Three Years

I have come to enjoy and appreciate anniversaries so much more than birthdays lately. Birthdays arrive and we turn another year older and it takes no work. They just show up. Anniversaries arrive too, but as I've talked to so many friends who are married and as I look at my own marriage, I realize that anniversaries are kind of "earned" in some way. Marriage is an amazing journey, full of ups and downs, but in order to make it work, it takes commitment and some hard work at times. Couples have to push through tough times to come out on the other side stronger, and I think that's something worth celebrating. Every time our anniversary rolls around I am reminded of the journey we have been on this past year, and I love looking back and celebrating the moments we didn't give up and the moments that were full of joy and the moments that drove us to our knees and the moments that we clung to each other because that's all it felt like we had. This past year was definitely the most difficult of our short marriage, and as we stand here today I look back at where we were a year ago on our anniversary. We had gone away to the Washington coast for 2 nights to try and escape a life that had come to feel so difficult and painful. Turns out, you can't really escape those things. We spent the weekend trying our hardest to put on our happy faces and enjoy each other, but in reality we were both so angry at the circumstance we'd found ourselves in with my husband's job. We would try and make a rule that we couldn't talk about the church but that pretty much left us with nothing, we were so consumed and hurt and frustrated that we didn't know what else to talk about. Here we are a year later and in such a different place in our marriage and family and work. I look back and I celebrate where God has brought us, how God has strengthened us, all the things God has taught us, and the amazing gifts God has given us.

I hear couples say they aren't doing anything to celebrate their wedding anniversary this year because "it's just another day," and that makes me so sad. Even if it's not elaborate, even if it's nothing spectacular, even if it's several days before or after your actual anniversary, take time to celebrate your marriage--you've worked for it, and in a culture where more and more couples are calling it quits, I think marriages are worth celebrating! My husband likes to say that our anniversary is the birthday of our family, and that today our family is 3 year's old. I think that's worth finding a baby sitter and making plans even though we're busy and we have other things we could be doing with our time. So this weekend that's what we're doing. We're setting aside time to go to dinner, and we're going to see the Hunger Games because I have been waiting for months for this movie to be released, and we're going to celebrate all that this past year has brought. Happy anniversary honey, I love our little 3 year old family!

Two months!

It's super hard for me to believe little dude, but you are two months old!! You look so much bigger to me compared to your one month photo, but that is probably because you ARE so much bigger! At your 2 month appointment today you weighed 11 pounds even, and were 23.5 inches long (2.5 inches longer than last month!). Mommy had to put all your newborn sleepers away because your little toes hit the ends and you can't move your arms very well in them! Time for the 0-3 month clothes! It's been a super busy month for you, you have been learning and growing a little each day. My favorite new trick of yours is that you learned how to smile at 6 weeks! Your Papa got your first real smile out of you, you just grinned at him while lying on your changing table, and it was pretty awesome. In the past month you have had lots of time with people who love you! Your Papa came out over President's Day weekend because your daddy had to go on a retreat with the kids from church and I wasn't quite ready to be a single mom for 4 days! You've been making friends with people from church and some amazing people have volunteered their time to come hang out with you so Mommy can have a break. Then when you were 7 weeks old you took your first airplane trip! I don't have any pictures from the occasion but you and I flew all the way back to Providence, RI to see your cousin Brooke be baptized! You did awesome on the airplane--you slept all the way there and most of the way home, only having melt downs when we had to get on and off the plane, but I think that was because I had to put you in my front carrier and you weren't a huge fan of that idea. You got to meet your Auntie Megan and Uncle Nathan, and your cousins Lily and Brooke, as well as your Oma and Great Papa. It was a pretty fun weekend and lots of people took turns helping take care of you. Your Oma spent a LOT of time holding you and rocking you and soothing you--we called her the Baby Whisperer. She was amazing at getting you to calm down and sleep soundly when no one else could! It turns out she used to be a nurse in the mother/baby unit at a hospital--I had no idea! No wonder she was so good with you! This is a picture of you in her arms. This is what you looked like pretty much the whole time she held you! Mommy told her she had to come live in LA for the next few months :)

When your Mommy was growing up, some of her very favorite people were her cousins--I got to see them a ton and we were such great friends. I was so excited for your cousins to meet you! You get to meet your other cousins in June, but you got to meet Lily and Brooke this month which was very fun. Lily loved you, she kept exclaiming over your "tiny hands! Tiny feet!" and saying "Hi Tiny Aidan!" She informed us that Brooke was the big baby and you were little, and then she told Brooke that she was not allowed to eat baby Aidan. See, she's already looking out for you! She helped give you a bath, and one night Mommy & Auntie Megan even bravely gave all three of you baths! At one point all three of you were screaming--you and Brooke weren't happy and Lily was screaming that she couldn't hear her music over all the baby crying! It was quite the first cousin bonding experience for all of you! (And next time it was bath time we enlisted all the grandmas to do the honors!)

You are becoming so much more alert--noticing some of your toys, making great eye contact with whoever is talking to you, and you even try to talk back which might be one of my favorite things. Your sweet little "ahh's!" are just adorable. You also like mirrors and every morning while I shower I put you in your bouncer in front of the closet mirrors and you talk to the little boy inside. Your little cheeks are rounding out, which is my very favorite part of your tiny body. When you snuggle up on my shoulder and we're cheek to cheek the feeling of those sweet, soft, smooth little baby cheeks is almost too much for me to handle! Almost every afternoon you and I nap together in Mommy and Daddy's bed--you sleeping on my chest--and I know those will be some of my favorite memories of these newborn days.

You are a pretty sweet little one, Mr. Aidan. We love you!