Another update!

In case anyone still checks in here...

My camera has sand in it. It works but you know, not so well. I don't think I have much to share in the way of pictures. I'll check.

But I'll update you. Just for fun. Once again, in descending age order.

Joe started his Greek intensive a few weeks ago. It's a summer long course that is supposed to bring a person up to speed on a year of Greek. I think it's a year. He is supposed to be able to enter a Greek reading course in the fall.

So far, he's enjoyed it. The professor sounds very entertaining. And given his previous experience with Greek, he's keeping up alright. The class does mean, however, that his days consist of Greek class from 8am until 2:30pm, plus at least 3 hours of homework, if not more, every night. We don't see him from when he leaves in the morning until dinner. He's with us for dinner and bedtime, then it's generally back to work.

They don't call it intensive for nothing.

That leaves me and my very pregnant self managing the kids and preparing for the tadpole. I've taken to outlining a schedule of activities on Sunday evening, so we're all up to speed on what is happening. And when I say we're all up to speed, I mean Allison knows what to expect. This is important to her. Otherwise, she starts to worry that her life will be boring and that will just be intolerable.

I can't keep myself from making the classic I walked to school in the snow uphill both ways comparisons. It's just that when she's whining that her Daddy read to her from Stuart Little instead of Ramona, I can't help thinking--and thus saying--dude, my father never read me a book in his life. Not even once. Which is true. But you know, she is unimpressed.

Anyway. I'm managing but I wouldn't say I'm doing much more than that. Things are more or less prepared for the baby, so I've accomplished quite a bit. By now, thought, I don't have a lot of energy for anything beyond keeping the children in line and in relatively good spirits.

Allison and Frances are doing well enough. They both had a great time at Vacation Bible School. They're in their new bunk bed, which both of them love. It takes up a lot more space in their room, so I had to reorganize things, and they seem happy with the results.

Allison is impatient for her brother to arrive. Frances has decided she has a crocodile in her belly. You should hear her say crocodile. It is the cutest thing. She enunciates every syllable. Croc-o-diiiile. Now picture it with a mullet and holding up her shirt to point at her belly. It's inside! Croc-o-diiiile.

Frances is hilarious.

We've settled into some standard weekly activities. On Tuesdays, we can see a free movie at the local theater. We saw The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, which they've both seen a zillion times but loved seeing on the big screen. Then we saw Kit Kittredge, which was a big fat flop. They were bored to tears. This week, it's Horton Hears a Who. We'll see.

Wednesdays we have playdates with my mom's group from church. We've got one coming up this week that should be really fun. Maybe I'll try to take some pictures.

On Thursdays Joe comes home early and we all head to the public pool. I think this outing is best for me, because I'm the one with an internal furnace and it has been consistently over 100 degrees here. It's not as humid as Atlanta, but it is humid, so the heat is significant.

I bought water wings for the girls. Frances loves them. She paddles around on her own a little bit, kicking her legs like she's peddling a bicycle. She'll also jump off the edge of the pool to me or Joe. Her confidence is really building.

Allison will not let go of the side. She says she'll learn to swim when she's a teenager.

After our pool outing, we hit the local taco stand. Thursday is a good day.

I fill in the rest of the week with trips to the park, errands, midwifery appointments, and outings to the fountain downtown where the girls can play in the water. We threw in a trip to Ikea week before last. Whatever keeps them from going stir crazy while we all wait for this baby to arrive.

Next week, my mother in law will be here, so she'll be able to help me entertain the children, which will be really nice. Allison has plans for us to head to the pool as many times as possible. I'm all for that. It cools me off plus it's fun to be super buoyant. I really cannot sink.

That's everyone except for the baby, who is also fine. They've been really vigilant about checking his position, so I've had a couple of more ultrasounds. That's been fun. He was waving his little paw at me in one of them. Despite being breech at 33 weeks, he is now head down and in a very good position. So we wait. I'm not really expecting anything until nearer my due date--in case you lost track, it's July 21. Two more weeks. In the meantime, baby is fine, I'm fine. I'm still really happy with the birthing center. It's all good.

And that's it, I think. I'm out this afternoon trying to work on my dissertation, so I should get to it.