favorite park.

favorite kids.

favorite belly.

(tracy, does that count as a professional belly shot with kid?)

ready.

dee dee dah

tess still comes up to me a few times a day with a

"mommy? mommy?" ....and when I say "yes, tess?"

gives me a very serious "dee dee dee dee Dah!"

still haven't figured out what it means, but i'm

happy that I finally caught it on video!

"big"

annie doesn't travel between the upstairs and downstairs

in our house without her "stuff"......

and if I ever try to convince her to bring less stuff with her,

I will get an earful of how she wants "BIG!"

and she is never afraid to voice her loud, teary

opinion....regardless of sleeping sisters nearby.

it's extremely effective.

good morning baby

tess has an obsession with rounding up all the (dirty, sandy) shoes

in the house and depositing them directly on top of all the (really,

really clean) new baby clothes.

every day.

i love lazy saturday mornings!

36

ready or not.....

today marks 36 weeks. as with the other pregnancies, i

obsessively count the days up until this point.....dreaming

of an early delivery, a spontaneous water breaking 3 or 4

weeks early.....for it to be done, and to have that baby in my

arms. however, now that i am at the point where i could safely

deliver, i become nostalgic, and emotional about how much i

love life right now, and how much i can do, and how much

we love being busy and being on the run and spending lazy

afternoons at the pool, in the deep end, where i have an arm

for each non-swimmer and an eye for each girl who can. i have

moments of being consumed by guilt, thinking about tess's

happy little existence, and how her world is going to be turned

upside down more than anyone else's, even more than mine will.

so now every contraction or every hard kick, i find myself thinking.....

stay in there, little baby....i'm not ready for you quite yet.

but, ready or not.....she will come. all the baby stuff is pulled

back out and washed and ready, the crib sheets are clean, the

tiny little pink clothes are washed and put away. the obligatory

belly shots have been taken.

now, a few more weeks of summer.....and then she can come.

she did it!

kate passed the swim test and now gets to go off the

diving board!

i think she did it about 20 times today.

i'm so proud of her.....and yes,

the first time she did it, i cried!

cousins, cousins!

we had a great day last weekend with liz and sergio and the boys....

lots of swimming and eating and playing. this is the fourth time that

liz and i have been pregnant together.....hard to believe that by the

end of this year we will have nine happy little cousins between the

two of us!

grateful

now that july is here, i find myself so grateful....

to be here, and not there.

to still have the girl's favorite restaurant, 5 minutes

from our house.....with a river and a bridge and a fountain

for pennies and little girl wishes.....

to have our home, with everyone settled and happy....

our parks to run and play,

friends (mine and theirs!) for chats on the treadmill

and afternoon playdates....

our adored swim teacher to teach kicks and strokes...

my sister an hour away, and my parents only two.....

where I can picture my dad, feeding the goats and

working on the tractors, cell phone on his hip.....

waiting for the call.

life is about to turn upside down, one more time.

this morning, i am grateful for the familiar.

kate looooooooves a festival!

fourth of july

we had a nice fourth of july.....

our beloved neighborhood parade in the morning,

lots of bands and sticky candy,

swimming away a steamy hot afternoon.

after dinner, i was exhausted.....

and said a definite "no" to fireworks,

claiming a 5 year old is too young to stay up until 10.

dan found kate in bed, later...

big tears down her cheeks, saying she was

thinking about what it would be like when

she is older.

guess who saw her first fireworks?