Just Hanging Around

These much longed for lazy days are such a gift. My mom even came up for a bit to remind me to keep my feet up while she played with the girls. Contrary to popular opinion, we are in no great rush. Pip can join us whenever he's ready, and until then, we relax... and speculate!

Rollercoasters

If only I had a picture of each girl on a her roller coaster. Joe took them both out on special days over the past week or so, Maya to the Mall of America to and Elle to Como town. Somehow they have both grown tall enough to ride the roller coasters at their respective amusement parks (Como is geared more for littles, but even so this was Elle's first coaster).

I'm about to take Elle on her special day with me (Maya and I hit the Science museum... Elle and I will explore the Children's museum... and yes, I look forward to a day when museums are not the peak of my physical stamina!)

I can't help but think of their roller coaster adventures as emblematic of my current condition. Pip and I are at 36 weeks now. Just two weeks before he's officially full term (and the age Elle was when she was born!). Just four weeks before a likely due date. This means I'm frequently overcome by that oh-so-slow sensation of crawling up the roller coaster's first hill, waiting ever-so-impatiently to meet this new member of our family. The excitement is unbearable.

Then there is the alternate sensation of racing down the tracks toward our due date, list of  last-minute "to do's" flapping behind me like a banner. So many things are piling up; small half-started projects (prepared crafts and activity ideas for this summer, blog posts for Doing Good Together), combined with huge commitments (a 6-year-old's birthday party.... one last nature adventure?!) that I hope to complete before the baby.

This waiting for baby thing is a wild, wild ride, more so this time than before. Sorry to slap in an overused metaphor, but the herky, jerky way time is passing lately just fit too perfectly.

10 Years Ago Today...

Life was a little simpler. Well, a lot actually. We had given ourselves over to the slow, slow pace of the Jamaican beach, reveling in water and sun by day and the piano bar by night. And in the middle of one  glorious afternoon, we got married.

We were so very young.

We had so many, many firsts ahead of us. First apartment together. First jobs. First home. First baby.... and then so many seconds... We have packed more happily ever after into ten years than we could have hoped for, and we were unabashedly hopeful.

We still are.

And the funny thing is, we thought, at the time, that we knew what it was to love unconditionally. We thought that those college years full of distance had taught us something about love, about each other, and about ourselves.

But somehow, the vows we said that day are more true, more deeply understood today than they could possibly have been at the time. Our intentions that day have been ever more fully realized every year, through sleepless, worried nights passing a baby back and forth; through long, exhausted evenings around a campfire; through patient negotiations of the minutia of our everyday lives. Even though we have both evolved more than either of us probably realize, we fit better now than we could have than.

And yet, how many firsts are still hidden away in the next ten. Right around the corner we'll meet our first son, and for whatever lies beyond, I offer up the same hope I carried to Jamaica ten years ago today.

When Pigs Fly

Thanks to Joe's love of the library, our family has stumbled on the most creative and hilarious children's author yet. Check out David Wiesner's author page for a sampling of his many Caldecott winners (Maya's prerequisite these days).These books are short on words and high on illustrated adventure. Now Elle can take a turn reading stories to us!

Tuesday, is especially hilarious, full of the antics of flying frogs... and then flying pigs. What an excellent break from the usual Dora and Cinderella refuse!