to this:
...the most obvious difference being that the baby is now on the outside! Zachary's birth and the welcoming of him into our family has been our most beautiful summer highlight. Our little Chunky Monkey is 8 weeks old today.
As the nickname suggests, he's been putting on plenty of rolls, which means, that my rolls are decreasing. It's a good arrangement! So the summer has been filled with LOTS of newborn-cuddling time...
One of the cuddlers was my Grandma Dorothy! She came to visit for 3 weeks, and we had some really sweet "Grandma time".
We appreciate her countenance and life experience so much. Love hearing stories about the extended family we've never known and accounts from the Great Depression. One of my favorite stories from this visit was about how she used to love to dance. This story was prompted by the classical music playing from Zachy's baby swing. She grabbed hold of Keiki's hands and tried to dance with him. Toddler-style, he just giggled and fell down onto the floor! Grandma then told of how one of her brothers and his friends would have barn dances...and she would waltz and waltz and have such fun. Her eyes sort of drifted off as she smiled...and then she said to nobody in particular, "I've had a good life."
True to Dassow style, we've kept things pretty low-key and free... We made sure to get in plenty of walks and bike rides
and we've spent a lot of time working and playing in the garden.
A simple but cool thing we added to the garden area this year is a little "knee-high garden for the tot! He is SO proud of his own little garden, which he can rake, sow, plant, water, and pick to his heart's content! LOVE this idea which I got from a Sharon Lovejoy book (more on those in another post!) Having their very own garden cultivates (pardon the pun) a love a gardening in a child's heart. It's so refreshing for little ones to have total control over their own little garden space.
Just look how proud he was of his first produce! He did this totally by himself. We're still amazed that anything grew in his little box, with all the prodding, plucking, and WATERING that went on!
We've also gotten in a little "tree fort" building...
...prompting this middle child to look for bargains on nails and screws at weekend garage sales!
We had a couple special events, including Little Brother's Infant Prayer Service at our church.
It was so special to us to have one of our elders and his wife, with our entire congregation, stop and take time to pray for us and our baby son.
We also celebrated Wise Bobcat's 11th birthday recently.
We're now proud parents of a middle-schooler.
what.
in.
the.
world.
Time just moves so fast. I'm enjoying all the sweet, fleeting moments...including this summer's swan song.
