Every time Pär sees me naked these days, he flips out over the shape of my torso. He cannot stop himself from caressing my big round belly, with a look of amazed wonder in his eyes. This morning was no exception. As usual, I just sat there smiling and looking down at the rotund mountain that used to be flatlands.

"I guess I really am pregnant, huh," I said. "I'm not just faking it."

"You do seem to really be pregnant," Pär agreed.

"There could be another explanation. Maybe it's one of them hysterical pregnancies! I think it's pretty hysterical, anyway."

"Oh, yeah. This pregnancy is a complete riot!"

"Why do I have such a hard time believing it's real? The signs aren't exactly subtle at this point. My whole body has mutated, we've seen the ultrasound, I've got a stomach out to here, the baby's kicking me all the time... but I still have to go recheck my EPT test stick sometimes to convince myself that I'm not just making it all up."

"Maybe," Pär suggested, "it's because our lives haven't changed around it very much yet. We're not doing all those baby-centered things, or taking classes or hanging out with other expectant couples or whatever people do."

I thought this was an acute observation. "It's like when we got married," I said, "and our life together went on exactly as before. Over time, the actual meaning and impact of the marriage manifested itself and became real. But we didn't get caught up in the pomp and circumstance that usually attends these events, so we skipped all those expectations about how you're supposed to suddenly be different people in a new stage of life. We just went on being us, and let the changes happen as they happened."

"This is very much like the marriage thing," Pär said. Then he grinned at me. "We are very married now."

"I know!"

"Soon, we will be very parents." His eyes got big.

"Oh my god!"