It's over

My break, that is. Sigh.

For all intents and purposes I've been off of work since the day I went into labor, waaaaay back in December. A paid leave followed by a summer off; 9 beautiful months of spending every day with my newest little lovely. I feel proud, and lucky, and grateful, and so so sorry for myself that tomorrow I have to go to work. Sniff sniff.

Gillian and I were sitting in the front yard this evening, eating grass and sticks and watching planes fly over, and I thought to myself: wow. This is a great neighborhood. We did a great thing for our children when we moved here.

Four houses down I could hear little girls giggling. Bela and Mae were going on hour number 3 at one of our neighbor's house, playing with their 12 year old son and their going-off-to-college-this-weekend daughter. He is an interesting little thing; he has a mobile lemonade stand he wheels around the neighborhood, a bowling alley he built in his basement, and a small putt-putt course he had apparently moved outside next to his chickens, which was were the kids were playing.

Two houses down is Bela's little BFF. She's 7 and adorable and spends a lot of time over here.

The girls run in and out, go to one friend's house and then another's. They stage games of Twister in the front yard, have a pretend camping trip, build elaborate guinea pig houses out of cardboard boxes. They have sleepovers and endless play dates. We took BFF peach picking with us, Chris is taking Bowling Alley Boy fishing on Friday with Bela.

Mae vs Mae in Twister

The girls "camp out"

The kids at Tree Mendous Fruit - Peach Picking

New Buffalo, Mi. Beach trip.

We feel good. We feel happy.

And tomorrow, I'll get up early, pack away the dirty cut off jean shorts and stinky tshirts. I'll shave my legs. I'll wash my hair. I'll pump some milk and I'll get on the train after I hand my babes over to the sitter. And maybe, just maybe, I'll catch up on this blog thing.

Good night.