luggage, letters, locomotives, life.....

In two months it will be 2011, the end of the year always leaves me wondering where the time goes and how can we ever really capture our life wholly and completely?

Sometimes I feel like life is like luggage on a baggage carousel going round and round...just when you think you have a good grip on it, it slips away, back on the carousel....waiting again for the moment to be able to pick it up and hold it in your arms with a sure grip when suddenly, you lose track of it again...

When we are young we have such a clear, neat vision of how life will be, a poem of sorts; a symphony of words laid out carefully and meticulously....in actuality, life is more like a game of scrabble, words put together awkwardly at times, being stuck with that "K" that doesn't meld with the rest of the vowels you are holding, so you patiently wait, sometimes at the mercy of someone else's letters...And every once in a while you are able to put all your tiles together to form that perfect sought after seven letter word. Now, did the person before block your spot? Sometimes yes, sometimes no....but you focus and find things you never thought you could have had, with enough patience that triple letter space even opens up from time to time and you react quickly to seize on the opportunity....in the end you spent the time with people who you enjoy and made the best of the letters you pulled out of that darn sock...not very poetic, but that sock is really very practical...

Michael is two years a three months, today is literally the three year anniversary of his conception....I remember I had a faint cramp in my left side, an indication that ovulation had commenced, and I knew with every fiber of my being that that day a baby would be made...the rest as they say is history...

Michael is such a bright light, so fun loving, gentle, compassionate, and smart in ways I could not have ever expected. He now sleeps in his big boy bed (albeit butted up against mommy and daddy's bed), and lately every waking moment is about Thomas the Train Engine and all of his friends...Thomas, James, Henry, Percy, Emily, Culdee, Gordon, Toby...etc...He loves his guys with a passion and we tote them around just about every where we go these days.

This weekend is daylight saving, that glorious Saturday night when the clocks magically turn back and we awake feeling very refreshed after that extra hour...I always feel so satisfied to get that hour of my life back...every moment counts doesn't it......

Can't post video

For some reason, my videos are not posting...will hopefully get them up real soon ya hear!

Measure of Success!

So often over the last several months, I have come to the Blog to make an entry and have been met with a sort of "writers block", which I think in true terms means a "fear of failure"...I am not witty enough, not inspired (or inspiring) enough, not interesting enough...and the list goes on....

In reality, in the eyes of my son (Michael Henry if you haven't figured that out by now), I am the funniest, wittiest, most exhilaratingly inspiring and interesting character on the face of this planet! At the end of the day what better measure of success is there in life! One might proclaim, "Well, he is just a toddler with a limited frame of reference!" To which I profess (with chest in full puff) "Nonsense! He just has an impeccable sense of all that is AWESOME!" Incidentally, I still think all of the aforementioned things about my mommy and I am 37 years old, so I may not be that off base here, in any case, it gives me something to continue to live up to for the rest of my days, and that is one challenge I delight in!

Over the past several months, we are continually amazed with how clever, funny, and remarkable Michael is. The most important thing to me is the realization that your child has a conscience and is truly connected. When mommy or daddy seem sad (or sometimes just do the pretend cry bit) Michael immediately stops what he is doing to come over and console us with a loving hug and a gently rested head in our lap. To call it heartwarming would be an understatement! With autism being so rampant, it makes me sad to think that there are so many parents waiting to be met with that spark of connectedness from their child. On a hopeful note, with organizations such as Autism Speaks, we seem to be making better progress on that front than we have in the last several decades and some findings seem promising.

I can go on to brag about how many words Michael says, how athletic and coordinated he is (if I didn't have such high hopes for a neurosurgeon or something of that nature, I would venture say he has all the makings to be a Yankee pitcher one day), how well behaved he is, but rather than go on and on about that, I choose to just dazzle you with some photos and videos! ENJOY!