Matthew's 1st Birthday--Mama's perspective

photos by Smooch

laying his head on SMooch's shoulder
hangin' with Smooch

One of the birthday photos I posted on Matthew's site...the one where Matthew is standing next to the big caterpillar...made him look like such a big boy! Our baby days are headin' into the sunset! Having Matthew join our family when he was already 6 1/2 months has made the time go so quickly, but I know we were very fortunate to bring him home at such an early age. This morning I asked him to get a diaper for me, and he crawled over to the dresser, pulled himself up, opened the door, and reached in for a diaper! Soooo big!

Of course as most adoptive mothers probably do, I thought about Matthew's birthmom yesterday and wondered if she was thinking of him. I wondered how much different his life would be today if he had been able to stay with his birthfamily.

Taking Matthew to play at the mall was really fun! It was strange in the play area though because I was the only parent sitting on the floor, so all the other kids flocked to me. One tiny girl was hanging on me while her mom chatted on the cell phone. I finally picked her up and she promptly stuck her hand down my shirt and said "booby!" I quickly put her down. Even though Matthew was the youngest baby there, he was the stoutest of the bunch! While on the carousel I was trying to get a good photo of him...but my memory card was full, so after each bad shot I had to review and delete! This proved to be difficult to do with one hand since I was holding Matthew on his horse with the other hand. On top of it I was riding backward...and getting crazy dizzy! We had a great time in the jumping castle, and it was funny to see him tentatively crawling around until he got comfortable.

On another note, Matthew's aunt SMOOCH is here!!!! He loves her...she knows just how to make him laugh. I am "making" her hold him, feed him, play with him so that he gets used to hangin' out with someone other than his mama. Basically, she bought a plane ticket to come and babysit. It is fun to have her here because we are a lot alike...in the important things...such as this morning we baked cinnamon rolls for breakfast, then pan was still sitting on the counter when we were ready to bake cookies after lunch. Smooch asked "would it be offensive to you if I just used this same pan?" My reply was that of course she could...maybe the icing drippings would re-melt onto the cookies.......there's nothing like sugar on sugar! And there's nothing like sisters!!!!!!