baby tricks

I like reading ahead on the your-pregnancy-week-by-week sites: not too far ahead, just what should be happening the next week. So, while reading about the 26-week markers (which is where I am now), I learned that the baby's eyes develop quite a bit even though the iris is not yet formed. You can test this, says one of the sites, by shining a flashlight on your belly. If you feel the baby move when you shine the light, she's noticing it.
I told Mr. R about the experiment, and he was more curious about the flashlight trick than he has been about any of the stupid baby tricks I've told him about, to date, including the one where she comes shooting out of my vagina like a rabbit out of a hat. So, after dinner I tried it, and it totally worked. I put the flashlight on my belly, and I felt her move away from the light. It was really cool. Suffice to say we spent a fair amount of time harassing her with the flashlight thoughout the evening. I think we desensitized her because her movements were lighter each time, but we'll see what happens tonight.
So, the theme of the week, last week, was, "how a father affects his daughter's future relationships with men." It started, innocently enough, with a conversation about Drew Peterson, the 54-year-old cop whose 20-something wife disappeared about 18 months' ago. Over dinner, I told Mr. R that he was engaged, again, to a 24-year old, and Mr. R's response was to stare at me for about 20 seconds, shake his head, and say, "this is why men need to be better fathers to their daughters." Wow. I am so glad he gets that, being that he's going to begin raising our daughter in 3 short months. Next came the Mardi Gras party we attended. Our neighbors threw the party, and their college-aged daughter and her cohort of male friends came home for the bash.
I will have to continue these thoughts on another post as I am being called away from my computer. Sorry.