One Week and Counting...

Today marks exactly one week!  One week before we welcome Cooper Ayden Linley into the world.  One week until Jeremy and I become parents of 2 boys.  One week until I go to the hospital to have surgery.  One week before I'm blissfully reminded of all the smells, softness and wonderment that goes along with a newborn baby.

On one hand I cannot wait!!!  Life as Owen's Momma and Dadda has been so much fun.  It's been filled with challenge, laughter, reward and taught me and Jeremy so much about ourselves.  I have no doubt that life with Cooper will be more of the same!

On the other hand, I'm finding myself a little bit sad.  Another phase of our lives is passing.  We are going from parents of one to two.  Our time as the Linley 3 is quickly coming to a close.  I went back to re-read some of the things I wrote about the time prior to us having Owen.  I started here.  After re-reading it, of course I cried. And I remembered it...so well.  I remember the feeling in my stomach.  The excitement, mixed with nervousness, mixed with HOLYCRAP!!  We have no idea what we are doing!!

After reading it though, I feel like I need to take a Life Jar account for this time in our lives now.  Because I could bottle up a life jar this time around probably even easier than ever before.  And sit it right next to the one of life before Owen.  This one might say, life before Cooper, or life as the Linley 3.  I'd bottle up my memories from our first two and some years of Owen's life.  Everything from the first moment I saw his chubby little cheeks...and he shut his eyes and slept in my arms.  To that unspoken and not even fully realized bond that I cannot explain. There'd be dancing to Jason Mraz at 2am and bringing him home for the first time.  Our first trip to the Botanical Gardens...taking him in our baby carrier and how much he truly loved the time just as much we did!  The fountains and the flowers and the colors!!  Watching him explore the zoo. Going to the pumpkin patch and watching Owen taste an apple for the first time. Go swimming. See fireworks. Eat sweet potatoes. Clap for himself. I'd have to put pictures of his first birthday party, first tuxedo, first halloween costume.  His silly blue hat with the pointy fleece coming out of the top.  The video of him falling back into Jeremy's arms and making us laugh so hard we cried.  Moments like watching him learn to walk and that first time he gave me a kiss just because he wanted to.  Him falling asleep on my shoulder now.  Or crashing at a table in Bread Company.  Or him putting his precious palm up to my lips because he likes for you to kiss his hand before he falls asleep.  Having him come crawling into our bed saying Hey You at 3:45am and through my fog of sleepiness, laughing till I cried.  Watching him and Jeremy dance and play every single day they are together.  Telling Deci "good girl" and patting her on the back.  There'd also be some peaceful adult times to include the jar also.  Like after a day together, knowing he is sound asleep and Jer and I curling up and watching a movie and enjoying a little time to ourselves.  Talking until 12am because it was the first time in a whole day we'd had a moment to talk.  Our first overnight away to Pere Marquette and how much fun it was to be a husband and wife enjoying a date and talking about how wonderful life with Owen had been so far.  Taking a few trips to the Lake and enjoying time with friends and what it felt like to sleep in again!  Lots of great things that have a new meaning once you begin your life as a parent.  Those things and so many more would make up my life jar of Linley 3 moments.

What's amazing to me is that our life jar still has all the same things it did before...Jer's hugs at the end of the day.   His shoulder to cry on.  Our laundry to pick up and our things about our home.  But there is just so much more...and so many new things.  Little sandals.  Tiny t-shirts.  Race cars, dinosaur toys and DVD boxes.  There are sippy cups in our dishwasher and painted handprints on our refrigerator door.  Our life is richer, fuller, and WAY more unpredictable than it ever was before.  And our life jar is much more colorful now.  And I think before we had Owen, I knew those things were part of the promise of children.  But now as we look forward to the future with another amazing little boy to raise, I imagine we'll have a whole new world of colors to add.  Cooper's colors and toys and stories. All the blessings that a new life means.

I think the most amazing part of all of this is looking back at me less than 3 years ago.  Preparing for a baby. Thinking about all the changes.  And how much more sure I am of myself as a mother.  How much more sure I am of Jer and I as a team.  How much in the short time we've had Owen and been parenting together, that Jeremy and I are more of a team than we ever imagined that we would/could be. I assume our teamwork will get even stronger as we learn to spread ourselves out for two children instead of just one.  Life certainly never ceases to amaze me.  And I know this next chapter, this next jar waiting to be filled with wonderful things, will be just as amazing as the last few have been.  I'm a blessed and lucky girl.  And remembering that above everything else, puts a twinkle to even the simplest things in my life!

Jer, thanks for another wonderful couple of years.  Lord knows we've been challenged and tested.  But I'm so proud of us.  I'm proud of our family, our home, the people we've become.  I can't wait to meet Cooper and see what lessons he has to teach us about this thing called life. And take on the blessing of raising not one, but two wonderful boys together!

Owen, bubba, my baby boy...I feel as amazed by you today as I did just two and a half years ago.  You light up my life.  Make me laugh and I'm can't imagine a day in this life without you.  Your smile, energy for life and sweet little spirit help me to know that God must think of a lot of me.  He gave me you.  And what a wonderful gift that has been!

Ready or not...in one week...the Linley 3 become the Linley 4!!!