While Mike was off watching football this weekend, Tucker and I trekked to Atlanta for the dual purposes of visiting Hertle (she the 38 week belly) and Nicole (she of the 26 week belly). Allison and David picked me up at the airport and whisked me home for a lovely homemade dinner. On Saturday, we did "girl stuff" -- namely, shopping at Babies R Us and other stores to finalize the nursery for baby Ellen Marie's impending arrival. I bought a baby shower-type gift, a birthday/Christmas gift for Allison, and a birthday/Christmas gift for Ellen, and they ended up with a tub, a rubber duckie, a turtle bath towel and turtle bath puppet, a bedspread for the daybed in the nursery, and an adorable stuffed giraffe. Ellen rewarded me by doing numerous highly-visible, alien-esque summersaults. We finished out the night by watching Monsters, Inc. over pizza with David and Aaron (I would add Kelly, except the poor dear arrived halfway through the movie, then slept through rest of it due to her crazy Saturday schedule).

On Sunday, we had a great brunch at Nicole and Paul's house. What a beautiful place they have; I can't believe it took me this long to finally get to see it. Junior (he won't really be a Junior, but they haven't settled on a name yet) was kind enough to show me his moves as well, and I got to both see and feel a good hearty kick. It was great to reintroduce Allison and Nicole, too, especially since they will soon have babies only three months apart and now live only 20 minutes away from each other. We gals talked non-stop from 10:30 til 3:30, and could have gone on forever if I hadn't had a flight to catch. Paul was a trooper through most of the conversation, though he did get green around the gills from time to time and finally excused himself from the most graphic pregnancy talk.

What a fabulous weekend!