Handmade Towel

 This is my favorite picture from the summer.

My sister had just pulled her baby out of the pool. Not a real pool, but one of those inflatable, two to three feet deep, splash-around-and-just-get-soggy sort of pools. The kind of pool that kids hop in and out of in-between drying pruney toes in the sun, eating popsicles, and forgetting to close screen doors behind them when they run back into the house for whatever strikes their fancy.

That was the kind of perfect, summer day we were having when this picture was taken.

Can you tell from the picture that is a puppy towel? Probably not, I suppose. Nana made towels with our names on them when we were little, and now for the great-grandchildren, she has taken to adding floppy ears and puppy schnozzes to the corners for extra cuteness. Not that the baby in this picture needs any extra cute -- he is so adorable he makes my heart ache.

I love this picture for lots of reasons, but mostly because my sister looks so happy holding her baby, and because ... look at her closely ... can you tell? She is pregnant again. The pregnancy mask is written all over her face. She had just found out that she was pregnant shortly before this picture was taken, but I knew way way way before the tests confirmed anything. Isn't she beautiful?

This time next year, there will be a another baby and another handmade towel.

I can't wait!