Pregnancy Benefits

There are a few things which pregnancy totally ruins.

Like food. Clothing. Moving around.

But every now and then you get some unexpected perk of pregnancy and it makes you love your unborn child in a whole new way.

Like the "expectant mothers" parking stall at Dr. Man's office. PERK!
or the fact that your waddling makes other people smile at you and open your door. PERK!
or the stretchy pants. PERK!

This weekend while we were off camping there was a Challenge Course. Since it had to do with being harnessed and climbing up a big pole, I was terrified of it.

Since I have a belly the size of a small planet, I wasn't even allowed to decide whether or not I could do it. I was simply banned. You know, because I am expecting.

Josh is expecting too, but fortunately he wasn't banned from "all the fun". He was stoked. Somehow the idea of climbing up a big pole, walking across a small pole (with nothing to hold on to) and jumping off a platform at the end of it equals "all the fun!" to him.

Here's the weird thing - EVERYBODY in my family did it. Except my mother (whose "terrification of heights" gene I inherited) and the children 5 years younger than the age they thought would do it.

My 7 & 9 & 11 year old nephews did it. All 4 of them.

You know, because they're awesome. And maybe a little bit because they're too young to know how scary that is.

My poor mother took all the fear they should've felt and added her own to it and quadrupled it for good measure while they were up there dangling from nothing but a string. She was relieved when they came back alive.

For the kids who were too small for such an adventure, they harnessed them up and swung them from the pole.

Which they LOVED because it was "even higher than Poppy's swing!"

Anyway, since even the 3 year old wasn't too chicken to participate, I was glad I didn't have to admit that I was too chicken. Way too chicken. Glad that NBE gives me a automatic out. PERK!