back.

Oh goodness, I don't know where to start. Hoping you all had a wonderful holiday season. As for us, it was a huge success. Kept it really low-key and relaxing, but had some good times with family and friends. A highlight for us was taking Finn out snowshoeing on New Years Day with friends - it was his first time out in the Kelty backpack in a while and he was seriously digging the snow and company. Luckily, the snow stuck around for a couple of weeks and is only now starting to melt away. I'm sad to see it go, but do enjoy me a good January thaw when it smells almost like spring and you can walk around without a coat on if you're staying good and active. We were able to enjoy the snow sledding and snowshoeing, beating down a trail just across the street from our house down an old logging road that will soon belong to the local Land Trust (I cannot wait for there to be a Land Trust trail across the street. Can't wait!).
My, my...there's so much to tell, but I'll save some of it for posts in the next few days - don't want to go through another writers block by using up all my goods at once!
We did get to our first visit with the midwives last week, which was wonderful - turns out we were spot on with our guess that Baby #2 is about 12 weeks along and - lo and behold - s/he has the same due date as our Finnley James - July 23rd! Seems so surreal, but we're going to be a family of four in about 6 months! This pregnancy is already quite a bit different than my first, but that's to be expected. We won't find out for another 7ish weeks, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say "girl". We're so excited and terrified at the same time, but feel like we're in a good place and ready to welcome the person who will complete our little family.
It's got me thinking a lot about birth - Finn's birth specifically, but birth in general. I'll probably share the longer and more elaborate story of the day Finn arrived sometime soon. The first time was a bit of a vague description since I was talking to a national audience, but I feel like it's a story I want to share now and get down so that Finn can read it some day and realize what a totally amazing miracle he is - that all of us are, really. It's such an incredible, humbling experience. Even though I was there and a part of it, I feel like a bystander, that it was so much more than me pushing out a baby - it was all of us together, making it happen.
God, I'll be glad when these pregnancy hormones make me a whole lot less sappy.
For now, enjoy these images of Finn and his sibling and I'll be back soon.