A Full-Term Button Parade!

Okay, I'm a little (too?) excited about this week's post, mostly because I've been waiting to do it for about 8 months. Since our first weekly bump photo at 12 weeks (before hardly anyone even knew about Button), I've been keeping an album on my phone that has one photo from each week. Looking at them has been a way of reminding myself how far we've come, and it's also reminded me to laugh at myself (especially when I realize how "big" I thought I was at 17 weeks!). So, even though weekly posts since the summer have let you see most of these photos already, I hope you'll indulge this little celebratory walk through the last several months.

Before we begin, though, there's something you should know. You might notice that, in many of these photos, I'm wearing the same necklace. Last May, on Mother's Day, it was opening weekend for the production of Twelfth Night in which I was playing Viola. As we drove back home from the Sunday matinee, Jeff stopped off at his theatre to retrieve a package. What he handed me when he got back in the car was a simple brown envelope; he hadn't had time to wrap it, but he wanted me to have it on the very day that I had been dreading so much--the day that reminded me I already was a mom but that my sweet angels, Blueberry and Beanster, live in heaven, not on earth.

What was inside that simple package made me love the father of my little ones more than I ever had before.

Designed in collaboration with Jeff by an artist we know in California, the necklace has Blueberry and Beanster safely nestled in angel's wings, crowned by the halo that we know they wear. I love it because our two little ones are not lonely or scared--they are snuggled together and held fast by the greatest Father we know--and their daddy's love for them is what inspired it. I wear it nearly every day, knowing that they watch over the growth of their little sister, Button, knowing that she will hear about them one day.

So, now that you know that today's parade includes all three of our little ones, away we go!

And so we arrive at 39 weeks. With full hearts, with a little Blueberry and a little Beanster watching over their little sister, with a nursery overflowing with love that awaits Button's arrival.

Thank you for being on this journey with us.