I'm Going to Cry

I'm in the home stretch, folks, and I have to admit that I don't like it. I just put Luca in daycare (I go back to work this Thursday and we had to pay for the whole week) and even though neither one of us cried, that doesn't mean that I don't want to. I've been fighting tears for almost an hour now. I know that it's good for us....I know that it'll be good for me to have three days to myself before going back to work....but even as I write this, I'm bothered that I can't hear her chattering away in the other room.

Happy thoughts. Got to think happy thoughts. We just got back from a week's vacation in the St. Louis area. Scott's brother Allen and his wife Mary have a beautiful camper overlooking a lake and we had such a wonderful time. Luca's first airplane ride went without a hitch (except for when I had to change her butt blowout on the plane....have you seen those stupid "changing tables"? And who was the smart guy that thought of installing the speaker right next to the head of the changing table? I thought Luca was going to stop breathing, she turned so purple....) and she even got her first set of wings! Continental was awesome to us....even though we'd bought two seats and had her listed as an infant-in-lap, they gave us an entire row so we could put her in her carseat for the long flight. Anyway, we spent a few days with Allen and Mary and their kids Andrew and Julia May. Then, Scott's mom Jan joined us from Michigan and then his little sister Ellen and her husband Joe and their three kids Bri, Danari and Geno got up in the fun action too. Seriously, all I could wonder is why we live so far away from family. It's times like these, when you have a small child, that you realize how important family is at this point of their lives. Luca had a blast with all of her aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents.

Scott's dad, who is in assisted living in Illinois, got to see both Luca and Geno for the first time. It was awesome to see him, to watch him with the babies and see how proud he was of them....


Luca on her first airplane ride....from San Diego to Houston....















Luca with her gorgeous but precocious cousin Julia May














View of Otter Lake from the camper














Luca on the boat with her sun hat














Daddy, Uncle Allen and Luca .... for her second dip in the ocean. Her first dip was with me and I don't think she liked it all that much. And I was afraid to handle her in the water. I kept thinking that her slippery self would squirm away from me and go PLUNK into the lake.














Julia May (in the water), Andrew, Mary and Luca on the tube!














Grandpa Tom, Luca and Daddy!














Danari and Bri, bringing on the sisterly love!














Scott and Luca, Joe and Geno....proud daddies with their spawn!














Luca going for her tenth dip or something like that. Daddy was much braver than Momma and had no problem keeping a grip on her.















Geno the Chunk. He is so freaking cute! In fact, Danari and Bri kept getting next to him and saying, "He's soooooooooo cute!"















Ellen's poopie crotch. This is what happens when you have infants....the blowouts are unpredictable. In fact, Luca has a beach named after her on Otter Lake: it's called Poop Beach for how many times she had a blowout when we got there.


















The gang. Scott was driving the boat and I was taking the picture!















More pics to come....I just realized how many are on this post. Oops.