Waiting to pop!

Our spring is unfolding here, with an increase in beautiful weather alternated with frustratingly chilly days. The big events of the months have been birthdays, Dave's and Julia's. We've also had quite the stream of house guests coming and going which has kept me busy. The garden is slowly springing to life and the chickens are maintaining happily in their new semi covered enclosure in the garden. I'm simmering away in the last days of my pregnancy, desperately eager to not be pregnant anymore and occasionally mindful that this is as much peace and quiet that I'll get for some time. 

Julia and I made cork boats by hot-gluing corks together and sticking on paper sails with toothpicks. 

She floated them quite successfully down the stream that runs through our yard but since, the water level has dropped by half and we understand that it dries completely over the summer. This saddens me as some wild ducks have taken up residence and I'd love to see them stay!

Julia's had lots of playdates with her little buddies, and I've gotten to know their moms a lot more over the past months, making us both happier here than in the first months.  

Julia's becoming a chicken whisperer, feeding them from her hands. We are down to 18 or 19 after the hawks devastated things for a weekend while we were away, but this number seems to be maintaining now that the more open sections of the pen are covered, giving the hawks nowhere to land.  

Julia continues to love dinosaurs and all thing princessy. a good balance. 

She had a ballet recital, performing a bear dance and here she's playing with her fellow dancers during the dress rehersal. During the actual performance, she tripped over another dancer and hit the stage hard and cried pretty hard over it for a bit. It didn't dampen her enthusiasm for class though!

Julia turned 4 and we had a party! we invited about 5 little girls from her preschool and grandma Gini came and we had a lovely morning of dinosaur fairy princess tea party time. I served coffee and tea sandwiches, ham and cheese and pb and j, veggies, fruit, cheeses, crackers and artichoke dip, pink punch and cake and cupcakes decorated with pink and white frosting, sparkles and dinosaurs. the kids played for hours and the adults hung out and snacked and talked. my pictures are none too good as I was rather too busy to take more! It was a wonderful party, and Julia was very happy. 

new birthday dress!

my gift for Julia was a fountain to put by her fairy garden  

We had some lovely beach time

as we were joined by friends Susan and Jacob from our past life in Oregon. Julia was thrilled to have a "big brother" to play with her and before Jacob could leave, Olaf and my Dad arrived for a quick visit too! I didn't manage any pictures of them either!

Here's a last days of pregnancy selfie for those of you who love that sort of thing! 

and here's my no-budget nursery! I did end up spending $40 on plywood for the long shelf top but other than that, it's all gifted or found or upcycled!

this is space that's actually our bedroom, which has a rather wide hall leading out with just enough space for a changing area, two dressers and some open shelves for clothes storage. 

and for a crib, a pack n play will serve us fine, as I imagine that the baby will sleep with me most of the time. You can't see it but our friends who have a farm gave us an incredible sheepskin that is lining the crib, so if the baby naps there it will be plenty warm from above and below, despite our cold bedroom. I've had lots of questions about the logistics of birth here, so a quick summary of THE PLAN: Our goal is to give birth with our midwife's assistance (who lives on a neighboring island) at the Anacortes hospital, since there's no options for anyone to assist with a planned homebirth on Lopez. if it's daytime, there's 7 ferry options from 630 am to 830 pm. After that, our best option for getting off island is a local pilot who will fly us over to Anacortes where we'll call a taxi to get to the hospital. Either way, we'll take Julia and arrange to have her met by whichever friend-or-relation is available to meet us. Or we have many offers of people who will keep her here for us if necessary. There's also a list of people who could manage a delivery here if it came to that, including the emts and the nurse practitioner at the clinic, not to mention the moms of many who have invited me to call them as I see fit. So that's the best we can do for a plan, as every aspect is pretty contingent on what time of day or night things happen. We are planning on spending the week of the 14th off island hanging around Mt Vernon, so that could simplify travel a bit as long as I feel relaxed enough to go into labor! My due dates are the 13th or 18th, depending on if you believe my last period or the ultrasound measurements. The full moon is the 15th, so that's got my bet. Julia was on time, as were all my siblings and I so I'll be a bit surprised (but happy) if it's earlier and I'll be quite disgruntled if the baby wants to hang out in my belly and grow for an extra two weeks. Either way, my next post will probably be about birth!