My New Buddy

My parents are in Europe for vacation, and have left us to care for their sweet dogs, Gunner & Cody. Cody is their most recent addition, he's 12 weeks old this week. He's been my little buddy for the past 9 days....following me all around the house and curious about EVERYTHING I do. I can't get up to go get a glass of water without him being right by my side.

He's also been pretty interested in ChiChi. While they were exactly the height & weight about 3-4 weeks ago, Cody is quickly outpacing ChiChi in the "size" category. I'm worried that as he gets bigger, he won't realize just how much bigger he is and possibly hurt her. However, for now, they're good wrestling buddies.

While I've enjoyed having Gunner & Cody at our house, I'm loooking forward to my parents returning home from their trip. Walking the dogs every 5 hours and managing their feeding schedules is beginning to wear on me at this stage in our pregnancy. I'm looking forward to the few days of rest that I'll have, free of Labrador care, before delivering our first baby.

Nevertheless, its been a fun ride having little Cody and Old Man Gunner stay with us. We have a lot of love for our furry friends in this house.

A warm welcome on my front path

I came home today and was greeted by this beautiful Hibiscus flower. It was closed when I walked ChiChi this morning, and then POW!!! A punch of color just jumped out this afternoon. It made me smile so I thought I'd take a picture and share it on my blog. What a great thing to see and be greeted by when you come home.....right?

Evaluating the current stage of my life

We feel so fortunate to have a special friend like Monique Feil to help us document the milestones of our lives. A few weeks ago Monique came by our home to photograph us in the nursery. We wanted to capture this special pregnancy with a few images that we can share with "Peanut" many years down the road.

Just a few days ago, she forwarded this picture to me, which she's made into a painting. When I first opened it, a tear formed in my eye. See... the past few days I've been overwhelmed with emotions and thinking of how my life is beginning a new phase. Until now, I've held title of daughter, a sister, a cousin, a niece, a friend, an aunt, and a wife. Never have I taken on the roll of a "Mom". (well, with the exception of ChiChi- but that's different) This is going to be one of the most important things I ever do in my life, and therefore I find it a little intimidating.

Which brings me back to my point: how blessed I feel to have Mehdi by my side on this journey to parenthood. I look at this photo and just see the love we have for each other and for the little Baby we lovingly call "Peanut". Knowing that, my fears go away because I have such a great partner to travel this path with. Someday I'll show this picture to our kids and they'll see how much love our little family has and they'll know they were raised in a loving home.