Let me tell you, judging by the complicated lists and Excel sheets that Andy’s using to guide our transfer process, he’s going to make quite the management officer one of these days. But what have I, his much less detail-oriented wife, been up to all this time (besides of course attending to the taskings he assigns me each day)? Why, shopping of course. Yes, I’m a stereotype. Please forgive me; it’s been a long time coming.

It’s possible there are cute maternity clothes somewhere out there in the world, but I never managed to find any. And so out for walks around the neighborhood in the last few months of my pregnancy, I would pass gaggles of Georgetown girls in their springtime dresses and would always grumble to Andy, “Ugh, I’m so jealous. I cannot WAIT until I can wear normal stuff again.” And then, “Oh, that’s a cute dress! Help me remember to look for that one.”

Of course, being 29 and having a modicum of modesty, none of those girls’ dresses were really viable options for me. When exactly it became acceptable to produce a dress that falls a full foot above the knee is an important topic that needs to be discussed, but we’ll save that for another day.

Now that Flynn is here and I’m back to looking like a regular person, I can finally buy some new clothes. And so I have been. A lot. After all, an H&M just a footbridge and an alley away is not a luxury one takes for granted.

Nevermind that last year’s clothes are perfectly fine. Nevermind that I have no idea what I’ll really want or need to wear when we get to Benin. Truth be told, it’s not just about the clothes. When you’re living with a miniature human, especially one who doesn’t like to sleep at night but does like to throw up on you several times a day, sometimes you need an excuse to get out of the house for a bit. (Same goes for living with a husband who’s worrying himself sick that he’ll miss some crucial detail and as a result his dog will be torn out of his arms at Charles de Gaulle and sacrificed to the gods of improper pet import documentation. Or something.)