25 weeks. Saturday morning with Zan and Penny at the beach. ❤️

This week has been EMOTIONAL for me in so many ways.

It is a serious thing
Just to be alive
On this fresh morning
In this broken world. // Mary Oliver

Besides the broken, there is still so much to be thankful for. I’m thankful for a stroller found and a baby shower in the works. I’m thankful for dinner with family and days off in the city. I’m thankful for fresh fleece sheets and taking a pottery class. I’m thankful for second graders, and kindness, and sunshine, and the rain. I’m thankful for a growing baby and a healthy pregnancy every. single. day.

We didn’t get a spot at the daycare we wanted this week which was another disappointment in the mix but that’s a silly problem compared to what others are going through, honestly. We will keep looking and everything will work out. I wish others who are struggling with bigger and more significant things could be sure of that truth, too, but I just don’t know sometimes and that makes me sad.

Is it okay to be positive when for some life’s so bleak? I know it is more than okay, but I’m sensitive to it right now. To know I am safe when others are not is a tough pill to swallow if I think about it hard enough. Perspective is so powerful, isn’t it?

My problems seem so little in this big broken world.

My goodness! Such a downer post from what felt like a definite downer week. So I guess I’ll just end with this… a quote my sister sent me Wednesday morning that I love love love. A perfect way to fight the darkness and move toward the light:

“Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.” // John Wesley

I want to live my life this way, and teach my daughter to love this way, for as long as ever I can.

This week feels so monumental to me. I get emotional at least twice a day lately because I’m so excited and worried and happy and anxious. And just to be clear, I’m not talking about my pregnancy. Except for one thing: The idea of having my daughter born during the first female presidency is absolutely amazing and utterly fantastic. We’re with her. We’re with her a million times over and on Tuesday we’ll vote together for the very first time and then I’ll get goosebumps and surely tear up about it.

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all. // Emily Dickenson

The photos for this week were taken happily by Rachael after our brunch at Mamaleh’s yesterday. We wandered for a minute around Kendall before finding a spot to take these shots. I feel like I’ve grown a lot this week! Partly because I have grown, and partly because I’d just eaten a very large and amazing breakfast. Win, win.

Some new mom thoughts this week:

What do you guys think about strollers? Besides the election, stroller thoughts have been running through my mind all week. Do I really need the super fancy Uppababy? Or would the Baby Jogger be just as fine? The convertible stroller intrigues me, as I hope we will have at least one more kid, but the ease of this City Mini is really making me excited. I want something nice, obviously, but I really just want to find something that is NICE ENOUGH for us. So really, in all honesty, how much do strollers matter and how much time is too much time spent thinking about all of this? Any advice, I would love.

Also on my mind, Doulas and Daycare. One I need sooner, and the other later. But apparently it’s never to early to start looking for the latter. I feel SO LUCKY to get to spend 6 months at home with the baby but I’ve already started sending emails about openings for baby care in September. Nearly 11 months away seems crazy far away! I’ll follow the rules on this one, though. Hoping to find an accredited in-home child care (I think I want in-home, but I’m open!) close to our house for 4-5 days a week. I would love for family to chip in on babysitting hours, but don’t want to expect anything too much of anyone either! So we’ll keep emailing and see.

I can’t believe I am at 24 weeks! Only 16 weeks to go….

Have a great week, everyone. Positive Vibes. FINGERS CROSSED. HOPE FLYING HIGH.

xo!

I’ve got lots of pictures to document the weekend this week! All the colors in the photos feel so fall and warm and beautiful to me. Friday night we celebrated Meg and Zan’s mom’s birthday with family, Saturday we brought Penny to the beach and visited little Rose (our friends’ adorable new baby!), and Sunday was for hanging out with Nell and her bridesmaids and most importantly for baking pie. OH, YUM– that was amazing and delicious pie.

I’m still feeling really good this week and feeling so many little kicks. I think that’s probably my favorite. This week the baby is the size of a grapefruit and is actually over a pound in weight now. Amazing! I am still fairly small in the bump department and so far, I am liking it that way — I’m feeling very comfortable in my body and would like it to last as long as possible.

Pennylane has been so cuddly lately. Some people have told me it’s because she knows the baby is here, but I kind of think she just likes to snuggle when the weather starts to get colder. Either way, I’ll take it! I love that girl and am so glad she’s around. I need to start reading how to introduce a baby and a puppy to each other. I hope they’ll love each other and I have a good feeling that they will.

// Other things I need/want to do:

Start thinking about decorating the baby’s room.

Find a rug that I love
Thrift an old dresser
Work on this DIY project

Pick out a stroller and carseat.

Look into signing up for some pre-birth classes.

When Zan and I were at the beach in Ipswich a few weeks ago we came across a free couch on the side of the road and that’s the couch you now see in that picture from our bedroom up there. We cleaned it up good and it fits so perfectly in the space. Penny likes it (clearly, HA), and we like it, too! Just in time for feeding and changing and laying around with a little babe. So excited. I just can’t wait.

Dear Baby,

Another week done, and another week closer to meeting you! Time slow down, please! I want this to last! I feel like I’m going to be saying a LOT of this over my lifetime, aren’t I? I’m guessing this is true. This week I felt lots of movement from you. You mostly become active at night, right as I lie down for bed. The Bump App says you are the size of a coconut now. That seems crazy to me! But I believe it because it seems suddenly like I have popped — almost overnight. On Saturday I went to the Old Navy at the Cambridgeside Galleria because they have a maternity section and I wanted to buy a few more outfits for fall. They have cute stuff (like the sweater I am wearing) and I don’t feel too guilty about buying anything because the clothes were cheap! And today, my friend Hannah came into town from Maine and I bought a few outfits for you too because they were ADORABLE and I honestly couldn’t help it. I am so excited you are a girl! Hannah (who has a daughter Sloane) and I went to visit our friend EE who also just had a daughter Eleanor and we talked all things baby for hours and it made me really excited about everything. I am pretty much always excited about everything involving you, but also like WHOA most of the time too. So much I think I know and so much I’m sure I have NO idea about. This is really happening and that is sometimes still crazy to me.

Every day you’re growing and every day I am in awe.

What will you look like? What will your personality be? I can’t wait to meet you, but I really like being pregnant too! So we’ll take it one day at a time and I know I’ll be holding you soon.

I love you to the moon already! Infinite X’s and O’s.

Forever yours,

Mama ❤️

//

Taking this weekly photo thing seriously and not so seriously at the same time.
Just whatever I am wearing and wherever I happen to be.
But trying to keep up with it! Memories are so important to me.
(thanks for taking this week’s photo, Hans! xo)