Seeing it for the first time again

Last night, Harrison helped me see the autumn moon through fresh eyes. We were driving in the car when he first commented on how big and bright it was and begged to get out to get a better look. When we finally stopped, he stood and looked at it for a long time, then slowly lifted his hands above his head, paused to gather all his potential energy, and then jumped as high as he could (probably about three inches) while saying, "Touch. Moon. Touch. Moon." My heart melted about fifteen times while I watched him repeat again and again. He really thought he could get it. I love how taken he was by the moon, and it made me look at it and appreciate it like I haven't since I was two years old. Go out and try to touch your harvest moon tonight.

Out of excuses

Well, I know the customary waiting period for a lot of things after you have a baby is six weeks; you know, six weeks till you start working out, six weeks till you have a check-up with your OB-GYN, so I was just assuming that was the appropriate amount of time for me to entirely check out of the blog world.

Aaah, it was a nice break. But I'm back and we've been doing all kinds of fun stuff, so I've got to try to catch you up to speed.

I am so excited fall is finally here. A few weeks ago I kept pulling out my big cozy sweatshirts and wearing them around in the 90 degree weather. I was unsuccessful in that attempt to make autumn come faster. So I finally gave up on that, and what do you know, it came on its own. I'm loving having a little man to talk to all day about ghosts and pumpkins and leaves and the concept of trick-or-treating. When Halloween is here, we're going to be READY. The boys each have two Halloween outfits, so we have some sort of festive attire on nearly every day.

Baby Tru Update: He's growing like a weed and we love him to death. From early on, it's been apparent that he's an advanced little dude. His umbilical cord came off when he was three days old. If that's not a sign of how gifted he is, then I don't know what you're waiting for. It's a good thing it did come off that early because when we brought him home and Harrison saw it, I told him it was an owie so that he wouldn't try to touch it. Sweet Harrison got so concerned when I told him that Truman had an owie. He looked at it for another second, then just laid down and whimpered. It was so sweet to see the brotherly affection he felt for Tru right away.

H-man Update: This kid is a sponge right now. He knows all of his phonics and he has for a while, but now we can add that he's got his colors conquered, can count to three, and is in the process of mastering his shapes. Art projects are some of his favorite things to do right now, along with going to Goodwill and playing with all the toys in the aisle. He now sleeps in his big boy bed pretty much every night. He's growing up so fast, I'm expecting him to start shaving any day now. The other day he was given a helium balloon that he loved; over and over he'd say, "Mom, watch this!" and then release the balloon to the ceiling. It was my job to retrieve the balloon and then we'd do it again. (x 30) Anyway, we came down for breakfast the next morning and Harrison was delighted to find his balloon waiting for him. It didn't register as strange that it was waiting for him on the floor. He picked it up and said, "Mom, watch this!" and I got a little sad because I knew he was about to be disappointed. He was. He wanted me to fix it and I couldn't. He learned a sad little life lesson about the life of a balloon that day.

Jen Update: I just got contacts and am heading back to the gym. Feeling good and under control at least 60% of the time. I'm still making a few desperate "What were we thinking!?!" phone calls to Dan when things are a bit hairy, but I think he'll attest to the fact that those are getting fewer and far between as time moves on. I'm not sure I can envision being a mom to anybody else right now, but we'll see if that feeling changes once I've got this down (assuming that ever happens).

Dan Update: My better half is of course staying busy. He finished repainting the upstairs and is working on various odd jobs around the house right now. I leave him in charge of both boys twice a week when I am tutoring and he not only keeps everyone safe and unharmed, he also has the energy to carve pumpkins with them with no help from me. I would have never had the guts to attempt it, but as you can see, it was a success.