the happy baby story

the last two weeks have been the usual whirlwind of life-changing activities that babies usually bring to new parents.  there is so much to tell of this amazing story that i’m a bit overwhelmed.  here are some of the highlights:

–although he was scheduled to enter the world via c-section on march 2, our boy was too impatient and insisted on arriving a few days early.  this change of plans put us in a bit of a panic as we were still en route to texas when we got the news, but we were still able to meet him on his birthday and he smiled at us the first time we held him.

–we were lucky enough to spend quite a bit of time with the happy baby’s birthmother over the past two weeks, getting to know her even better, listening to her family stories and hearing her talk about whose eyes he had, whose nose, whose hair, etc. –absolutely priceless.

–the weather in south texas is perfect this time of year and we wanted to soak it up as much as we could.  one of the days that we were staying in the birthmother’s hometown, we packed up a picnic lunch and went to a local park to enjoy sandwiches, fruit and veggies while sitting on the car quilt and it was the first time i’d felt like myself in days.

–we were also lucky enough to be able to stay for part of our time in texas with some of my relatives in their very comfortable house, eating their very delicious food, and giving them a chance to get to to know the happy baby.  they threw us a very cute little family shower with mini food (mini burgers, tacos and hot dogs with mini brownies, ice cream sandwiches and strawberry shortcakes for dessert).

–while we were there, we also asked my cousin-in-law who used to do some professional portrait photography, if she would take some pictures of us with the happy baby.  the two shots in this post are two of my very favorite from that photo shoot.  how interesting to be on this side of the lens!

–after about a week and a half, the paperwork that allows us to leave the state came through and we packed everything back into the car and headed north.  we made pit stops in two cities on the way home to visit with extended family (one “pit stop” was for a whole day) and give ourselves a chance to stretch after being in the car for 12 hour stretches.

–the happy baby shed his umbilical cord about two hours away from home (hmmm… is there an umbilical cord fairy?).

–we arrived home late monday night to discover that our dear friends here in town had stopped by to leave us a warm chili and cornbread supper, along with flowers, balloons, other treats for grown-ups and for baby, and warm welcome home messages.

definitely all happy stuff.