I may or may not have stayed up until 2:30 this morning, reading through my old blog archives and pondering the life of my blog.  I'm pretty sure I haven't (voluntarily) stayed up that late since well before my third trimester, but I got hooked on reading back through all the posts from the time I spent in California to just before our move to Texas via Paris.  I'm really grateful for all the posts I managed to write (I hardly even posted pictures back then...how boring!), even if it was just to explain why I hadn't had time to blog.  It's hard to remember all the little (and big) details of the past 5, nearly 6 years, and I have a feeling the next 5 are going to be even more muddled now that I'm a mama.

I write a regular journal to Avienne in a book that documents her milestones as a baby, but for me, there hasn't been anything quite like blogging that's let me just narrate what's on my mind.  And, I don't know how I would have gotten through those first grey days in Paris without having an outlet to vent my frustrations and homesickness, not to mention all the amazing people I've met by simply having a blog.

I guess my hope for the future of this blog is just to keep on keepin' on.  As much as I enjoy documenting our (often mundane) daily goings-on, I really love having an archive of my thoughts to flip back through when I need a reminder of just how far we've come.  And, since a move back to Paris is pretty certain for some time in the next few years, I want to be able to look back on these first moments of becoming a mother and recall how special they've been.

And now for a few obligatory baby photos...