I’m Tara and sometimes I have to grab on to something for fear I’ll get knocked over by the passage of time.  This is especially true now, during my first pregnancy, when the weeks have ticked off much faster than I can count them, and salesladies at furniture stores say things like “you better get a move on” regarding our crib-buying pace.  I’m writing this blog to keep track of my own thoughts, to share them with friends and family who are good to check in on me often, and to explore some subjects that I think most people think about but don’t always talk about out loud.

I’m due March 5, 2010.

I’m honest in what I write here.  If it might upset you that I didn’t cry tears of joy over my positive EPT (it took a while to sort through all the emotions; there is more than just happiness to account for in that moment!), or that I dread morphing into a Mommybot (one whose singular purpose and defining characteristic is “mother”), or that I wouldn’t list childbirth as one of life’s most “beautiful” moments per se, maybe my musings are not for you.

I’ll write about it all here. The good, the bad and the ugly and I welcome tales from your own experience.  Please spare me of horror stories for now. Pregnant women are not very well equipped with filters for terrifying things that may or may not ever happen to them.  And let’s keep this a friendly place.  Pregnant women also tend to be sensitive and emotional.  If you disagree with something I say, please don’t spew lava all over the comments section. Simply move on from here and vent to a friend about me.  I mean no offense, I just mean to be sincere.

Aside from being pregnant, I’m a professional food writer, recipe developer and cookbook author. My original blog, Crumbs On My Keyboard, is about food and life in words and pictures.  Crumbs On My Belly is a little side step from the first, for now, because it’s a technical blog world I already know and I don’t have time to reinvent the wheel here!

I’m married to a great guy, Topher, who naturally appears all over the entries here on the Belly blog. We’ve been married 5 1/2 years, and have been together since 1997 at Villanova, where we went to college.  He loves Villanova basketball and has determined that if the baby has not yet arrived by Villanova vs. West Virginia on March 6th, that he’ll just meet me at the hospital after the game.  We both run, though when he runs, it looks like I’m walking.

My sister-in-law, Lis Gilbert Desmond, created fabulous illustrations for the blog.  She scribbled on the envelope in which they came “the character is not you…” , but I think there is a remarkable resemblance and I couldn’t think of images that capture specific moments of this pregnant life the way hers do.

Welcome to the Belly blog. Thanks for keeping me company as the countdown continues.