beauty and motherhood

When William was born my mom came to help for a few days. As the youngest girl in my family (with six older sisters and four brothers) I had always anticipated my turn to have my mom all to myself to impart her motherly wisdom. It was a hard first few days as a new mom. I had dislocated my tailbone during the birth making sitting (living) without pain nearly impossible and the hormones - oh, the hormones! My mom promised me that by six weeks I would feel like myself again. It seemed unlikely and so far away. She was right, of course, but it was so draining at the beginning. Having her there really gave me the confidence I needed as she reassured me of what I already knew how to do and encouraged my instincts of motherhood.

I think I'm writing this because I'm realizing tonight how deep those instincts are for me. I know not every woman feels as fulfilled as I do being a stay-at-home mom but I really feel so blessed to be able to do it and that I love it. I also just watched Stephanie's "My New Life" message on YouTube and I love that she says, "To me, beauty and motherhood are the same thing."

I feel surges of this intense love for my baby and I think he feels the same way about me which is the best feeling ever. When he's playing with his toys and I look at him from across the room, we just grin at each other. He giggles and flaps his arms and I just feel like life couldn't be any better.

(My mom took this photo of William's feet thinking it was going to be a sweet shot of his sweet little baby feet. When we looked back at the pictures we were cracking up because they are far from "little". He has skis! He's a big boy.They're still sweet though.)

P.S. Sorry posting has been light this week. The Big Move of 2010 will hopefully be wrapped up this weekend and I'll have my computer again. I'm so excited to have things put away! I'll share pictures next week.