he's in the green sweater

First school Christmas concert. And our Henry-boy sang heartily through both songs and did all the actions ... though this photo may show he was behind on his timing a bit! Henry loves going to school, loves his teachers and his "so many friends", and he is always surprising us with the many songs and bits of information he's learning. And his vocabulary and sentence structure somehow exploded during the week that Felix was born and he was returned to me after all my nights in the hospital talking up a storm. Now if only Walter would say something ... anything!

My parents left on the weekend after having my Mum here for two and a half weeks and my Dad for a week. We really couldn't have done it without them and they were both just put to work the whole time, taking care of house and meals and two active boys while I was either feeling like death warmed over or upstairs feeding Felix for what felt like 18 hours a day. I realized on the day they left that I hadn't taken any photos of them, not a single photo with any of their grand-boys, and that is so incredibly unlike me!

Some of the post-surgery/newborn fog is lifting but I continue to feel overwhelmed every single day. It's a strange feeling and I almost feel rather panicky at random moments thinking ahead to even simple household tasks I need to do. I know it will only get better, day by day, and one day Felix will sleep through the night and I can actually contemplate going out in the evenings or even watching TV. The normals of my life have been so drastically rearranged. It's unnerving. I think winter is playing tricks with my sense of balance too ... the freezing temperatures (and thus our freezing 100 year old house!) and the fact that the sun doesn't come up til 8:30 am, so trying to get out of bed before that is practically painful.

Still, each day I am enjoying this new baby. I really am. I thought I would have to give myself a pep talk every now and then to remember to savor each day, as he will grow up so quickly and we won't ever have a newborn again. But I haven't needed reminders ... he makes me happy every day, at random moments. When he looks at me and I think "You are so nice to have". When he does his little twist-and-wiggle to move himself snuggly under my chin, it's remarkable when he does that every single time. I'm grateful he's a good baby so far, no drama, no issues, just predictable eating and sleeping and snuggling.

And yet, even still, I can't deny it's a little crazy having three boys 3 and under. This year is going to be something else!
Give me strength ...