Birthday recap

It has taken me two weeks to post this because for the last two weeks, you've been waking up at 4 a.m. and wanting us to lay down in your room with you at night. You've also decided that you will no longer sleep in a crib, but prefer your floor. Anywho...

Your second birthday was perfect.



We started with breakfast at your favorite place. We had strawberry crepes and blueberry muffins and milk and hashbrowns. You dipped your muffin in ketchup and loved it.

We then ran around looking for cupcakes and balloons and the last of the party decorations (including a four foot inflatable Elmo with present and party hat). Then, we returned home in time to take a shower, get dressed (you took a nap, finally) and get ready for the party.

We woke you up from your nap when people arrived and you were shy at first. Then you saw the cupcakes and Elmo and balloons and presents and M&Ms and family and you decided to perk up.



We had cake and ice cream and sang happy birthday to you. You blew out your own candle even though mommy and daddy tried to help. You opened your own presents, even if you sat in my lap for most of it. (Your favorite thing to say during present opening was "it scare me." or "it's not scary.")



You are the cutest babe to walk the face of this planet....and we get to see you grow and change for yet another fun-filled year!

Happy Birthday Baby (v2.0)

Two years. Two. TWO! WHOLE! YEARS!!

To say that I am having trouble finding the words is a complete and total understatement. I cannot believe that it has been two years since I saw your tiny face for the first time. I can't believe that this time two years ago, we were welcoming you to the world and our biggest challenges at the time were operating on little sleep and breast feeding! Last year, you were just gaining your independence. But now, oh I think you've totally got the hang of it.

In the last year, you've grown at least a foot. You've gained a belly. You've started potty training yourself. You've learned so many new words, it's hard to keep track of what you know now. You've started a new preschool. Your very first preschool. You spent an entire summer swimming in the pool and the lake by our house. You've made new friends. You've read all the books from your first birthday party at least a hundred times. You've celebrated your first Christmas at our house. You've celebrated your first New Year's Eve with Marmi and Papa. You've seen your first snow. You've ridden your first bike. You've thrown your first fit while visiting Santa Claus. You've become insane about animals, shapes, colors, numbers and letters, Yo Gabba Gabba's Party in your City,airplanes, Christmas trees, water, shopping, riding in daddy's green car, bath time friends, Ducky, Baby Stella, Princess Zooey, your cousins, and babies (real ones).

You are weening from the binky, but still prefer it at night. You've started asking us to stay in your room until you fall asleep (which your daddy does without question, and with great delight). Your favorite time is the morning, because you get to ask your favorite question: "GOOD MORNING MOMMY!!!! How are you today??!? Good!"

With your laughter, you can pick me up when I've had a hard day. With your sweet kisses and hugs, you can melt my heart. Oh, the funny, funny faces you make; you can make my sides split with laughter. When you sing your songs, you make me want to clap and dance. Your enthusiasm for mess reminds me to be a kid sometimes. And your imagination shows me a side of myself I left behind a long time ago.

I love seeing you play with other kids or by yourself or with your daddy. You guys "play kitchen" almost every day since Christmas when Santa Claus brought you your very first wooden kitchen (complete with all the wooden accessories ever needed for a wooden kitchen, thanks Santa).

I can't wait to celebrate this beautiful day with you and I look forward to what you will bring us in the next year.

You are the best thing we've ever done.

All our love,
Mommy and Daddy

Happy Valentine's Day!

I LOVE YOU!

Love

Merry Christmas....

and why not eat snickerdoodles and fudge and hot cocoa for breakfast?!

A walk in the park...

We woke up early. We felt good. We felt well rested. We decided we wanted to do something with our day. We wanted to spend time out in the great outdoors and not cooped up in the house. We wanted to show Scout some things she's not seen before. So, we decided to pack a picnic and a stroller and go to McKinney Falls and look at the foliage.



She listened to the airplanes that flew overhead. She listened to the birds in the trees. She listened to the leaves as they blew across the path. She listened to the wind in the trees. She listened to the water as it flowed in the creek. She listened to the children swimming in the falls.



She watched the puppies play in the park. She watched the families as they walked down the path. She watched her mom scream with excitement and surprise after almost stepping on two snakes. She watched her daddy explain that snakes are our friends and we shouldn't be afraid of them.



We taught her things. We read to her. We showed her primrose and cactus. We stopped and looked at ferns. We stopped and looked at Juniper trees. We watched the snakes cross the path and hissssssssssed at them. We showed her the brown leaves and the orange leaves and the red and yellow ones.



