pretty princess

A few days ago as I had just stepped out of the shower with messy, wet hair and had thrown on a pair of old sweats and a tshirt, I heard Cannon's little fingers struggling to open the door. As he walked in, he looked up at me with his big toothy grin, sparkly brown eyes and my favorite white-blond hair and very sweetly said -- "Hi, pretty princess!"

My dear husband, long ago, taught his boys to call me that. And they do. Out of the blue and all on their own.

Well, folks, it looks like I will maintain that title as sole proprietor in our household for yet another few years.

Yes, I'm pregnant.

20 weeks along.

We found out this morning we have boy #3 joining us in late September (when Todd is on his Emergency Department rotation... and the week before he'll be in Chicago presenting research at a conference. Nice timing, eh?)

We couldn't be more happy!!

Honestly and truly.

I won't lie. I do want a girl. And one day hopefully a sweet little girl will join our family. I was a little worried that if and when the doctor told me this new little one was a boy, that I'd burst into tears. I wasn't really sure what my reaction would be when faced with the reality of yet a third (or should I say fourth?) ball of energy and testosterone to join our home. But when he told me, my heart was filled with love. All due, I'm sure, to prayers given this morning. Prayers yearning for peace.

I looked at my little one's profile and his tiny lips drinking and his cute mouth yawning, and my heart swelled with love. A particular spiritual feeling I've only had after bringing my two other boys into this world and as Todd gave the student address during his dental graduation. A feeling like no other.

I absolutely and completely in every way imaginable adore my boys. I love their sweetness. I love....

Going bug collecting and frog hunting.

And housing the little slugs and jumping friends for a day or two.

Reading every finely detailed book on dinosaurs known to man. Playing cars, building robots, digging in the dirt, throwing/hitting/catching/rolling/tossing balls, building any and all sorts of train tracks, pretending to be a shark/elephant/dolphin/lion/etc...

Constructing pulleys - and tying them to Ryder's bike. And building "incline planes" and "toy put-awayers." And playing with them for days on end.

Watching tow trucks.

Doing science experiments. All. the. time.

Throwing rocks/logs/sticks and anything else non-trash we can find into any sort of water/puddle.

Living outdoors.... in green shoes.

Playing knights and dragons.

Hide and seek in the garbage can.

And taking baths in blue water.

I know how to do that kind of stuff. One day, hopefully, I'll learn how to do little girl stuff again, too. For now, I'm absolutely thrilled to retain the "pretty princess" status in our home.

And Todd is just happy we're adding one more to our football team and that we don't have to buy anything.