Thoughts, Happenings, and the Lake

Landon's after-school program has STILL not started (supposedly we're a go on Aug. 23rd and it BETTER HAPPEN). On the downside, I'm using up leave hours I need to save in order to make my maternity leave as paid as possible (we don't get any paid leave, just 12 weeks of "we won't fire you" FMLA leave, so I've been hoarding my sick and leave hours since we decided we wanted to do this 3rd baby thing 12 months ago), but on the upside, I'm home at 3:30 p.m., sitting in the shade with my feet up while the kids splash about in the pool. Sometimes it's good to be forced to use up a few hours.

I'm sure you've all been on pins and needles, but the bows I ordered arrived on Tuesday after a very long day taking testimony and they are PERFECT. Baby girl the second has a collection of six- two Christmas ones (a bright red bow for her casual "day" outfit and a dark red poinsettia flower for her portrait-turned-church dress), and four little shabby flowers in the perfect shades of turquoise, lavender, light pink, and coral to match the most number of outfits currently hanging in her closet. It's an enormous relief to me, let me tell you.

With the bows and the boppy that arrived in the mail yesterday (bought during a ridiculous sale on target.com, I'm not sure they meant for all those specials to combine two weeks ago, but I pretty much got it for free), and the arrival of the blankie knit with love by my grandma, I'd say we're all set for baby girl's arrival. Particularly now that I've barred myself from buying anything else until after the little fall party/couples shower a friend is throwing for JP and me in October. As much as I like picking out adorable baby things, I hate having extra things, and I keep reminding myself that I'll want reasons to leave the house post-baby and I can't do that if I've prepared for a baby apocalypse to the extent I seem to want to. So instead of baby things, I've moved on to the holidays. The Halloween costumes are all set for both kids and about 75% of my Christmas shopping is complete. I was happily updating my Christmas card/birth announcement labels yesterday when my computer suddenly decided I needed to buy Microsoft Office- I'm not sure why, I've been mooching off the free sample version for more than 2 years, but apparently Microsoft had had enough and they're holding my labels document hostage.

JP is back to coaching every day/night during the week. I'm used to this by now and the kids and I do fine, but it was lovely to have 2 weeks of dual parent evenings. Things are just more fun when we get to do them together. This fall session is his second biggest (after this past June when everything kind of exploded), which is great news- we weren't sure how big the slow down would be post summer, but it appears that so far, the answer is "not at all." I've reminded him about 162 times that we're having a baby in the middle of November, but every time I ask him about his plans for the November session he rattles off a regular full schedule until I stare him into remembering "oh right that thing, the baby, that's November? What day again?". He has never been absent-minded with household things, but the swim school seems to be occupying 105% of his brain space and I swear if he talks about his lessons on the morning of Nov. 12 I will kill maim (I don't want to raise 3 kids on my own) him in some way.

Yesterday I dragged Landon on 6 errands between picking him up and getting Claire. He was SO good and patient and quick with the car seat un-buckling and re-buckling that I treated him to a small diet cherry limeade from Sonic at the end. He'd never had a carbonated beverage and I cracked up when he rather worriedly exclaimed, "Mom! The sparkles in the straw are making my eyes water!!" from the back seat. Sparkles in the straw. Kids are awesome.

Speaking of the plural, I'm surprised how much I do not think about the fact this is likely my last pregnancy. Given my general feelings toward the pregnant state (short version: I hate it), I thought I'd be drawing strength from a constantly repeated refrain of "this is the last time I'll do this, this is the last time I'll do this." But I've never thought that. In fact I feel no sense of closure ending regarding the process at all. Which doesn't mean we have plans for more children- we don't, but I'm just surprised that I haven't meditated on (or even acknowledged, or needed to acknowledge) the fact more.

And finally, we went to my parents' lake house this past weekend to celebrate my mom's birthday and JP's successful closure of his pool director role (which meant, for the first time since May, he got to travel with us!). We had a fantastic time- we LOVE the new house and the fact that the kids are finally old enough to really USE the lake house and all its amenities. It's one thing to have fun yourself (still an important goal of any trip), but it's a whole other level of awesome to watch your kids have as much fun as you've had doing the same things. Claire in particular loved the nearby beach- she swam and splashed and dug sand and had a marvelous time with her Papa in her patch of dirt and gently sloping water, and Landon fell in the love with the speed of the jet ski for the first time. JP played like the kid he is when not exhausted from coaching and I sat in the shade, craved a margarita, and watched all the fun being had.

A few photos:

Happy girl, jealous dog

Professional jet ski team

Claire was skeptical until the moment she held the power of the "getski" in her hands

Tubing solo for the first time!

And going significantly faster than mommy probably would have allowed

No caption, I just like this one

Alright, we've been outside for two hours and Claire is starting to talk in a higher octave than usual, so I'd say it's time to go in, dry off, and start dinner. Or go in, dry off, and cuddle on the couch while watching a movie and thinking about starting dinner. Either way, time to sign off!