Everyday Baby Steps

This is a meme I've never participated in before.  It's hosted by Sarcastic Mom, and I enjoy seeing people's entries each week.  It's called "Weekly Winners", and all you do is post your favorite photos from the week with a short caption telling about each one. Sarcastic Mom's got a contest going on for the most entries, but I'll probably just jump in for fun every now and again.  Here are my entries for the week.  We took Noah's telescope out and spent a nice evening looking at the stars!

[caption id="attachment_303" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Noah was so excited to try out his new telescope!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_304" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Oh, the pain we endure for our kids!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_305" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="I wish I may, I wish I might..."][/caption]

My older two kids left early to spend the weekend with their dad yesterday, so it was just me and the baby.  After running errands between his catnaps, I settled in to enjoy some mommy/baby bonding time.  It hit me what a rare quiet moment I was enjoying with my newest offspring.  In the first two early months of sleep deprivation and constant feedings, on top of taking care of his brother and sister and their school schedules, I really hadn't had much of a chance to just really sit and enjoy him.  Add to that the incredible stress of money worries.  (We won't even go there - this post is about positive thinking!)  I also realized that I hadn't taken many pictures of him recently.  When we first brought him home, it seemed I was snapping photos at every opportunity.  Oh look, the baby's sleeping.  Daddy's feeding the baby; how cute!  The baby's first bath, better get the camera.  But as of late, the camera hadn't gotten much use.  So I put him on his belly and went into the bedroom to grab the camera. 

And when I returned. . .

Little stinker decided to roll over, and I missed it.  Thank goodness this wasn't the first time or I'd have been ticked! One of the errands I ran today was at the Public Assistance office to finish my application for food stamps.  The secretary was a woman I had once helped in MY office when I was a college advisor.  She told me she didn't blame me for making the decision to leave work because they grow up so fast; her own children are now 18 and 21.  Thank you, Public Assistance secretary (whose name I will keep anonymous), for helping me to appreciate the time I have and to trust that I'm making the best decisions I can for my family.  Baby steps will get us through this summer, and I can focus on earning a more substantial income when the kids are back in school.  In the meantime, I will simply focus on enjoying these special moments, one moment at a time.