flying time...

Zoey,

10 months ago today you looked like this:

and you spent your days sleeping in the arms of mommy or daddy, eating with mommy, and looking around at everything in the hospital room.

Today, you look like this:

and you spend your days climbing up and down the stairs, taking a few steps all by yourself, opening every cupboard in the house, laughing at Elmo, dancing to any and all music, playing with your toys, rushing to the door when you hear daddy, and - if I am lucky - snuggling in my arms for a few brief moments.

I thought time moved fast before you came to our family, but now it truly slips away from us, and - no matter how hard I try - I can't grasp it.

Happy 10-month Birthday, Little One.

Love, Mommy

happy mommy's day...

I'll admit it: I have not always liked Mother's Day. It was a painful day for many years and before that, it was just an awkward day when someone forced me to take chocolate, insisting that, "Someday you will be a mother." Today was different. Because of this little lovey, today I walked confidently into the cultural hall after church and accepted my little chocolates graciously and looked around briefly... and couldn't help but have a little heartache for those around me for whom today might still be painful. So, this post is for you. Miracles absolutely do happen. Above is a picture of ours. Happy Mother's Day.

first babysitter...

Tonight Zoey had her first babysitter and both of them survived. There are only a few girls Brian and I would even consider asking so we were glad Hayley was available - and we hope she will come back again. (We tried to take a picture before we left, but Zoey was anything but cooperative.) We love you, Hayley!

a soap box plea...

Recently, and by recently I mean in the last 5 years or so, a few new adjectives - or old adjectives with new meanings - have been in circulation and I loathe them: gay, retarded, and effing. I thought I would escape the ill-use of these words during my maternity leave, what with being away from the 14-year-olds in my life, but I am sad to say I have not escaped them. I heard all three of them today at the grocery store and actually took the time to tell the store manager how inappropriate and insulting it is for his employees to be speaking this way in the work place. If you use these words inappropriately, you use gay and retarded to describe something as lame or unfair or inadequate and use effing in place the much-too-vulgar-to-say-here curse word. If you are an adult saying these words, please stop. You should know better. If you are a young adult saying these words, please stop. It makes you sound ignorant, not hip.

can you spell...

T.R.O.U.B.L.E.?

We can.