Amen to that!

Bethie is so eager to meet her new baby sister — as are we all. Tonight we took a field trip: dinner at Five Guys (she sang, "Hot dog! Fries!" in the back seat all the way down to Oakland) and then a walk through the hospital where the baby will be born. The highlight of the trip was either a) seeing an actual new baby in the lobby as his parents tried to figure out their new car seat, or b) watching the fish in the aquarium in one of the waiting rooms. We're not sure which. She got the point of the visit, though: on our way out of the parking lot, Scott asked her, "So where did we go tonight?" and she answered, "Hospital."

"And what's going to happen here?" he asked.

"Baby!"

Yeah, she gets it. She's been saying, "Baby, out!" for the last several days. I couldn't agree with her more. The baby's cradle and dresser are set up; the dozens of tiny fuzzy pink outfits are washed and folded and tucked away; Regina the frog princess is sitting on top of a basket of blankets waiting to welcome her new friend and drool buddy. There's a packed suitcase sitting downstairs so we can grab it on our way out the door, and a new dolly for Beth when she comes to visit the baby in the hospital. We're ready, for all intents and purposes. (We could be ready-er, like with the bathroom clean and the laundry folded and a trip to Trader Joe's for some easy-to-throw-together frozen meals. But we're doing pretty well.)

Beth is starting to be more opinionated, too. (I know this is a big surprise, given the parents that she has.) Yesterday Scott got her dressed for church and put on her suede flowered shoes. She wasn't impressed. "Black shoes!" she said.

"Go ask Mama," he told her. So she did.

"Which shoes do you want to wear, honey?" I asked.

"Black shoes!" So that was it.

Later at church, as someone was giving an unbearably long testimony, she decided she'd had enough. "Amen," she said. And, when he didn't stop: "Amen. Amen!"

I'm feeling just about the same way with the pregnancy. Enough! Let's get on with the next phase. Beth's ready to be a big sister — let's do this already!