Okay, several things have been happening to me in the past year that undeniably call attention to the progression of my 'biological clock.'

I, obviously, have always loved children. But as I proceed into my mid-twenties, the yearning for offspring of my very own has intensified exponentially. The acquisition of a man in my life last fall meant, aside from the beauty that is my first actual, functional relationship with a sane person, that I had potentially found the father of said offspring. (Not that either of us is planning to become parents anytime soon. Just a disclaimer) He'd kill me if he knew I wrote what I am about to write, but since he reads my blog once every few months I think I'm safe: he has said on more than one occasion that I'm the first girl he's dated with whom he feels he would want to start a family. Woohoo! One step covered.

[EDIT] Okay, so after I wrote this I remembered that I had just sent Brian an email asking him to look at my redesign. Damn! I am busted. Oh well.[/EDIT]

Next is the explosion of 'mommy blogs' in my daily reads list. I partly blame Tatiana for this, as she provided a list of links in her blog that gave me easy access to pick and choose my faves. Those faves are now in my links list, to the right. The mothering experiences that I read, along with the adorable, michievous, and sometimes red-faced and screaming pictures of their offpsring, both melt my heart and stir my empty uterus. (Yes, I even like screaming kids. I like bad kids too, because they're hilarious... is that sadistic of me?) Hey, anyone know of more 'daddy blogs'?

Blogs aside, there is Jon and Kate Plus 8, originally on Discovery Health but now on TLC (yeah, I don't understand either). The Gosselins have 7-year-old twins and 3-year-old sextuplets, and the kids are one-quarter Korean. The show started when the sextuplets were 2, but now that they're 3 they are much bigger talkers and their personalities are starting to shine through. Fellow viewers bemoan the potential chaos of having toddling/preschooler sextuplets, but I have to say that it doesn't daunt me. Not that I would try to have them (the prospect of carrying 6 fetuses inside of me makes me ill!!), but I don't think it would be so awful. Does that make me insane? Naive? Oh well. Check in with me in 8 years when I have my first toddler.

Then there is this video:

I should also note that when my mother was my current age, she had had her first child.

So what am I going to name my little gems? Well. it has taken me an extremely long time to come up with two names: one girl and one boy. I'm very very picky about names, which is probably one very significant reason I should not even think about having sextuplets. The names are... dun dun dun... Belle and Oliver.

I know, I know. Two things come to mind: Disney, and hippie indie band. But what can I do? I can't not have a girl name, and Oliver standing alone wouldn't conjure up either of those images. Do you know how difficult it's been for me to come up with a girl name I liked?

The answer is: VERY.

Good thing I won't be having children for at least another five years. That is, if all goes according to plan.