You’ve got to break a girl back in easy. Let’s just hit what my brain can muster.
– Julia is prancing around her ‘big girl bed’ right now, telling a story about Diego and a baby… and a volcano and river dolphin. She is trying to give up her nap, only sleeping half of the times we put her down in the afternoon. She paces and dances, tells stories, and talks to whatever stuffed animal has made it onto her bed. But she doesn’t get out. And doesn’t seem to mind being there (I tell myself). This heavily pregnant woman needs her naps too, so prance around my little Luli.
– The video monitor that I once mocked has become a great source of entertainment in our lives. To see the arm-waving theatrics of Julia, and Lillie making her little nest every night is priceless (if you’re in the market we’ve loved this so far, Merry Christmas to me). Thank you Jocelyn for doing the research.
– I’m 32 weeks pregnant. It feels like I have been pregnant for 32 years. To Paul, who hears all my complaints, it must seem a century. In spite of sciatica, enormity, decreasing sleep, and wondering WHY they don’t make taller maternity clothes… I remain profusely grateful for a body that can bear children. Little girl #3 still doesn’t have a steady short list of name options, though the list ebbs with things like the Smylies reading the “Top 100 names of the 1890’s” and “Top 100 names of the 1970’s” to us. Because why not? Opening all doors.
– Now Julia is running laps on her bed.
– You should hear Lillie say ‘Ju-ee-a’. It’s the first thing she says when she wakes up. She follows her everywhere, including to the potty, to the sink to wash hands, to time out… I’m getting glimpses of ‘sisters’ and be still my heart. Now if we can just get Julia to understand that she’s Lillie’s sun and moon.
– I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. So do my church leaders, which is meaningful to me. I wish that was as respected and tolerated a position as the other side. Here is what I believe, and here is an article, among many, I found interesting.
– We head to Utah and Idaho next week for a brief, last-minute trip before the baby comes. Our April reunion will be delightful, and feels long overdue . We haven’t visited since July. Julia is talking a lot about Grandmas and Grandpas, and I can already taste Taco Amigo. I was reading a book to Julia today that talked about camping and I missed my home. Western summers, you are the best. I’m so sad we won’t be there in July this year to ride around the farm (er, lawn), play with family and golden friends, roast marshmallows and play in the creek up at South Fork park… I can taste the cool summer night air, and yearn for humidity-less heat. Maybe one day I’ll become a summer-er. But for now, we long.
– The Smylies are here for a few months for Foreign Service training. It’s bliss. I still don’t know how we ended up somewhere that’s not Utah, where so many friends have either made their homes, or will pass through at regular intervals. Government, I wish you were smaller and more frugal, but I’m grateful for your jobs that make this place what it is for me – a gathering place of wonderful people.
– Tomorrow is the National Kite Festival, an event I look forward too. We’ll bring our dollar store kites (the bigger, fancier dragons and turtles of yesteryear were a little dangerous for passersby), a picnic, and try to find our friends among the masses.
– Julia’s now singing one of her favs (in her Dad’s very on pitch) “Can you feel the love tonight?” She knows how to rhyme now, so if she doesn’t remember a word, she just makes up a rhyme – though it’s not guaranteed to be real word. “Why can’t he be the king I know he is, the king I see insiiiiiiide…”
– Here we are decorating Easter eggs yesterday with friends. This is the best we do in the photo taking realm these days.
S.A.S. goes to Washington 