We discussed birch trees and I told him the story about the birch tree that was in my childhood neighbor's yard. And how much I loved them. He told me he wants to take walks with her more often like this, so he can impart in her the wisdom and confidence that came with growing up in the country with a dad who knew what kinds of grass and plants were growing where and what was edible and what is not. He wants her to know what a prickly pear cactus fruit tastes like. He wants her to not squeal when she almost steps on a snake, but be brave like he is. Maybe someday.

Pretty music for you.

Gorgeous stop-motion too.

Phrases that have come out of my husband's mouth today that make me laugh.....

"Peekaboo we're gonna play peekaboo, peeakabo I'm gonna find you, find you. Where's BROBEEEEEEE? "

"I like this meal because it's our ONE uniquely secret recipe."

"the return to innocence...remember that song? Wasn't it SOOO cool? man...no good songs like THAT have come out lately."

"OMG Brooke Burke just retweeted my blog post. Does that make me really cool?"

20 months + a few days

My how quickly she grows.


How clearly she speaks.


How wonderful she is.

Letting her walk ahead....

Wait for me! No? Ok....

Thanks ACL fest....

While many of you are complaining about the mud, and losing focus in the rain...let's remember what it was really about. THE MUSIC. Just to give you a peek at what we discovered this year at ACL, here's some music from the Avett Brothers. Amazing stuff. Their musical aptitude is as impressive as their lyrics...and I hope you love them as much as I do.

These three songs are my favorites. For the lyrics, for the melodies and the harmonies, for the feeling that I get when I listen to them, for the dance moves my daughter makes to these songs AND....for the times when Scout says "MOMMY! PIANO! LOOK! SEE!" when she hears this music.









I love the way they sing about their family and friends... ("I wanna have pride like my mother has,And not like the kind in the bible that turns you bad.And I wanna have friends that I can trust,that love me for the man I’ve become and not the man that I was.")

...but specifically, I love they way they speak about their mom. "That woman has eyes that shine like a pair of stolen, polished dimes." and the kicker from "Murder in the City..."

"...Always remember there was nothing worth sharing like the love that let us share our name..."

POST EDIT: The last song, I just added...is awesome. It's one of those songs that is really TWO songs in one. A beautiful piano melody for the first 2 and 1/2 minutes, then a great fast-paced jam in the middle. Have a listen...if you have nothing better to do at the moment. OR, if you just need some music in the background.

The good, the bad, and the just plain ugly....

The good:
Sense of feeling good about myself
OMG, the getting ready for work the night before. I love that I go to bed every night with ironed clothes and bags packed.
The car time with the family
Getting up and starting my day early
Socialization for Scout and for myself
I teach things to babies! It's my JOB. I know, right?
Lots of getting out around town and discovering new things with Scouty
Seeing Scout learning things. She counted herself to sleep tonight. She's 20 months old. Genius. I know.
Breakfast every day.
A paycheck


The bad:
Waking up at 5:22 every morning! And I mean actually GETTING UP OUT OF BED. I know, it's crazy. Not to mention the mornings when Scout wakes up an hour early (yAY!)


The ugly:
Scout was bit on day 2. But this happens! The next day, the same person who bit her ran up and hugged her and kissed her when she walked in the door. :D

Feeling good...

From where I was a month ago, I can truly say...I'm feeling better. I'm tired as heck, but man...I'm feeling good.

I know, I know....

It's been like a year since I've updated with anything interesting. But hey! I've been busy! Started work (I KNOW?!) and have been incredibly busy getting into a routine. It's hard work, but I'm loving the fact that I'm all about getting ready for Monday morning on Sunday afternoon.

Scout starts her first day tomorrow. I can't believe it. It's going to be life changing for her and for us. We are so excited for this big step in her little life. I've just come back from a shopping extravaganza with my grandmother. I bought five pairs of khakis and two new pairs of shoes for work. :D I'm all set. Scout is getting her lunchbox today (daddy is shopping at Wanderland for a Laptop Lunch just her size). After that, it's all up to labeling, and packing her little bag with loveys, extra clothes, diapers and wipes. Oh wow....this is big.

Things I like.

Vera Neumann linens
Antique/Vintage dinnerware
Vintage or vintage/mod inspired furniture
Mod prints
anthropologie.com
modcloth.com
original art
our inherited collection of napkin rings
candle light dinners (when it's pizza/sandwiches/foie gras)
our green chair
other people's gardens
old books

to be continued...

