May 9, 2011

Here he is, the handsome, the edible, the sweet little Tucker man. You may want to wear a bib while viewing because drooling over those fat cheeks is pretty inevitable.









I am a lucky momma or what?

Grapefuit.

A fun perk of living in the South is cheap citrus fruit, and a prolonged citrus season. This week grapefruit were 8 for 88 cents. Freeman cut up 5 of them for us to enjoy at dinner. Don't they look lucious?

April

I'm going to be perfectly honest here. Having child #3 has rocked my world. I cannot seem to keep any square foot of my home clean, cannot seem to get any meal on the table, cannot keep everyone in clean underwear, and often cannot find time to dress and feed myself. Yes, like people who need a hired care taker to dress and feed them, well, I might need one of those because I just can't seem to get the job done. I'm grasping for some human dignity here, but its been pretty humbling. Freeman keeps telling me, "Just give yourself 6 months." That's good advice. I'm taking lots of deep breaths and focusing on Tucker and the kids.

Because Tucker is amazing. I had forgotten how indulgently sweet a newborn is. He feels so good in my arms, he smells so good, his smiles are so warming, and he makes me so happy. Worth every minute of it! Just don't ask me for any clean socks, ok?

Motherhood is such a bipolar experience!

And that about sums up April.

An Austin Retreat

Its 11 pm, I just got home from Austin from a Sister’s retreat. It was AWESOME. All the Dallas sisters/cousins - Kristi, Elise, Rachel, Katie, Teresa and I drove from Dallas to Austin and stayed at Sara Fluckiger's home (our cousin) and were joined by Collette, another sister in law who lives in Austin. What an exceptional group of women. It was wonderful on so many levels. It was good to get away. It was lovely to be with such nurturing people. And it was exciting to learn from their ideas on motherhood and soak up their “aura.” We arrived Friday and enjoyed a lovely meal by Sara and stayed up too late talking about nutrition and feeding our families well. Saturday we woke up and read a couple articles together about mothering (we do this as a group in Dallas once a month, its amazing, I learn sooo much from these women), took a long morning walk, then hiked a hill in Austin with a spectacular view of the city. We had lunch at the flagship Central Market store in Austin, yummers. Can we do it again next week girls???! Thank you so much, Brenley for dreaming this up and Sara for hosting!

March 2011

Some kid quotes that deserve mention:

We had pizza tonight, I told the kids that we were having a pizza party. “What should we celebrate?” I asked them. Tyler said, “Anslie!” I asked, “What are we celebrating about Anslie?” He thought for a moment, then smiled. “That she’s so beautiful.” So we toasted our root beer to Anslie’s beauty and enjoyed gourmet pizza on the patio at 75 degrees.

As we were on the way out the door to church on Sunday, Tyler: "Mom, Anslie and I are stinkin' adorable, aren't we?"

And last, the bedtime goodbyes. They'll say anything to delay the parting for a few more seconds. Here's one I wrote down immediately, though this is nothing unique, I have such bedtime conversations most nights. Lights were already off, kids in bed, story read, prayer said, song sung, drink already requested and received.
“Good night, I love you,” I say as a shut the door.
“Mom?” Anslie starts. I wince.
“Have you ever seen goggles?”
“Yes, I’ve seen goggles.”
“I saw goggles last night, isn’t that silly.”
“Yes, very silly.”
Tyler: “Mom?”
“Yes Ty.”
“Do you know? I don’t like Grandpa’s truck. The one in the garage is ok, but the one out in the grass I don’t like. Why is it in the grass, doesn’t it get yucky out there? Maybe it’s there to be by the boat.” (Musing on Grandpa Hatch’s parking job, he hasn’t been to Grandpa’s for over a year and we’ve never talked about where he keeps his trucks.) “It takes a lot of gas to run, because it’s a big, big truck. Maybe as much gas as an airplane. I like airplanes too. Because they take a lot of gas.”
“Yes, a lot of gas. I love you. Goodnight.” And before more deep philosophizing takes place I slip out the door and shut it.

March 20, 2011

Today was sweet. Little Tucker was blessed in church. Many of Freeman's family were able to be there. Freeman gave a beautiful blessing. While he was giving the blessing I felt a strong witness that Tucker is a special soul, a strong soul, one that I should feel privileged to have in my home. It was exciting to be given the knowledge that this little spirit can do much good in this life. Babies really do renew innocence, joy, and hope.

After the blessing all the cousin families came to our house and we had taco salad. I love the sound of my piano being played by Austin, cousin friends running through the house together, and laughter at the dinner table. I am grateful to live near family that enriches our lives, grateful to be part of something so good.