Mr. Burns loves to leave presents in the bathtub for Baby Daddy. He also leaves them in front of his litter box for Jack the Beagle.

This present awoke me from a deep, restful sleep somewhere around 4am while Baby Daddy is out of town. I can’t touch it for fear of toxoplasmiosis, so it has to stay in the tub and stink until Baby Daddy returns tomorrow. I’ve officially moved out of that bathroom and I’m considering moving out of that bedroom because the waft is triggering my gag reflex.

Later this afternoon, Mr. Burns decided to let himself into the hamper and I have accused him of plotting to leave presents in our dirty clothes. Luckily I thwarted his plans, but not before Mr. Burns got in a nice long swipe that left me with several inches of bloody scratches on my arm.

Normally, he is an adorable, loving kitty who is the best snuggler in the house.

Today was my first official pregnancy visit. They stole at least a pint of blood from my poor arm and brainwashed me into getting a flu shot. Baby Daddy got a flu shot in solidarity with me. He’s the best.

Going into this appointment, I was convinced that there had to be twins. That’s the only way I could explain how quickly I’m gaining weight.

It turns out, there is only one baby and this one is apparently a carnivore. Apparently, cheeseburgers and milkshakes are the cause for the extra weight gain.

That’s Baby Daddy on Halloween; the hair is real.

Somewhere, there is a picture of the two of us and one day I will find it. But for now, you just have to imagine The Pink Slip at his side.

Last week, I congratulated myself on how remarkably great I felt…very little nausea, high energy, and the remarkable ability to pop out of bed at 7am every morning. For a brief moment, I thought I was going to be one of those women.

No such luck.

Baby Daddy went on his first El Poquito run to procure some keep-nausea-at-bay lollies during work one afternoon. I love him.

Today Dr. Weihs confirmed that we’re pregnant!

It’s hard to tell what you’re looking at on the screen–a dark blob with some light blobs inside. Baby Daddy held my hand while we figured out what we were looking at and I cried when I saw the fluttering on the screen.

I have to be honest. It looked like an animated black-and-white hamburger fluttering around. Now, it’s possible that my brain is hallucinating about hamburgers because I’m a vegetarian who really misses cheeseburgers. But that’s what I saw.

And to add to all of the excitement, when I returned to work this afternoon I had an email from our company H1N1 program manager telling me I had been exposed to swine flu at work the day before!

Here’s what I learned today: eat cheeseburgers and work from home.

Back when Baby Daddy and I started trying to get pregnant, I planned ahead for a time when I would be too full in the belly to sport a full size guitar and began to learn the dainty mandolin.

What I did not count on was how tired I would be before my belly ever sprouted…it was so hard to keep energy going for the show with all that extra blood and hormones pumping through my body. By the time we wrapped the show with ‘Truth No. 2′ I thought I might faint and fall off the stage!

I was thrilled to have two very special guests in the audience this weekend: El Poquito’s Granny and Pop. Thanks to Pop for the photo (which I will upload later when Baby Daddy sends it to me).

While I may take a month or nine off from stage appearances, there’s certainly enough energy left in me to sit on my booty and listen to the awesome variety of singer/songwriter’s our town has to offer. And Sunday night’s intimate concert with Charlie Robison at the home of our friends, the Wevodau-Amicons, was an excellent finish to the weekend.

Ah, Austin. You fill my soul with music and I can’t wait to find out what moves El Poquito to dance!

Baby Daddy is awesome in so many ways. But I swear he has this habit of leaving 1.5 squares of toilet paper dangling from the cardboard rather than replacing the roll. Seriously. Who uses all but the last 1.5 squares of TP?

I’ve been checking off the list of typical pregnancy symptoms over the last week or so–boobs growing to the size of melons and hurting under the weight of it all…pressure in the abdomen…crying unexpectedly during Good Morning America…feeling all alone in the world when my girlfriends were busy for lunch. But when this one presented itself during a women’s forum at work (focused on work/life balance, of all things), I headed straight for the family doctor.

All of this happened before the plus sign appeared in the early morning hours, so we weren’t certain of El Poquito’s presence yet. And the physician’s assistant think being a few weeks pregnant would cause heart palpitations, so she wrote up orders for the 24-hour holter monitor and today I enjoyed the sticky, bulky, awkwardness of that experience. I wish I’d remembered to get Baby Daddy to photograph me in the contraption…stickers, wires, box, strappy pouch and all. But I didn’t.

They said it would take a week to download the results and get them to my doctor. Shouldn’t heart concerns be a little more speedy than that?

El Poquito and I kept busy today at two photo shoots for an upcoming calendar featuring the lovely and talented ladies with whom I play music around town.

An 8am call came early for a Sunday when I really wanted to sleep in…gloomy weather, baby growing inside, so many reasons to sleep until 10am at least. But I managed my way out of bed at 6:30am to get model-ready for the first shoot where Dre and I would be featured as one month’s musician hotties.

We had pouring rain, which forced the shoot on the covered stage where we took shelter. Luckily, Freddie’s has an incredibly interesting mural painted on that stage and I think we got some great shots with the guitars and maybe even with the mando and fiddle. We’ll see when the calendar comes out!

At 1pm, I switched gears to photograph a duet of ladies for a different calendar month. Baby Daddy tagged along as my photo assistant, although I must admit his true function was photo guru (the artsy pic of the lights is one of his). The Highball proved to be an incredible location and Rita and Morgan were amazing models in the bowling alley, the bar, the lounge, and the karaoke room. Totally glam and so rock & roll.

Be one of the first to own what’s sure to be Austin’s hottest music calendar of 2010. I’m so thrilled El Poquito and I got to be a part of it!

And shhh…don’t tell anyone we’re knocked up!