Strawberry Fields Forever

Well, that's what it feels like, at least. We've had strawberries coming at us since the end of November. Now that we're nearing the end of the season (and I have finally purchased a freezer for bulk storage), I'm trying to put up a few more flats of berries for smoothies. And then I realized--embarrassingly enough--that I hadn't yet taken the kids out strawberry picking! They've been out in the fields several times, and done some impromptu picking, but I hadn't given them the job of picking. Until today :)

Picking strawberries revealed my kids' ages and personalities. Claire rolled around in the sand, eating any berry of any color she could get her hands on, putting a few indiscriminate berries in the bucket occasionally. Isaac refused to eat any ("Mama, you can't eat them until they're washed!"), and earnestly asked me if every.single.berry he picked was ripe and ready. He's my rule-keeper :) At the end, though, desire got the better of him, and the berries ended up in his mouth more than the bucket.

Claire didn't feel the need to resist :)

It's not a good picture, but it's the only pregnancy photo I've got right now, so please excuse the squinty eyes. Baby and me at 15 weeks--still at the "girl, you eat too many cookies" stage. Early baby bumps, it turns out, are for short people, no matter how many pregnancies you've had :). Maybe next month I'll have something more definitive to show for all the work I'm doing ...

Thoughts on #3...

I suppose some of you might want to know more details than simply that I resemble a can of spaghetti sauce right now :)...

Baby Whitaker's estimated time of arrival will be somewhere around September 20th. That puts me at 14 weeks, and I'm starting to feel significantly better. It's funny how each baby treats your body differently. I've definitely been more sick this time (it's the only time I've ever lost weight while pregnant), but not as tired as I was with Isaac. By this time, too, I'm much more in tune with my body, and I feel like I am aware of every.single.twinge. Of which there are many :).

This may very well be my last pregnancy (although not necessarily our last baby), so I'm trying to savor every moment of it. Even so, everything felt pretty surreal until I heard the heartbeat a couple of weeks ago, and then it finally hit me: there's a PERSON in there! Pretty exciting! I held a friend's newborn this week, and that brought back a flood of memories. It's such a privilege to get to grow and nurture a little one...and I get more and more excited about the idea of meeting this tiny one.

Although I am looking forward more and more to being a mom of three, it's pretty interesting to note the shift in public opinion going the other direction. Of course most of our family and friends are excited for us--but occasionally someone will give me a bit of a hesitant response. Funny how in America today one child is too few, two is just right, perfect, and enough, three is going a little overboard and anything more is just plain INSANE. :) I can't tell you how many people have said, "Congratulations!........sooooo, how many kids are you guys going to have?!?"

They must be concerned about overpopulation :)

We, however, are over the moon. Isaac loves to talk about how big the baby is, and it's so fun to share the little developmental milestones with him. Claire is in love with babies, and she was adoration incarnate when we visited our friends' newborn, oohing over his tiny ears and head. I know they are going to have so much fun with this little person. And I'm (crazily enough) not really worried about our adjustment to a family of 5. I'm sure there will be plenty of time for panic around month 8.

I honestly don't care if it's a girl or a boy...either way will be wonderful. I do, however, think it's a boy, and Vance lights up like a first round draft pick when I say that. It's obvious which way he leans. Isaac is adamant that it's a boy (of course). We shall see in about 6 weeks!

yep. That's me! Coming September 2010!