My First Mother's Day and the Week in Review

What a GREAT first Mother's Day! I always wondered what it would feel like to be a Mom and now I know -- awesome!! Simon wakes up with a smile on his face each morning and I love it. Mark made me breakfast and brought it to me in bed this morning -- what a treat! Simon slept through most of my breakfast so he had his french toast later -- it was delicious. I felt very pampered and was even treated to a pedicure earlier in the week. I love, love, love spending time with Simon and watching him as he learns something new every day -- sometimes every hour! He is so smart and we feel like he's on the verge of saying more words. He is learning about one new sign language 'word' a day and amazes us with how much he understands from us and communicates to us. Such an intelligent little boy and we love him so much!!

We spent most of the day with Mark's family. Mark's sister Jennifer hosted this gathering and we had homemade pizza -- yummy. A favorite for all of us. The photo below shows another first for Simon -- his first cupcake (that we know of.) He LOVED it! Especially the icing, if you can't tell. He devoured it and signed for "more, please."

After hanging out at Jennifer's, we stopped by Mark's parent's house to visit with some of their friends. Simon was his charming self and was freely giving 'pucker kisses' today -- even Papaw got a pucker kiss. Look at those cheeks all puckered up!

Simon found the little chairs at Mamaw's house so they had a seat together. Mamaw was very glad that Simon finally warmed up to her and they had fun playing together.

Earlier in the week, Mark completed one of the many yard projects we hope to do this summer. He put in a small flower bed around the Peace Pole that he made for me. The Peace Pole says, "May Peace Prevail on Earth" in four languages: English, German, Amharic and Sanskrit. Simon helped to plant the flowers and to water them. He also learned to smell the flowers -- our way of keeping him interested in the flowers without touching them (aka, pulling them out of the ground!)

I don't know how many of you know that my bachelor's degree is in elementary education so I was excited to do some artwork with Simon this week. First project: fingerpainting. He loved it! And I have about 14 pieces of art to prove it. This was his first piece -- notice his body is paint free. At the end of our painting, he was covered from head to diaper and I had to give him a bath to get all the paint off of him!

He loves pasta of all kinds, especially ravioli. And, he likes to feed himself, as evidenced here:

One of my friends and fellow adoptive Mom's at Purdue made Simon an awesome nap mat and this doll. He is fascinated by the doll -- especially when I make the doll take a drink from his sippy cup, eat a cheerio, etc. It's so funny to watch Simon's face! He even talks to the doll and I love it. His imagination is starting to show and we love his sense of humor. I love this photo and how serious he is with the doll. Thank you, Amy!! We love and appreciate the gifts!

And finally, we ended the week with having Chris, Brian and Sean over for dinner on Saturday night. Sean is almost 5 and instantly became friends with Simon. Simon gave Sean a hug without anyone's prompting -- it was so cute! And Sean was teaching Simon how to have good manners at the dinner table, much to his parent's surprise! After dinner, we went to the first Mosey Down Main Street of the season. It was very cold outside but we enjoyed watching the boys dance to the music -- they both love music and we loved watching them dance.

So there it is! My first Mother's Day come and gone along with another fun week of being home with Simon. I think I've done pretty well at keeping my emotions in check today. I've waited so long to become a Mom and I hope that I can be the kind of Mom that Simon needs. I hope that I appreciate him enough, teach him the right things, and show my love for him to him daily. He has turned my world upside down and at times, I feel like my heart is going to burst because I love him so very much. Mark is an outstanding father and parenting with him by my side is such a privilege. He's so great at being a Dad! I spent some time this evening writing things down in Simon's adoption journey book -- I'm already afraid that I'm going to forget some things! I also spent some time thinking about Simon's birthmother and hoping that we can honor her in how we raise Simon. He is the greatest gift either of us has ever or will ever receive and we love him very deeply. I am so very, very thankful that I have the opportunity to be a Mom!