My heart is heavy today because of this story. The little boy is the grandson of a family friend, and it’s looking like it was shaken baby syndrome from the daycare provider. He was 6 months old. His parents have made the impossible choice to take him off life support and donate his organs. I.can.not.fathom.this.tragedy. It’s my worst nightmare, quite honestly. Heartbroken.

Starting today I have Fridays off for the summer, then in the fall I’ll have Mondays off for the foreseeable future. I’ve enjoyed having Wednesdays off and breaking up my work weeks, especially when the kids were little, but I think it will be nice to have 3 day weekends and make getaways / staycations a little easier to coordinate. Parts of my job are really stressful, but I really do love working 4 long days instead of 5 standard ones.

We blew up our raft this week to see if it still holds air. We used to raft so often, but haven’t really since I got pregnant with Stella. Charlie went a couple times with the guys, but I haven’t been on the water in 5 years. Sad! Charlie finally got on board with getting back on the river this summer with at least Stella & possibly Harvey. I doubt it will be the relaxing, tanning, drinking trips of the past, but I’m sure Stella is going to love rafting and camping!

Stella will be 3.5 next Monday. We have great conversations now, her story telling skills are amazing, she has a memory like an elephant and knows every word to so many songs, she can write all of the basic names (Mama, Dada, Stella, Harvey, Nana, Papa) without help, she loves to play with her brother and have dance parties. She dresses herself every morning and just seems like such a big kid lately. I can’t believe she’ll be riding a school bus to pre-k in the fall. Time flies.

Harvey’s black eye is healing well. He is such a stereotypical BOY. At nearly 17 months old, he only has a few words he will use consistently, though he’ll randomly drop something like “grandpa” and then refuse to repeat it. I can’t wait for him to TALK more than grunt. He climbs everything, kisses everyone, waves and says hi to every person he meets, and runs like the wind. He’s a mama’s boy through and through, and he is FUNNY and knows it. It’s so fun to see his personality really develop.

I am bone tired from staying up too late with my brother since he moved in. I’m a night owl by nature, but I’m going to have to reign it in and get back to my early bedtime ways with Charlie, both for my sake and my marriage’s sake. We haven’t spent much time together since Tom got here, and I need to remember to focus on my marriage. I don’t want to get back to the place we were in 6 months ago when we were so miserable and angry all the time with each other.

Music in the park started last night, and that feels like the official kick off to summer. Every Thursday night in June there is a big concert in the park in the next town over (10 minutes away) and every Thursday night in July the concerts are in our town, just a few block walk from our house. The kids love it, we love it, and it’s such a fun way to spend time with people from the community that we don’t see often otherwise. Gotta love free activities that are fun to do as a family!