A cause for celebration!

Life is funny. That I could feel so low one day and then on top of the world a few days later. Let me start this post by saying that I married the most private man in the world. If I am an open book for the world to read, I guess that he is a diary with a lock and he has buried the key someplace very safe. So, out of respect for his locked up pages I will be vague here. Sorry.

There is some celebrating going on in my home. Much like my brother, my sweet husband has been going through a crisis of his own. Well...his father is stepping into help us out. Praise god and pass the ammunition, we can breath again! Both of our parents have stepped in to give us relief but his Dad REALLY stepped up to the plate. We are so blessed to have such supportive families!

We have been jumping up and down with joy. We are looking at each other in a new way. I'm 7 months pregnant so he hasn't thrown me over his knee and planted a big ol' kiss on me in the streets or anything but we both know that we have fought through something that could have been devastating for some marriages. We made it through a dark and scary storm. Enough metaphors already, I know. So, life is good at our little home thanks to Roger's dad. It just goes to show that you never stop being a daddy either.

It's gettin' heavy

There is nothing like a crisis to bring a family together. My older brother is having a hard time these days. I won't go into details because I know that he doesn't want me bloggidy blogging away about his personal life but I will say that he is having a crisis. There have been tears. We're all crying together. There has been heartache and late night calls. We are there for him as a family.

Our love runs deep.

He is being tested, I know he is, and he will come out of this in one piece. Thanks to my mom.

She is flying out Sunday to be with him in Colorado as he sorts through his life and gets back on track. She's going to be gone for one month, which happens to be the seventh month of my pregnancy. My security blanket is leaving to wrap her arms around my brother.

He needs her more than I do.

The timing is amazing really because I have started mourning the loss of the life that Griffin and I have together. Of course we are thrilled to have Cohen (the spelling of his name has changed 10 times, we've settled on this..for real!) but there is a part of me that will miss the special time that Griffin and I have had together. It's been the best 4 years of my life so far, having my sweet son all to myself.

We are soul mates.

So as my mom leaves to take care of her "little boy" (because I guess that we never stop being a son or daughter, despite our age) I will also be spending some much needed special time with my little boy.

The other morning, I was feeling pregnant and emotional and sad for my brother. I crawled into bed with Griffin as he slept and wrapped my arms around him and smelled the top of his head and breathed in all the sweetness that is my first born son. I ached for him and cried until his hair was damp with my tears because I know that my attention will have to be divided up after Cohen arrives.

There is enough love to go around.

So I as I sadly wave goodbye to my mom (and with her goes date nights, help around the house, a shoulder to lean on) I will take a lesson from her that she does not even know she is teaching me.

That you are always there for your children. Even if they are 37 and crying to you over the phone or 34 and with child.

You never stop being mommy.

I want a bunny.

I am having a new found love affair with little bunnies thanks to this website

http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/

Now, I am wise enough not to act on this new obsession, I am too lazy to care for a new pet. I can barely keep up with my two nasty cats that won't leave my porch. No...I love Atticus and Scout. I digress. Without further ado, I present to you my ode to cute little bunnies. A photo essay. Enjoy!

Hibernation

Griffin and Roger both had some time off for the holidays. Almost 2 weeks!

We were SO lazy!


We stayed in our jammies all day a few times. I did very little housework. Only when the dishes and the laundry started to pile up, then I would force myself to clean a bit. I would do only the bare minimum.


We played video games and ordered pizza. I took an afternoon nap almost everyday. Oh how I loved the holidays of 2008.

Now...back to reality. Roger is back at work and Griffin is back at school (with a few tears as I scooted him into the classroom) I wanted to say



"I feel like crying too. Our wonderful hibernation has come to an end."

Christmas through Griffin's eyes.

We gave Griffin a digital camera for Christmas.
Here are a few images that he took over the holidays.
They are exactly what I had hoped Christmas would look like to a 4 year old.

A magical Christmas Tree

A stack of gifts

Prayer before dinner at Nana and Poppy's house

Pulling into Grandma's driveway

Space shuttle

Star Wars Mr. Potato heads

A whirwind of fun.

Here are two lovely pics from our Christmas celebration at my mom's house. It was so much fun to watch Griffin peak out from a huge pile of presents. I have about 500 pictures that I want to post but I'm feeling a bit lackluster after all of our celebrations.

With Griffin's b-day being on December 23, the insanity started very early. We had a Chuck-E Cheese b-day party for him on December 13 so that all of his friends would be in town to celebrate with him. The craziness started then and just came to a halt two days ago. Highlights included a HUGE Spiderman cake that was almost destroyed before we blew out the candles because we made the mistake of sitting it next to Griffin during dinner and he kept sticking his finger in the cake and licking the icing. Griffin also earned 385 tickets. That's a butt load of tickets!

We had a b-day party at school, complete with cupcakes, a presentation of his life, and a beautiful birthday ritual in front of his class that involved a sun on the floor with all of the months laid around it in a circle. He held the earth and walked around the sun 4 times as the children sang this wonderful little song about the 365 days a year of Griffin. I made a little poster with pictures of his sweet life so far. It was so Montessori and very moving.

Then on his actual birthday my Mom and I braved the Atlanta traffic and took him to the Georgia Aquarium. (Ok, I'll admit, we were a bit overindulgent about the b-day celebrations but I have mother's guilt for having him so close to Christmas) Griffin loved seeing the whale sharks and otters. It was a success.

Then, came a roll out of Christmas celebrations. Christmas Eve at my mom's house with my brother. Which was great because we scored a Wii! Christmas morning at our house left our living room looking like a wrapping paper war zone. ( We still have gifts in unopened boxes!) Christmas afternoon with Roger's family which involved 5 small children running around all hopped up on sugar. Then on Dec 27, we had one more celebration with Roger's BIG family.

PRESENTS! PRESENTS! AND EVEN MORE PRESENTS!

It was an amazing and quite exhausting holiday.

I am an awesome mom!

So...Griffin really did feel sick yesterday. I picked him up from school and the teacher said he had been complaining about a tummy ache. He then fell asleep during lunch at the table in the food court at the mall and took a 2 hour nap after that (he dropped his naps 2 years ago). He woke up hot and when I took his temp it was 102.5. YIKES! I ran him over to urgent care while shoving Motrin into his mouth.

Turns out he has bronchitis. Guess who is staying home from school today and playing video games as I type this?

Yeah...I'm the intuitive mom ever!