Three weeks

It's hard to believe that our new baby was born three weeks ago! He's getting a little chubby and doesn't look as much like a newborn anymore. : ) He's finally starting to see our faces and maybe even smile intentionally. He chuckles in his sleep and has two dimples.

It is all very amazing to spend nearly every minute with a newborn and still look back and wonder how he grew up so quickly! It just happens minute by minute. Life truly is the accumulation of little moments. I'm trying to soak them up. I think I understand what the Bible means where it says that, "Mary treasured all these things in her heart." They are treasures.

Having a newborn is one of the best rewards of motherhood to me. I can remember as a very young girl being dissatisfied with babydolls. I really wanted a real baby to hold and love. I was ten when a baby sister was born and I adored her. My mother let me take care of her and I loved it. I had only been graduated from college nine months when I became pregnant for the first time. In spite of all the illness, lack of sleep, and breastfeeding difficulties I loved being pregnant and being a new mom. All of my memories with Kendal are good ones. She was a fussy baby. She wasn't an excellent nurser. But none of those things mattered at all. It was blissful to me. The same happened with Kelsey, Isaac, Daniel, Anna, Joy, Mary, Noah and Joshua. So far, no amount of pain, sleep loss or difficulty has lessened my joy. It is a gift from God and I hope to continue to appreciate it all.

I meant to watch very closely so that I could (for once) take note of all the subtle newborn changes...when the ears gain thickness and hold their shape, the toenails and fingernails harden and grow straigh out, the eyelashes appear, the eyebrowns can be seen, the last bit of newborn skin is shed. I forgot to write each one down when I noticed it. Maybe I'll remember next time, if I have another newborn one day...

On Joshua's two week birthday, a friend of ours took the following photo of him. They have ten (nearly all grown) children in their family and we had a wonderful time getting to know them last weekend. Our two large families got along so nicely. Mostly because their grown boys were very gracious with our younger ones. He (Jesse) also took about a hundred snapshots of our other children playing in their family's pool. It was a fun afternoon and we really love their family and this photograph. We hope that Jesse will one day take a photo of our whole family together, since he offered, and clearly knows how to take a great picture.


Joshua was three weeks on the day I took this picture.