On the last day of Christmas

And we're done....we had a great visit with Grandpa and Grandma Diana!

It seemed to be cool hat day!

We had such a fun first Christmas with our Maxwell! It seemed a lot more stressful this year, I think just worrying about his feeding and sleeping schedule but we had so much fun and got lots of great new things which we appreciate!

So..... since its the new year, that means it was time for me to go back to work. It was definitely one of the saddest weeks of my life. I can't imagine why anyone would actually choose to work over being home with their baby! But, as I look at our situation I can realize how truly blessed we are and how wonderfully God answers our prayers and will always provide for us. I'm lucky enough to work for a great company that has allowed me to come back on a part time basis, which I recognize is difficult for a small company to do, but we seem to work well together so they think its worth giving a try. I am hourly now of course but even got a small raise over what my old salary hourly rate would be and when you look at the pay of part time work, I can be very thankful for that. It may mean that I only have to keep the 2 houses I clean and hopefully won't have to pick up any more. And then to have it work out that my mom is able to watch Max 2 days and Nate on the 3rd it is just such a comfort. I only have to miss him and not have to worry about him. Otherwise I think he'd be in a soundproof box under my desk! And having Nate right downstairs is always a big help and so much fun to have him around more often. There is a part of me that is happy to feel connected to the real world again, but as I sat today, unshowered in clothes with spit up all over them, trying to wash dishes, do laundry, put away Christmas presents and having many conversations with my smiling son (who has learned to ramble this week!) I know that mommyhood is my #1 job and nothing could be more fun! We have him down to a decent schedule, I can feed him twice in the early morning before I leave and they've managed to get him to hold off till I get home to nurse again so he's only missing 2 feedings with mom (of course he's been taking bottles well for months). We also have a bath, bottle and bed routine at night now, and have managed to get him to bed by 9pm most nights so that's nice for sleeping time. (Side note: the bedtime bath wash seems to work really well!)

So our reflections of 2008 are very fond of course. Max is just awesome. We're not one for making big resolutions for the new year, I'd of course like to loose the last 8lbs (only to maybe, possibly start gaining it by the end of the year:)) and Nate would like to really work on the basement and garage. But what we look forward to most is just seeing our son grow learning all the new awesome things that will come this year for him; and just when we think he can't get any cuter, he keeps surprising us!