Great Beginnings

Connor Joseph Power was born on July 28 to two wonderful parents, and Will has already told us (in so many words) that he couldn't have asked for a more adorable godcousin. (Connor's dad Mark is Will's godfather, so technically that makes him Will's godbrother...but that's a little weird, so godcousin it is!) I'll send you to Bee's post for the details of his birth, but for our part we are counting down the days until we travel to Florida to meet this perfect little guy.

Since great beginnings is the theme here...when Will and I started taking classes at Isis, he was maybe four weeks old, and that first class was appropriately called--you guessed it--Great Beginnings. I can't remember most of what we talked about; a lot of the conversation was just welcome-to-motherhood venting, the kind that spews from your mouth when you find yourself in a room full of other new moms and recognize the wild-eyed look on their faces.

Two of the women I met in that first class have continued to be Isis regulars with me, more or less, while we've collected other kindred spirits along the way. (Pictures of those babies and moms will show up here soon, but this post is about the very beginning.)

At the end of June, one of the moms from our first cohort took pictures of the most recent Isis group.

Ryan (son of Mo, also pictured above) has been Will's best bud since the newborn days. When we get together, I look on wistfully as Ryan is completely content to play with his toys...you know, play with, not climb on top of.

Kate is the only Great Beginnings girl to continue on with Will through most subsequent classes, and she definitely knows how to challenge him. I credit Kate with encouraging Will's early crawling and pulling up skills...she has ALWAYS been ahead of the curve.

See what I mean about challenging him? The best part is, Will is totally unfazed by this when it comes from Kate. They look like puppies when they play together, always climbing over each other.

And this was then:

Will's in the center on the bottom,

Ryan's to the right of him in the blue stripes,

Kate's the second pink shirt going clockwise from the boys.