Awaiting A New Arrival

I have some happy family news to share. My niece Kristen and her husband Russell are expecting their first baby. Kristen is 19 1/2 weeks along and doing well. She is a bit tired and irritable but not really any more than usual :) Today was the ultrasound and the baby is healthy and developing normally. They also found out the sex but I forgot to ask if she minded if I posted it on the Blog so I'll have to wait to share that info. Too bad she didn't find out last week so I could have sold the clothes she won't need at the yard sale! We've already started passing along some of our baby stuff to them. We have a ton of it (two of most things) and I'm glad they'll be able to use it. Kristen and Russell live about an hour away so we'll get to see the baby (oh, and them) frequently. I'm so excited. It's always fun to have a little one in the family.



Friends invited us over for an evening swim this week. It's been beastly hot so we were happy to go. It was Molly and Aidan's third time in a "big" pool this year. They have vests and we hold onto them in the water. This time Molly decided she could "do it myself" and lo and behold off she went swimming. She paddled across the pool (lengthwise no less) and all over without any assistance. She even flipped over on her back and swam backwards. We really were amazed by her ability but not surprised by her love of water. Her first experience in a pool was at the Hyatt in Almaty Kazakhstan and she was a little water baby then. All this after riding a pony at the zoo accompanied only by the handler. We finished the evening off catching lightning bugs. Aidan AND Molly were thrilled to catch and hold the blinking buggies. Just a few short weeks ago this was the girl who could be heard shrieking "a bee, a bee, a bee" whenever any insect with wings passed near by. You've come a long way little girl. Now, if she would stop making that sound when she's mad that reminds me of Reagan from the Exorcist...







Our neighbor has been generously passing along her children's clothing to Molly and Aidan. Molly loves to tell everyone that she's wearing something that belonged to Abby. Today I found a bag on the stoop from our clothing elf. The kids had fun inspecting the contents and trying a few things on. As you can see, the pumpkin hat was a fan favorite. The boy was smitten by a pair of pants and insisted on wearing them to bed for his nap. Sounds good to me.