Birthday Boy...he keeps getting older, but I keep being the oldest:(

Today is a special day. It is the day that my best friend was born. Dan turns 33 today and here's hoping he has a great day! I am so lucky to have him. He is so good to me and Jack. Things have been so crazy for us lately and I am so glad that we are better than ever when it would be so easy to drift apart! It fills me up to see him with our son. He is so good with him and I can see the love in everything he does for him. Thank you Dan for being born and for having me in your life!

Birthday Boy started the day with french toast in bed with his new best buddy, Jack. (Dan had french toast, Jack had a bottle.) We met for a nice lunch at Rafferty's. Dinner's at our house are usually "jackcentric" these days, but hopefully we will relax a little this evening to wind down his day. We are having company Saturday to celebrate. A few burgers, some beers, and some good friends will be a good way to mark the beginning of another year in the life... I love you Dan!

Evolution of a Mural

There is a lot to be said about how much planning goes into a mural before the actual time is put into painting it. When you are working with a client, you can go through MANY sketched before everyone is ready to move forward! Since I have been painting all day, I don't have the power to go into any more detail :) I can, however, show a couple of before and after pictures.

Helmet Day

Today was a big day for the Marsh family. Jack went to get his helmet. It is going to be a part of this family for the next 3-5 months, so it was kind of an important meeting! The fit was good. Little man was a champ as always. The doctor came in and out about 3 times each time taking the helmet back to his "workshop" to grind the foam and cut the edges to make it just right for Jack.

All of the details came out. Instructions on how to clean and maintain the helmet, how to break Jack into it gradually, how to watch for redness in certain spots during his one hour of freedom a day. All very educational. Then the heart wrenching stuff came... ( for me anyway).

He will sweat A LOT at first. It is true. His whole little head is soaked when we take it off. That leads to the saddest part of all for me as the momma....the smell. Of course, with sweat, there will be an odor. It is just part of it, they said. We need to shampoo his hair and also use the shampoo to clean the interior of the helmet each night. There will be stains inside the helmet from his skin pigment. That is normal and I should not try to scrub it way. The smell will be deep in his hair folicles and will not go away until well after we hang the helmet up for good. I can deal with all that ( even though it is tough for me). The hardest part for me is that I now have to give up the little baby Jack smell forever. I am sure that when we are all done with this, he will be a big boy and that precious sweet baby smell will be gone forever....

So that is my sob story. Little Jack however seems to be much more resilient than me! Just look at that picture! We had decided in advance that we would "celebrate" the day with a new swing for Jack. Daddy got it hung just before Blue tuckered out for the night!

What a BIGDAY!

Such a special day

Today was such a BEAUTIFUL day. Spring is definitely on the horizon.

One of the best things of today was that my sister was in town for the Britney Spears concert with her friend Jenny. I had to work, but they came to my office and then we all went to lunch. It was GREAT on so many different levels. The first being , of course, that I love to see my sister any ole time...but the second was that it was a weekday that I was working, but I STILL got to sit down to a meal with her! The third was more just for me because I NEVER eat out for lunch anymore. We went to Marietta Diner. Need I say more? YUM!

When I went to pick Jack up at school, he was outside swinging in the baby swing. So special! It was my first time to pick my child up when he was "on the playground at school".

It was such a beautiful day that I decided to take Jack for a walk in the neighborhood when we got home. The weather was perfect and he LOVED it! ( me, not so much, but I needed it and it was good for us both...have I mentioned that our neighborhood is mountainous?")

By the time we got in, we were both pretty worn out and it was time for Jack to eat. He ate good! He does a great job eating his cereal and fruit. And just so I never forget, because I have a feeling there might be many more moments such as this to come, I will document the later half of this meal. He started getting a little fussy towards the end of the meal and the next thing I knew, he tooted. I mean, not just tooted, but ripped a BIG ONE. Like a big boy! It was so funny. And the funniest part, was right after, he looked at me and laughed. Such a special time!

You've GOT to be kidding!

That look just deserved a whole post...the picture is priceless! Too bad you can't see his two little teeth!

Monday we take Jack to get his helmet. I am glad to get started, but also just sick about it. I hate to put my sweet baby in a helmet for 23 hours a day for 3-6 months, but at the same time, I feel like I can't deny him a round head!

His little head was so soft from being a month early,that he has developed a bit of a flat spot that needs correcting.

A new message from the boss!

So, Jack has already made me into a blithering idiot in so many delightful ways. First of all, the baby brain in general....a gift that does not come in handy at work. He causes me to make funny faces just to try to see his little smile. You should HEAR some of the sounds that I make just to get him to laugh! Not to mention, the crazy sounds and shenanigans that Dan and I come up with to try to get him to eat his veggies. Oh yeah, it is a job to try to get him to eat his veggies...remember this post? Well, he has changed his mind about green beans, peas, carrots and any other kind of vegetable we try to send his way. I guess this is the beginning of a life long battle ( well at least the next eighteen years). Check out this video if you wanna see the battle in action. You can thank me later for sparing you the crazy sound effects that we usually try!

By the way..notice the way he keeps looking at the camera...as if it is another person in the room that might possibly sweep him up and spare him from the scary vegetable mommy.

Will You Be Mine?

I was the epitome of a first time mom on this first Valentine's Day. I found out that Ms. Kim was having a party for the kids at school and jumped at the chance to put together my first school Valentine's. I am recording this momentous occasion so that 10 years from now when I HATE putting together treats for Jack's class parties, I can reminisce about the days when I thought it was cute and fun! My genius sister gave me the idea to make goody bags with fruit snacks and juice boxes, so I got my favorite Welch's fruit snacks and the cutest tiniest juice boxes with Elmo on them. Dan helped me stuff the goody bags. I was so proud of us! Anyway, my hero, Kim, took pictures of the adorable class. They were all dressed in pink and red ( so glad I did not opt for the blue stripes that morning!) I love the Valentine she made with the picture and sent home! She said it only took 30 tries. Jack got all sorts of little cute tinkerbell and fairy valentines. His class is all girls with only one exception as you can see from the picture! Messiah gave him a blue's clue's valentine. I did not know what kind of character to get, so I got generic cat and dog valentine's from Jack. They were the 3D kind that the picture changed when they moved. Dan hated them....oh well! That is my Valentine for ya!