Reminders...

Recently, I have been reminded of a few details about my life...

1. We have an amazing 3-year-old. Lately, it's been trying with him. He is obnoxious, bordering on rude, most of the time. But, he is still my boy.

Modeling his Cars goggles...

Yesterday, he and I were looking through old blog posts and found one from when he was about 10 months old. He was standing, holding onto the couch at our old house, and babbling. It was right after he said his first word, doggie, and we were coaxing him to say it on camera. He was giddy in this video, squealing "Doggie" over and over. So cute it brought tears to my eyes. It's easy to forget that he was my little baby now that he is so big and so loud.

Ethan asked me to take a picture of him

and his little Jack. So cute.

2. I have an amazing husband. My mom reminded me of this at dinner last night. We were talking about how AJ does the night time feedings for Jack since he is able to fall right back to sleep, whereas I will be up all night once I get out of bed.

Cuties.

My mom talked about how unheard of that would have been when she was raising our family; all the women she knew did it all, day and night. We talked about some current mommies we know, and I know a many of their husbands are not nearly as helpful as AJ is, at night or during the day, either because of work or because they are butt-heads. I'm a lucky girl. He even cleans and cooks!

E loves when J plays in this chair!

3. We have found some really great friends. True, these friends may not be the people I once thought would always be in our life as our great friends. In fact, many of those 'friends' have all but disappeared, too involved in their own lives to make time for others. With others, we've simply grown apart. But, I've been pleasantly surprised by the people we have come to know as our family of friends - stopping over to meet Jack, offering to help or donate to our niece's foundation, calling simply because they know we could use some grown up conversation, or spending a Saturday night watching a movie on our couch while our kids sleep because they know that is the only way we can all hang out. We are so grateful to have these people in our life!

Playing so nicely :-)

4. One final, less personal reminder I have gotten in the past 6 weeks: my house will never remain clean for more than 10 minutes. With two boys and a hairy dog, it just won't happen. We have these to do lists, but by the time we get both kids to bed, it's 9:00 and we are TIRED. I can only imagine the state our house will be in during the school year. Yikes. It doesn't really matter, though...see #1-3 :-)