Mother's Day love.

It's difficult to remember exactly what I was feeling last year on my first Mother's Day.  I knew that I had entered into this new realm of love and I was so excited to celebrate this new role of motherhood.  For some odd reason, this year I had this overwhelming feeling that I could "officially" embrace and celebrate Mother's Day.  Maybe it's the fact that I am pregnant with our second child, but I believe that it has more to do with the sense that anyone can do anything for a little while.  The first year is like learning to ride a bike.  Sure, it's got its own challenges, but when you let go of the training wheels and pick up some speed, there is a grand realization that you're really doing it.  I'm really doing it.  Challenges and joys, speedbumps and spills. 
I'm a mom. 

My entire Mother's day, my heart was filled with so much joy that I felt like I was on the verge of tears.  I woke up to Julia crawling into our bed and very clearly saying, "Happy Mother's Day".   Charles made breakfast and then we went for a walk around the neighborhood.  Julia stopped to smell and pick every dandilion that she could find.  We then came home and headed to Boston for the Red Sox game.  Here are some pictures from the game.  I wonder sometimes how it could possibly get much better than this!  God is so good!

 Her first taste of cotton candy.  She mostly just liked the feeling of it in her hands.

Julia saw the Red Sox Mascot, Wally from afar in the first inning.  Because it was Mother's Day, we got the special deal of 2 mascots - Wally was accompanied by his own mother, Momma Monster.  Julia was obsessed with seeing Wally again, so we spent most of our time in between innings on a search for Wally and Momma Monster.  In the 6th inning, we finally had a close encounter with Wally.  Charles and Julia quickly ran down toward the dugout so that Julia could meet him and I chased behind with the camera.  As she came within feet of Wally she burst into tears and screamed to get away from him.  I captured this photo (see Wally's fuzzy head in the backround?) and we quickly made our way back to our seat.  We asked Julia what happened.  She said, "I scared", "I cry" and "Wally stupid". We're not really sure where she learned the word stupid, but she said it so sweetly and innocently.  Last night as we said our bedtime prayers she said that she wanted to pray for Wally.  I asked her if she liked Wally again, and she reconfirmed that "no" she did not.  I told her it's good to pray for the things that scare us too.

 On the lookout for any additional furry Mascot encounters.

Happy Mother's Day!