You could say that last year I pretended to celebrate Mother's Day, because even though I didn't physically have a baby in my arms, I was 3 months or so pregnant with our dear William. This year, though, it was exciting to celebrate my first official Mother's Day with friends and family. I received a handful of cards, a balloon, beautiful flowers, and we even went out to eat twice with both sides of our family. 

Becoming a mom was something I had talked about, dreamed about, prayed about, pretended as a young girl and had wanted for a long time. It was surreal when it finally came true. Just a few months ago, Marc and I would look at each other and say something like, "are we really parents?" On the other hand, having Will in my arms sometimes makes me feel like he has always been there or makes me almost forget what life was like before he was here. Having a baby does crazy things to you!

Now that Mother's Day has passed, I've thought about it a bit and have decided to claim the day after Mother's Day as a day for me to reflect on being a mom and to set some new mom-goals for the year. What can I say, it's the teacher in me. While the words "reflect" and "goals" might sound too philosophical or too clichè, what I really mean is that I will take 5 minutes—because that's really all I can spare—to come up with a short list of things I either want to accomplish or change as a mom. Here are some items on this year's list and some mom-photos for you to enjoy.

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A few weekends ago, Marc and I needed to check off some things that had been lingering on our to-do list for far too long. One of the items was to bring two of our large comforters to the laundromat so we could use their jumbo size washers and dryers. We decided to park in their parking lot, drop off the comforters and then head to a local coffee shop for lunch with baby in tow.

While Marc waited outside of the laundromat with Will in the carriage, I ran inside and shoved the first comforter into the front-loaded washer. Just as I gave it one last heave-ho, I felt and saw white flecks of powdered detergent fly into the air and land in my hair and on my face. Awesome! I quickly gave myself a few brushes with my hand, started that load and then got the second comforter in and running. When I went back outside I asked Marc if he could brush me off, because I knew there were probably more flecks lingering in my hair and on my shoulders. He helped me out and then he told me I'd have to let my hair down to give it a shake. When I had finished doing this and had put my hair back up, he told me I looked good (Remember this part!).

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Having a newborn on Christmas is definitely a unique experience. First of all, you get so many more gifts and Christmas cards than you normally would. Second, everyone gives you lots of smiles, hugs and kisses, even the grumpy relatives. Third, it makes Christmas shopping a whole new experience with many difficult obstacles to overcome such as only having a one-hour window of time to do five hours of shopping or attempting to purchase all gifts at just one store so you don't have to put baby back in the car, refold the stroller, drive to a different store, park, unfold the stroller and put baby in the carriage again (you get the picture).

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Please welcome William Joshua Amos to the world! Will was born on Saturday, November 26th, 2011 at 1:50am, at Beverly Hospital. At birth he weighed 9 pounds 10 ounces, and he was 23¼ inches long.

Sharon's labor began around 3:00am the day before and by 1:30pm her contractions were close enough together to know that it was time for us to head to the hospital. Sharon courageously labored through the afternoon, evening, and late into the night until, at 1:50am, Will was born!

As I write this, it's been almost two weeks since he was born and Sharon and I are so grateful to have him in our life. We've gone from being a couple to being a family. He's healthy, he's happy (90% of the time), and life is just grand so far. Sleep has definitely been interesting—it's certainly a huge adjustment for us, but we're adjusting to it well enough.

Enough words, lets get to the photographs! Below are photos from moments after his birth, all the way through to the end of his first week. Each photo has a small description above it…

Moments after Will was born we took our very first family photo:

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Throughout the pregnancy, I've been blessed to have such great friends around; supporting me, encouraging me and genuinely listening to whatever new pregnancy issue is on my mind at any given moment. Recently, though, I've been overwhelmed with their kindness towards me in a seemingly undeserved kind of way. As my friend Katrine put it, "everyone is really excited about Baby Will, but you're still special and important, too."

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As time has passed during this pregnancy, the topics of conversation with our doctor have changed from things like lists of foods to avoid to labor and delivery procedures. During one of our last appointments, I felt the need to voice my concerns again (for what is probably the fifth time) about possibly having to push out a ten pound baby, if this baby that I am currently baking stays on track and goes a week late. Normally, my doctor laughs and explains how women's bodies were made for this and it wouldn't be the first time a woman has given birth to a big baby. On this occasion, however, she stated, "well, that's why there's a push present." Marc and I quickly shot confused glances at each other to signify we hadn't heard of this "push present" before.

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Sharon and I wanted to take a bunch of photographs of the last days before Will's birth, so we went to the nearby Lynch Park on an abnormally warm November afternoon and took a lot of random shots. Here are 10 of the best ones:

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Our friends Scarlette and Fred recently came by to visit and they brought their baby Amelia! It was our first time meeting her, and Sharon—8 months pregnant with Will at the time—spent a little bit of time holding (adoring) her. Look at those tiny feet!

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After coming home from a wonderfully nerdy presentation on Sass in Boston late Saturday night, Sharon greeted me with a small, wrapped present. I was a bit confused, because it wasn't my birthday, nor was it a holiday (that I could think of), yet here she was handing me a present.

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