What's Going on with those Golbys?

Here's what we Golby girls have been doing lately:

Growing . . . LOTS

Both Kathleen and I have been doing our fair share of growing lately. With less than three weeks until Baby #2's due date (can you tell we still haven't settled on a name?!), I am approaching gargantuan proportions, or at least it feels that way to me. Thankfully, the maternity clothes still fit, and thankfully we're living in Hawaii, where my revolving combination of skirts and tank tops and capris seem perfectly acceptable. Even better than that is never having to worry about shoes. All I ever wear are flip-flops (islanders call them slippers) and crocs. My feet have not seen the inside of uncomfortable shoes in months!

Kathleen's also a big fan of slippers. In fact, we got her first real pair at Walmart today.

Shoes, island-style

Kathleen's little feet are rather wide, which makes it hard to buy shoes for her. She normally wears the same pair of little white sandals to everything, so this new pair of "fun" shoes was a pretty big deal!

Kathleen's feet aren't the only thing growing. Sometimes it makes my head spin to think about how big she is -- and how much she's changed since we got to the island or since Jim left. She's talking up a storm lately. I have to laugh at myself (again) when I remember that I was worried that signing might delay her speech. Hah! I feel like Kathleen picks up new words every day, and begins using them almost at once. In addition to a slew of everyday words (please, thank you, car, jeep, camera, park, beach, swim, run, climb, juice, cereal, tv, ball, bike, tons and tons of animals), Kathleen has started picking up people's names and using them more consistently. It makes her such a little person! Tonight we sat together and ate pizza and sliced fresh fruit for dinner, and had our own little conversation. My baby is a little girl!

Goofing Around

Okay, to be fair, this one happens pretty much all the time. But with as busy as life has been lately, I think the goofing around has been pretty important. And now that Kathleen is bigger and more verbal, she's as much a part of the goofing around as I've ever been. This afternoon, for example, she saw the camera, picked it up, and handed it to me, saying, "Camera, camera!" So, we had an impromptu self-portrait-taking session. The photos aren't necessarily flattering, but they were fun.

We're just big hams.

We recently received a box from San Francisco from Nan and Grandpa. One of the things they sent us was a large, mechanical fish. Now, I had no idea such a thing existed, but apparently it does! The big clown fish is battery-operated, and when placed in water, it swims! Kathleen was thrilled to watch it swim with her in the bathtub tonight. We even called Nan and Grandpa so they could hear the squeals of delight.

Two great swimmers!

Talking about the Baby

Kathleen and I have been doing a lot of talking about the baby lately. We talk about the baby that's in mommy's tummy (she likes to pull up my shirt to check) and about how that baby's going to come live with us. We talk about how Kathleen will be a big sister, and we read the "I'm a Big Sister" book that we found at Costco a while back. I didn't have high hopes for it, but it is one of Kathleen's favorite books right now. We read it at least twice, and probably more like four times, a day. It is one of the few books that we actually read all the words in, so we're spending a fair amount of time on the subject of the baby and Kathleen's upcoming role as a big sister. I don't know that it will help, but it certainly doesn't seem like it can hurt.

We've also started pulling out more and more baby equipment, so we can talk even more about the baby that will live at Kathleen's house. The other day we pulled out the bouncer, and Kathleen was immediately fascinated by it. I thought that it would be a good place for Kathleen to practice with her baby doll, whom she calls, simply, "Baby." Kathleen seems to take great delight in caring for Baby; she feeds Baby bottles, wipes Baby's face with disposable wipes, and very sweetly covers Baby's face with blankets. Baby, along with her monkey George and the three incarnations of her puppy Aloha, now even sleeps in Kathleen's crib with her. (Shortly there will not be enough room for Kathleen!) However, Baby has yet to sit in the bouncer. Kathleen has made herself quite at home in it, instead.

Does anyone know where we'll put the actual baby?

Moving

So, here's what's been taking up the majority of our time and energy lately. We're moving! (We think it's important not to be too lazy or relaxed during the ninth month of pregnancy.) For a variety of reasons, a few weeks ago we put our beautiful, wonderful condominium on the market. We thought it would take a few months to find a buyer, and that during that time we could have a baby, readjust to life, and then adjust to the idea of selling our home. But instead we found ourselves under contract in only four days. Four days! Had we known that it would be that easy to sell our home, we probably wouldn't have sold it quite yet. . .

However, there will be some good things about our new abode. We're moving onto post, so when Jim comes home, he'll be very close to work. That means that (if we're lucky) we should be able to see him, even when he's working a lot. We could even walk to the battalion building, if we were feeling ambitious! The home is all on one level, so there won't be anymore stairs to climb with the girls and with groceries. And in addition to an extra bedroom, the house on post has a big screened-in lanai (that's a porch on the mainland) and a yard.

The view from the lanai

I think that Kathleen will love having a place to run and play (without worrying about the downstairs neighbors who work nights). And I'm really hoping that the novelty of the extra space and outdoor play will ease some of the tension that's sure to arise when we don't manage to get out of the house as much when the baby first arrives.

For now, we're still living in the condo and we're moving things over to the house gradually. We'll keep doing that over the next week. Well, I use that "we" loosely. Kathleen and I haven't moved much at all. Friends have done an amazing amount of work for us, and we have no doubt that Nan and Grandpa will do the same when they show up on Monday. We're so grateful for all the help. Movers come to move the "big stuff" next Thursday, and by then we should be all settled. Hopefully Baby Girl #2 won't show up anytime before then!