Thumb Twiddling

(my terrarium: looking good, don't you think?)

We have perfected the art of waiting around here. There was a week of restlessness: of my body clearly warming up for this labor, but no baby, and a whole family that was tapping its fingers and wondering when the time would come. We got every. last. thing. ready.

There were a couple of nights that we went to bed thinking, "Surely, this baby will come tonight." But then the night came and went, no baby came, and we woke up still very much in the middle of the waiting game.

(our current baby)

And then, after many such nights and days, we came to the beautiful zen realization that this baby will come when he's ready, just like every other baby, and we have nothing but time to wait and enjoy the process. My body has been doing lots of getting ready, but in some ways the end game of this pregnancy has been so kind: no hip pain, good sleep, lots of support from loved ones.

(canisters on the windowsill, having been put to good use)

So somewhere in there we realized that we can just celebrate these last days of our family being a family of four: of Ben and I being parents of big-kid toddlers. Of course that makes us no less eager to hold this new little life in our hands, but it has made the intermittent days so much more fun. There has been baking, reading, many long walks, and Ben and I have rocked a couple of crossword puzzles. We have played outside, tackled a few little projects here and there, and, yes, I have collapsed and just rested, too (okay, this has happened a lot).

(Lily's quilt: still awaiting finishing, but wrinkled and put to good use)

One of these days we will find ourselves in a whole new stage of our family life: blissful evenings of holding a sleepy newborn baby, silliness brought on by lack of sleep, getting to know a new little being. Oh, I can't wait! But I guess I have to, and that's okay.