i'm back

hello long forgotten blog.  after my last post (a most fun trip to estes park), i got pregnant.  and well, a lot of things got put on hold, like, say, this blog....and cooking!...and cleaning!  but, in the hopes of remembering and savoring this life a bit more, i am taking up the habit once more.

now, it would be a pretty awful and long assignment to recount everything that took place in the past several months.  so, instead, i am just going to forge on ahead to present day.  and, present day means a new baby, two bright and beguiling five year olds, and a husband on paternity leave!

there have been countless times throughout the past two months when i have thought "this time last year, i never would have dreamed we'd have a little baby with us"...as we ate thanksgiving dinner, as we decorated the christmas tree, as we lit candles at the christmas eve service, as we bundled up and went sledding...

for me, wendell james is a very secret wish come true.  the kind of wish i barely could even speak.  and now we are so far beyond words spoken.  he is flesh, he is wiggly limbs, he is eyes wide open alert, he is coos and smiles, he is loud loud LOUD frantic crying, he is up at two in the morning and then again at four, he is a little brother, he is a dream.

when carlyle and luella were babies, i remember writing about an aching joy.  there is more of that--it brims to the top and spills over just about every time i look at him.  

we are still finding our way a bit as a family of five.  it's a big adjustment.  but, wendell is a gift.  a gift for all of us tomlins.

 at the hospital

man, oh man, he really hated bathtime at first.  but, now, it is by far his favorite time of day.

meeting she-she...wendell met all of his grandparents in the first month of life.  he is one well-loved little dude...

i have some very eager and thorough helpers.  when you ask them to get a couple toys for wendell to look at, this is what happens.  

some outtakes from the birth announcement

 there is a very good chance wendell may go into politics as an adult due to the amount of episodes of "the west wing" that have been watched while he is nursing

he is one strong baby--totally rocking out tummy time

colorado babies need cozy things

tomlin babies need vintage things