Visitors

We have had a lovely parade of visitors coming to California to meet Fletcher. Since he's been home he's gotten to meet:

Great-grandma Nadine

Grandma Sandy

Grandpa Bill

In just a couple of weeks, Fletcher will also get to meet Grandma Karen! He's had plenty of people to love on him, and the extra arms have been very helpful to Greg and me because there's always someone eager to hold the baby.

Lately, we've been enjoying Sesame Street songs on Spotify, a book of children's prayers gifted to us from Dan & Shanna, and family walks in the evening.

Letting myself go

I don't consider myself a vain person, but I used to swear that the moment I became a mother I would NOT succumb to the dreaded "mom haircut." The decision was more about principle than style. I was determined that I would still take care of myself, and a mom cut seemed to symbolize a white flag of surrender.

Oh, I know that family life will usher in certain changes -- I'm sure it won't be long before minivans, 5pm dinners, and Sesame Street CD's will be true desires of my heart because of the way my life evolves with kiddos -- but I was determined that motherhood would not be my frumpy downfall.

Cut to: I have a baby now. I sleep when I can, bathe when I can, clean the house when I can, wash clothes when I can, etc...

Not to mention that with the addition of our son, Greg and I have of course had to rearrange our budget a bit in order to accommodate our larger family.

One of the cut backs I volunteered to make was coloring my hair, which seems like an unnecessary expense compared to more legit needs. I've been ridding my hair of my standard blonde highlights over the past few months and yesterday I sealed the deal with an all-over-color that should allow my roots to grow out naturally. I also cut about 2 inches off.


...Aaaaaand just like that, I had a "mom cut."

No sleep, no makeup. Yes smiles.

Even though I don't mind my new hair, the drastic change timed to my new role of mother did make me wonder if I had settled -- or if this was in some way a sign that I would soon be snowballing my way into a barefoot, bra-less, elastic waist-banded existence.

My imagination showed me a vision of a haggard older version of myself confessing to a trendy young talk show host that I stopped taking care of myself when I started having kids. The audience would then guess my age and I would cry when they guessed that I looked a decade older than I actually was. Then the show would give me a makeover. (And scene!)

Anyway, I was voicing all these thoughts to Greg last night as we were putting Fletcher to bed, and he listened and then promptly told me that I was nuts to worry, that I wasn't letting myself go and that he still thought I was beautiful.

I appreciated his encouragement, but I think I only half-heard him. It's terrible, but sometimes when Greg tells me things like "You're beautiful" there's a little voice in the back of my head that says "He's just saying that because he's your husband, but he doesn't really mean it." I know that's silly, but it's true.

About 30 minutes later Greg came back into the room and announced: "You know what would be worse than you 'letting yourself go?' If you became high-maintenance out of your own insecurity and stopped being you."*

I heard him 100% that time.

*(To fully understand the beauty of this moment, I must disclose that I was pumping when Greg came back in the room, which makes me feel a bit like a cow. Especially since while my shirt was lifted Greg got a full view of my post-baby belly.)

I hope to one day bring the highlights back into my hair. But in the meantime, I don't think I've given up, even if my appearance changes a bit. And I'm very blessed to have a husband who loves me so well.

Family life

This past week we celebrated Fletcher's would-be-due-date on June 18th. I can't believe this little guy has only been around for 9 weeks! It feels like a lifetime ago that I gave birth, and even though he's only been home for 3 weeks I can't remember our home without him.

My little monkey-man

It's no surprise that Greg is an amazing father. I knew that I'd fall deeper in love with him as I get to witness him caring for our son.

My favorite thing about Greg as a parent thus far is to see how lovingly patient he is with Fletcher. Even when little man is screaming his lungs out for hours on end (poor little guy has reflux that sometimes hits him and makes him so uncomfortable), Greg talks to him kindly in soft soothing tones and paces the floor with him trying to ease him to sleep.

Hot Dad. 

(Makes me want to have 100 more of his babies!)

As I sit here typing this Greg is next to me on the couch playing a Lego Batman video game and Fletcher is peacefully sleeping in his bassinet right in front of us. It's 10:30am and we're all still in our pajamas, which is not unusual these days. I'm about to go cook us some egg sandwiches for breakfast and Greg mentioned that he might walk over to Starbucks and treat us to some lattes. Later we're going to listen to the podcast of last week's sermon together. I am so, so happy.

This. Is. The. Life.

2 Months

I have been avoiding this blog because so much has happened in the past 2 months that I knew I'd never be able to capture in words. For some reason once we brought Fletcher home I felt like I needed to write some giant recap that summed up the last couple of months with a tidy little bow on top.

Silly Beth.

Clearly, I've realized that I will be revisiting moments from the last few weeks for the rest of my life, and there is no way that I can wrangle all the feelings and lessons in a blog post. So I'm letting myself off the hook. I'm sure I'll write more about Fletcher's early days again as I continue to process everything that has happened, but for now I'm just eager to get back to posts that reflect my daily life again.

And here's what my daily life has looked like lately:

Fletcher -- 2 months old 

Greg and I have gotten used to having this little man at home and it is really wonderful to be a family all under the same roof at last.

So get ready for some full-on mommy-blogger-style posts in the near future! I will be sharing cutie pictures, funny incidents, and sappy sentiments as my baby boy gets bigger and stronger by the minute!