It might as well be spring

It feels like spring, smells like spring, I slept with the windows open last night. Love it! And as it goes in Kansas, it's windy like spring. I came home from the gym this morning and one of my recycling garbage cans had tipped over. Only two items were left in the yard so my apologies to my neighbors who might find my cardboard recyclables on their decks tonight.

Five weeks from tomorrow, baby! We had a scare on Monday night. I woke up with a backache early Monday morning that lasted all day. It was lower back pain which they warn you about in pregnancy. It either means something awful....or that you just have a backache. By late Monday night, it was really bad and reminded me of the pain I had with back labor. I also had really bad stomach cramps. Not contractions, but stomach cramps. By about 11:00 I found myself doing things one does in labor - deep breathing during the pain, crying, trying to find a comfortable position - and I panicked. After a call to Kate (I'm always reluctant to call an on-call doctor at night) and getting her reassurance that it was time to call someone, the doctor recommended that I take some tylenol and a really hot bath and try to relax enough so I could determine if I was having contractions or not. He said that it can be hard to tell if it's contractions when it's early so the bath would either make me feel better if it was back spasms or not. And if it didn't, then it was time to go to the hospital. Thank God, the bath did help a lot. My back is still bugging me but it's not anywhere near as bad as Monday night. I see my regular OB tomorrow and I'm sure she will tell me that everything I'm feeling is totally normal.

The other two monkeys in the house are doing great. Jackson is reading like crazy and it is just fascinating to watch him. He brings home a new little book to read every day and I keep waiting for him to be stumped by one but it hasn't happened. I have nothing to compare his progress to, but it seems to me like he's doing great.
Andrew has been a good helper lately and kisses my belly about 50 times a day. Yesterday he was super sweet. I told him I'd had a bad night and we were going to have a lazy day. He kept kissing me on the arm and saying, "How's my girl?" He's had two dry pull-up nights in a row! Man, I would LOVE to stop buying pull-ups.

In t.v. news, I'm loving Smash! There are characters I'm not loving, the writing is so-so, but the rehearsal scenes are so great and the singing is fantastic. As are the new songs. This one is a sweet little duet that's performed by Marilyn Monroe and Joe D. Katherine McPhee needs to get more sleep or something. The girl can SING but her acting is soooo sleepy. Christian Borle, who plays the gay songwriter, is okay. Debra Messing can't escape her Will and Grace character. Jack Davenport, who plays the director, is fantastic. He doesn't sing in the show but is a great actor. I want to hear more from Will Chase who plays Michael. And Megan Hilty. I could listen to her sing the phone book. This is my favorite song of hers so far. I downloaded the music and was so disappointed in the lame arrangement. Carrie Underwood first recorded it and her arrangement is dull. Someone needs to print this new arrangement with the EXACT piano accompaniment.