The couch cushions are disheveled. Baby toys overturned, scattered like a crime scene. The baby cries, wails, now screams. I’m on my knees, peering under the couch with a flashlight. Justin is kicking books and balls and puzzles out of his way, as if our future depends on it. And doesn’t it? The baby screams….
Dear Noah, Today, and every day, I’m thankful for you. For this. If you only knew how simply being here, simply existing, has brought so much happiness to so many lives. Thank you for the laughs, the kisses, the love. Congratulations on making it through your first big family holiday. We’re all crazy, it’s true….
In real life, I’m 23 years old. Yes, I’m 23 and I’m a mother and I’m married and WHAT? I know, I get it all. the. time. “Wow you look so young to have a baby!” “Yeah, I’m, um, 23.” “Oh. Yeah…well…you are young to have a baby.” “Oh my gosh you have a baby?…
Yesterday my baby sister, my one and only sibling, my perpetual enemy and closest friend, turned 21. Twenty. One. Two two of us on MY 21st birthday. One day we were playing Little People, the next we were clawing and smacking and IS THAT MY SHIRT? TAKE OFF MY SHIRTing, and now we’re adults. Adults….
Dear Noah, Things have certainly been changing in the Horton household. I leave the room. You cry. I put you down. You cry. My always-happy, always-sweet baby pushes people away and reaches for me. Only me. Even though I put you down, I leave the room, to teach you that I’ll always come back —…
So, for the announcement. No, I’m not pregnant. I quit my job! If you’ve been following this blog, you know how unhappy, how torn, how trapped I’ve felt. How can I leave a “good” job with phenomenal benefits? Should I settle for something safe? Is this what I’ve worked so hard for? There’s a lot…
Dear Noah, I never knew so much could change in eight short months. I’ve watched your eyes turn from brown to blue to green. The corners of your mouth turned up slightly, and I said that once you smiled, once you laughed, you could stop growing. I said that’s all I needed. But time has…
re.sil.ience \ri-ˈzil-yən(t)s\ (noun)1. the capability of a strained body to recover its size and shape after deformation2. an ability to recover from or adjust easily to change This past year, I’ve been engulfed in a whirlwind of lessons, of realizations, of maturity. Maturity that stems from growing a human — feeling life wiggle inside of…
