A bit about this weekend...

Jared's birthday was on Thursday, but I worked a 12-hour shift, and it happened to be one of the most terrible shifts of my nursing career (the kind of day that makes you ask yourself why you continue being a nurse), so we celebrated on Friday.  Putting Thursday's craziness behind me,  Jesse and I made Jared's favorite desserts - red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting (((YUMMY!!!)))

Jesse especially loved the frosting, as you can see, and we quietly celebrated the birthday of my favorite boy in the whole world!  

Saturday morning was super warm (a pleasant contrast the barely-above-freezing weather we've been experiencing lately), so we hopped on our bikes, outfitted with the kid carrier, and headed down to the river for some exploring.  The banks of the river are covered in discarded oyster shells, and Jesse enjoyed "finding" the shells, and putting them back in the river where they belong.

A gigantic pelican was on the shore as well, trying his hardest to swallow his fishy breakfast.  Can you see the shadow of the fish in his pouch?  He finally got it down with a bit of a fight.

And just because I cannot stand to waste a minute of precious sunshine, when we got home, we decided to plant a few seeds in anticipation of the oncoming Spring.  Jesse was fascinated by the wet soil, and how the seeds were all different sizes.  The pumpkin seeds are much larger than the tomatoes, aren't they?!

Lunch.  Then off the car for the nearly 2-hour drive to Jekyll Island, with the hope that Jesse would grab a nap in the car (he didn't, by the way), to visit Jared's brother who is playing in an ultimate frisbee tournament there.  It was a nice enough visit, with a birthday dinner of lowcountry boil (sausage, corn, new potatoes, and shrimp) for Jared, and then back in the car for home. 

We were nearly home, when the terrible gurgling of a two-year-old's belly broke the silence, and out came the most ridiculous amount of projectile vomit you could possibly imagine from that sweet little boy in the back seat.  Poor thing!  I jumped from the confines of my seat belt, and scooped up as much partially digested sausage as I could from his little lap in the pitch dark of the car.  It was all so terrible, that the three of us just had to laugh!  And after one more gurgling blow out, Jesse smiled, laughed, and said, "I'm done."  We laughed the rest of the way home.

All of that to say, I feel like I've officially been initiated into motherhood.  Jared and I waited so long to have a family, and whether we are basking in the warmth of Spring-like sunshine, or experiencing the really gross, unfortunate parts of being parents, I see that it's all a blessing.  I am so thankful to have Jesse in our life!