April’s Here and All’s Well!

So the news is true! We had the “official” sonogram and Abby is definitely a girl (good thing too, because I have a lot of pink floating around the house right now). She’s a big baby, weighing about 600 grams at 23 weeks (normal is 500 grams) and is a very active healthy little rugrat. During the sonogram, she wiggled like a worm on a fishing line and it was difficult for the technician to get the pictures she needed. Oh, and apparently I’m a week more along than the doc originally thought, so if you’re keeping track I’ll be at the 25 week mark this Saturday, and my due date is now July 22nd.

Abby is also a champion kicker. She is going to be a Rockette one day, I’ve decided. One night she was kicking especially hard when I was lying down in bed. Joel leans over and starts talking to her in Spanish, telling her to calm down. And she started kicking harder! Whether that was because she was excited because her Papi was talking to her; or obstinate because he was telling her to calm down and she didn’t want to, I’m not sure.

So, all this month one of my big projects has been the baby shopping – we’ve bought the car seat and the stroller over here, and ordered the crib over the phone. We I found the layette stuff on sale and it finally arrived yesterday, which was lots of fun. We now have quite a baby stash going.

This Sunday was my Baby shower, which was very nice. It was a “Tea” theme, and one of the gals that threw it for me is a professional pastry chef, so you know we ate a bunch of great stuff! I was practically drunk on sugar by the time we left. We got some cute clothes (pink, of course) and a couple toys.

Other than dealing with baby (yes, I CAN talk about something else hahahaha), our lives are starting to revolve around our departure. We have 56 days and counting left in Rome, so Joel and I have been working our way through all the tasks we have to do to move again. We’ve got a kennel picked out near Zagreb for the cats, and we’re going to drop them off, leave the car in Zagreb, and then take a sleeper train back to Rome. I’ve been spending my time off on the weekends purging the house, going from room to room cleaning junk out and throwing out what I can, organizing everything so it will be easier for the packers to put together.

We will be flying to Washington, DC on May 31st! Then from there on to AL for me and Joel, and then Joel’s off to Zagreb for several weeks. He comes back for a bit when Abby is born and goes back, and Abby and I follow him to Zagreb a bit after that. We are going to have quite a busy summer. We have our time in DC completely planned – Chinese food, Thai food, pancake house, burger joint near Alexandria called 5 guys, Taco Bell, and more Chinese food!

What else have we done this month? Joel had his birthday; he’s 27 now, the old geezer. We went out to dinner with a bunch of people and had a good time. We weren’t kicked out of the restaurant, so that was a bonus! Hehehe I talked my pastry friend into making Joel’s birthday cake again this year, and I surprised him at his office with it. It was great – and lasted about ten minutes before it was demolished.

Joel also played in a basketball tournament with the Embassy guys against the other embassies, and the team is very excited because they came in 4th. Now I won’t point out that that it was 4th out of 6 teams, and they got 4th by default because one team forfeited the last game and another got disqualified. But our guys are still very proud of being 4th place, and they get trophies.

I wish I could say my job is winding down but it’s going full throttle. In March we had a huge Departure Seminar for everyone who is leaving this year. It was a great success, and really helpful. The Annual Community Auction was this past weekend and raised a lot of money for next year for community events and stuff. Tip if you ever do a fundraiser and want people to spend money: Get Them Smashed. It was a crazy night. I also dressed up and wore a dress, and apparently looked HUGE. People kept rubbing the belly like I had a neon sign saying, for a wish, rub here. It was so weird.

The rest of April is going to fly by. I’ve got a couple of functions for work this month, and we are doing a group tour of the Vatican this month. Joel has his last poker night this weekend, and we are going to head back to the Naples PX Sunday to stock up at the military base for Zagreb. We’re also starting to get invited to dinner by folks before we leave. Except for Easter weekend, we’re pretty much booked solid. I don’t plan to leave my house that whole Easter weekend if I can help it. I know we won’t have any other peace and quiet between now and the time we get on that plane.

So that’s it for this month. I’m doing good, and Abby’s doing great. Joel’s putting up with his beautiful, pregnant, hormonal wife, and being pretty great about it, especially when I freak out because I can’t find “the” stroller.

We’ll talk to you soon!

Love,

Julie, Joel, and little Abby