In late September and early October, our dear friend Julia came to meet Simeon and help us out with running our little household of 3. Julia stayed with us for almost a week for the end of September and early October, sharing with us her time, talent and treasure (including triple ginger Trader Joes cookies). We also were able to celebrate her birthday with a brunch with friends and an evening trip to Ritters for frozen custard.
Julia and Mary Ann met the second day of freshman orientation at Notre Dame and quickly bonded over the many quirky things they had in common, such as liking the same Christian bands and writing their high school honors english theses on the same author, same books, and same theme (Graham Greene... holla!). Julia is a pilgrim par excellence, having most recently completed the Camino de Santiago. As we drew near the end of our journey of pregnancy, preparing to welcome Simeon, Julia prayed for our little family in her treks across Northern Spain. We've been benefiting from her love and care from afar, and it was a gift to have her physically present with us as well to meet the little guy we'd all been praying for.
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| Julia meeting Simeon |
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| They took to each other quickly |
Julia helped out with all aspects of running our now 3-person household, including laundry, cleaning, cooking, and Simeon bathing and comforting/gazing.
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| Beautiful meal prepared by Julia. The kale balanced out the significant frozen custard intake from earlier in the week. |
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| Julia's arms featured on the right. Simeon's fat rolls featured front and center, |
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| A little gazing |
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| Julia finding alternative uses for the boppy. This was just fun. |
Simeon was five weeks old while Julia was with us. From the time he was about three weeks to seven weeks, he had some pretty serious fussy spells each night which we think may have been colic. He has since grown out of these (we think and hope!). During Julia's visit, we saw the first cracks at smiles, which Simeon now shares more and more frequently, especially when he hears his papa's voice and/or is on his changing table.
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| One of the first smile inklings |
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Not a Simeon smile inkling. At all. But we ladies are happy to be together, and with him!
MA with Julia and her mom Susan stopping by before heading out of town |
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| Sweet friend with sweet boy |
Thank you, dear Julia, for being with us. We look forward to the next time your pilgrim feet are under our table.
