my oh may.

What hasn't happened in May?

Let's start with my cute husband. He got glasses! Don't you love them?

He is also coaching a soccer team to a pretty fabulous record...State is at the end of the month.

Keep your fingers crossed.

This one is for Dad and Brittany :-).

This is Will on the day of the terrible storms that destroyed the Southeast. Will's expression captures it: oh my. Over 200 tornadoes ripped through the southern states, and while we and our friends were super lucky, our neighbors to the south and east of us weren't: lots of devastation right around our corner. Terrible. It was scary. Right before the fourth and fifth storms were about to hit, Will and I decided to join Clay over at the dorm (he was on duty). We hung out in our old apartment with our dear friends, including Lauren (below):

This was taken about 9:30 p.m. Can't you tell Will is thinking,

"What the heck is going on? I should be sleeping right now, people!"

Although most of us didn't have cable, internet, or power for several days, my walking friends and I forged ahead with our Royal Wedding Party at 5:30 a.m. Rose mimosas, cinnamon pastries, and English tea...yummy! Kate sure did look beautiful, huh? I am not ashamed to say it: I loved every minute of it. I will always love a good wedding.

The next week Will and I headed downtown to catch the local crew races. We ran into sweet Jane (above) and Erin (below).

Rhymes (below) has become my walking partner in the afternoons. She pushes Will's stroller while I walk Camden--oh what a help she is!

And then...DERBY WEEKEND IN LOUISVILLE!

MOTHER'S DAY IN LOUISVILLE!

My super wonderful friend (and Will's godmother) Kat came along with me for a fun girls' weekend. Bourbon slushies met us in Julep cups as soon as we walked in the door. Heaven.

Will knows to reach for the good stuff.

Yay for Poppy!

Saturday found us touring some Louisville hotspots, including Lynn's Paradise Cafe.

Love it when everyone is looking different directions in a picture :-).

We couldn't resist texting pictures of these to Clay. Go Blue!

Kat made us a delicious summer salad post-Derby.

And then it was...MOTHER'S DAY!

Will and I were so happy to be with my mother on this special day.

If only we could have been with Kay too!

Will thought breakfast in bed was a grand idea. He also thought the cards tasted delicious.

After Church, we went out for a yummy brunch as a family.

Check out Will's bib. He is wearing the same outfit in the bib that he is wearing here. That means either he is extremely coordinated or his mother dresses him in this outfit a lot.

I prefer to think the former.

Dad and his mom, dear Nonna!

On this day more than any other Mother's Day, I am so aware and humbled by my mother's selflessness, thoughtfulness, and devotion. She has more than taught me what is truly important: she has modeled it through her caring emails, willingness to help me with whatever I need, and graceful encouragement and understanding. She is my inspiration!

I love this picture. Will is thinking, "You two are crazy people."

The three mothers and our wonderful men!

I feel so lucky to be Will's mom. I'll say it again: every day feels like Christmas, like I won the jackpot. Will makes me so, so happy, and I feel constant gratitude that Clay and I have been blessed with a joyful, healthy, growing boy. On this Mother's Day, I feel honored to join the mom's club: a group of women around the world who know what it feels like to have their hearts walk around outside of their bodies. The depth of love and devotion I have for Will is indescribable--and I love that that depth is felt by moms everywhere.

Will is my constant gift. I cherish him!

I am so thankful for these and all the beautiful women in my life.

And now for today: Will's ELEVEN month birthday!

I love this series of shots: Camden staring wistfully at Will's chopped treats.

Camden staring Will DOWN.

Will realizing that Camden wants his food and laughing about it. Camden is not amused.

Here are a few notes about Will at 11 months:

* He isn't crawling or walking yet, but he LOVES to grab our fingers and pull himself up to standing.

* He loves Cheerios and grapes. He does not love mango (go figure).

* He is definitely in the midst of a separation anxiety phase. He can go from happy in Mama's arms to shrieking in another person's arms real quick.

* He is sleeping 12 hours a night. What a champ.

* He finds pillow fights extremely funny.

(Don't ask me how I found this out--I can't remember myself.)

* He is babbling a lot, but no consistent words yet.

*Dropping food and toys on the floor is SO fun :-).

And tomorrow is another special day...

easter.

Okay, so this isn't Easter. Yet. It's Palm Sunday. We're loving the palm.

And this isn't Easter either. It's our final dinner party before we move to NYC. We thought we would go out with a bang, so our recipe for the evening included dear friends

(Kat, Ashley, and Emily)...

Emily and Shelby...

Kat and Nate...

An ice cream cake...

(a really frozen ice cream cake)...

And one cute little boy :-). In monogrammed PJ's.

It was a great night.

Okay, now it's Easter! Hallelujah!

Sweet.

After church and brunch and naps and a walk and cooking, we decided there would be no better way to end Easter than to take a dip in the Lake--our first one of the season!

(thank you, Shannon, for the adorable personalized t-shirts!)

William says "Happy Easter!"

Holy Week.

I have loved the Maundy Thursday service since my first year at Saint James. The meaning of the Eucharist is so clear, the stripping of the altar is powerful, and the hymns always seem full of conviction. It's a service of contradictions: joy and horror, life and death, light and dark. Maundy supposedly refers to the Latin "mandatum," or commandment. It refers to Christ's command that we love one another as He loved us.

