Baby Fruit

Megan’s belly is getting bigger. Jellybean is the size of an orange. It’s working on avocado next. They always have these fruit comparisons for “How Big Is Your Baby?” At first, I thought the fruit was about total mass. By that standard, a naval orange is bigger than an avocado, isn’t it? I demonstrated this by heading towards the produce department the last time we were in Albertson’s.
Meg explained that I was wrong. “They’re talking about the crown to rump length of the baby.” She retrieved the largest avocado she could find from a display at the front of the produce department and headed towards a bin of navel oranges.
I protested. “You picked the largest avocado. It’s not fair if you pick a huge avocado and a small naval orange.”
We reached a bin of oranges and I found the largest one I could find. I held it aloft next to Meg’s avocado. “I guess you’re right,” I sheepishly conceded. The avocado’s length was an inch longer than the navel orange. “They’re talking about length, not mass.”
“Plus, that wouldn’t make any sense when we get to banana in two weeks,” Meg teased me.
I held the orange next to Meg’s belly. “This is how long our baby is,” I said with a smile.
“Uh huh. I don’t want this anymore,” Meg said, looking at the avocado in her hand.
“I’ll put it back,” I said and took it from her.
* * *
So Jellybean’s crown to rump length is a navel orange on this week, Week 15. On Wednesdays it flips over to the next week. I marked all the other fruits and week numbers on my calendar. Week 16, Avocado. Week 17, Onion. I carried on until the end, where the fruit gets so comically big that they can only think of varieties of melons and squash: Week 36, Honeydew, Week 37, Winter Melon, Week 38, Pumpkin, Week 39, Watermelon, Week 40, Jackfruit.

(I figure I won’t tell Meg about having to carry around melons for a month.)
What’s jackfruit, besides being the length of my soon-to-be-40-week-old baby? It’s a species of tree in the Artocarpus genus of the mulberry family (Moraceae). It is native to parts of South and Southeast Asia, and is believed to have originated in the southwestern rainforests of India. The flesh of the jackfruit is starchy and fibrous, and is a source of dietary fiber. The flavor is similar to a tart banana.
So when and if I ever eat a jackfruit, eating the fibrous tart banana fruit, I’ll think about Meg’s huge belly and the baby that’s about the size of my breakfast who’s going to rock my world.