forward movement
i’m coming off of a week of sheer excellence with my family. when we drove away from my parent’s home yesterday, i wiped tears from my eyes because our time together had been THAT GREAT. the holidays are always hectic for us, chaotic and stressful, but for whatever reason, the time that my little family of three (with one in the oven) had in my parent’s home was cozy, comfortable, and easy.
we played. we slept. we laughed. we ate. and then we played some more, because that’s what three year olds require of you. and it was wonderful. all of it.
so we move forward. we come home. we take down our tree. we look at 2012 calendars and then pause to relish in this moment for just a second more. then we keep moving on… because we have a lot to look forward to.
born to love
dear jackson,
a few nights ago, you took your baby doll for a stroll through the house. you asked me to put her coat and hood on so she didn’t get cold. then you placed her in the stroller, strapped her in, and headed out to the living room.
after circling through and showing her the christmas tree, you came back into the kitchen. when your dad remarked what a great BIG brother you’re going to be, you took off sprinting with your stroller and baby doll. the grin on your face was enormous.
you looked as though you have been strolling babies for ages… made to comfort. i thought my heart would explode.
you hug and kiss my baby bump almost on a daily basis. last night you placed your stethoscope on my belly and told me that “pickle has sumfin to say, mom.” you tell me all the time that you love her, and you ask when she will ‘come out of the door.’ you promise me that you will take care of her, read her books, and share your dinosaurs with your baby sister. i believe you.
you love the fact that when you snuggle with me, you’re also snuggling with her.
you are transforming right before my eyes, aging with both grace and hilarity. one moment you are asking me thought-provoking questions, and the next you are sporting a large hot chocolate mustache that grown men would envy. you look after your dog with such care while simultaneously calling him ‘stanky’ and plugging your nose.
you remind me of your dad… a silly, old soul.
i don’t know how it’s possible for me to love you more than i already do, but i do… with each passing day. you are so spectacular.
love,
mom
when your heart and belly are full
you know that feeling of a nice long holiday weekend whereby you eat and sleep and nap and eat again and snuggle… rinse and repeat? and then you snoop through the weekend album of photos on your iphone and take a moment… because it was such a great weekend and a great holiday. and you find yourself thankful all over again.
because little faces like this one end up spending more time in your bed than usual, especially when they run a fever and have a scratchy, raspy voice from a cough that breaks your heart into a million pieces.
and that little face, that’s going to be a big brother in 4 + months, seems to be aging so much quicker than you could’ve ever imagined. you watch him pick out ornaments for his first family christmas tree. and then you realize that it’s your first family christmas tree too.
and then you eat. you share food and pass plates and ooohh and aaahh over how delicious the meal is that you are sharing with those you love. so you make more, with the help of your favorite kitchen assistant.
the next thing you know, an elf is skeptically welcomed into your home and your son takes a hold of your brother’s heart so much so that he relives his own childhood while playing with superheroes.
and just when you think you cannot possibly fit one more delectable delight in your belly, and you fear your heart will explode from the gratitude you feel, you realize that you have another little life on her way. and it dawns on you that you will always be able to make room for more goodness.
almost forgot
we totally went to disney last weekend.
we ate corn dogs that were the size of our heads, and mickey mouse ice cream bars while telling jackson stories about his uncle b losing his first tooth in one.
we watched the parade together, as a family, and i cried because that’s what magic does to pregnant women.
jackson met his hero.
no big deal.
a couple quick things
last weekend, when my fabu-larious family was in town, we went to our favorite local breakfast joint. with 6 of us sitting at the counter, enjoying pancakes and bacon and eggs and cheese grits OHMY, a woman with video equipment approached us and asked if she could film us eating our breakfast.
UM NO. THIS BREAKFAST IS MINE. ALL MINE!
but we said “ok, no prob,” because really all she wanted was cutie pie jackson on film, dancing to the oldies with his pointer fingers in the air. we signed off on some paperwork and i really thought i’d never hear from her again… or at least not for a while.
then i checked my inbox this morning and saw that she had tracked me down to let me know when the local show that cameos local businesses is going to air (tomorrow at 11 pm, thank you DVR. OHMYGOD WE ARE OLD AND JUST WANT TO SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!)
i’ll get another email from her when the clips have been uploaded online so i can share them with you here, but rest assured, cutie pie jackson will keep you entertained. to be continued…
in other news, my appetite is cray-cray these days and i cannot get enough food in mah belleh.
what? you don't like a gooey and delish choc chip and walnut cookie right out of the oven so hot that it burns the insides of your mouth so good?
chicken pad thai so legit that even my husband who has been to thailand LOVES IT. no? don't like that either?
baskin robbins mint choc chip ice cream (no i was not paid to say that). see how quickly that double scoop turned into an almost single?
food is gooooooooood, y’all. this baby really really likes some food. bring on thanksgiving.
jackson hit a mega milestone this week, allowing paul to CUT HIS HAIR. he’s gotten so shaggy, esp since we haven’t had his hair cut since before the move. there’s reason why we let our kid walk around looking like a hairy hobo though, y’all. if you could witness what this child does at the little haircut joint, you would weep along with him and be all “OMG, OK, WE WILL NEVER DO THAT AGAIN. I PROMISE” too.
paul, with the patience of something i will never come to understand because patience and i are not friends, sat with jackson on the floor in our living room FOR OVER AN HOUR and taught him the wonderful way of the hair clippers.
since jackson was not keen on the noise the clippers make, paul just had jackson comb his hair while holding the clippers. and then he got a baby doll of jackson’s and jackson gave her a little hair do. then we were kinda on a roll. paul tested the clippers with jackson a few hundred thousand times to get him used to how it felt and how it sounded… then they took eleventy and forty gazillion breaks… and then…
don't worry. it looks bad but jackson is giggling at the noise. NOT CRYING. i repeat, NOT CRYING.
i told paul to shave it all until jackson was as much of a fuzz head as he is so that we don’t have to do this again until 2012. so, he did.
ZOMG LOOK AT THOSE EYEBROWS.
and we surprisingly lived happily ever after. i believe this qualifies as a miracle and thus puts paul one step closer to sainthood.
phew… moving right along… over at babble this week, i posted about paul and i researching baby names via our family tree. seriously, this process is more fun than i could’ve imagined. we get to laugh at our ancestors names while trying to name a fetus who hopefully won’t hold his/her name against us for the remainder of our lives. (ps: i believe i find out the gender in the near future. more on that soon.)
since we were already sauntering down memory lane, i decided to take a gander at the beginning stages of this blog of mine. this little place of mine on the interwebz came to exist when i announced my pregnancy with jackson some 4 + years ago, and here i am now, blogging through another pregnancy. (it’s ok if you have ‘the circle of life’ playing in your head right now. i do too.)
and last, but most certainly not least, i admitted to myself and the internet world at large that i want to be a breast feeding champ this time around. i know! i know! it’s madness and i NEVER thought i would say that again after our trip through the 18,639 layers of hell we went through with jackson. but it’s true. i want to rock out with my… ok, maybe not quite like that, but i’m gearing up to give this boob thing another shot.
ok, that’s all. happy weekend! go eat some good food. read some good stuff. be sweet.
Have a Sip
