Scale

The size of some of the things in my life have given me pause lately. I decided to put a quarter next to them, you know, to figure out the true scale of things. The results of this experiment were downright shocking.

The first thing:


I'm always amazed by how much crud ends up in the pile after I sweep the kitchen floor. You may be thinking, wow, she must not have swept the floor in a week to get it that size. Wrong. This is after about 36 hours. Small countries could live off what gets spilled on our floor. Carter has recently started a "Lean Over Your Plate When You Eat" campaign, but I haven't seen much of an improvement. I hate the kitchen floor so much. It doesn't matter how often I mop or sweep it, it's always a sticky mess. Seriously, it feels like wasted effort to work on it. Somebody always spills apple juice 30 seconds after I finish mopping the floor. Still, like Sisyphus, I must keep at it no matter how futile it seems. Otherwise Sadie might get lost in all the Cheerios.

The second item:


Do you see that eensy, teensy bottle there? Those are eye drops prescribed recently for an eye infection Sadie had. Do you know much we had to pay for that little bottle? $60!!!!! And that was the insurance co-pay. I have no idea what that little sucker actually cost. I checked the ingredients carefully and neither diamonds nor gold bullion were listed as the main ingredient, as I initially expected when I heard the price. Oh, well. They worked and I still have half the bottle left in case anybody else's eye gets infected (at this price, I'll be squirting this in people's eyes for the next 15 years no matter what the expiration date says). It makes my heart hurt to think of the cute shirts I could have gotten with that money (I always think of money in terms of cute shirts).

The (literally) grand finale:


Yup, this is me at almost 24 weeks. I know, I know. Not small. But, keep in mind, this is my fourth baby! My pregnancy is obvious to the world now. I know this, too. Mainly because 4 or 5 people have actually come up to me this week to exclaim, "Wow, you're getting so big!!!" I was worried they were talking about my hips, thighs, and face, since those are the most obvious sites of expansion to me. I was way too paranoid to clarify what those size-observant folks meant, so I just smiled and nodded. I ended up talking to Carter about it. He assures me that's just a way for people to comment on the progression of the pregnancy. Still, I don't see how I'm supposed to walk away from an exchange that starts like that feeling good about myself. Oh, well. I'm a lot bigger than a quarter, huh? And please, if you see a pregnant woman, just tell her how utterly fabulous she is. Leave adjectives about size out of it.