1. Our midwife, Ann, who has been delivering babies and helping women for a looong time. After delivering Vivienne in 2005, Ann stretched her weary shoulders and said that my three-day labor might send her into retirement. Even with all of her experiences, she described it as “the labor from hell” (though we know differently!). ‘Looks like she stuck with it for two more years, though; she will be retiring at the end of this year. I had my last appointment with her this past week. Viv got a charge out of meeting the woman who helped her “get her own belly-button”. I greatly appreciate Ann’s care and wisdom over the past 3 years; she is one of those generous people who ya just want to love back. She makes me want to be a midwife when I grow up.

2. The word and experience, lucubration, which is “the act of studying by candlelight; nocturnal study; meditation or that which is composed by night; that which is produced by meditation in retirement; hence (loosely) any literary composition”. Oooo, let’s do that.

3. My new winter boots, bought for a steal at Burlington Shoes. As the snow and ice began to fall, Ryan pretty much commanded me to find something more practical to wear than my high heals or slippery flats. (I honestly don’t know why I happen to wear the worst shoes possible when I’m pregnant and it’s snowing… But time after time I’ve found myself standing in a patch of black ice, staring down over my protruding bump at my two-inch heels, not knowing how I got there. Just another reason to thank God for Ryan.) I think that Ryan’s wisdom in the practical shoe department is one of the main reasons my mom approved of him to take good care of her girl (and her girl’s feet).

(P.S. For my clothes-horse friends: I chose the camel color so that it could go with browns or blacks if it had to…)