YEAH!

Well, today I thought would be utterly sad, sad, sad. You see, today is the last submission of Catherine Newman's "Bringing Up Ben & Birdy", the journal I have followed now since I became pregnant with Maryn. I knew this day would come eventually and I would have to send her off, thanking her wholeheartedly for the maintenance of my sanity. Thanking her for her blessing of a book that I will surely pass on to my children.

So, I sadly make my way to read the last and final gem. Here is my favorite part:

"And so I am sitting here in my tight and sagging swimsuit. (Where is my pregnant belly? Where are my breasts spilling over with milk? These are not rhetorical questions: They are in my thighs.) And I am thinking of you. I have written about this very beach since Ben was a skipping, sunny 2-year-old and Birdy was just an erping reflux after breakfast. Some of you have been with me since then, and I am at a loss for words over this.

But what happens right now is that I'm dabbing more sunscreen on Birdy's cheeks — her flushed, smiling face is tipped up to me, and I am kissing her nose, rubbing the clown-white cream into her hairline — when I notice an older woman smiling at us from her towel nearby. And I don't know what this says about me, but the fact of her watching us — well, it helps me be my best self. When Birdy fidgets, when she grabs my hair in her sandy fingers, I don't nag or grimace — I just see us in this moment, this blessed moment of mother and child. I'm trying to tell you something here. I'm trying to tell you that because I knew you were watching, I have been a better parent. I know it's weird, but this is the truth."

As I near the end, ready to grab my tissues, I see this....www.benandbirdy.blogspot.com! Woo-Hoo is all I have to say! Oh yeah, and Thank Heavens!!!!