Despite still trying to get over the worst cold I’ve had in a long time, and despite the fact that Liam is showing signs of catching said cold by sporting a runny nose – today has been the perfect day.

We’ve been living in our new home for a few weeks now; I’ve been back to work for a few weeks now. Things have settled down and we feel comfortable in our new surroundings and routine. We’re getting the hang of it. This morning Liam woke early, and Lucas brought him to bed with us to eat and enjoy some snuggle time. We all watched a replay of last night’s Flames game and played (Liam loves to “stand” and “fly” in the air these days, so he mostly played) all cozy under the blankets together. Lucas fell asleep, and Liam went down for a nap. I got up and decided I was in the mood for some homemade chicken soup, it being a lazy “sick” lay-around-the-house day, so I threw together something for the slow cooker that would simmer all day and make us feel good at dinnertime. I even put together some homemade bread to bake. The boys woke up as I was finishing in the kitchen, and we lounged around the living room together and played on the floor some more. As we were all giggling at each other on the floor for no reason at all, it hit me.

This is perfection. This is happiness. And this is my life.

I am incredibly lucky to have such a wonderful husband and our beautiful son. Snuggling together, smiling and laughing and eating something that’s cooked all day from scratch together (Well, Liam didn’t have soup and bread, but… you know) in our new home, without anything else to do but enjoy each other’s company all day… well, if that’s not perfection than I don’t know what else it could possibly be. Even with my cold still lingering, and even dealing with the heartbreak of seeing my four month old with his first runny nose… today was great. And I look forward to many more days like it.

So now as I reflect over the whirlwind of the past few months – having a baby, moving into our first home, going back to work, the wonderful visit with my in-laws from Canada, celebrating my nephew’s birthday with family and friends last week – I realize that this is just where I was meant to be. This is just how things were meant to be, and I truly am blessed to have such a great life and a great family. 2011 has been good to us, even with the setbacks (Lucas’ kidney issues in January, whew, glad that’s over!) and I am thankful for every minute of it.

You may have noticed that the “Dear Liam” posts have “disappeared” from the front page of our blog here, but they’re not gone – we’ve actually put together a whole Dear Liam section of our website where we are going to continue to compile letters to our son (Can you believe he’s four months old this week?! He’s getting so big!) as well as links to video clips and photos, and other snippets of memories all into one place for easy access, sorting and archiving as we build a digital memory book for him. We welcome letters from family and friends, too, so if you ever feel like writing Liam a letter to include in his book, send it to him in an email and we’ll post it to our archive over in the Dear Liam section. If you want to be a regular contributor to the Dear Liam posts, we can even set you up with an account on the blog so you can just login and post directly – just let us know if you’re interested. I know one day Liam is going to appreciate reading about these early memories and how his family and friends felt about all of his milestones and our everyday happenings that are a part of his life.

Oh, and Liam took time out of his busy schedule to show off his Halloween costume; for baby’s first Halloween he dressed as Yoda from Star Wars. As if you didn’t see that coming. Our little geekling… we’re so proud! Happy Halloween!