*Chirp, chirp*

Nothing to interfere with listening to the crickets here, is there? *wry smile*

I know it's been forever since I last posted a family update. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

Big news first or last? First I guess (though this isn't news to some of you): number three is on the way! I'm not quite eight weeks pregnant, and miserable — if "morning" sickness (hah!) is a sign of good health in the little one, then this one is thriving. I won't complain about the gross details, but suffice to say I've lost weight rather than gaining it since finding out I'm pregnant. And yes, I've been in to see the midwife's office already, and yes, they sent me to get the blood work done to see what my thyroid is doing. Still waiting on those results...

How is the rest of the family doing? Busy but well. We had a whole LOT of traveling in late May / early June — four weekends in a row, plus an extra mid-week trip to da Soo for Chris. I figure the girls and I clocked at least 2800 miles and Chris over 3600 miles. Thank goodness for the Prius! In order, we went: to a friend's wedding & to visit the TC crew; to Houghton for Noah's baptism and to see Granny & Grandpa (Granny's been doing less well again); to Indianapolis to visit with friends I've made online; and to Glennie for the annual summer get-together.

And since then we've stayed put. *VBG*

Mairi has wrapped up her summer session at the preschool (ECDC) and is eagerly anticipating her birthday. She will begin going to ECDC every morning in a couple weeks; we would've have had to apply for a waiver to get her into kindergarten this fall and didn't see any reason to do that. She can write a few words (her own name, Nora, Mom, Dad) and is becoming more and more interested in copying out other words. She will now sometimes use a book and tell Nora the story, as best as she remembers it.

Nora is as busy and as feisty as ever. She can communicate fairly well now, verbally — when she chooses to, and doesn't get overly frustrated. She's been sleep in her bedroom for the past week — and so has Chris. She seems to be making the adjustment, slowly, to the idea that this is where she will sleep now. She's also going increasingly long times between nursing sessions — it is my hope/goal that she will be weaned by Halloween at the latest.

Chris is in full-blown "let's get everything organized before the baby arrives" mode — he observes that he tends to "nest" a lot more than I do when we're expecting a new little one, to which I pointed out that he tends to spend a lot more time in the "nest" than I do! Not to mention that he has energy to try to do things — when I have any energy of late, I spend it paying attention to the girls. Chris has almost wrapped up his audio hobby — the building part of it, that is, he'll still be doing plenty of listening. I'll leave it to him to discuss where he's thinking about heading next. ;-)

As for myself ... well, lately I sleep. Before the onset of first-trimester-itis, I was knitting a fair amount. I've been reading this and that, but nothing worth discussing really. Honestly, right now I'm in survival mode: get what needs to be done done and let the reast wait until sometime tis fall when I will feel better.

I'll try to post some pix of the girls soon. Hope you're all doing well ...