I want to remember.

My son is now about 75 weeks old.  That's 17.5 months.  That's almost a year and a half.  It sounds totally, TOTALLY cliche, but every day I fall more in love with this child.  I'm trying really hard to keep up with him in photos, videos, memories...I can't take pictures in my mind fast enough, though.  How can I possibly commit all this to memory so that I never forget this brief season of his (and my) life?  

Right now, Thomas the Train is his favorite character.  But, he can't exactly say, "Thomas" yet.  When he sees the character in the store, or wants to watch his only Thomas DVD, he says, "Whoo whoo!" like Thomas does.  It's very sweet.  I want to remember that. 

In the past two weeks, his language has picked up dramatically.  Suddenly, he's repeating what I ask him to repeat.  He's practicing people's names and animals and noises.  And I want to remember how he can't really pronounce the "s" sound, but that he somehow gets the word "sissy" out with incredible accuracy.  I want to remember that his favorite words are "mama" and "dada" and that he practices them over and over again.  I want to remember "peeeeeeese" because it's so darn cute, and impossible to turn down.  

I want to remember.  Because someday he will be grown up.  Someday, not so far from today, he'll be very articulate and well-spoken.  And I will be very proud of him, but I will miss these days.

Sleepless

I'm not one who normally has trouble sleeping.
Nope. Generally when my head hits the pillow, I'm gone. But tonight, I can't sleep.
In just a few short weeks, my baby will have his first birthday. I cannot believe how quickly a year can fly! I remember being so nervous about holding him properly...it's like it just came to me, like a second nature, and we were instantly in love.
From that time, the moment when I first held my newborn son in my arms, I was completely changed.
This year has been one of absolute wonder. When I reflect, I see the Lord's hand in so many places. Ephram was a complete miracle from the beginning. We were told early in my pregnancy that I had miscarried and that we would not deliver a baby in December. Then, he came; 9 pounds and 3 ounces of amazing.
The next miracle of the year was the purchase of our house. When I went on maternity leave, I had plenty of days to take off for 12 weeks. I also had short-term disability insurance that paid me for the time I was off. We were able to put money down on our beautiful new home and pay the fees. The sellers of the home paid all the closing costs. It, of course, doesn't end with the purchase of the house. The sellers also offered to pay for a home warranty for the first year. In the first month and a half that we owned the house, we had to use it twice! Praise God we had it!
The third miracle happened when Michael was able to leave the midnight shift to work days! That was such a blessing!! I had been the only one on overnight duty 4 days a week for 8 months! Since he changed shifts, he is not as tired and is able to spend much more time with us. One pitfall is that he works Sundays, so he misses church with us.
The last major miracle I will mention is that I have been fortunate enough this year to have an incredible class of fifth graders. They are the best students I've had in my 6-year teaching career.
There have been so many other exciting things...Kamryn started gymnastics, Ephram has gone from a eat-sleep-poop baby to a crawl-all-over-the-universe toddler...it's hard to settle on the four most important, but I think they help tell our story best because they are the things of the most importance.
So this is all running through my head, keeping me from sleep because I could never be thankful enough. And when December 21 rolls around and I celebrate the birth of my sweet baby, I don't know if I'll laugh or cry. :)