More Activity but then again, more Sleep than Expected

We've been sleeping more than could be hoped for. Beatrix is a wonderful dozer and a brilliant night baby.

This is fortunate, for there has been much activity. I took off with the three girls to help my parents pack up their house for their new adventure in Seattle. I have never seen the like before--so many people at their house as they wrapped and packed, and parties and big dinners and fun, fun, fun, and so much sorting and errands and craziness. At one point there were five children in the house; my father, maneuvering a piece of furniture through a doorway over a crawling baby, wryly muttered, "The moving brochure advises you to hire a babysitter while you pack." But what fun would that be?

The girls and I mellowed to Iron and Wine as we drove through glorious early spring back to PA--as I drove, with the three girls lined up in the back of the car, I suddenly realized, by Jove, I have three children. What a strange and good thing.

Back to town, a whirl of unpacking, and now we have a family reunion at our house--all my mother's five-sibling family, bar one sibling--and Martin's final exam week next week. It's busy and jolly.

And here's some happy news, too--Beatrix LOVES the outdoors; the porch is ready and gorgeous; so is the back deck; the lawn is partially mown; the perennials are all greening and shooting and promising. All our trees except two show happy growing and blooming signs; the world smells lovely and perfect.