Not all weekends are this easy for our little family. Sometimes each of us gets very caught up in our hypersensetivity. Poor Will didn't stand a chance of having thick skin with Steve and I for parents. But this weekend was wonderful. Relaxed, slow, productive, but not frenetic. We spent quality time with each other, but also on our own. I like-y.

From the land of Will: "O-no. Ti-kee Fadee. Sa-wa. Yuck. Ti-kee Fadee ra-goo." Roughly translated: "Oh no. The kitty named Fatty is making a hairball. Sorry. Also, the kitty named Fatty looks like a racoon." Yep. His sympathy for the retching that is involved in producing a hairball was genuine. More so than mine.

Have I mentioned that Steve is frugal? (That was meant to be rhetorical.) Well, we are very thankful that we can generally live a wonderful life well within our means. We do expect things to be bit tighter with another baby, but I have all the faith in the world in Steve's ability to economize and maximize what we have to work with. In general, he manages our day to day finances, although I manage Will's college savings and together we manage our retirement accounts. (This wasn't always the case - we used to have fanatically separate finances).

All that said, in the first few months of the new year, we'll need to pay Turtle's arrival bills and put our annual chunk towards one of our retirement accounts, which together is a good sum of money. This has been occupying my thoughts lately. But, Steve tells me we'll be fine, assuming we don't have anything unexpected. As we talked about it this weekend, I had a good thought - the whole point of being a responsible borrower is to be able to have lots of credit in case of true emergencies. So, if the plumbing at King Street suddenly went, we could draw on that amassed credit if needed. Otherwise, we wouldn't use it.

That was longwinded for what was meant to be an exercise in anxiety mitigation.

I think Turtle is sleeping right now. She seems to do that after I eat. But - I SWEAR if she hears Will, she starts moving. I imagine her alert and active and self-confident. I think of her having an old soul. I wonder if she'll be like Stephie - a younger sibling who often takes care of the older one.

I'm debating having "real" pictures taken of me pregnant with Turtle. I have a session to use at the place where I had Will's formal pictures taken. I think Steve would even be willing to do a family portrait at the same time for Christmas cards and grandparent gifts. Perhaps I'll plan that for October or early November. I would do it if I could find a few poses that I really liked - ie that aren't cheesy and don't make me look like a pasty beached whale. Its a tall order.