A belated Mother's Day post

I have such a brave, affectionate, imaginitive, strange boy.

It kills me (in a good way) when he does the following:

Finds something that looks somewhat like a cell phone (remote, small alarm clock, computer mouse) and talks on it while walking around the house.

Falls down in the most awkward position, scrapes his knee, and gets back up and starts running again without even a whimper.

Shuts himself in a room and pounds on the door yelling "Dad. Daaad. DAAAD."

Puts his arms around my neck and kisses me right on the mouth. (The best Mother's Day gift ever!)

Does that little bounce and head nod when a song with a nice beat comes on.

Says "no." very seriously and clearly when he really means yes. (he hasn't learned "yes" yet so "no" is the answer for everything.

When he tries on my high heels, or carries around a purse, or puts on one of my bracelets. I can't help but crack up. I love that he wants to mimic me. And yes, he does try on Shane's shoes too...but Shane doesn't have all the fun accessories.

When he gets in trouble for disobeying mom or dad and runs up to cling to our legs repenting in tears and indistinguishable words of apology. (which is a lot different than the typical response of anger and tantrums)

All this to say I couldn't be more proud of the amazing piece of life that grew inside me and is doing his best to grow up and change the world.

Illinois, night time stress and emotionally amazing

So much for regularly updating this thing. Well, it has been a busy month. We spent two weeks in October in Illinois visiting all my family. It was the first time Oliver met them. You see, Illinois is like a vacuum and it sucks people in to where they rarely or never leave. Only few escape. So my family has yet to see where we live in the Northwest. And that’s why they had never met Oliver. It was a very precious 2 weeks though. I felt like a piece of my puzzle finally fit. The family knows how wonderful he really is.

He’s walking now, for those who don’t know. And running. It’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. He just now found me hiding in this dark room with the computer and is begging for my attention in just his diaper and a big grin. So this may or may not get posted tonight. I love to watch him toddle around. Now he’s on my lap captivated by the glow of the screen.

I’d say that motherhood is not necessarily less demanding these days...although Oliver easily entertains himself. The hardest part right now is night time. He’s waking up several times crying and since I’m weaning him from nursing at night, it makes it even more stressful. Last night he woke up about 5 or 6 times. But it could be that his 3 tooth (top left) is poking through. Poor guy. (....poor me!)

I think it’s amazing how close we’ve become. Although he is not as physically dependent as a newborn...he needs me emotionally right now. And that makes me feel AWESOME. In fact, I’m probably a lot more capable of meeting someone’s emotional needs than I am with the physical. I just feel like I’m likely to make a lot more mistakes....like not feed him enough, or teach him the wrong disciplines and methods of sleeping or socializing. But I’m totally amazing at being the one who understands or encourages or empathizes. You probably wouldn’t want to be stuck on a deserted island with someone like me. Unlesss, of course, you would rather talk than eat or survive. Then pick me. But I am a good helper. If you know what to do on the island to survive...I would do anything to back you up and keep you going. Haha....anywaaaayy. Way off subject.