Our American Summer

I've planned to write several blog posts in the past few weeks but somehow it's never happened.  It's funny how you can not be doing anything specific and still stay busy.  I guess we are experiencing the typical American summer.

I would pause here to make some cultural observations but they are all still too muddled.  After living away from your "home country" for long enough, you stop looking at it through insider eyes.  It makes more sense to take on a mindset more similar to when you first moved to another country.  It's not as confusing, because you still understand most of the rules, but some of the rules and some of the players have changed and nobody can tell you exactly which ones.  And sometimes it's just you that have changed - your inner rhythm is different from before, so you feel one step off from the world around.  Which isn't much different from how you feel in your "borrowed" country, except that nobody expects you to fit in there.  The nice thing is, after a while you just don't care as much.

Other than making vague cultural realizations, the past few weeks have been busy with seeing people.  Almost all of Kevin's friends and family are still in the general LA area (novel, huh?), so there are lots of people to try to catch up with every summer.  It's not quite as urgent this time since we will be back by the end of the year.  It's not long time compared to normal, but I guess, "If we don't catch you this time we'll try to work it out in 4 or 5 months" does seem kind of long.

Juliana has been having a great time playing with friends, with Nana and Gramps, and with her new toys.  She has been doing lots of drawing and made my sister a beautiful card full of spiders for her birthday.  She has done well during all our driving all over.  It helps that she can amuse herself by talking and singing for hours.  She likes to make up new songs.  Her latest hit, "I'm Lying on my Knees," reaches previously unmatched intensity and decibles.  She has already acquired a play house and car, so obviously she is adjusting well to American life.

I am busy being pregnant.  Overall I have been feeling better now that we're done with all that packing and moving and traveling craziness, but sometimes pregnancy catches up with you.  You might forget that your body is still working hard to grow this ever demanding (or at least ever active) baby...until you do too much and your body decides to not-so-politely let you know what it thinks about that.  The good thing about pregnancy is that you get to know that some day this madness will end and your body will get along with you again.  Apparently some people really love being pregnant.  But then some people love Nascar, asparagus, and Chinese opera, so there's a lot I don't understand in the world.

And I am now less than two months from my due date!  Juliana was 4 days early, so I'm holding out hope this one will be early too.  I sure wouldn't mind, and the kiddos probably wouldn't mind having their own birthdays afterall.  Of course I would like for baby to wait until she's actually ready to come out.  And definitely until after we make it to Georgia two weeks from now.

Last week we found out we are having another girl!  I didn't have a strong feeling or preference either way, I was just eager to find out.  Kevin had kind of been hoping for another girl, although he was thinking maybe it was a boy because I was much sicker this time.  We are excited for Juliana to have a sister, and we do have lots of cute girl clothes already!  When we bought a little outfit for the baby, Juliana was excited and tried to claim it for herself.  Which is pretty much how I expect the future to be.

Now we just need to decide on a name.  We aren't planning on revealing the name until the baby comes anyway, but it would be nice for us to know before then!  We asked Juliana what she thinks her little sister should be called, but since she calls her dolls "dolly" and "new dolly," and her stuffed cat "kitty," I don't think she quite gets the naming concept yet.

I promise to update again sometime in the next two months before baby arrives. In the meantime, we'll continue to enjoy our daily guacamole, try to see a few more family and friends, and ask baby to please be nice to mama.