Sitting pretty...

Well, sitting is still taking a little effort for little Miss J, so she can't sit and smile at the same time, too much focus...She's about to get herself into trouble around the house. Not crawling yet, but leave her on the floor and you'll find her 5 ft. away a few minutes later. Lots of rolling right now. Doesn't stop irresponsible mom from leaving her unattended. I like to wait until they hurt themselves before I think about babyproofing. It was easier in the old house...with three floors we could keep all the really dangerous stuff (like all the computer wires) away from the floor where the baby played. Plus we had baby gates everywhere to keep anyone from tumbling down a flight of stairs. Here, it's all one level and everything is accesible. Yikes.

The boys actually were fighting over who got to hold Juliette for a picture. Small miracles. Would be nice if Trevor actually was more focused on holding up Juliette instead of working so hard to lean back into Hayden and trying to knock him down.

But Juliette once again had her fill of mommy and her camera and let loose with a scream...

And I kid you not, Trevor showed up from the next room in seconds, without any prompting from me, and found a pacifier and popped it into her mouth. Is there a more definitive display of brotherly love?

And do you need to see his mouth to know he's smiling here? He's trying to cover his face so I can't take his picture, but he can't help but laugh at my antics to try to get him to look at me.

All is well despite my blogging absence. I read somewhere once that the most common fear people have is that others will discover they're not as (fill in the blank) as people think. The blank can be anything: smart, thin, rich, good mother, together. Do you live in fear that your weakness will be discovered?

I know I don't have my act together and am shocked to hear people say they think I do. I have no illusions of being a super-mom: juggling kids, husband, job, dogs, home. I have no real furniture in my living room, maybe I never will. Juliette is lucky to get a bath twice a week. Chick-Fil-A is a relatively healthy meal for my kids.

What's with the revelations? Only this...It's been a struggle to balance things since I went back to work. And I'm only working part time right now. So something is going to get neglected. If you look at the pictures above, it's obvious those kids are far too sweet to neglect. So it's you, loyal blog readers, who will be neglected. Kindnesses that will go unreturned, emails unsent, thank-you notes unwritten. So there it is...can't do it all. I'm not quitting the blog, just letting you know I'm struggling to post these days. I sit here at 1 am and can't remember the clever thought I wanted to write last week. Trust me, it was really clever. Can't have you thinking I'm not as clever as you thought I was, now can I?

By the way, total digression, but our dearest friends came to visit from Budapest for two weeks and they contributed to the blogging hiatus by distracting us with fun activities away from the keyboard. They're gone now, but I dragged Katie and VJ out for an 8 am photo session one Saturday, in case you want to take a look. And here's a shot of my god-daughter Katie and Miss J. It was a nice break for Juliette from all the usual rough and tumble testosterone crowd...