Hello again.

Happy Friday the thirteenth, if you’re still out there.

I know it’s been more than six months since I’ve had time to say anything here, but I’ve got a good one this time.

What better way to follow up a pregnancy announcement than with a birth announcement?

In that vein, I’d like to tell you that Audra Patricia Susannah joined our band of crazies a week ago. On 6 August, 2010 at 5:24pm, Audra was born, weighing 6 pounds, five-and-half ounces, and measuring 19 inches long.

She’s doing all the things a week-old baby should do, and she’s doing them with gusto.

Photos and birth story and hopefully much, much more will follow soon. I promise. At least, I promise I’ll try my best.

I know, it’s been a long long time. Five months and five days, or something like that.

Anyway, I’m good. How are you? Good.

My first term of seminary was great. It kept me a bit busy. Just a bit. I did really well in all my classes, but in order to do that, I had to develop tunnel vision. I did school and kids and home and that was it. I allowed nothing to derail me, and I am so proud of myself. Sick kids? Not thrown off track. Not enough time or energy to work part time? Quit my job, not thrown off track. Miscarriage #3 in less than two years? Lay in bed reading for a week, not thrown off track. Nasty virus stealing my voice and making me physically miserable? Not thrown off track.

Maybe it’s odd that I’m so proud of not being thrown off track, but I have a history of starting things. This is a big thing I’ve started. This is a big thing that I put off starting for ten years, actually, so continuing with the starting is kind of a big deal for me.

Unfortunately, one of the things I did not allow to throw me off track was the internet. So if anything really important has happened to you since August, and you think I should know about it, send me an email, or call me or something. I haven’t been reading blogs any more than I’ve been writing them.

I have an important thing to tell you. If, that is, you’re even still there after all this time. I am going to tell you the same thing I told you in the very first blog post I ever wrote. I probably have about as many readers left as I started out with, namely, my husband. That was a little over six years ago, on a whole other blog. I started this process when I was twelve weeks pregnant with Rowan, as a way of documenting the exciting journey to parenthood and staying in touch with far-off friends and family. I had no idea how this would become so central to my life and parenthood. Through both Rowan and Lilah’s infancies, this (and the previous) blog were essential to my survival and enjoyment of that time in my life.

And it looks like we’ll be doing it all again. Yes folks, at long last, I’m twelve weeks pregnant. It’s taken us two years and a lot of false starts and tests and stresses to get here since we started trying for another baby, and it finally seems that we might have one. On Monday, we had our third ultrasound for this pregnancy, and saw a little alien with a good heart rate and good measurements waving and kicking and basically seeming to thrive.

It looks like la Troisieme Banane may finally be on its way.

My daughters spent the morning playing Lesbian Dinosaur Wedding. They ran around in froofy things from the dress-up box teaching each other different skills, according to the types of dinosaur they each were. Lilah explained that they were preparing to marry “girl by girl”.

I’m tickled. They’ve picked up some paleontology from books, preschool and The Magic School Bus; they’ve picked up some left-wing politics from family, friends and pride parades, and they may have solved the mystery of extinction.