Thanksgiving Day

I have thought about it and it isn't really difficult to come up with things that I am thankful for. There are hundreds of things to say, everyday. I was in bed this morning, just after feeding Archie thinking of them all. I am thankful for family; in a general way but in a very specific way too. I am thankful for the relationships that I have with my family, the friendships that I share with them, I am thankful that we can be friends and are connected by being family. I am thankful that Archie is here with us, that he is a part of our family and will eternally be. I am thankful to know that there is a Father in Heaven who loves me, loves my life, and wants what is best for me. I am thankful to know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is on the earth and that we can learn about it and gain joy from it; the plan of happiness truly gives significant, deeply satisfying joy and happiness and I am so grateful to be here to learn about it. I am thankful to live in this country, to have rights and freedoms that weren't granted 200 years ago, and still today in other places. I am thankful that I can make choices and anticipate the consequences so I can make better choices and learn from my mistakes. I am thankful to have a bed to sleep in that is warm, with heat in our home and a refrigerator full of food. I am thankful for the Internet so my parents can see their grandson through skype, so I can keep in touch with family and friends, so we can share in each other's lives and feel a sense of connection. I am thankful for hot showers, for hot cider, for Christmas trees and decorating them with bright ornaments and lights. I am thankful to be able to recognize my blessings, and I pray that I will never forget them.

Days 3 and 2

Yesterday we dipped the fondant candies in chocolate, and by 'we' I mean everyone else but me and Archie, we had other things to take care of... The chocolate is so delicious; it melts in your mouth, it is the perfect blend of sweet and smooth and savory, love love love it. Today I took a walk with Ben and Alex, Archie stayed home with his Aunt Kristen and Uncle Tyler. It was wonderful, not particularly sunshiney, but a good temperature for a short walk.
Walks clear my mind, they make me feel like I am re-energizing each part of my body, and they give me clarity, I don't always know how, but they are an important part of my day, I am thankful that there are so many people willing to go for walks with me, and to watch Archie while I take them.

Days 7,6,5 and 4

I am a little behind in writing but hopefully not in gratitude. I feel like Friday was years ago, I just can't remember what has been happening the past few days. Okay, here we go, I remembered. We took Archie for his two week appointment on Friday, and the doctor told us that he was a healthy little boy! He was back up to his birth weight plus a pound, so he is about 8 lbs. and 1 oz. He is 21 inches long, from about 19 in the hospital. His cheeks are chubbier, and so is his tummy, but his legs and arms remain long and skinny, he is definitely my husbands son. So that was a good day for us. Unfortunately Ben and I got flu shots while we were there which isn't so unfortunate in itself, but the shot made me a little sick, and my wonderful husband took such good care of Archie while I was asleep ( longer than usual). I will continue to be so thankful for all of the service and love that we get from Ben, "we" as in me and Arch. Sunday Ben stayed home with the little boy so I could go to the first block of church, then I came home and he went to the third block. I know we didn't go together, but it felt like we did. Sharing the responsibilities of taking care of Archie and taking care of each other made me feel like we are still doing things together, even if we are not physically in the same spot. Today is Monday and Grandma and Grandpa (Archie, whom Archie is named after) Brady came by to visit! I am thankful for family, for feeling loved and giving love, it is one of the simplest and most complex feelings of all, and the most rewarding.
Being a mom is getting less confusing, although I can't say that it is getting easier. I am loving it more and more, and I am getting to know my son more and more which makes taking care of him better and more full of joy. He doesn't scare me as much! He is only about 2 and 1/2 weeks old and he seems to have changed so much, I wonder what he'll look like by Christmas.

Day 8: Simple Pleasures

I was finally able to get my ring off yesterday, it had been on my finger without the possibility of coming off since about July. I love being married, and I love who I am married to, I just don't want to wear the ring for a few days. I do still have the dry red skin where the ring rested for these past 4 months, that will have to suffice as my symbol of marriage for now!
Well, with so many things to be thankful for, today I had a donut and a diet, caffeine free Dr. Pepper for breakfast...it was delicious. I also took a hot shower, took a nap while Mr. Archie was napping and read a few pages in The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, a really good book I intend to finish one of these days. Simple pleasures make the world go around some days:)

Day 9, Bigger feet...

My body is de-swelling! I am oh-so-grateful, however I think my feet got wider. They are no longer full of fluid, but they seem to be bigger, I'll know for sure when I try on my heels and can't get them all the way in. I think ever since I had little Arch I have been wearing my yellow crocs, I don't have to bend down to put them on, they are the most comfortable and if my feet are swollen no one can tell. I can almost get my ring off my finger- I guess my hands have a little de-swelling yet to do. I love Archie and I love that he is here, being pregnant was a good experience... but I am glad to be getting my body back.

Day 10

Thanksgiving is only 10 days away! For you teachers out there, and students for that matter, a break is coming soon, and lots of food!:) Today is a sunshiney day, cold outside, brisk and perfect. I wish Archie and I could go for a walk-- I think he is still too little and I am still too in recovery mode-- otherwise we would be out there. I love days like this, and that is what I am thankful for today. It is sweater weather, hot chocolate weather, and watch a movie warm in a blanket weather, I love it. When sweater weather comes again in the spring Arch and I will be ready, he already has his sweater picked out.
The photo is Archie's cousin, Alexandria, she is going out for a walk in her sweater.

