Miss Lily Moves In

In my family, we have a strange tradition.

Said tradition involves an atrociously green, seductively posed, ceramic pregnant frog with lily pads covering her lady parts. Miss Lily has been with the Ross family for several generations, and she travels in her own special globe-trotting case. Her case includes her history, her manifest, and a family tree of my Mom's side of the fam.

So how does one become graced with Miss Lily's presence, you ask?

Well, Miss Lily is passed along to expecting females in the Ross family tree. Her manifest requires that she be presented in an over-the-top manner, the more obnoxious the better. Her manifest also requires that Miss Lily remain on prominent display in the caretaker's home until it's time to pass her along to her next stop.

We pass along my grandmother's lingerie to brides-to-be, so why wouldn't we pass a long a pregnant chartreuse ceramic frog to moms-to-be?

Miss Lily lived with my aunt when she was pregnant with each of my cousins, and she lived with my parents while my sisters & I were on the way.

[my mom co-presenting Miss Lily at the Ross Reunion in 2008]

Miss Lily was confined to her traveling case for many years until about four years ago, when she was presented to my cousin at our family reunion. I think everyone had forgotten about the poor chartreuse frog until then. She's lived in Texas for the past four years, and I had to secretly extricate her from Houston to Atlanta with the help of my mom & cousin. I think the timing was just about right because my cousin's 4-year old had become very interested in getting a Miss Lily of her own! Yikes!!

[Uncle John presenting Miss Lily to my cousin, mom-to-be Erin]

[hot mama-to-be Erin in July 2008. the first keeper of Miss Lily of the new generation.]

Miss Lily seems to be acclimating well to her new abode. And Lula likes her, if a little too much.

[Lula getting to know our new roommate.]

As much as she clashes with our interior decor, we're more than thrilled to have her in our home. Mostly, because of what she represents for the start of our family.

That's right, the newest member of Team V will be making his or her debut in a few months, around February 9th, give or take. Mom & Dad are blessed to feeling great & starting this new chapter. We're especially blessed that our Baby V will have a Cousin V on the west coast very close in age. Cousin V is expected to make her arrival in late September & was celebrated by lots of friends yesterday. We can't wait to see what traditions we concoct for the next generation of the V side of the fam...especially since the chartreuse preggers frog bit is already taken.

You're bound to see a baby-related project or two over the coming months, and definitely more pictures of Lula & bacon recipes. Stay tuned to see where the adventure leads...