Weeks 21, 22 and 23

Here's me on Christmas Day (more to come on that shortly), at our beach house, in my new maternity frock - 21 weeks:

 22 weeks:

 And 23 weeks:

I'm feeling good.  We bought the first furniture for little Bruce on the weekend - a cot and a change table - both white.  Found the experience of spending a couple of hours at "Baby Kingdom" totally overwhelming.  So much stuff!  What do I need?  What does it all do?  Thankfully, I can ask lots of questions from my friends who already have kids, and have also done a list of things that I am assured are "essential" baby items.  I don't want to be sucked into the great baby consumer machine, buying things out of guilt and paranoia, so I'm going to (try to) stick with the essentials, and then work out the rest as we go along.
Our Woolies delivery guy told me that this is going to be the year of the Dragon in the Chinese zodiac, which is very good, especially for boys.  He said everyone wants dragon babies, and that they bring good luck.  I liked that.  My little dragon boy.
We have also booked a babymoon for the near future, and because I'm totally spoilt, we are going to.... Qualia.  Yesssssss.  We were going to go somewhere more reasonable, but the hubby reasoned that if we are going to do this, we might as well do it properly.  Ummm, OK!!  If it's good enough for Oprah, I think it will be sufficient for us.  But I will report back.
The dragon boy has been ACTIVE in the last couple of weeks.  He kicks up a storm now, some days he just dances away all day.  Lots of the things I read said it feels like butterflies, but I never got that.  It feels pretty much like there is a 30cm little person inside you kicking you.  Or popcorn.  That is the most accurate description I have read.  Funny how so much baby descriptor stuff relates to food.  In particular, the updates you get each week, saying "your baby is as big as a potato now".  Which isn't the most helpful thing in the world given how much the size of a potato can vary.  And what the hell is a yam anyway?  Apparently the dragon baby is the size of a banana this week - again, I find "29 cm" a little more useful to visualise things rather than just "a banana", but hey, the more things relate to food the better.
Speaking of which, I still haven't had any mad cravings.  I'm kind of disappointed.  I am drinking a lot more milk, especially with Milo, which I used to be mad for when I was younger.  But that's really it.
I went for a swim the other day, and there were a bunch of young girls in the change rooms who were part of a squad and had obviously just finished training.  It made me feel all nostalgic.  There I was, in my maternity bathers, waddling around, but I used to be just like them.  Chatting, borrowing moisturiser, gossiping, fit.  And here I am now. And not that I'm sad to be here, or want to go back, but just listening to these girls made me smile.  I suppose in 15 years they will do the same.