Thankful

I'm thankful for so many things.

B had his one-year birthday on November 22nd. I cannot believe how quickly this past year has gone by. My baby turned into a little boy, with just the blink of an eye. We had a quiet celebration for him, in which we remembered every detail about the day he was born. We celebrated with pink champagne and toasted to the year, and all of the joy and love that this little being has brought to us. Cheers to another year, a lifetime of love.

B & grandma blowing out a birthday candle

Two days later, we had a full house of twenty-three for a Thanksgiving feast. In all of the craziness and chaos of the holidays, I feel so very grounded and fortunate to see familiar & loving faces and to be surrounded by people I love. 

One of our two Thanksgiving tables- a house full of love and good food:)

We went to Matt's high school reunion last weekend. It's so remarkable to me to see a side of him that I never knew. He's my husband, my best friend, yet I'm privileged to learn something new about him every now and then. 

We also got our Christmas tree last weekend, just in time to welcome December. I like to get my tree as early as I can and leave it up for as long as I can (without being too offensive;)). Our house smells of pine and the tree is adorned with twinkle lights and little ornaments, all of which have their own special associations. And by the way, B loves to look at the ornaments. His favorite two seem to be the wooden train (pronounced 'tuh') and the red bicycle. :)

We get our tree from a very sweet, family-owned & run, local tree farm. It's a five-minute drive from our home, the daughters bake chocolate chip cookies and offer us hot chocolate, the chickens taunt Luna from their coop, the mother dotes on Ben, and the whole family is just cute-to-boot. We plan to support them for years and years to come. 

Here's Matt cutting down the tree.... not sure what Ben is doing in the background:).

Happy December to you & yours. 

xox

settling in

Hello, December.

Thank you all for your well wishes and sweet comments on the arrival of Benjamin:). We're settling in with him, just in time for the cold front. The fireplace insert is running 24/7 and it's requiring a lot of extra work (and wood) to keep the house warm. But warm & toasty it is for the little guy, who, I have to say, all biases aside, is really a sweet & good little boy :).

We came home from the hospital in time for Thanksgiving. We had a quiet meal, which was a drastic change from our usual hosting of 25 family members:). This year, it was just the four of us, sitting by the fire, eating a (delicious!) pre-cooked turkey dinner from our local grocery store. It was relaxing and just what we needed after the hospital blur (but we do look forward to our tradition of football games and 25 stuffed bellies again next year...wait, make that 26 bellies).

Since Thanksgiving, we've been spending our time with Benjamin, staring at him, learning him and watching him take in this whole new world around him. I find myself often apologizing to him, ie. when it takes 20 minutes just to change his onesie 'honey, mama is new at this', or when I take his diaper off and forget to cover the stream of pee that soaks his chest 'mama's learning too, sweetie'. But all in all, it does seem that the past two weeks have made me a progressively better mama and he seems to be getting more patient and comfortable with both his mom & dad.

And seeing his dad with him just melts my heart. He gets this proud look. And this whole fatherhood thing seems to come quite easily for him. Another asset to add to the list of the reasons why I love him;).

And then there's the fourth (well, she would say she's the third). She has adjusted amazingly well. No adjustment at all, really. She seems to think that she is B's mama. I often spy her monitoring him while he naps. She sleeps near his moses basket, barks a bit sooner and louder when she hears outside noises. She protects him. It's really sweet. (But who am I kidding- this is no surprise;)).

So, happy December. I'm very much looking forward to my first real December in blogland:). I hope you are all enjoying this magical (and maybe a bit crazy;)) month. I look forward to basking in it all here with you:).

Thanks for stopping by.

xoxo