This might be slightly premature, but I've been liquidating several tupperware bins of frilly pinky frocks that are meant to fit a little girl (all gender bending aside) that is no longer so little.  In so doing, I have been watching my heart quiver, inflate, burst and then fall limply into a million kabillion pieces. It's pure melodrama, but this is a terrible task.  I cannot believe I will never have the pleasure of playing dress up with my little dolly again.

Oh, but I guess she is still only two.

And I have a whole 'nother newbie baby to dress.

But I was telling Big Pops how hard it was to look at all of those sweet little scottie cloaks and cupcake onesies and to realize that as I prepared them for consignment or the charity box, that time had passed.  You don't get "a lot of mileage" out of kids clothes.  All you get are a few months, maybe a full season of wear.

You remember the first time you put the little blueberry muffin ensemble on your little dolly--and, unwittingly, that first was also the last because she was grown out of it the following week. Baby firsts do not stay minty fresh but for a moment.

And though I didn't want to go back, per se, I don't want to rewind, I also don't want to be left behind!!! I don't want to be saddled by the sentimental so much that I can't move forward.  I don't want to be an Empty Nester, wearing my slippers all day, pawing for some kind of hobby, taking my reading list from Oprah, thinking about how the best years of my life had passed me by and wondering if my babies will remember to wash their dorm sheets on the regular, like I taught them.

Big Pops told me that it's not about getting the mileage out of baby clothes.  It's about appreciating those clothes as tokens of memories.  He said he remembers TP and me wearing our little Parisian berets to have lunch with him when we were 8 and 10, and maybe we would never wear them again, but they are part of the imprint of the memory.

Can you tell I am still totally flushing out these crazy hormones???

Let's get to the picture portion of our program, shall we?

***

Had our last day of "music cwass" this past week.  Have taken two sessions and will now take the summer off after this last session of tambourines was completely rigorous and completely exhausting.  We are seriously burned out.  Here's the pack of gal pals that made music together.

We went to World's End in Hingham, MA today which is a great place if you are a dog.  If you are not a dog, it's kind of rugged and not as beachy as we I had hoped.

But it is a good place to lay (lie?) on your back "bobcat" shaped "cwouds."

We were getting ready for a funny face picture.  Look how Little Man jumped the gun.