Thankful Thursday #1

From now until Thanksgiving I am going to dedicate Thursdays to things for which I am thankful. This should be easy because a) I'm a very lucky girl with countless reasons to be thankful, and b) it's only a few weeks away!

• This year I am especially thankful for my friend Kathleen. I'm also thankful for her family, friends, coworkers and medical team for supporting her over the last 6 months or so. She means so much to so many and it shows by the outpouring you can see on her Caring Bridge Website. I think the phrase "she's one in a million" is way overused, but I can say with great confidence that K is one in SEVEN BILLION! I look forward to my thankful post NEXT year when I can be thankful that she's feeling great, back to work and theater and all of the things that make her so awesome. But, for 2011, I am thankful she is still with us and maintains her slightly-twisted sense of humor along with her wicked smahts.

Next time we do this move, K, I want to be the base and have YOU do the cartwheel!

• I am thankful for Baby TOP. What a surprise and what a privilege to get to try this kiddo-from-scratch business one more time. So far, s/he has been treating Mama pretty well and allowed me to keep doing most of the things I love (running and theater most notably). This old girl knows that many women in much more typical maternal stages of their lives don't get off this easy. So, thanks Baby TOP!

Cute, but I hope mine doesn't have feet that proportionally monstrous!

•  I am thankful for Tommy & Elliott. They are healthy and happy and funny and weird (thank God they are weird!) They enjoy each other even though they are vastly different in many ways. I am thankful that they will be big brothers to Baby TOP. Each of them will offer unique sibling qualities. There are many things I might do differently if I had to parent them from the top, but there's nothing I would change about the Quirky Little Creatures they have become so far!

Mt. Major, Summer 2010.