It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's a... Stork?

For me, 2008 was "The Year of the Wedding". I'm not kidding, the number of wedding invites I received was in the double digits and I was the maid of honor for one (the wedding of this handsome couple) and a bridesmaid for another two. It was crazy town: great fun, but insane nonetheless.

This year is "The Year of the Baby". Not because I have a lot of pregnant friends, but because I have my first pregnant friend. I've known Kathleen since sophomore year in high school when, having recently moved to Illinois from Tampa, Florida, she and her gel-tipped nails sauntered into my Spanish class. Kat, or Maya, as she was known in 3rd period Spanish (my Spanish name was Clara, a moniker that my dad still likes to invoke when he's feeling especially Hispanic), is one of my two best friends in the world and she and her amazing husband, Mike, are expecting a baby girl this Spring. She created a blog to chronicle her and Mike's transition from being a couple to becoming a family and anyone who's ever met Kat would tell you that reading her stories is like listening to her tell them to you first hand. They are funny, heartfelt, honest, and very stream-of-consciousness. I love that when I read her updates I feel as though I'm right there with her even though I'm just sitting here, dressed in my moo moo and eating ice cream, a good 350 miles to the south.

I saw this birth announcement and thought of Kat. She has begun to refer to her growing baby as whatever inanimate object it resembles in size that week per her baby book. Thus far, it has gone by "little nailhead" and "kumquat" among others. I don't know when it was the size of a peanut and lord help us if it's this size at birth, but this card, by graphic designer Dana Córdova, seems fitting nonetheless.

[From The Lil Bee]