De-Cluttering Life

The last few nights I have been organizing, labeling and dating ALL of my photos. Which not only turned out to be a much longer process than I expected but was also very bitter-sweet. A tiny bit of back story to help me explain why I feel this way is: Summer and Autumn were born almost 3 months early and spent 39 days in the hospital. It's amazing the amount of guilt you can feel in a situation like this, wondering what you possibly could have done different in order to provide the safe home they were supposed to have. But, it turned out my body knew the small space it was offering them was no longer a safe place for them to live. Summer's umbilical cord was only partially connected and Autumn was tangled hers. Despite being early my little miracles made it without any complications and came home with us weighing a fragile 3 1/2 pounds. That's why it is so strange to hear comments like, "how cute are your chubby little boys!" <-- You wouldn't believe how many people mistake them for boys, including a woman today at the grocery store. In addition to adapting to life with 2 premature babies, my dad decided to take his life about 6 months ago. I won't discuss much about this as it's a very sensitive topic for me, but I'm sure you can imagine how difficult it is to flip through old photos of him. Although, I will say it was a lot of fun to reminisce with Joe about all the things we have done together and to show him highlights of my childhood.

So. In other news. I took the girls swimming for the first time yesterday and they loved it! Right away Summer was splashing and kicking around like she had been swimming all her life. Autumn was a little shy at first, as that's her personality but eventually she opened up and had a ball! Both girls are really finding their way around these days! But Autumn has discovered she can pull herself up on things so that is her new favorite thing to do. She even uses Summer as a step stool! I admire her adventurous spirit as well as Summer's never ending happiness. I'm am so proud of these little girls, and I'm realizing a mother is really the one that celebrates all the little things they do <3