I didn't mean to stop!

I guess I reached my limit this year. Between working, toddlers, pregnancy, and a resident husband, I just haven't had enough gas in my tank. I don't watch a lot of TV at night or anything... but just taking care of the house and children just simply run out of gas. Blah blah, welcome to everyone's life, I know. I never wanted to blog if it felt like an extra task, that wouldn't feel genuine. And so much of the internet these days feels like been-there-done-that, who would care what I have to say about anything? But I miss this space and the posterity it offers. Truthfully, I think daily about what I wish I would be able to type out here.

So here goes. Let's flex this almost-atrophied muscle.

We're now about a month out from Baby 3. Of course, I'm getting fairly uncomfortable, as happens in the last month. And like most mothers of third pregnancies (or so I've heard?) feel that this belly is the most massive it's ever been. But beyond that, no news is good news, and I have nothing really to complain about at all, which is an enormous blessing and enormously lucky. It's physically taxing to be this pregnant and take care of two little ones concurrently...but I have nothing to complain about beyond fatigue.

We still don't know the gender, and I have to tell you, I have LOVED not knowing this time around! It's forced me to be more relaxed somehow, because "the new baby" just feels much less daunting then a specifically named person, if that makes sense any. Honestly, I love newborns and it's not really the baby who "scares" me about this next phase of our family—it's the other two on top of him/her.

The girls are fun and sweet, but a whole lot of crazy. My new saying is that most of the time, they just average out into having 2 two-and-a-half-year-olds. Their age difference isn't enough at this point to make Juliette more manageable most of the time. It's just two whirling dervishes, who love wrestling and chasing each other and roughhousing and having fun. I love that they enjoy each other and love to play together, but their playing almost always ends in someone crying if we're not right in the room watching them. So...yeah. I know this will only get better/easier as time goes on, but that's what makes me nervous—when I won't be able to attend to them/referee right then and there because of the baby.

I can't wait to find out who this baby is, and how he/she fits into our family and the magic of him/her inevitably falling into a space and role we never knew we were missing before. Because we don't know the gender, neither of us have felt compelled to 100% commit to any names yet. I don't feel like I need to assign a name for a baby that may or may not apply, and thus there has been no rush. We will likely decide in the hospital, after he/she is born, which is a little exciting also.

It's been fun working on a neutral nursery (here and here you can see the two girl versions of the room, only slightly different from each other). We had the walls painted white, and Jonathan painted our pretty pink dresser a pretty blue (this one).

I reused a lot of the nursery-girl items in the girls' new shared room (which was a lot of fun to update actually!), and maybe if I can get myself together, I can share that soon.

What would a post be without a photo? Here's a family photo (likely one of the last of us as a family of 4!), on the day in early March when we had just the prettiest snow in Memphis:

If you're still here, thank you so much for reading and checking in on our little family. I truly truly have missed being in this space and have not let the dream die!