photos and gratitude to the maximus

Aaahhh, a post that is not from my phone.  It is so much easier on the eyes.  Too bad the posts from my phone are just plain easier. 

I saw these pictures and I wanted to kiss them.  That means I love them.  I actually love Maximus.  But these photos remind me how much I love him.  They also remind me of how much I love my best friend for coming to the rescue when I broke my camera lens and taking these for me.  These are straight from the camera, no editing.  Uh, mostly because I don't know how to edit.  

I love his expression here.

and here

and baby feet...

I know this pose is cliche, but it isn't long before they aren't so cute anymore.  So we had to capture them now.  Samuel smelled his feet and said, "They don't smell sour like mine."  That is right.  I will treasure this time where my boy has tiny, kissable, sweet smelling feet.  

and since it is November, the month of Thanksgiving, I would like to share:

I AM GRATEFUL

-that Maximus is no longer in me, I was sick of being pregnant and now I get to hold him in my arms instead of my giant belly (I hated having a belly.  That word is for Santa and Buddha).  My original due date was November 4.  I am glad he wanted out.

-that I can now lay on my stomach or safely on my back.  
-for my ankles.  Depending on how much sugar I ate, my ankles would just disappear.  Along with the bones in my feet.  They looked like the people on Wall-E.  But they are back now.  I missed them.  

-that when I am in bed and I need to roll over (for the 40th time because I can't get comfy or because my bladder is the size of a walnut and it is time to make the trip again), I don't need to get momentum going to make the roll.  AND I don't have to brace myself for the aches and pains and pulls that come from just plain moving.  Did I mention I am glad I am not pregnant anymore?

-that I got some time of calm to re-coop and connect with Maximus before the storm... (Halloween, Samuel's birthday, Thanksgiving, on to Christmas, then New Years and Eva's birthday).
-for big giant cups with lids and straws like the one they give you in the hospital.  Maybe I could never have a home birth because then I wouldn't get one of those giant mugs (and someone to fill it with that great ice whenever I asked for it).  When I have the right kind of cup, I can drink a lot more water.  It just has to feel right.

-that someone invented stretchy pants.  

-that Halloween is only once a year.  Maybe it is the extra calories I lose from nursing but my will power is at an all time low and I am eating candy that I don't even love.  Lame.

-that Maximus is healthy.  At his two week check up he had not only recovered his birth weight but another 10 oz and an inch and a half in height.  

-for family that has helped me and Maximus so much.  

-that I have finally learned how to let people help me.
-for my mom's food.  I swear that if I somehow made the exact same stuff she did with the exact same ingredients, hers would still taste better.  I think my food all has a dose of impatience that I can taste when I eat it.  Impatience tastes yucky. 

-for friends that have visited.

-for my phone that helps me sit still while I nurse.  I seriously have a hard time sitting still (unless I am asleep).  I can blog, keep track of baby feedings (there seriously is an app for everything), shop, check my e-mail, do facebook, research baby stuff, all with my phone, all while sitting still.

-that Samuel and Eva love the baby so much.  That is what they call him, The Baby.  Maximus is kind of a mouth full and for nine months he has been The Baby.  We haven't made the transition quite yet.  
-that I forgot how much labor and delivery hurts and how inconvenient recovery and how many diapers babies need changing and how often they eat and that sometimes they are sad just because and that laundry somehow triples even though they are only the size of a bean because somehow they manage to pee on six different things in a matter of seconds.  I am glad I forgot all those things because then my senses wouldn't have let me have another baby.  


And I am so grateful that I did.