I have had my official “I’m a mom” moment.  It is as random as my “Oh my God we are a family of 4” moment.  I’ll tell you my simple sudden realization that we are a family of 4 first.

David and I have to enroll for health insurance through his work every year.  Since we had a new addition last year, we enrolled with our new number of dependents for 2013.  When we got our insurance cards in the mail, there were two thick, plastic sheets with 2 insurance cards per page on it.  For a split second I said to myself, “Why are they sending us so many cards?!”  And then the realization hit me.  “Oh wow!  We have 2 kids!  We are a family of 4!”  I stuffed all the insurance cards into my rather large wallet and there they have remained ever since.  It was my “aha moment” for realizing we are a growing family.

My second moment came just yesterday.  Nathan has a little backpack that he takes to school with his lunch and an extra change of clothes.  It’s also the place the teachers stuff important papers with dates and events that happen throughout the school year.  Yesterday I opened Nathan’s back pack to see if he ate his lunch (he rarely does) and in it was an order form for school pictures.  It really shocked me for some reason.  “Oh wow!  We have a kid in school and now he’s getting school pictures!  I am a mom!”  I exclaimed this to David in the kitchen and he looked at me with the same puzzled/are you seriously just realizing this look that he gave me when I jumped up and down over the insurance cards.

I remember school pictures very well when I was a kid.  I would always give my mom the order form and that was that.  I rarely remembered the actual day until I was supposed to be standing in line and then I was happy because it meant a class was probably getting cut short.  Now the tables have officially turned.  Now it’s my kid giving me the order forms.  Crazy!

William keeps growing and growing and now he’s moving and moving too!  At his doctor’s appointment he was 30.25″ and 22lbs 12 oz.  He’s walking, climbing, and kicking.  The climbing has been a bit of a problem.  He likes to climb onto things like the couch, our bed, Nathan’s bed, etc and then has a tendency to fall off of them.  He can get down properly when he is thinking about it but the problem is sitting too close to the edge and then falling off backwards.  Luckily either David or myself has always been there to intervene before he hits the floor but at the rate he’s going, I fear it may only be a matter of time before he eventually tumbles off something!

William is such a delightful little guy.  His smile and personality brighten the room.  He also loves his big brother to pieces.  Whatever Nathan is doing, William wants to be doing it too.  Nathan loves William too and asks for him whenever he is taking a nap or if he goes to bed early.  Brotherly love is such a special thing watch blossom and seeing this relationship develop has been extra special to me.  It’s such a gift to have a sibling to grow up with and I am so happy William and Nathan get to experience it.

We celebrated William’s birthday at Grandpa’s house and this time Greg (my 1/2 brother) was in town visiting from Arizona, which made the whole evening all the more fun.  Grandpa cooked dinner on the grill and made his amazing mashed potatoes.   The kids were all smiles and having such a great time.  The whole night was so much fun!