Uncle Nick's graduation and a 37-weeker's lament

Happy times in the 'Hood.

Thanks to Lee for the sweet picture.

We've had a really nice run of weather in the last couple weeks: not too hot for a pregnant sleeper but sunny days for playing.  The air conditioning at work is pretty nice too...

We've rented our house out for 4 different weekends through AirBNB and have, each time, taken short siestas with family.  Last weekend we went out to Aurora and got our gardening on. 

And our outdoor pooping. 

It's Montessori break week so we're doing blitz potty training.

Going great. 

No pants piano duets with Grandpa Rick.

He's wearing pants.

No pants World Cup with Uncle Nick (and Mary).

We're all wearing pants. 

Or ARE WE??

We got a couple bonus days with Ainsley (on a berry-picking excursion here) and Eliza before Alex and Schuyler got to town for Nick's graduation (!).

The whole gang went out for a celebratory dinner at Taughannock Farms Inn.

She cleans up real nice, eh?

She's smiling because it's so frickin' funny to bellow repeatedly, "It's YELLOOOWWW!" and hold a yellow crayon.

Restaurants are fun.

Luckily Eliza took her outside to get some ya-yas out and run around before we were asked to leave.

All dudded up for the ceremony.

Nick and his Three Nieces.

Proud IHS grads, classes of '96, '15, and '89.

I love these good men.

Whoopee!!

This weekend we had our final pre-baby renters and went out to Aurora again, this time to an empty house since they were away for a wedding.  Last night Fiona spontaneously broke into spinning dance moves when some jazz piano came on the radio.  

Here she's exhibiting classic Bogel coordination (Alex and I were just appreciating how well we've done athletically over the years despite our klutziness) and then an EXCELLENT recognition of the need to poop.  Yay for age 2!

Mary's doing quite well with potty training as well though doesn't seem interested in digital photography instruction.  

Whining Post-Script in Pursuit of Honesty:

Today marks 37 weeks of pregnancy and, though I am deeply grateful for these children --more than for perhaps anything else in life besides finding Elliott-- I can almost no longer stand it.  My body and soul and I have high thresholds for discomfort and we take near-masochistic pleasure in tasks of endurance but we are all worn out.  The week I stopped puking (week 27) I started getting back pain and it's gotten so much worse over the past month!  Elliott is doing all the bedtimes because I can't sit and read Mr. Chicken Goes to Paris with her on my lap without shooting nerve pain from my sacrum; I take lavender baths in the middle of most nights; I curse and stretch and move my six pillows and sometimes eventually "sleep" in the guest room to let Elliott sleep a little (I try to give him every third night so one of us stays sane); I call into work more than ever in my life; I've tried acupuncture, physical therapy, chiropractic, massage, yoga...   Gaaahhh!  

Bring on the nights of not sleeping because I'm nursing and snuggling!  

OK, we're really close now.  

Tubby Tony is still breech and our scheduled date for a C-section (assuming he doesn't rotate) is on Monday, July 13th.  For now I'm aiming for potholes and hoping to break my water to move that date up.  Please send locations of local trampolines and road construction.