Lemony Webbles

what we've been up to..in pictures

Here's a summary of all the fun things we've done lately and remembered to photograph...

Maya and Georgia are taking a ballet class once a week:

Maya all ready to go

Georgia stretching in class

Went to the very sweet wedding of one of Billy's high school friends, Beth Rempe. It was at a beautiful farm outside of Urbana . They had dancing after the wedding in the barn (Hey, a barn dance!) that was really fun- Maya even danced the first one. Here are some couples swinging around with the caller in the middle (it was a contra dance).

Here's Maya playing with some new friends at the 'altar'.

We got a bunk bed for Maya and Georgia so that there will be room in our bed for baby bean and then we played with the boxes that it came in. This is Maya getting ready to lie down on the outline of herself (Georgia's self portrait is on the left).

The glory of Mayaness- a relaxed intensity

We tried to grow some grape tomatoes this summer, the kids were really excited about them, but they are struggling with not enough root space and one of those big squishy tomato horn worms almost ate every leaf and tomato on those plants, but Billy bravely threw it in the street to it's ultimate demise, and a few tomatoes managed to grow (I can only attribute this to the great rain we've had, as I've totally neglected them). Here are Maya and Georgia eating two of the three tomatoes that have grown to maturity, and enjoying them immensely (that makes me so happy- neither of them officially likes tomatoes but they've been waiting all summer for these). You can see that they have serious eating expressions on their tomato-ful faces.

Other things we've been enjoying but not getting pictures of are: swimming across the street most evenings, after the crowd has gone home. I've found the cool water to be great for nausea reduction- which is my goal in life right now. Also, we've been working on finishing the dirt sculpting in the back yard. My part has been reduced to picking out rocks and garbage from said dirt while Billy does the shoveling. Not that I'm complaining- I'm a good cheerleader, and the kids will rock-pick with me and stay out of trouble for a long time- we pretend we're on a treasure hunt and they delight in finding any not-dirt item.

baby baby baby

I'm in love with baby Amia! She's so perfect and beautiful and so distinguished and so organized. (She's Husayn's and Suzanne's baby that was born on the 14th.) I've been showing off the pictures I took in my digital camera to everyone who will listen. No, just kidding. But I did show them off at a family dinner with Billy's dad and his family, including his sister Crystal Shoaie from Bolivia who was here for a short visit. Everyone agrees that she's the very best a baby can be. And Georgia and Maya take turns announcing to each other that she's born. Georgia: Baby Amia's born! Yeah! Suzanne's baby came out of her tummy! Maya: Baby Amia! Born! Out!

It all bodes well for the future of this family that they're so excited about babies being born. Go big sisters go!

And, you know, it's really fun to get all googly and happy and adoring about a newborn baby, and yet, not have to have given birth to her yourself. I'm really enjoying the once removedness of that. I get to sleep at night too. It'll be my turn soon enough, and I'm sure I wouldn't trade that experience for anything, but for now, it's nice to just watch.

nausea today and every day

OOee! The morning sickness is kicking my butt. I wake up after a fitful night's sleep tired out and feeling generally crummy. But some days it turns around and I feel great (if hormonal) later on in the day. I can tell I'm pregnant because I cried at the sappy Disney music they played at Georgia's ballet lesson and all the cute four year olds in their little pink tutus, seriously doing their stretches and plies at the bar. I guess that is kind of cute, but I think you have to get some serious hormones in there to make it something to cry over.

I find that I'm to the stage where cooking seems like too much to bear, especially since when I'm hungry I have to eat NOW or else get super nauseous. And I don't just want some raw ingredient I can put in my face, I want something GOOD. So I'm always wanting to go out to eat, somewhere healthy and fastish (just thought I'd mention that in case anyone wants to go with me sometime, like today, in about an hour).

I could use some prayers too. It's easy for me to lose perspective during this part of pregnancy because I am just starting to identify myself as pregnant but I am so constantly nauseous and fatigued that I tend to feel like 'I AM nausea' which is not very fun. I need to take my own advice about labor and stay focused on the spiritual and be detached and all those great things I said back then. Easy to say, hard to do. OOps, Maya can't find me, gotta go.

a new chapter

Well, my dear friends, I have some good news and some better news. The good news is that Billy's back in town, had a great time at his Java conference, and we've had my family over all weekend, playing and having really good food (Kopi, Original House of Pancakes, Biaggi's (my family likes to eat out). The better news is that I found out on Monday that I'm pregnant! Wow! We're all really excited about this new chapter and new addition to our family. Georgia looks at me conspiratorily a few times a day, and says ' you have a baby in your tummy' and we talk about how lucky I am to have three children all of a sudden. I'm six weeks along (so that means the baby's heart has started beating already!) and due at the end of February. The nausea has set in already, but doesn't seem too severe (yet, though hopefully never!). So that's the life-altering news and I feel like the timing is just perfect in it's own way to be having another baby, another person I'm priveledged to be associated with and close too and to be a part of forming. I, of course, think it's a girl, and I love her so much already. It's amazing how there's always room for more love.