Changes...

Max,

What a whirlwind the past month has been!  I started back to work, and even though I knew it was getting close, it was still very hard to get back into the swing of things.  I loved our days/months together, and those will always be very special to me.  Thank goodness you are staying with Aunt Bonnie...she loves you as much as I do.  That made it a little easier, but the tears still fell the first day I went back full time!

Stress!  That is how I would sum up my first week back to work.  So many changes were being implemented, and there was so much I wanted to do in order to feel successful and in order for my 7th grade students to be successful that I was becoming overwhelmed!  That is when God intervened.  I learned of an opening at Lakewood (where Grammy and Aunt Christy work), and I seriously considered it.  I found out about the school counselor opening the Thursday before the Monday all the students were coming.  I had to make a decision fast, and looking back that's probably the only way it would have turned out the way it did.  Your daddy and I talked about the positives and the negatives.  And...the biggest positive was that I was going to be home with you more, and in the end that's all I really cared about!  I took the job on Friday, and my life became a little less stressful.  I loved my teaching job at Inman, I loved the teachers at Inman, and I made some of my very best friends there!  That has been the hardest part!!  I miss my IMS family terribly...and part of it is I'm not fond of change.  But, when I leave work each day, and I have you home by 3:15....I know I made the right decision.  You are only little once...and I just want to be around to see and experience as much of it as I can.

You are growing so quickly...sitting up (barely...you still have a little balance issue), moving and rolling around, eating real food (your favorite is avocado and banana mixed), cooing and trying to talk, and growing out of all your clothes too fast!  I love every second of it.

We also found out that you are going to have another cousin...you will no longer be the baby!  Aunt Christy and Uncle Josh are adding to the clan.  Baby Hendricks #3 is scheduled to arrive in March.  I can't wait to watch you, Jack, Jude, and Baby #3 grow up together.  I know you will be so close!

Right now we are waiting on some teeth to come in.  It seems like you have been teething forever!  I hate to see you hurting, so hopefully those teeth will start coming in very soon!

You are blessed to have so many people who love you!

Love,
Mama