My beautiful children

Helena: She's starting to grow up. In particular, she's starting to have a life of her own, independent of me. For example, she spends every Friday night at Ga-ga's, and they do all kinds of things together. Also, tonight she and Dan are camping out in a tent in our backyard. She's so excited I'll be surprised if she ever sleeps! (He's such a wonderful dad, by the way. My cousin Stacie's here visiting and she told me he was the sweetest dad she'd ever seen.) She has an imagination, and an imaginary world, and I'm afraid of that time in the not-too-distant future when I'll be a tangential part of her existence and her friends will be everything. But she's absolutely the best: smart, funny, beautiful, happy, and becoming easier to "reason" with every day. I love her so much.

Hunter: He's so good-natured, but lately has become more fussy, either because he's teething or due to his newly-diagnosed acid reflux. I'm a bit scared of that. I took him to the doctor because he spits up every single time he eats, and sometimes it's a huge amount. It doesn't seem to hurt him but he'd lost 10 ounces since his last visit 10 days before. That isn't right. Tomorrow I think I'll ask Dan to give him a blessing. I know this is pretty common and everything but I still worry about him. He has the funniest way of playing games. My favorite is the one where he pulls my face in and puts my nose squarely in his mouth, then he oohs and ahhs around it. That baby melts my heart, I'll tell you what. I love him so much.

I was thinking about the Duggar family today, the one with 16 kids? And I thought, "Man, doesn't that overwhelm the mom completely? And what does she feel when a new baby comes along?" I realized that although her life might be chaotic she ALWAYS has more love in her heart for more kids. In the "baby afterglow" days, shortly after both Helena and Hunter's births, I wished I could have 10 more. My sanity wouldn't support it very well but I would have plenty of love for them.

Other news: Our Square Foot Garden has about 30 tomatoes growing in it (what will I do with them? Do I have to learn how to can?); Dan's almost done with the Well of Doom; I am happier every day that we get closer to our Disney World trip; I love Lake Michigan; I'm so glad that Jason Gifford is home and that he and Sharon came over to visit the other day; "The Johnstown Flood" by David McCullough is an excellent book.

"Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer and wish we didn't." - Erica Jong