Summer is bittersweet for me, both of my babes were born in the middle of the sweltering central valley summer. Each year as the days grow longer and the nights so wonderfully gentle another year of childhood is past. She will be 11 this year, growing into a beautiful and sweet young woman. He will be 4, no longer a babe . . . all independence and change. I love watching my children grow, so healthy and strong, I am so incredibly blessed, yet it is still bittersweet to witness each passing summer take another year with it.