Dealing with it

Baby Dean is one month old! I don't know where the time has gone. It's so much fun to watch him grow and learn new things. He rolled over all by himself this week, much to our surprise! I think he's minutes away from his first real smile. He's getting fat rolls on his legs and arms. We kind of love him. :)

We took our first road trip as a family of three last weekend to visit the Lanes in Virginia. Dean was an angel in the car, not making a peep until we turned onto Grandma's street. He met his Aunt Mirka, Uncle Mike and cousin Adam for the first time. Adam was not too sure about that baby at first! He didn't understand why Dean got a bottle and he didn't, and he SURE didn't like it when his mommy was holding another baby! As you can see in the picture, he eventually warmed up to him enough to plant a sweet kiss on his head as they donned their matching jogging suits for Super Bowl Sunday. They are going to have such fun together in a couple of years.

This weekend also marked the first time in a month that Marcus and I had gotten a full night's sleep. Our first night in town, Grandma Claudia took the night shift and we got a glorious 9 hours of sleep! We felt like new people. Of course, you forget that when you take care of the physical part of you so that it feels good and stable, that opens the door to your having to deal with all the emotions you've been pushing to the back burner. Needless to say, we've had a very, very eventful 8 weeks. My mom had a kidney transplant, I was diagnosed with the same disease that necessitated said transplant, we've had a baby, I've had major surgery, an no one has slept. It wears on you. And it decided to hit me halfway through my second taco at dinner Sunday night. I had to go upstairs and lay down because I could not for the life of me stop crying. Marcus, of course, was there as the voice of reason, encouraging me to get it all out and take a nap. And crying it out did make me feel somewhat better. Every once in a while you've just got to give yourself a break. (Dean knows this and is exercising his right to cry it out right now.)

This week will be a big one for us--Marcus returns to work full time and I turn 31 on Wednesday. What am I getting for my birthday? Aunt Kitty is babysitting Dean so Marcus and I can go eat at Red Lobster (Thanks for the gift card, Mom and Dad!) and then come home and get another night of much-needed uninterrupted sleep. As exciting as this is, I know that, come Thursday morning, I won't be able to get my hands on my little baby fast enough. Did I mention that we kind of love him? :)