3.11.17 - Random Saturday in March

I'm more likely to add Joy Inventory posts for special occasions, like Clara's birthday or Christmas. So I try to remember from time to time to count the joys of my average life.

For example, I recently started editing work for a department at UC Davis, and so far I really enjoy it, and the pay is pretty good. I hope the work continues or even expands. We'll see.

Earlier this week I was feeling down: exhausted and restless, and really tired of my third trimester pregnant body. So I went ahead and bought some new maternity tops and I've been wearing them all week, and they've been brightening my days.

Clara is adorable as ever. She likes to climb into my lap, count to ten, and then wait expectantly for me to tickle and kiss and zerbert her once she reaches 10. She also likes to stand behind me when I'm sitting on the couch and wait for me to slowly turn around and look at her, which she finds hilarious for some reason.

I have long since stopped picking her up and putting her in my lap to read her books. Instead I sit in the middle of the living room and just start reading one of her books, and usually she stops what she's doing and comes over to sit in my lap and listen. At the end of every book I say "the end," close it, and hand it to her. Usually she then reopens it, pretends to read each page out loud, and finishes by saying "Eee Eh!" ("The end!") and shutting it herself. Then we go to the next book.

Blurry selfie

Jack has been great. He's very busy with his nursing program but still supports me wherever he can, mostly through trying to help with domestic things like cleaning, grocery shopping, dropping & picking up Clara, etc. For example, just today I went to Starbucks to do some paid work and he finished cleaning the whole apartment for later when we have company.

That's another joy for today - Erin is coming over for a crafting visit, and later Andrew is coming to visit too! Haven't seen him in person in over a year, so that's pretty nice.

And much as I don't enjoy pregnancy, I do love how often and how intensely I can feel Jane move. It's much more obvious than it was with Clara; Jack and I think that's because Clara was breech for a long time and we didn't know it. In any case I can often feel Jane push against me and I can push back and even move her around a bit, it's amazing. I notice she never hiccups whereas Clara seemed to hiccup often. Either way, it's great to have some kind of interaction with her.

I've been trying to read Clara her "I'm a big sister" book more often, only instead of saying "baby" I replace it with "Jane." I don't think that will make much sense to her now but I hope once Jane arrives she can start to put it together.