Enjoying the moment

Here's a good representation of my life right now:

Elliot is almost exactly two months old...and everything else is a byproduct of life with a two-month-old.

I may or may not have showered that day.

Seriously.  I have no idea.  The hair up doesn't bode well for odds that I did.

I'm wearing gym clothes; not for going to the gym, but because not much else fits properly.

I have circles under my eyes.

Look in the background--the apartment is trashed.

As people have asked me about the adjustment from being a parent of one child to a parent of two, I think that just being okay with everything I just mentioned is the biggest adjustment for me.  I like things tidy, including my own body and while it's important to me to still try to have a clean home and such, this isn't the measure of my worth as a wife and mother.  I'm grateful for moments like this--I asked Grant to take this picture because I wanted to remember this specific moment where I feel like I really had my brain wrapped around that.

Because right here, the only things that matter are the willing cameraman I'm so blessed to be married to, the daughter we have together asleep and thus absent from this picture, and the sleeping baby on my chest.

Everything else...is just a detail.  I'll remember/be able to shower every day.   I'll wear my "real" clothes again.  I'll get some sleep.  I'll keep things clean.

Later.

When he's grown, I seriously doubt I'll say things like, "I wish I would have showered more when you were a baby..." or "I wish I could have kept things cleaner when you were a baby..."  But if I don't just stop and let those things go, I will be wishing I had just stayed up with Grant for a while and held Elliot more while I could hold him on my chest.

So here's to greasy hair and messy houses.  Here's to crazy schedules and late nights.  Here's to enjoying what there is to enjoy about welcoming this precious little one into our home, our family and our lives.

After all, we just wouldn't be complete without him.

Beware of sharks!

There is a little shark prowling in the waters of our complex's pool...

But don't worry, he's a friendly shark.

Though he's a little wary of his big sister...

"Wait a minute, lady!  Why are you leaving me here?!"

...but she knows it's okay.

Because fish (and sisters) are friends!

Not food!

Not quite cooperating...

A few Sundays ago we put a dress on Kendra for the first time and, as we are wont to do, smiled and awed how cute she was.  She's been a beautiful child since the moment she was born.

So when we got home from church, Grant decided to take a picture.

Kendra had other ideas.

 "If I close my eyes, you can't see me!"

And she asserted those ideas pretty strongly.

Not quite the Kodak Moment we had in mind.

That's our girl.

Oh, well.  In January we'll switch to starting church at 12:30pm instead of 9am, so maybe we'll be able to take pictures of cute Sunday outfits then (because we're lucky if we make in the door before they go through announcements, items of business and 2 hymns when they pass the Sacrament, there's no way we'll ever be ready early enough to take a picture).

Why I LOVE our camera

When Kendra was an infant, we tried to catch a shot of the face she made right before she started crying, because it was so sad that it was cute.  This was about as close as we got.

Elliot makes an equally (if not more) adorable face.  He really pouts out his bottom lip right before he cries out (because this kid just doesn't really truly "cry" very often at all).  It's the saddest and yet the sweetest little thing I've seen.

So the other day when he was acting like he was going to cry out, I got out the camera and sat myself down in front of him and waited.  I was not disappointed.

That is one pouty lip.

However, while I was sitting there, I also got a pretty priceless shot of his amazing smile--have we mentioned how much this baby smiles?  A lot.  We remember Kendra as a very pleasant, easy-going baby, but he completely surpasses her.  Here's one of the nicest shots we've got of that smile we see so often.

I should warn you though, you probably shouldn't look at this picture unless you are prepared to have a baby.  Because unless you have one already, you'll want one after this:

Told you so.

I guess in a pinch you can just come hold him if you want.  (I'm not really joking about that, actually...)

So, I really love our camera!  So far, our children have extensively recorded lives and it is so much fun!

Etymology

Ever wonder where the term, "sleep like a baby" came from?

Mystery solved.

Closing the distance

Since so much of our family and so many of our friends live soooo far away, here are a couple of videos to help everyone get to know our kids.

First, we have Kendra.  Her verbal skills are getting better a little at a time, all the time, and she's really developing a very distinct personality.

(It's kind of a long video, the best part starts at 01:05 mark and lasts about 20 seconds.)

And our little man, Elliot.  He's only two months old but he is an incredibly smiley guy!

See for yourself:

This is actually not a very good example.  This kid smiles and coos alllll the time!

We love our children to pieces and it's pretty strong motivation to share them with everyone any way we can.

A face I recognize...

My Dad passed on my Grandma's photo albums to me when Kendra was a few months old and we're (okay, I'll be straight up, it's all Grant's doing) finally getting around to digitizing the content of those bad boys.

This particular picture is absolutely awesome to us, because we see this exact same look at least 15 times a day.  On Kendra's face.