Back in the swing of things

Maternity leave has ended. I had mixed feelings of course going back to work earlier than I had hoped but thankfully it wasn't as intense as the first time. Now that I'm over the hurdle, it's quite pleasant (but I'm sure there will be hiccups). I had a wonderful maternity leave. My moms group has great activities and we just kept busy seeing friends and family and doing fun stuff. We were able to fit in a last-minute family trip to the San Francisco coast before I started back to work. It was great. Stayed in a wonderful, quaint 1930's motel in the middle of a residential neighborhood, blocks from the zoo and ocean. We didn't use the public transportation because we didn't need to (Maggie and I wanted to, hubby didn't-he's been hardened by his downtown work life and local transit-ha ha) but it was literally out in front of the motel, which made for some interesting white noise outside our windows. Street cleaners, early garden nursery activities across the street, Muni, people talking on the street... I'm a deep sleeper and heard some of it, hubby is not and heard all of it. Overall, a great trip, one I would recommend to everyone. Even though SF has great restaurants, we had a kitchenette so we cooked in and with two little ones, that was very helpful.

Max is a great baby. About a week ago (at just past 3 months) he learned to roll over and back. It's caused him to be a little more restless with sleep which has also made us start moving him to the crib once in awhile. Being jabbed awake over and over gets old and swaddling doesn't work all that great when a baby rolls over and doesn't have it's arms free. Always transitions.

We've been doing lots of swimming, enjoying other people's pools and our public pool. Maggie can swim on her own for short bouts, she's getting pretty close. Both kids are water babies. Maggie is always cracking me up with her sayings, I love observing how she puts her sentences together. She has crazy love for her brother, smothering is constant :-) But he loves her being near and gives her big smiles. Maggie is excited to "get married" this fall, she'll be a flower girl in her aunt's wedding. She also likes taking pictures with my camera. She knows how to work it just from observing me and takes the funniest pictures from her level.

Baby Rose, little dog, Max's face, and her finger

Our plums are going bonkers (like 100's this year) but they are still a little tart. My garden is kind of lame but we've got tomatoes. My only goal really was to have stuff for Maggie to pick and we've accomplished that. Now if I could just keep up on the weeding/trimming, it never ends.

More fun pics from this summer, enjoy!

Visiting great grandpa for first time!

Community service day