Thankful

It's Thanksgiving time again! This time of year always makes me think of all of the things I'm thankful for. As always, I'm eternally thankful for my wonderful husband, he's my rock and I don't know what I'd do without him. I've been so blessed with such a great circle of family and friends, I know I don't tell them often enough how much I appreciate them. And of course, this year, I have someone new to be thankful for, my son, Jonathan. God has truly blessed us with an amazing child. There were definitely times that I wondered if we would ever be able to have children, but God's timing is perfect, as always. Jonathan is such a blessing to us, I can't remember what life was like before him.

I'm also thankful for the opportunity to stay home and take care of him. Ever since I was a child all I've ever wanted was to be a Mommy, and now I wear that title like a badge of honor. I can't believe he's already going to be six weeks old this week. It's amazing, and kind of sad, how quickly the days go by. I could spend hours (and I do) just looking at his sweet face. He's started smiling now, really smiling at you, not those "baby smiles" that are random. It's so rewarding to get a little smile when you're talking to him. I can't wait to see how his personality develops as he gets older.

Here are a couple of pics I took on his 4 week "birthday":

My grandfather and his wife came from Missouri to visit about a week ago. He's quite smitten with his new great-grandson, and who could blame him. We took the opportunity to take a "four generation" picture while they were here. This is such a special picture as I don't get to see them much. Me, Jonathan, my mom & grandfather:

I guess I'd better head to bed now and try to get some sleep. I'm sure Jonathan will be up in a couple of hours wanting to eat. He actually sleeps really well. According to one book I saw, when a newborn sleeps 5 hours straight it's considered "sleeping through the night". In that case, he's pretty darn close. He usually sleeps about 4 1/2 hours a stretch at night, so we're very lucky in that area.

Until next time...

Recovering, again

It's beginning to feel like I'm always trying to recover from something. This year should definitely be dubbed, "The Year of the Surgery". Since January I've had 4 procedures done: ectopic removal, ERCP (gall stones removed), c-section and gall bladder removed. That's a lot for one person in a year, but thankfully it's over now. I can't think of another thing I could possibly have done before the end of the year, and that's fine by me. I'm ready to officially have my body back, and be able to do things for myself. I'm so very grateful to have family that is willing & able to help while I recover from the c-section & gall bladder surgery, but I have to admit that I'm ready to be able to do for myself. It's more about not wanting to feel like I'm taking advantage of people. Most of the time I feel like I CAN do certain things for myself, but the question is whether or not I SHOULD. Unfortunately right now the answer is no.

Jonathan is wonderful as always. I can't believe he's 4 weeks old today. He's really changing a lot, and growing a lot too I think. I'll have to get some pictures of him today & post them. Speaking of pictures, we have an appointment Saturday to get his one month pictures taken. Is it okay for me to post those once they're done? Maybe they'll be a link to see them online or something.

Can you believe Thanksgiving is only two week away! And then it's Christmas season! The time between Thanksgiving & Christmas is by far my favorite time of the year. I love the decorations, the get-togethers and most of all the Christmas music! One of the radio stations here in town, 94.9 Lite FM, is playing Christmas music every weekend until Thanksgiving. And then that's all they'll play until Christmas! I LOVE IT. I think I've figured out what I'm going to do for my Christmas cards this year. I just have to go buy the supplies and then I can get started. They are going to be MUCH simpler than last years, but they'll still be cute.

Until next time...

Time flies

Okay, so I'm pretty bad at this blogging thing all of a sudden. It's amazing to me how quickly days are flying by. I guess when you live from feeding to feeding, that's how it goes. Jonathan is three weeks old today if you can believe it! I can't tell you how much I love being a mom, it's all I've ever wanted to do. Jonathan is a wonderful baby, very content and good natured. Nights can be a little rough, but we're trying different things. I figured, if nothing else, I'd better at least post a few pictures of him. I've had some complaints! LOL

My mom was here for 10 days, and we had a great time. We did some photo shoots of the little man, and they turned out really good. Here are some of the shots from his "fall" and Halloween photo shoots:

We were lucky enough to catch a smile on this one! This one cracks me up. He looks so grown up!

Another smile on this one. Such a cutie!

I may be a little biased, but I think he's just the cutest baby ever!

In other news, I get to have surgery again next week. I'm having my gall bladder taken out. I was a little surprised to have it scheduled so soon, but I'll be glad to have it taken care of. And, since it will be done before the end of the year, we won't have to pay for it. With all of the procedures I had to have done during the pregnancy, we met my out of pocket maximum a long time ago. Now that's making good use of your insurance coverage!

Well, I hope this was enough to hold y'all over for a little while. I promise I'll try to do better. Hopefully I can get some sort of routine worked out one of these days. Until then....