Matthew's First Easter

We have had a wonderful weekend celebrating Jesus' death and resurrection with our friends and family, and especially with our baby Matthew! We spent yesterday with DH's family, and then we worshiped this morning with our church family. We usually start with a breakfast potluck but Matthew derailed that when he awoke at 5:00 this morning wanting to party!

Easter is my favorite holiday of the year--the joy among believers is contagious! Christ died on Friday and was discovered to have risen on Sunday. Diana made a wonderful observation that Saturday actually has a mystery all its own because sometime Saturday night is when Christ actually rose, as his tomb was discovered empty first thing the next morning. Wow! I'm actually sad that the day is over because I enjoy this holiday so much! Christ is risen, He is risen indeed!!

He also turned 3 months old this weekend!


DH's family has gained 3 members (myself and Matthew included) since the last time they had a formal family portrait, so we had one done yesterday. We also did individual family units. Here is a shot from my camera while the professional was shooting:


He also met Aunt Tina, DH's sister, for the first time this week:


We don't do or plan to do the Easter bunny (or Santa Claus or any of their friends) but I did want to commemorate Matthew's first Easter somehow, so we got him a little book called "What is Easter." Matthew and I sat in the chair and Todd read the book to us. I hope we can read it to him every year until he outgrows it and needs another one for an older child, and ultimately, the scripture itself. While I am content to keep him little forever, I know one of the greatest joys of him growing up will be watching him start to understand God and faith.

So here's my dapper dude:


And here he is with his book:


The 3 of us:


And changing his clothes, we had some fun mommy-son time:


Matthew is working on two new skills. The other day, I found him in his crib, rotated 180 degrees from the position I lay him in. Then I watched him on the monitor for a while and he flipped up off his back and on his side and tried to roll over. He made it almost all the way, and then he crashed into the side of the crib. He would have made it all the way if he hadn't crashed.

Then, today, he decided to grab onto a cup lid that Aunt T was holding. He held it by himself with both hands at times, and just one at other times. It was the first time he's ever intentionally held anything (he's grasped my hair or hand out of reflex but never actually held anything). It's so fun to watch his little mind develop.

The downside of the weekend was that my best friend left, which was just so, so difficult. When we've seen each other before since they moved, we've always had a "next time" planned. Now, things are just open-ended and we don't know when we'll see each other again. It's so hard to be apart, and to not be able to share this special time with each other and our kids. For 3 weeks, things were so beautiful and normal. I miss that. But the time she was here was amazing, so I'm trying to focus on that.

We have some fun time with Aunt T in store for us this week, so I am looking forward to that.

I hope you all had a wonderful Resurrection day! God bless you all!