Handprint

Today as X napped, I was folding laundry.  Although I had just cleaned the one glass-topped table we still have from before he was born a little earlier in the day, I glanced over and saw a tiny handprint.  It made me smile to know that our house is filled with little reminders of my best boy.

Row Row Row

X can sing! Well, he can chant. The sitter revealed his new trick today when we went to pick him up this afternoon: he sings along to "Row, Row, Row Your Boat."

Row row row row row OAT!

Love.

Growing and Growing

It has been so long since I last posted, I hardly know where to begin. X is growing up so fast, it's hard to believe he was just a baby this time last year! He had just begun rolling over on his own. He wasn't quite sitting up by himself, and certainly wasn't crawling or standing.

Now, he does all of those and more with such ease - it's second nature. He can walk -- no, run -- and climb and open and close doors and talk and brush his teeth. There are so many things he can do!

I am grateful, so grateful, for my smart, funny, strong, sweet, crazy little boy. I will just try to store up the moments we have now as memories to smile about tomorrow, and next month, and next year and in all the years to come.

Trials

X was sick all weekend, and though he was improving last night - his appetite returned, fever went away - he is still clearly not 100%. Since he couldn't go to the sitter today, being fewer than 24 hours throw-up and fever-free, I stayed home.

He has been miserable. Doesn't want to drink water, but also doesn't want to drink his bottle. Doesn't want to eat, but is clearly very hungry. I'm happy to say I managed to get a graham cracker and a container of pureed green beans into him, plus a couple of ounces of fluids. He has also been SCREAMING and crying, because he is obviously just so tired.

But, in between, there are moments of adorableness. After I swept up all of the food he threw onto the floor and put it in the garbage, he wanted to use the broom and help! When I decided to show him how to use crayons, he pulled them out of the box one by one, delighted at the different colors. And so, we now have X's very first work of art:

Thankful

While yesterday was not X's first Thanksgiving, he was a much more active participant this year than he was last year. We had the pleasure of spending the holiday afternoon with one of my oldest friends and her family -- sort of my surrogate family. It was a really lovely afternoon, but the hubs and I were typical anxious first-time parents -- of a toddler. We never quite relaxed while X investigated every nook and cranny of the strange new house where we spent the afternoon. A lot of "Don't touch!" and "Come over here!" and "No-no!" while we took turns running behind X, bent over at the waist. Meanwhile Mr. & Mrs. M., my friends' parents, kept telling us, "It's okay. We know how it goes with toddlers!" We just never could quite let our guard down the way we would at home or even a more familiar friend's home. Nonetheless, it was a nice afternoon -- spending Thanksgiving in a place where we felt welcome and loved is truly a gift.

It got me thinking, though. We are still a pretty new family, and we haven't yet established any holiday traditions. I think that next year, we will begin celebrating Thanksgiving at our own house. Even if it's just the three of us. Traditions have to start somewhere, right? We'll start small. Maybe in time we will be able to repay the favor to those who have taken us in over the years, so we didn't have to spend a holiday on our own.

Hair Cut

Curly Locks! curly locks! wilt thou be mine?

Thou shall't not wash dishes, nor yet feed the swine

I gave X his first (minor) hair cut yesterday. His hair is so long, and so curly, and so beautiful that I didn't want to cut it at all until he wanted it cut, but it kept getting in his eyes during mealtimes and subsequently he would get food in his hair at breakfast, lunch and at dinner!

Alas, the haircut day had arrived. I only trimmed the front, though, into little tiny bangs because X kept moving his head! It is pretty much the worst haircut ever. I also almost cried after cutting off even just a few of his curls. He looks sweet, though, like a little old-fashioned boy.

He also looks like Bartholomew Cubbins from the Dr. Seuss story!