You're here!

Welcome, Baby D!

You've only been in our lives for 6 days, but you have made our family complete.

Born 12/21/07, 8:23am. 7 lbs 2oz, 19.5 inches. Absolutely beautiful.

It's time!

Baby D, tomorrow at this time, I will be in the hospital, anxiously awaiting your arrival. Almost everything is set - I have a couple more things to through into my bag for the hospital, and just a couple more things to tweak in your nursery.

The past couple of weeks have been hard - all the waiting, all the fatigue, the pain. But they've been good, too... I'm "nesting" and getting tons done around the house... Big Boy has been exceptionally patient with me, and his kindness and loving ways are showing forth even now. We are having a lot of great family time together as Daddy is helping get ready for you to come, too.

So, my little one, I may not write here soon - but as soon as I can I will post pictures and stories about your birth. I love you and I can't wait to meet you!

no camera!

I have no camera... I feel a little lost! No spontaneous pictures to show.... wait, here's one!

Here you are, Big Boy, in a moon-bounce (is that what they call these things?) - all by yourself for the first time! (This was taken and downloaded before I left my camera at the in-laws.... sigh...)

I think this has inspired a desire to jump. You've been working really hard at it lately, and yesterday, both feet cleared the floor at the same time! Only by an inch, but you hopped! And hopped and hopped and hopped.... man, you're a busy kid! And you're so proud of yourself!

I'm proud of you, too, my little lovebug!

Christmas favorites, continued....

I love Christmas trees. Specifically, I love our Christmas tree. It's a mish-mash of ornaments that have made it our way through the years, along with some white lights and berry garland, which I think ties the whole thing together.

oh amanda is asking about our favorite ornaments now.... and like her, I can't pick just one! Heck, I had a hard enough time just picking these 3! But they are all in their own category, so I couldn't really separate just one out....

This first picture is of my favorite "ornament" ornament. It has a lot of special meaning to me.... I got it my senior year in high school, when I was singing with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus. It was an amazing year for me, and we were in the middle of the Robert Shaw Christmas concert performances - I think there were at least 4 or 5 performances for the Christmas season, and they were all sold out. It was a beautiful concert, with the Morehouse College Glee Club and a children's choir singing with us, too. They each did some songs by themselves, and the ASO Chorus did a lot of songs by ourselves, and then we added all 3 choruses together for several songs, too. Imagine over 300 voices raised in song, with a symphony as well. wow....

I was in the lobby of the Symphony Hall, I imagine taking in the crowd and the atmosphere, maybe waiting for Mom. I know I was waiting for her that day, as she is the one who actually purchased the ornament for me (each time I drove into Atlanta, I had to have someone with me, as I was only 17 and Mom and Dad did not want me driving through the city by myself at that time. A lot of my friends joined me in the car for those Monday night rehearsals, and one person came to a concert at a time so I could sing at each one). I fell in love with this little angel ornament at the gift area in the lobby. It's hard to see in this photo, but she's holding a french horn. I thought she would perfectly symbolize this time in my life for me, and at the tender age of 17, I saw how I could cherish this ornament for years to come. I was so right... I love finding this ornament in my boxes and adding it to the tree (normally towards the top).

The next is my favorite "non-ornament" ornament. It has not hung on a tree until recently... until I moved to Richmond in 2000 and started having my own Christmas trees. Prior to that (and prior to my college days), this little girl used to hang on my bedroom door during the Christmas season. She's a little framed cross-stitched girl - no larger than 3 inches in diameter, total. She is hanging an ornament on her tree... My brother has one like it, with a little boy doing something Christmas-y (I have no idea what his is - I haven't seen his in years).

I loved it when Mom would hang this on the little nail that was on my bedroom door - when I was smaller, I thought that this would let Santa know which room I was sleeping in, so if he needed or wanted to come and see me while he was delivering gifts, he'd know which door to come in. And I remember just sitting and looking at it for long stretches of time... I'm not sure why exactly, but it fascinated me. Now, the memories fascinate me. It always makes me smile when I put this on the tree. I'll have to ask my mom who made this for me, as I have no memory of that.

Finally, a recent addition... a "children's" ornament, for my Big Boy. Until yesterday, I thought this was one that I purchased for my brother, UncaDo. I had no recollection of when else I would've gotten it, as the only one I remember buying was for him several years ago, and he has given Big Boy several of his own things (robots, stuffed animals, etc.) that he thinks the Big Boy would enjoy. But I found out yesterday at my sister-in-law's house that my mother-in-law, Emmi, got this for the Big Boy last year. I saw one just like it on my niece's tree, and my SIL mentioned something about how much she loved it, too. Emmi was there, as well, and she didn't even remember buying it for the kids, but apparently she did, at Cracker Barrel last year.

So now we won't forget who got these for the kids. It's in writing! And who doesn't love them some Christmas sock monkey? Big Boy already likes to come up to it and point out the monkey to me. I hope you treasure it as the years wear on, kiddo.

Thanks, Amanda, as always, for giving me wonderful things to think about and to share with my family.

A first....

Big Boy's first broken ornament. Sigh... I knew it would happen eventually - just not so soon!

We had a friend come over and take some family pictures for Christmas (I'll post some pictures as soon as I get them!). We were sitting in front of the tree, and Big Boy, you wanted to hold your "Bas-eh-ball" ornament! So we let you hold it in several pictures. Next thing we know, you're running off into the den, holding the glass ornament. Then we heard, "CRUNCH!" Nice... I'm thankful you didn't cut yourself, Big Boy!

We bought this ornament in a set of sports balls for you last year - they are officially your first ornaments. I'm glad we have a football, soccer ball, golf ball, basketball, and a tennis ball left. And we have pictures of the bas-eh-ball for the memories.