Weepiness

I (Steve) have discovered one of the great joys of pregnancy...weepiness. Apparently this comes with the territory, as hormones are surging through the body, causing wacky mood swings at any given moment. And my favorite mood swing is crying spells. You've seen this cliche in any movie with a pregnant woman. She sees a mundane commercial where parents give their child a new car to take to college, and the pregnant woman watching the commercial just starts bawling. Well, it's a cliche because it's real. We've experienced it. And it is amazing.

For some reason, when Stephanie has a sudden, uncontrollable burst of tears as a result of the most meager emotional moment, I have a powerfully equal and opposite reaction...I cannot stop laughing. My favorite weep explosion so far happened a month ago when we were watching Pee Wee's Big Holiday on Netflix. Pee Wee evokes many feelings...nostalgia, playfulness, childlike wonder, happiness...but it's rare he evokes sadness (unless you're remembering that one time in that adult movie theater in 1991. Which you probably weren't. But now you are. Sorry.)...

At one point in the movie, (spoiler alert) Pee Wee falls into a hole and can't make it to his new best friend's birthday party. It is the "emotional" moment of the movie, because it's been building to Pee Wee attending this birthday party for 80 minutes. But if you've seen any movie ever made, you know Pee Wee will escape the hole within a minute or two, so there's no real jeopardy...unless you're growing a human inside of you. Then every moment becomes Bambi's mom getting shot. So I looked over and Stephanie is balling her eyes out. "It's just so sad. All he wants is to go to his friend's party!" It's very sweet and as a supportive husband, I should be comforting her and saying, "Don't worry. It will be okay. Pee Wee will find a way to make it to the party. He's very resourceful." But instead...I just laugh. It's an irrational reaction to an irrational reaction. If we watched this five months ago, Stephanie wouldn't have cared if Pee Wee left the hole at all! Now she's fully invested! I'm hoping this will lead to her re-watching the newest Star Wars movie and suddenly hanging on every moment with Kylo Ren and Han on the bridge. I won't laugh if she cries then. Mostly because I'd be crying along with her.