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Atticus June/July

I cannot believe this little punkin is about to be two years old, or as he would say, in answer to your question, “I’m almost TWO!” What a journey he has taken me on over the past two years. Although he has been the easiest child in the world to care for — no allergies, two ear infections and no other doctor visits, no food refusals (unless you count rutabaga turnips, which I don’t, because how many people really love those, anyway?), beautiful routine-follower, strong, adventuresome, polite, and downright funny — it has still been one of the hardest things I’ve ever undertaken. Perhaps because I see what a huge responsibility I have — to him, to our family, to society at large — and perhaps because I want so much to do it the best I can.

I would be lying if I said that all that’s great about him did not come with struggles. It most certainly did. I am proud and happy to say that he has never drunk any kind of baby formula — he was a master nursing baby from birth, and I was so happy about it, if overwhelmingly exhausted. Because I continued to work full-time, away from home, I know that he considered nighttime to be our time. It was especially difficult because I was going to class two nights a week, working on finishing my Masters degree. For a very, very long time, he wanted to nurse every 1.5 to 2 hours, and that nearly killed me. I think I can say, in all honesty, except for one night between birth and the day he was 15 months old, that there was ONE night during which I slept more than 2 hours at a time, uninterrupted. The day after he turned 15 months old, I had a surgery and a LOT of pain medications that required that I stop nursing. He handled it completely fine, and blast! if he didn’t sleep all night that night! Whatever the circumstances, I was thrilled — there were many nights after that, while I was recuperating that Chris got up with him however many times he needed something, and I appreciated that help more than anything!

I so regret not having made the time and mustered the energy to write about this mothering experience more along the way, but perhaps it is for the best — those memories are safe with me, and I think I could tap into them if anyone ever needed some advice or just to hear that some other mom’s experience was similar to her own.

I feel like I have had a million epiphanies over the two years and that if I would have documented them better, I might have even more wisdom to share, but perhaps they are safe, too, waiting for the right time to re-emerge. We shall see.

I am allegedly having a yard sale this weekend, and while I am more prepared than I expected with four days to go, there are still a ton of things that I need to get in order before Saturday morning arrives. Most importantly, I have coffee for that early morning, and I have a chair to sit in, and a book to read whilst awaiting customers. I have not placed an ad, though, which is what I came in here to do, and look where that got me.

Hope you like the pics — I am going to be more diligent about posting new ones here.