a stay-at-home mom (that's me!!)

"your little boy is so cute!" she says.
"oh, thank you" i reply.

"now, what do you do?" she asks sweetly.
"i'm a stay-at -home mom" my ears hear my mouth say.

my heart smiles. grins, actually.

it's funny. i always thought i would go back to work full-time. i love the work i do. it's challenging, it's rewarding, and i happen to care about the people i work with.

but when i became a mother, plans changed.

i started (and stopped...i need to start again) clipping coupons. i do my own nails. we cook at home more than we eat out (whoa!!! major life change here...). we make our own baby food (who would've thunk...). and i haven't bought a new shirt in months. i actually went to target recently and bought only formula and cough drops.

i don't say all of this because i'm proud (although, for me, some of this is huge). i say it to show that becoming a parent makes you willing to sacrifice. and it shows you that "sacrificing" grocery money, pedicure money, eating out money and new shirt money isn't really sacrificing at all. it's just stuff. stuff that doesn't matter.

what matters is that i get to sit in the floor and play with blocks. that i get to clean that homemade baby food out of ears, a nose, and off of every surface in reach of little hands. it matters that i look forward to bath time with toy boats and floating ducks. that dancing like an idiot to make him laugh is well worth any embarrassment. that hugs and kisses and sweet sleepy eyes never get old.

i know there will be days that are hard. i know that there will be true sacrifices that have to be made.  i am thankful that my sweet husband has spent hours going over the budget to make this work.
when we tuck our little boy in each night, we breathe prayers with grateful hearts to the One who has allowed us to be parents. we are thankful for every moment.

and i can't wait for tomorrow, another day that i get to enjoy the blessing of being his mom.

party in my crib!

today was little brooks's  7 month birthday. i have been taking pictures every month in the hopes of having his whole first year well preserved in plenty of scrapbooking paraphenalia. as the months go by, i am having a harder and harder time coming up with creative ways to commemorate each month. today, i thought it would be fun to photograph him with all of his furry friends. everyone was on board with this idea (particularly the teddy bears...they love a good group photo...) so they all piled into the crib for the photo shoot. brooks was having a blast, particularly with socks, his sock monkey. unfortunately, i couldn't get him to sit in the middle of his friends and actually look at me at the same time. so i did what any other slightly insane mother would do (assuming that no one was watching): i danced, i clapped, i yelled, i chirped like a bird and barked like a dog. my son ignored me through all of this, prompting me to attempt to imitate a siren. i think you'll see from the photo below that this did not end well.

but hey...this will be a great one for the scrapbook!!

pictured from left to right:
back row: brown bear, chocolate chip, looney bear, scout, night-night, rainbow bear
front row: the arm and leg of socks, clover the cow, alice the westie, brooks alan, angus the westie, blue bunny, lamby

i love you sweet boy!