Letters to Mr. Miller

Dear B,

You’ve gone hunting for some quality male bonding time, and I am happy for you. I also miss you terribly. I like my days much better (and my nights even better than that) when you’re part of them. I don’t want you to feel like you’re missing out on anything at home, so I am here to keep you up to date.

Day One: After running what seemed like a million errands, I got home and was exhausted. I laid on the couch while the girls played barbies around me. Every 4-6 minutes, Stella would climb on top of me with her boo and hum for a few minutes, then climb down and back to playing barbies. It took all the energy I could muster to get off the couch and meet Nana and the cousins for dinner. I was glad I did though, it was fun. All the kids wanted to ride in the new van. I don’t know why people think van drivers aren’t cool. You should have seen how awesome these kids thought I was. Bonus is that I fit all the cousins in there (for now). They all thought that was pretty neat. Maycee asked me if you bought it for me or if I bought it with my own money. I thought that was so funny and cute. For the sake of romance, I told her you bought it for me.

When we got home I set the alarm straight away. A little while later, a neighbor stopped by with a fresh plate of cookies. I opened the door and was so surprised by the nice gesture, I completely ignored the beeping… that is until the full-on alarm started BLARING. Oh my goodness! I felt so silly and so bad for the neighbor who I’m sure had a mini heart-attack along with me. It was so loud. I’ve been giggling about it all day. That kind of thing would have never happened if you were here. Sometimes I can be such an air-head, I swear!

I let the girls sleep with me in our bed. I wondered if they would be too hyped up to sleep, but they went right out! There are two things I’ve learned for sure since you’ve been away: 1. Your pillow is more comfortable than mine. 2. Stella is a much better cuddler than you. In my usual fashion, I woke up every hour on the hour. In the early, early morning as the sun was peeking through our bedroom window, it shined so peacefully over our sleeping girls. Harlo had her arms around Stella and Stella had a hold of my hand. At the same moment, I could feel our little Millie just kick, kick, kicking inside. My heart felt so full. It was truly a tender mercy from the Lord. That got my day started on just the right track. We were only 5 minutes late for preschool. 😀

Stella accompanied me to our midwife appointment. She looked forward to going to Miss Janae’s all morning long. As soon as we got there, she made herself right at home (you can imagine). She helped Janae with every step of the appointment, squeezing the blood pressure cuff, holding the doppler, getting me a tissue for the goop on my belly. I wondered how Janae does any of it without her. As soon as she put the doppler on my belly, we could hear that strong little heartbeat. I remembered how much we anticipated that little sound and now we hear it every time. Such a blessing! The little bugger kept making us chase him/her around to hear it, but we got a 164 rate heartbeat… In the 80’s they would tell us that was a girl. Wouldn’t it be fun to have another little girl? I know how much you would love that. Whatever it is, I’m absolutely certain I already love it more than I could have imagined.

We picked up Harlo from preschool and stopped at Arby’s for lunch, per Harlo’s request. Stella barely touched her lunch which I thought was weird… until we got home and I saw that the bag of 3 huge bread sticks from last night’s pizza factory were completely gone — Stella. She is such a little carb-o-nator. Also when we got home, I realized there was a garbage can in front of our house (along with every other house on the street) I had completely forgotten about garbage day, but luckily someone remembered to put ours out. I pulled it back in and felt super accomplished. You know how I feel about touching the garbage can. 😉

In the evening, we enjoyed another girl’s dinner with the cousins. Hunting season for you is about male bonding time, but here on the home front it’s all about girl bonding time. After dinner we stopped by Grammy’s and I caught a frog for the kids to play with. Harlo actually held it! She half dropped it/half threw it when it started to wiggle, but I was proud none the less. After that the girls chased it around the lawn, shrieking every time it hopped. I live for hearing their little giggles.

The girls were happy to have another “sleepover party” in my bed. I let them stay up late and watch a show and Grammy came over for our sleep over, too. I was thinking how well taken care of in our little community. We have so much support and that feels so nice. I hope the girls always feel this supported in their life.

I woke up to another tender mercy from the lord.. Stella’s bedhead. You know it does my heart wonders.