Dear Fuller,
Today is your 8 week birthday. We have had a good go round and there have been plenty of firsts to enjoy. Your first smile, first giggle, first car trip.

And then today we got to some of the firsts that a new parent never really wants to do: first time taking a rectal temperature while a nurse is waiting on the phone. In a few minutes, we will be in the doctor’s office and it will be the first time we sit in the “sick” waiting room.

I can’t wait for the next first: your first recovery from sickness.

I love you lots, get better very, very soon.
Mommy

Thanksgiving was a good one. And this morning I had something new to add to my thankful list. Fuller went to bed at midnight and slept straight through until 5:15 this morning. That is the most sleep in a row I have gotten a while! I am crossing my fingers that it will happen more often and regularly.

You know, we have already received Fuller’s birth certificate and social security card, so when do we get his decoder ring that will help me figure this kid out? Is there an 800 number I should call?

There is a new link on the sidebar leading you to our online photo album. Thanksgiving 2004 pictures have been posted. Go gaze on our pretty, pretty faces.

Dear Heavenly Father,
For all these things, we are truly thankful.

Today Fuller & I went to my office for a Thanksgiving breakfast. It was the perfect opportunity to eat my weight in grits and eggs and to show off the simple fact that Damon & I make beautiful babies.
After the grits and eggs had been consumed, I met with my manager to discuss when I will be going back to work. It was decided that I could ease myself back into the rat race routine starting January 3rd.
And now, to be honest, I am slightly depressed.
This is not the life that I wanted for myself. This life, the one where I wake up in the morning, get ready and kiss baby on the head as I walk out the door to bring home the bacon, it isn’t the reality I saw for myself.
But, it is the reality that is. It is the plan that God has for my life. And since I have 40 days left to give complete attention to my son, I will hold him those few moments longer every day and know that regardless of what kind of mom I am (stay at home or working) Fuller will always be my son.

Many medications come with the following warning label:
“If pregnant or breast feeding, do not use.”

They should really put that warning on refried beans.

Sorry Fuller.

This is a story told to me by my mother. It is being written here to preserve it for as long as I like.

Saturday evening my parents are at home and a sister calls them. She says, “Are you listening to Prairie Home Companion?”

My father, who answered the phone, says that no they are not because they have not been able to find it on the two local NPR stations in Dayton.

The sister says (and I am paraphrasing because 1. I was not there and 2. I didn’t write down exactly what my mother said), “Well, Garrison Keillor just said that Evangelical Christians shouldn’t be allowed to vote because their citizenship is in heaven.”

Based on my sister’s tone, my mother took her statement to mean that my sister did not appreciate this statement made by one of America’s oldest radio performers and writers. Maybe my sister thought that Mr. Keillor had gone a step too far.

After my father hung up the phone it rang again, almost immediately. It was another sister.

She says, “Are you listening to Prairie Home Companion?”

My father, who answered the phone, says that no they are not because they have not been able to find it on the two local NPR stations in Dayton.

The sister says (and again, I am paraphrasing because 1. I was not there and 2. I didn’t write down exactly what my mother said), “Well, Garrison Keillor just said that Evangelical Christians shouldn’t be allowed to vote because their citizenship is in heaven.” And then she laughed and laughed as if it was the funniest thing she had heard in her life.

My parents just looked at each other in bewildered amazement. (So says my mother.)

I find this story to be a funny one. I also find the statement by Keillor to be funny, meant in jest. And I am not a Democrat.

But, I find it funny in the “Ha ha” sense as well as the “isn’t that interesting” that two children could grow up in my parents home and come out with very different perspectives on the world. It just goes to show that everyone is different with different views and yet sometimes we are related.

And that is as close as I will ever get to writing about politics on this blog.

Tomorrow is my birthday. 28 years ago tomorrow I was born in Lexington, Virginia. The day my parents brought me home from the hospital it snowed. But I really don’t remember that little detail.

In fact, I don’t remember much about the first few days, weeks, or months of my life. I don’t think I remember a single detail about that entire year.

That is too bad because now that I am a responsible person who is caring for a little person in his early days, I would love to remember the things that my parents did as they learned to be parents.

Did my mother fall asleep while I was nursing at 2 in the morning? Did my father worry that I would break when he picked me up? I know that they used cloth diapers, so how many a day did they change? Did they change my diaper when it was wet, only to have to change it 5 minutes later after I exploded in my diaper? How many times did I poop or pee on them? (Fuller’s count so far: poop- 2; pee- 7) What techniques did they employ to get me to go back to sleep after I ate?

These are the questions I ask myself on the eve of my 28th birthday. I also wonder what I was like at 5 weeks. Did I make noises in my sleep? Did I startle easily? Was I able to track an object or was I still just interested in staring at the lights? I know I was a good baby, but when I cried, did I squeak like my son?

I don’t have the answers to these questions, but as Fuller grows, I will try very hard to remember the details of these early days, weeks, and months of his life.

Dear Fuller,
When people ask me how old you are, I get to tell them you are 4 weeks old. That means that 5 weeks ago you were still inside of me, kicking and squirming. Now you are out here in the big, wonderful world kicking and squirming. Isn’t it amazing how quickly your life can change?

Just in case you are wondering, this is the obligatory one month letter to my newborn son. As Ferris Bueller said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” So, let’s look around.

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I have been kind of in a twist about this topic but decided to share it because I would like some sort of feedback.

When Fuller was born our pastor came to visit us in the hospital. He informed me that the traditional meals from the church family would start after my parents finished their visit. Makes sense.. I don’t think that people would want to be making a meal for 6-8 people, especially when some of those people are very capable of cooking while I recovered from the birth experience.

I told him that my parents would be here 2 weeks.

It has now been 2 weeks since my parents left and no meals from the church. This actually doesn’t surprise me because our church has been bogged down lately with organizing meals for people- many people have been having babies (one other baby even shares Fuller’s birthday), there were 2 deaths, and some other needs may have been thrown in the mix too. So it is completely understandable that we may have been forgotten.

Last week I asked D to talk to our Shepherding Elder about this. D did as asked and was told that if we hadn’t heard anything by last Friday to call Elder’s wife. Well, Friday passed and we hadn’t heard anything. I meant to talk to the wife on Sunday, but they left church quickly and I didn’t get a chance.

Now, here is my dilemma: Do I still call the wife and see about getting the meals? Yes, they would help us out (one less thing for me to think about), but is there some sort of statute of limitations on the actual need for the meals?

We are one month into this parenting thing. I have gotten over feeling like I am on vacation and am settling into being a stay at home mom. I have been cooking the food that my mom prepared and froze for us and I have even been to the grocery store to pick up more food and fix some meals from scratch. (Ask D about the awesome bruschetta I fixed on Sunday.)

I think the traditional meals from the church family are for people who need the respite from that one other thing to think about while they are dealing with whatever stress is in their life. I just don’t know if I (we) still fall into this category.

Of course, ask me what we are having for dinner when I have only had 4 hours of sleep. Then I might be begging for someone to come cook for me.

Does anyone have Emeril’s number?