Summer Day in Round Rock

I'm immensely enjoying this summer day.

First, we went to a Pioneer Day celebration pancake breakfast at the church and Libby and I wore the bonnets I made. It was hot. It was humid. I'm pregnant. I wasn't comfortable in my long black skirt, socks and shoes, long sleeve shirt, and bonnet.
But then... we came home to our air-conditioned, comfortable home and had naps. And it only got better. Although it was nothing out of the ordinary, I have to write it to remember it.

At lunch Libby says, "Mom, is Alex still in CA?" I said, "Yes, he'll be there for a while." She said, "I. Love. Him."

I ask Avery if she wants chocolate milk or strawberry milk in her bottle. She says "be-be-be" for "strawberry" and I think it's the cutest thing ever.

Daddy worked this afternoon, Alex is in California, but my girls and I spent the rest of the day outside.

Our yard makes me so very happy. Our porch is long and wide with ceiling fans and a porch swing. The big trees shade almost all of the grass and the trampoline and playscape so it's cool enough for even me to at least just sit outside and watch the kids. It's pretty too. I have an expansive view of the park across the street and all the trees there.

With nowhere for us to go for the rest of the day, I don't care that my hair is getting frizzy from the humidity or my makeup is slightly melting. The water from the hose that the girls are playing with is splashing all over my feet and legs, and if they spray it on me I wouldn't care. I'm able to drink in every moment of their play.

Libby is wearing her swimming suit; Avery is in her diaper. They're eating popsicles and it's melting all down their bellies and dripping down their arms to their elbows. They offer me a taste now and again.

A butterfly lands very near the girls. The girls get down on their haunches, and it allows the girls to study it until a drip of their popsicle lands too close for comfort and it flies away. Avery does the sign for butterfly and she watches her little hands.

Avery loves my toenail polish. She points to my toes and very distinctly says, "toenails," then proceeds to bite them. She thinks it's funny.

Libby washes her stickiness off and then washes Avery with the care of a mother so as not to make Avery cry.

After Libby hoses off the patio to clean the mess from the popsicles, she spies a little black bug and starts to mother him, then starts to squish him. I tell her not to hurt a bug in its home outside, that I only kill bugs that are in our house. He's saved.

Libby now has to save him from Avery. She's trying to teach Avery to be nice to the bug, so Avery lays down on her belly to spy him up close.

Libby has a million and one questions about this bug, from what she can do for him, and what he would like, and if it's okay to do this or that. All the while Avery is also jibber-jabbering and mimicking Libby.

Libby makes the bug a home with an ice cream container. She finds a heart-shaped leaf in her hunting but for some reason decides it looks good to eat. She eats it despite me telling her it will taste gross and it's not a leaf she's supposed to eat.

Avery is thirsty and says "gu, gu," because that's what she says for water. It came from reading together and seeing a drink on the page and I would pretend I'm chugging it. So "gu, gu" has always meant water to her.

Today is not unusual. It's like this 4 or 5 days out of a week. But as I'm sitting on the swing, my unborn baby girl is kicking around a lot and I'm reminded that when she comes I will be enraptured, enamored, entranced, engrossed with this new life and I won't notice these little things about my Liberty and Avery as much. It makes me teary.

I have no doubt these are the best days of my life.

More Sewing Fun

In the girls' closet was a boring jean dress that even Libby never wore when she was little enough. So today I sewed a butterfly on it and turned her underpants into some bloomers.

Here she's concentrating on showing me her karate kick. (Hey, when you're trying to get a 1-yr-old to hold still for a picture, you do things like that.)

This is a dress I made for Libby. It's all wrinkled because she wore it to church but I forgot to take a picture. The last thing they need is more dresses but I just can't stop myself.

Avery in July 2009

It's Hot. I Have Proof.

After church one day, we found our super-hyper, ADHD squirrels like this. I thought this little guy was dead because our squirrels don't sit still for a second. But then I saw his significant other on the branch behind his, so there were actually two lifeless squirrels on this day.

You Know You're a Home Body When...

1. The idea of family vacation isn't terribly exciting in the first place.
2. Our idea of "family vacation" is visiting Houston for a couple of days to hang out with family.
3. We have a great time and accomplish all we set out to accomplish while away, and yet we still wonder why we take trips at all.
4. We want to kiss our floor and fridge and air conditioner and bed when we get home.
5. Alex (9 yrs. old) says, "Man, I just cannot stop saying how happy I am to be home!"
6. Avery (20 mos.), who hasn't seemed happy since we left, is immediately relieved when we walk in the door.
7. At 8:45 a.m. the morning after we get home half the house is still sleeping.
8. Why is my family only sick when we leave the house?
9. Steve and I have vowed not to take another trip until our youngest is 4...and our last baby isn't even born yet.
10. We came home to our first beautiful red ripe tomato from our garden.
11. Our idea of home is a place we never feel the desire to escape, even for just a couple of days.
12. We don't like to drive.
13. We don't sleep when we travel.

Now you know that if we make or have made the effort to come and visit you, you must be very special!

Pictures of our 4th of July in Houston:

On the way home, Steve stopped to help a car on the side of the road. We had a lot of reasons not to stop (at least I thought so), but he did it anyway. We had reasons not to let them into our car and give them a ride (at least I thought so), but we did it anyway.

One was a gay black man, he smelled like smoke and alcohol, and when we stopped for the bathrooms he was smoking and drinking. The other woman had a child 18 mos. old and did not have a car seat. I had to double buckle Alex and Libby so our guests would have seat belts and a car seat.

It was an incovenience and there was a risk we could get ticketed, but the bottom line is...I'm glad we did it. They needed someone's help; they were so grateful. Thanks, Steve, for being a good example of compassion and charity, even when it's not completely convenient to do so.