I'm officially a mom!

Okay okay, I've officially been a mom now for a little over 11 months (and wow, have those 11 months just flown by)!  Tonight I decided to finally go "Christmas" shopping for Eli.  With the busyness of the deployment and packing, unpacking, blah blah blah... Shawn and I didn't shop for Eli.  I know this was his first Christmas and he probably doesn't remember a thing about it, I still wanted to get him a few things.  We braved the cold (my car read -20 and had I known it was that frigid before I got on the road, I never would've taken him out), but we did anyway.  I got him a xylophone, this big activities block that I've been eyeing up since I was carrying him in my womb and we also got the farm fridge magnets (thanks also to pap & gram and the Kohans!)

But I did a few things today that made me say I'm officially a mom. 

I carried Eli and a basket of clothes up the stairs - one on each hip.

I "lysol-ed" toys that were already prepackaged.  (Doesn't help that he's sick)

I wiped a snotty nose 38x today (Okay, I didn't really count...)

but, the one that I noticed most today was when I put the farm fridge on the fridge.  I thought about my friends Noelle, Angel and even my siblings who are all moms.  Their kids are like 3 and up and the little barn is still on their fridge.  Maybe I'm silly to think about a little barn this way, but seriously - I felt so blessed tonight when I stuck that thing on the fridge.  I smile just thinking about Eli getting to play with it. 

All I know is that Eli has made me a mom and that is the best thing to date.  He's my sidekick and I'm so glad to be home with him.

 Happy 11 months (and 4 days) Elijah!

(p.s. We miss you Shawn <3)