Does anyone remember way back when we were waiting for baby dude* to be born and I might have said something about feeling “covertly pregnant”?  Like I could choose when and with whom I’d share the information and didn’t constantly have strangers asking me when I was due and what the gender was and what we were going to name it and OMG, You’re HUGE!?   Yeah, well, maybe there’s a purpose to that part of pregnancy.  It now feels VERY strange to suddenly be the focus of attention when I walk into stores with a teeny tiny baby in tow and have total strangers ooh and ahh over him and ask how old he is (and then frequently tell me how great I look).  Sometimes it makes me feel like a fake–like I’m getting away with something.  So far, I haven’t felt obligated to tell any of these people that he was adopted.  I mean, it’s none of their business, really, and I don’t want to qualify our relationship in a way that some uneducated (in the adoption world) people may read as “second best.”  Plus, it seems like an awkward segue (“He’s three weeks old.  We adopted him!”).  So instead, “Yes, he’s my son.  Yes, he’s very new.  And yes, thank you, I DO look great!”

*after my parents were here for a week, my mother mentioned something jokingly about “baby dude” and I looked at her blankly and she said, “well, that’s what you call him all the time.”  I had no idea!  But now that she’s pointed it out, I’ve realized that I DO call him that.  huh. weird.  wonder where I got that?  Anyway, I’d been thinking about using some sort of nickname for him here on this blog, so we’ll try this one out for awhile and see if it sticks.