This Thanksgiving, perhaps more than any past, I have a lot to be thankful for.

Let’s just start with the simple things like emerging from pregnancy free of stretch marks, wine and co-workers who like to dress up for holidays…because costumes make work fun! Also, rain boots. Also, bright blue is ‘in’ right now and I look good in bright blue so I’m thankful for that. Oh and black pants which cleverly (or not so) disguise the seemingly many-inch wider hips I acquired not during but post-pregnancy. Hmpf.

Work costumes make work fun!

Most of all, of course, I’m so incredibly thankful for our son, Henry Thomas…. for his smiles, for his cries and definitely for his pouty face because this kid has opinions and I’m truly glad for that.

Henry sports one of the best baby pouts in all of baby pouting.

A face so pouty it makes you laugh!

I’m thankful for his increasingly cheerful demeanor and the fact that his daycare teachers tell me he’s “a flirt” and “the class charmer” –literally–every single day of the week. I’m thankful that he holds hands with his mini friends and plays and babbles and sings like it’s his occupation (and I guess it is).

I’m thankful for his good health and his chubby, chubby baby thighs, his gummy hillbilly grin and his pokey, puffy tummy. I’m thankful that zerbers on his ribs crack him up and that (light) smacks on his tiny, bare, baby buns make him giggle like he just can’t get enough.

I’m thankful that he loves Timber and Newman and more so, that he loves his mom and dad. I’m thankful that he loves people and fully embraces sitters, friends and family from the get go.

I’m super thankful he recently concluded that screaming his tiny face off during every car ride, is not, in fact, a requirement of car riding, but just an optional thing meant for ‘those’ babies. (certainly not meant for HIM) Furthermore, I’m thankful that he sleeps through the night like a champ–and has done so for going on three months now–and that he LIKES sleeping through the night.

I thank the medical gods every day for the snot sucker and I thank the biology gods that he has a perfectly shaped nose to suck things out of–and that it unflattened after his trip down the canal. I thank the toe gods that he has five of the cutest, itsy bitsiest, roly poliest toes on each foot that I’ve ever seen. And that he has five stubby fingers on each hand that he (kind of) knows how to use–especially when he’s ‘talking.’

Henry’s tiny fingers and hands are quite expressive.

I’m thankful for our local friends–our local family–for rallying around us after Henry’s early birthday–and bringing more food and love than we could ever have imagined.

And perhaps, most importantly, I am thankful for my husband who gave me Henry. And I’m VERY thankful for his seemingly endless patience (especially for a guy who is not super big on patience) and dedicated perseverance in guiding our family through a year and a half chock full of ups and chock full of downs…. for laughing with me through the ups and bringing me wine during the downs…. for appeasing my every pregnancy whim and for remaining calm in the depths of those crazy summer nights when our colicky, acid-refluxy child told us what he really thought about post-natal life (NOT a fan)–and without whom I would most definitely not have survived.

I’m thankful that he’s an awesome, hands-on, step up to the plate kind of dad who is not scared to change a diaper, make a bottle or dance the baby around the living room like a ballerina (a very manly one)–a dad who takes full responsibility for getting his kid ready in the mornings before work and who has no qualms about participating in the bedtime routine at night. I’m thankful that Henry thinks this man, my husband and his dad, is pretty awesome.

Henry thinks his dad is awesome.

And, even more importantly, I’m thankful that my husband took a chance on a silly blonde girl from Kansas just about seven years ago now–and that he has never asked me to change a single essence of my being–and on the contrary, seems to love and encourage even the crazy essences of my being–and loves me more and more every day.

I’m thankful that he has pushed me to become the person i’ve become (and I like her) and that, together, we’ve created a life I couldn’t have even imagined all those years ago (pre-Portland).

Aaron, you are truly, the love of my life. And I’m thankful that you exist.

Happy Thanksgiving.