laughter

 

i'm thankful that i have a husband who is above all a man of character, truth & loyalty. who is faithful to God, me & our son. i'm thankful that he helps to create a home filled with laughter & joy for me & for garrett. i'm thankful that despite my flaws, he continues to try & make our marriage better than it ever has been. thank you for giving so much in this last week, B. you know precisely what i mean. :-)

i'm thankful for a little boy who is the light of my days. even on the bad days; those days that are personally trying for me. that he's learned to *kiss* me & his stuffed monkey this week...even if it is with an open mouth & his tongue sticking out! i'm thankful for his cute little smile & giggles. that he loves being chased & squeals, @ what you can tell is the mere thought of it.

i'm thankful for dear friends...like the four who sat around our dining room table @ various times today. we're so blessed by your friendship...the ways you all love & care for us & garrett.

to all of our friends & family who we didn't celebrate with today, please know how grateful we are for the investment you've made in our lives. we look forward to seeing many of you in the month to come!

unwell

it's amazing how sad it is when your baby is sick. they can't tell you what's wrong. you often don't know what to do for their illness or how to comfort them. there's this prevailing sense that they're just *unwell*.

that's been the story of our lives this past week & a half. garrett started in on a virus last tuesday...brian picked it up by thursday...they both got over that & were coughing & snotty by monday. they're *still* coughing & snotty on friday.

fortunately, i managed to avoid it. but garrett's been overly fussy & clingy. in ways that - through caring for him & for brian, even, last week - have pushed me to my outer limits. i just don't know what to do sometimes. i feel incompetent & frustrated. not so much w/ garrett as w/ myself for not knowing what to do to make it all better.

i try to remember...i'm still new @ *this*. i've tried to equate my feelings of inadequacy to the ones i felt early on in my career...that i no longer felt after 10 years of being a professional...but that now, as a parent, i'm starting over. this is a new phase in my life. so these feelings are natural, right? thank goodness for several sweet friends who in the last week have helped me step back, try not to take it so seriously, stop being so hard on myself & offered their own life experiences as moms & human beings to help me through. susan s, KJ, stephanie & lee...you rock my world, thank you for listening & encouraging.

this photo was an attempt @ humoring myself one afternoon. after garrett's bath, i toweled off his hair vigorously to see if it would stand up. it did! :-)

happy (belated) 11 month birthday, little dude!

gare bear was 11 months old on november 8. we've been delayed in posting our pics b/c a virus of epic proportion hit the white house this week. garrett & brian were both down & out much of the week. the little guy's still trying to recover but i really hope we're on the mend!

can't believe that we're getting so close to g's first birthday. but in the last month he celebrated his first halloween (as a monkey!), attended his first neighborhood bash, went to our 10-year college reunion with us, hit his cousin jackson's 4th birthday party, really started shaking his head "no-no" & definitively signing "more"; he's starting to let go of cruising & taking some *lunging* steps @ us.

his biggest feat in the last month? climbing the bin of books in our bedroom to then STAND on our TV table & bang the top of the television...i was in our bathroom & thought "that doesn't sound right!" i came around the corner to see him lift the second leg onto the table. we've got a climber, people!!!

his monthly monkey picture was once again a challenge this month - even w/ brian here helping me...these pics kind of show the progression of me chasing him around all angles of our bed & brian trying to get him back into place - holy moly - baby on the move!!!

falling leaves

 

i told him he wouldn't like the taste of that leaf, but he had to go on & taste it anyway! geeessshhh...kids!!! :-)

happy fall, everyone!

 

denise tagged me today!
i had to blog about the 4th photo found in the 4th file. the way picasa organizes it, it was a very old folder for me. it's new year's eve last year. we had just given garrett a bath & were settling in for the night. he looks so small here & it makes me sad...i yearn for the days when he was so tiny & i was nursing & he loved being on the boppy & talked to (ie, stayed relatively still!). why are babies only tee-tiny for such a short, short period of time?

can you tell i have the baby itch? :-)