Thank You Mom

I'd like to take a moment to thank my mom for this beautiful watercolor painting of Kieran she painted for our home. It was a year ago today that we moved into the house we built and in some ways it seems like we've barely been here at all and on some days it seems like we've always been here (especially if you check out all the carpet stains we've managed to accumulate in only 365 short days). A year ago we were huffing and puffing and moving everything into this house, not knowing how long it was going to take to start feeling like home. Would we ever forget the sensation of walking through our first home, moving from room to room, sensing each corner before it came, each floorboard squeak before it happened? Does anyone really forget those sensations though?

At first it felt like we were on some kind of strange vacation and that eventually we would return to our old house. From time to time Kieran would tell us he missed it. We would think about all we invested in it, time, money, labor. Painting, re-flooring, gutting rooms, adding a deck, and on and on. We remembered bringing our babies home to it. Having parties in it. Visiting with neighbors in front of it.

But slowly our new house has also become home. After a year it doesn't feel like we're on vacation here, and we don't accidentally turn onto our old street anymore. We have painted and drywalled and done many of the tasks we resented in our older house, but we've found we're still fixer-uppers :) We still know the feel of our old house by heart (and maybe we always will) but we know this one too.

So a year ago we moved here. And on Christmas Eve my mother gave us this painting of Kieran at the pumpkin patch for a Christmas/moving in gift. It's so much more impressive and lovely in person, a reminder of our sweet boy and also a reminder of one of my mother's many amazing talents. It was such a wonderful gift and it warmed our new house like no other art and I don't think I've ever properly thanked her, as mere words simply don't seem enough for something that she worked so hard on and gave us so unselfishly (I know you wanted to keep it for yourself, mom!) Recently the painting was gone from the wall as mom took it for an art show and we really missed it-I almost posted a few weeks ago about it, an "ode to this painting" post, as we were so happy to have it back! We know that in the future there will be an Andie one as well, but we're waiting patiently, good watercolor paintings take time you know!

We're so fortunate to have had such a great year, filled with family, friends, a new home, lovely art, good health. The works. So lucky.