11 days of thanks

I came across a friends blog today and she started 30 days of thanks. I am a little late, but there are still 11 days until thanksgiving, not that my gratitude and thanks end when thanksgiving arrives, but for now I am going to focus on being thankful everyday, for something, for someone; life seems happier when you have things to be thankful for.
Just having had a new son come into the world, I am extremely grateful for him, and for his precious little squeaks, and little hands, and for him coming to our family. I don't know how, or where it comes from but Archie makes me love my husband more, he makes me love life more, and love being who I am. Today I am thankful for Archie's influence in bringing more joy and love into my life.

Archie and his Dad hanging out, just the boys... and the front and back of the quilt that I made for Arch. It is so much more fun to make things for him than myself. I made a couple of pee pee tee pees, I'll have to take a picture of them as well! We haven't tried them yet, to our dismay, our bed is getting tiny little Archie pee all over it, mostly on my side....

I haven't written in about a month... but now things are getting exciting- so I have something to write about! I know Ben has posted his sentiments about Archie, now it is my turn. He is amazing, he makes me feel elated when I see him, he also makes me weepy and overwhelmed with love- I want to give him everything he needs, protect him from anything that is harmful, cuddle with him every time he cries. He doesn't cry that much, he squeaks and whimpers more-- it is too adorable to be upset with.
I just don't know how to fully articulate the range of emotions that go along with caring for, being responsible for and loving this little boy. It is scary at times, but I think that is why God gives us such an unexplainable ability to instantly love these little people, they need us, we need them, and life just wouldn't feel right without him, now that he is here.
My mom has been here, thank goodness, to help and lend support. Ben and I are very thankful for her and her time-- she is a genius too. We needed to run some errands, and Ben was home with Archie, but he was upstairs and Archie's room is downstairs, and I just wasn't ready to leave him on his own in a room, so my mom put together a makeshift bed in our laundry basket and we brought Arch to Ben! He didn't move the entire hour and a half that we were gone, he was just cuddled in his basket- perfect solution.
I can't wait to introduce little Arch to all of you, and I can't wait for all of you to be a part of his life. Thank you for all the support and encouragement, and your love.

Arch is Archie and Archie might be a Sarch

Ben here,

I feel I have to qualify all my posts so that Kate isn't held liable for any of my idiosyncratic blunders. Today's qualification: Ben loves Arch, Kate, and blogging on the weekends. Okay, so probably this weekend more than most. The news is out and at least thirty to forty of the most informed members of the Manker-Brady tribe have been notified. Arch came and Kate couldn't be happier. I am happy too, but in a certain way, I am thinking that as Kate's pregnancy is ending, and mine is just beginning. So, I am still working on making sense of the happiness I am feeling.

I know, announcing my pregnancy is a bit weird. Just follow me for a minute. After managing all the the life adjustments Kate has undergone as Arch gradually took up more and more space in her mid-region, as well as the myriad other emotional, unseen changes she underwent, Arch's arrival has brought her a flood of emotional satisfaction, almost rewarding her for all the sacrifice and acute labor pains she experienced. As for me, most of my discomfort came in the form of having less of a share of the pillows in bed, less kissing (the moment Kate became pregnant, my breath became death stench 85), and a few more minutes of back rubbing and feet rubbing for Kate. Needless to say, I haven't born the elephants share of Arch's development. But he is here now, and I am learning what it is now to not only be a dad, but to be pregnant. Everything has changed. Less sleep might be an easy target of identifying the change, but what I am trying to communicate is much more than a few less hours of sleep at night. I am responsible in a way that is humbling. I am pregnant in a non-abortive, rest of my life relationship with this child. Arch needs a dad and these past few days, I have felt that being his pa means something I hadn't considered before. Maybe it is for this reason that I look at my experience as being identifiably different than Kate's. Arch has already been in need of her. He, only now, seems to present himself to me such that I recognize him needing me too.

I suppose at the bottom of this idea I am attempting to communicate is a reversal of perception I have had. It is not so much that WE get him, but HE gets us. Arch's birth is a moment of recognizing how vulnerable and dependent he is on us. One moment of looking at him and I recognized that he is infinitely more than I could describe. He is him. He is a complete everything, more than simply a son, a boy and a baby. He is a life of infinite potential. Feeling this has altered my perception from what he means to me, to what I mean to him, to the role he depends on me filling in his life, as his father. Not only does he get us, but he will need us for the next while. Physically, emotionally, even socially, he will learn from the type of environment which WE choose to provide for him. His initial world reality will be that which Kate and I have a large stake in presenting. We are an addition to Arch's family as much as he is an addition to our family. Jokingly, I want to exclaim, Good luck pal, I know you didn't ask for us! But I cannot believe that his arrival to us was the 'card' he drew, or solely reducible to biological explanations. He is here and he is with us. No matter how much I can try to describe it, I am overwhelmed with the greater, more eternal experience of birth, mortality and death. These all seem such false divides in the face of Arch. He is HIM, and he is here with us for now. I am happy and grateful to have him.

We are in the hospital still and Kate's lunch just arrived, I am going to go vulture it before she eats all the good stuff.

Love you all and thank you for your support.

Benjamin

Archie Bernard Brady!

Archie Bernard Brady was born on November 7th around one o'clock pm. He weighs 7 lbs 1oz and is 19 inches long. He has lots of dark hair with a little curl, an adorable chubby face. His legs are long, skinny and wrinkly and his feet are exactly like his daddy's! They are long and skinny with really long toes! Basically he is adorable and is finally here whoo hoo!
-Posted by Lil' Arch's auntie, more will come from the parents!!!

Baby Arch is finally here!