Metal Meredith

Good lord this child is HUGE! Phil and I both agreed that we don’t realize how big he is until someone else is holding him. No wonder people always say something about his size when they see him! He is a moose!

He is doing all kinds of cool things now. Most importantly, he has found “Little Hank” and we are just so proud. I gave him a bath and was letting him be naked for a bit when those hands started getting lower and lower. Finally, I called Phil in so he could bask in his son’s first meeting with his future best bud. Phil smiled proudly and said “Our little boy is growing up” with a slight sniffle. I rolled my eyes so far back I could see my own butt.

Henry has found his giggles. He laughs out loud sometimes so much that I almost wet my pants. He is a master grabber. I believe this phase with Vivienne was called “Senorita Grabby Hands”. He is drooling like a fiend so I am sure teeth are coming our way shortly.

5 Months of Henry:

I have been doing some reminiscing about Vivienne as a baby lately. Sometimes it is because I want to remember her from when she was the size of Henry. Mostly, I want to remember the time when she smiled more than scowled, was sweet and cute not rude and prickly and was generally a much nicer kid. (Hopefully 4 will be better than 3):

Vivienne:
Henry:

Vivienne:
Henry:

I can hardly believe that today I am the mother of 2 kids. Had you told me 5 years ago, I knew I wanted children but really had no idea what I was getting myself in to.

Phil was nice enough to print me out 141 photos as my gift. We keep all of our photos on computers, so to have prints is a luxury we don’t typically allow ourselves.

As we were looking through them, I saw this photo:

This is a photo of the day after I had Henry. I was just starting to feel the various pain killers wearing off. I was just starting to let it sink in that I had a new kid to take care of. I was just starting to love him.

This one is not so hot:

Vivienne was a far more scary experience, just because I had no idea what I was going to do with this little person. I was so proud of myself for getting her out of me. Now what?

The thing is that although both of these pictures are me without makeup, after a long day in a hospital, I still think these are the most natural pictures of me that I have. I can’t help but wonder why women take a make up case to the hospital in order to ‘look better’ in photos after the birth. My face is broken out, my hair is dirty, I am extremely tired and just running on adrenaline mixed with fear and excitement.

I was telling Phil last night, as it hit me like a tidal wave, these have to be the most natural that a woman can be. These are the most emotionally open I have ever been on film.

This is me, as a mom. 

Phil typically doesn’t pick out my clothes. In truth, he doesn’t pay much attention unless the neckline plunges down below a certain point. So when he saw this ad in Target this week, I paid attention.

Not only did he stop and tell me about it, but he held it up for me to see.

He said, “This dress is pretty.” I agreed. Then I came closer to look at it.

I just had to ask “Are you sure it is the dress and not just chick in the photo?”

“Well, it wouldn’t hurt if you stood like that in it,” he grinned. I made a mental note.

To reward both of us for being so darn cute with each other, I went and bought every color they had. Now I have 4 of them and I am quite often finding myself standing like that just to feel sassy. Phil is pretty happy, too.