Our Boy

For a while now, I've been wanting to post a little photo history of Matthew over the past eighteen months that he's been home with us. We've had some fun photos taken by my friend Christi Hardy, who owns PureShots Photography. Here they are below.

Just less than a month home, our boy showed his sweet personality and good sense of humor with a gorgeous smile.

Last November, we hauled all three kids out to the backyard for a shot of all three of them. I absolutely LOVE Matthew's expression here.

That same day this silly mama made all three kids dress up in their Chinese outfits for some pictures inside by the fireplace. Matthew found this squishy yellow toy (I actually think it's a dog toy that my friend Christi brought with her) and was totally entranced. He never gave us an actual smile, but this is certainly a sweet expression. I love those big brown eyes.

This past August, we took the whole family to the Arboretum for a grandparent/grandkid shoot with my parents. Christi had some time to take a few of just my kids alone, and I love how active and engaged Matthew is with his world.

And then finally some shots of Matthew from last month, when Christi came to take our family Christmas photos.

It's going to be a very BUSY and very MERRY Christmas around our house this year, with all of sweet Matthew's activity. We keep telling ourselves, in our exhausted moments, that it's all just a stage and how wonderful it is that he's so explorative of his world. We're at that point where we can't really turn our backs on him for a minute, or he's literally getting into SOMETHING he shouldn't, but I know in retrospect we'll look back and be so GRATEFUL for the ways our boy is developing and growing.

Merry Christmas to all of you--and thanks, as always, for your support, love and care of our family as we grow and learn together.