hump day nuggets: weirdness

I have been reading a great little blog for a while and have long thought her "hump day nuggets" might be a good format for some of my ramblings. In the very least, it's an attempt to keep myself from getting to terribly far behind. We should all have goals, right?

So, without further ado, I give you the first installation of hump day nuggets ... two days late :) I may or may not ever actually post on Wednesday. We shall see.

hump day nuggets: little bits of the season in photos and words about the last week.

Finally a break from the heat. The weather has been heavenly. We have been racking up as much outdoor time as possible, park hopping around town and digging our fair share of holes in our own backyard. I love being able to spend 3+ hours outside a day with the girls . Everyone is just in better spirits and the outdoors is such a magical place for kids to explore and play. We watch for planes and spot different figures in the clouds overhead. Well, technically they mostly just make stuff up, but that in and of itself is fun. We swing and dig in the sand. I leave laundry piled on the couch and forget to start dinner.

Juliet loves to swing and talk about life :) Funny thing is that Corinne is starting to join in on our conversations. So, they have been a little less meaningful and a little more silly lately. She wears her sunglasses because her Daddy wears his.

School has started and our garage door goes up less often with surprise visits from family members during the day. We get a little spoiled during the summer and I'm not going to deny a bit of sadness when everyone returns to their lives and can't play with us as often!

On the subject of school, we aren't doing pre-school this year. I am beginning to realize that this decision makes us a little weird. I mean it's one thing not to put your 1 or 2 year old in pre-school or mothers day out, but your 3 year old ... definitely weird :)

We definitely don't have a plan for when we are going to do school and what that's going to look like, but all I can say is that it just hasn't - and still doesn't - feel like the right thing. We've prayed about it and given it more hours of thought and discussion than I ever thought possible and decided that for us, enjoying another year at home together is the right thing to do. I'm not going to say that I feel that it's the 100% right decision every day and don't sometimes wonder if somehow she's missing out on something that I can't give her at home, but I guess that's the case with most of parenting. There's a lot I'm not 100% certain about! So, for now, I am embracing my weirdness :)

Labor Day weekend was exactly what we needed - 3 full days of not much going on. I had the opportunity to snap a few pictures of Juliet and Charlie hanging out while Beetles napped. Juliet has been saying more and more that Corinne is her "best friend," but Charlie has definitely been one of this girl's best friends since the day she was born.

I love these photos of the two of them. Kind of want a big print of the last one to hang somewhere in our house. I think they capture them and their relationship well.

Juliet is looking so grown up I can hardly stand it ... speaking of grown up ... look what a difference a year makes.

Crazy!!

In other crazy news, I am 28 weeks pregnant today! Hello 3rd trimester. So great to see you again. Hope you last a little longer than you did last go round :)

Something crazy like 84 days till my due date ... here's the ultrasound photo of the boy from my appointment last week (27 weeks).

Everything is going well pregnancy wise. I am currently drinking no less than 120 ounces of water every day to keep myself hydrated. Dry mouth keeps me up all night if I don't. Consuming that much water - and going to the bathroom as often as that much water requires - is a chore! My big ol' belly is getting more and more in the way. The girls don't like that they can't sit on the middle of my lap when we read books and I don't like that I can't bend over very easily and feel like I'm leaning forward (and sticking my butt out) when I give Dominic a hug. Admittedly very trivial things. So, we just keep plugging along. Trying my hardest to focus on enjoying these last days with just the girls rather than being anxious about potential pre-term labor, how that would affect things, etc, etc, etc.

Linking to a few videos I've taken on my iPhone over the last couple weeks. The girls dancing, being silly with lots of laughs and screaming, Beet Beet poofing me into all types of animals with her abba-cadabba, and Juliet climbing on the playground over Labor Day weekend.

Life is good :) Happy weekending everybody!