude photos in the baby's room (figuring that a naked pregnant lady at the park might raise a few eyebrows). His announcement that he was going to Best Buy to get a DVD player was like a gift from above as we left the house, waited until he had turned the corner in his car, and then ran back to the house to get the indoor photos done in the short window of opportunity offered to us!

We then scurried off to the park and an hour or so later, innocently returned to admire his choice of electronics. I can't wait to see his face when he realizes what we were up to, but for now I have her permission to share these with you.