This idea of loving each other is easy to think that we got down, but it's perhaps the greatest lesson I have been learning this year as a parent. I took Will to church by myself tonight (Clay was in Nashville for a soccer game) and initially I brought him into the sanctuary to worship with me. As the service became more reflective and solemn, Will became more restless and vocal, so right before the sermon I slipped out and took Will to the nursery.

Now, we love Carmen and Alisha and all the women in the nursery--they couldn't be any nicer--but the handoff is never easy. Tonight it was downright painful. Will looked at me, clenched his tiny fists onto my shirt, and started to cry. As Carmen lifted him into her arms, Will wailed and kept reaching back for me. I tried to reason with Will, but Carmen was clearly more experienced than I and eventually ushered me out the door. But it was hard for me to just walk away, and fortunately I found a spot to sit in a church hallway where I could hear the sermon and hear Will in the nursery. I plopped down one the floor by myself and listened.

Lucky for me, Suzanne was preaching. I love her. And as a mother and grandmother, she often references her love for her little ones. At one moment in her sermon, I could hear her take a deep breath and then I could hear her shaky voice. She seemed on the verge of tears. She talked about the love that is involved in this holiday, the love based on sacrifice and trust and hope in the future. She talked about how we are told in Christ's final hours to love one another as best we can. And in the moments when she paused, I could clearly hear my sweet Will's cry. And so there I sat, in the church hallway, crying because once again life was more magnanimous than I expected.

I know it's a cheesy saying, but it's true: "Being a mother is having your heart walk around outside your body." This love I have for Will is greater and more encompassing than anything I ever expected. I now understand why people sign up in dozens for Race for the Cure or why my students' parents care so much about their daughters' progress in my course or why people go to such lengths to adopt children. I look at children now and I feel such responsibility to be a good person, to do the right thing over and over and over again just because this world is tough enough as it is.

I know that I won't be able to comfort Will forever, or hold his hand and stroke his cheek forever, or hold him and rock him to sleep as I did tonight forever. I know those moments are precious. And I thank God that I have moments like tonight over and over again when I realize how sacred they are. But Will makes me more committed than ever to being a thoughtful, generous, understanding woman of integrity. He makes me think all day long about what the right decisions are...

I may never fully understand Christ's love for us, but my understanding of love has exploded since Will was born. So this year I thank God for showing me how holy and whole love can be.

10 months.

Hooray!

Will went from "reading" to focusing intently on grabbing the paper and eating it.

Do we love the spoon in the mouth look? Oh yes we do 'cause it means that our little man is into eating, which hasn't always been the case :-) At 10 months, he is more than eager to feed himself, especially YoBaby yogurt, his fave.

Love this face. Only took me 20 pictures to finally catch it :-).

We are spending lots of time these days cheering on Daddy's soccer team and going for long walks. Don't worry: baby sunscreen has become my new best friend.

Here we are eating our appetizer of Cheerios and strawberries. He is such a clean eater!

I am so proud.

Folks, it got a lot messier than even this. Baths are now a favorite nightly activity, both because it is so hot and sticky here and because Will has food all over him by day's end.

Still haven't quite figured out crawling but we've got the flailing arms and legs move down pat.

Love.

That gaze gets me every time.

We love eating, yes we do, we love eating, how 'bout you?

This is how we roll at dinner time. He is so frickin' cute that sometimes I do a little song and dance routine for him to make him laugh. He pounds the spoon and giggles away.

I didn't know I could fall in love with him any more but I think I am...

I asked him a philosophical question here.

He's thinking.

Louisville Slugger shirt!

It's been a long but great day.

A few more things about Will at 10 months:

1.) He loves to walk when we hold both of his hands. He wants to practice all the time.

2.) He LOVES his Sandra Boynton "Doggies" book. For some reason, "Woof!" is the funniest word in the English language to him.

3.) Church has become interesting. We drop him off in the nursery for Sunday School, but we really want to share worship with him, so we bring him with us to the service. The only thing is that church begins smack in the middle of his usual nap time, so he is increasingly tired and thus distracted and wiggly during the service. Thankfully the people in front of us and behind us today were super loving and understanding, but Clay and I aren't quite sure how to navigate this in the future. Selfishly we don't want to put him in the nursery the whole time because a.) he loves all the music and beauty of the service, and b.) we are away from him 5 out of 7 mornings a week. We don't want to drop him off with other people on the weekends! We want to be with him!

4.) He loves Cheerios.

5.) He continues to think Camden is both sweet and funny. They are so good to each other.

6.) He is saying "dada" all the time--and "mama" sometimes. But most of the time it is "baba"

7.) He continues to love the Johnny Jump-up.

8.) He is such a great napper. He loves sleeping. He hardly ever cries when we put him down--he just rolls on this side, faces the wall, and is down for the count. He slept until 8:30 both mornings this weekend, God love him.

We are already looking forward to his first birthday party, which will sadly also be our going away party. We can't wait to show our love and gratitude to our Chattanooga family. And I am pumped to make a cake. I am not sure what it will look like yet, but I am pumped to make it :).