Wherein Everything Changes

October seriously just flew by before my very eyes. I'm kind of sad about it because it's my favorite month and now I have to wait a whole year for it to roll around again.

I have so much to write about October and all of the fun adventures it brought to us, but for now I just want to tell you about the most exciting one.

This calls for a drum roll.....

At the end of October we became Foster Parents! Can you believe it? We're basically a Mom and Dad now, even if it may only be temporary. I still don't think it has sunk in yet. He's the sweetest little guy and his smile is to die for. I wish I could show you, but I'm not allowed to post pictures of him, which is really hard because I want to show everyone how cute he is so badly!

There have been SO many sweet moments already that I will cherish forever. He is seriously a joy to have in our home. It's also the sweetest thing to see Jayson being a dad. He's getting to know our families now too and he's gotten to where he remembers some of them and gets excited to see them.

Some of my favorite things so far:

• He absolutely adores animals, especially dogs, so Ruby helped him warm up to us quickly. He can name a fair amount of them and it's the cutest.
•  We also have this book about whales that seems to be his favorite of all of our books. This makes me so happy. 
• I love when he pretends to be a monkey. And the way he says, "monkey".
• My other favorites are when he says "please" and "hooray!" Seriously, it's the best.
• I love when he gets excited about something and leaps into my arms with the biggest smile.
• His smile. It's so big and so cute.
• On Halloween we went to my Dad's house for a little bit and he helped hand out the Halloween candy. I didn't even really show him how, he just watched me once and then started taking candy and placing it in people's bags. 
• I took him trick-or-treating to a few houses and watching him run/skip down the sidewalk with glee was the best thing ever. 
• He also loves himself some cheese. A kid after my own heart I tell you. 
• He LOVES to snuggle. Yes!
• We took him to the Pumpkin Walk and the kiddo was just awed by the jack-o-lanterns that lined the path and didn't even pay much attention to the displays. He wanted to stop at every single jack-o-lantern. It was hilarious. 
• Also, Halloween jammies! I bought some for him and it was a dream come true. 

I'm so grateful for the opportunity this has brought to me to really get a glimpse of what it is to be a parent. I always knew it was really hard. I always knew that there were also those lovely moments that make all of the hard stuff worthwhile, but I never truly understood it until now. This experience has really opened my eyes to other mothers and I am that much more amazed at the women around me. I feel like I have a much deeper understanding of what it means when people say they're going crazy and their kid won't sleep at night or won't take naps, etc. Or when they talk about their kid just melting their heart. It's all a much bigger deal that I ever dreamed. I definitely feel like I've lost my mind and any sort of organization I had in my life, but slowly we're getting it back together, haha. I feel like I've been tunnel vision mode and I haven't been able to focus on much else but our little family and the adjustments we're making. I think we're all getting the hang of it though and it keeps getting better and better.

A lot of people have asked us how long he'll be with us for. That's the crazy thing about foster care, you generally have no idea. The ultimate goal in most cases is to re-unite their children with their family and this case is no exception. We don't know how long he'll be with us, but we're enjoying having him in our home for now and for however long he's with us.

And now, I'll leave you with some pictures of the pumpkin walk.

Small World!

And, the only picture of the family Halloween party that didn't have a picture of our little guy in it was this:

My nephew the hobbit. So cute, right?

Over and out from one tired and happy Mama.