Whoa there, horsey.

So yesterday was fun, wasn't it?
Kanye apologized to Taylor...Jessica Simpson's dog was eaten by a dingo and I had a mental melt down about returning to work. haha.

Oh, I kid...But thank you to some great friends who helped rationalize my anxieties and encourage me in my decision.

And to the greatest husband in the world...thanks for being my rock and my never-failing, ever-encouraging, ever-loving best friend. We make a great team.

Sometimes I just need you to shut up and be supportive.

So, I'm thinking about going back to work. And my anxiety over this situation is forcing me to make pro/con lists, eat excessive amounts of chocolate and read manuals and websites on childcare.

It's not the workday that scares me or the pursuit of a new endeavor for myself. I know I'll be fine and I actually am excited about the potential I see before me.

Problem is, now I have a child to think about. I have to worry about her well-being in the hands of others. I have to worry about what she'll be learning from her classmates and the lessons she'll bring home from her caregivers. I dread the moment she asks for her teacher instead of her mommy. I fear a backlash in her skills and knowledge.

But, the things I fear the most are.... the opinions of the masses. I'm frightened to death of hearing phrases like "well, she was such a sweet girl before you started her in daycare" or "smarter" or "healthier."

For all those moms out there who've had to face this same situation and have done so successfully, please...please...please offer me some advice. I'm afraid to google search things like "pros and cons of childcare" for fear of the inevitable panic attack with WILL ensue.

How do you justify putting your child in childcare? How do you justify keeping your child at home? How do you justify anything you do, any decision you make?

This, too, shall pass....right?

09/11/09

I wake up. I watch the husband leave for work. I make the baby's breakfast. I turn on the news. I turn off the news. I turn on Good Morning America. I make eggs sunny-side-up. I make coffee. I make toast with butter and strawberry preserves. I watch the special report at the Pentagon. I watch Gates and Obama give speeches. I can't avoid it. It's the eighth anniversary of a very sad day. A day that forever changed our beliefs, our practices, our rules and regulations. A day that shook this nation to the core and showed us what we are really made of. A day where we all feel a little bit more like a brotherhood and a little less like an extremely bipartisan citizenship. I turn off the lights, and make it a little bit darker in here. I feel the lump in my throat that started in my stomach and has worked it's way up. Is it raining everywhere this morning? Even Scout sits quietly on a pillow and watches the memorial at the Pentagon. Isn't it strange to mourn for something you've never seen, for people you've never met and situations you don't fully understand? In 2007, seven months pregnant, I made my first visit to NYC. Six years after 9/11, I still didn't feel comfortable making a visit to Ground Zero. It was too hard. It was too much to remember. I wanted to avoid it.
In 2001, my brother shot into my room at our college apartment in Bryan. He ran in and said, "you've got to come see this. You won't even believe what's happened." He was on the phone with my mother. I still remember what cell phone he had. We sat on our couch and watched as the reports that a plane had run into the Twin Towers. Half asleep, I selfishly commented "does this mean we don't have school today?" In all honesty, I thought it was a fire in one of the towers on our campus at first (half asleep) glance. Then it happened. Right before our eyes...and the eyes of the entire world. The second plane hit the South tower. Then, the Pentagon. Then the field in Pennsylvania. Then, they fell.
We didn't know anyone in New York. The closest we came to the attacks that day was a story that my grandparents had had dinner in the restaurant at the top of the tower only weeks before. We knew someone who knew someone who was related to someone who died in the attacks. And still we mourned. We cried. We grieve to this day. It is something that has forever marked us. It is something we witnessed. The first of truly traumatic events in our young adult lives.
For the first couple of years, we stopped. We stood still. We had moments of silence. We gasped, "I can't believe it's been two years, three years, four years..." We waited for action. We waited for memorials. We waited for explanation. We waited to see what would happen next.
Now, eight years later...I still try to avoid the news. I try to avoid the posts on blogs and the posts in my updates on twitter and facebook. I try to put on a brave face and not feel everything I felt on that day, watching those towers crumble into the clouds of dust. But again, I've been drawn like a moth to the flame. I say to myself, "there's no reason to feel so sad. There's no reason to cry. There's no reason to remember." But there is. Sure, it's not felt as strongly as those who were there. But, I think it does a tremendous disservice to avoid it. To write it off. To not think about it. To not remember.
So, today...I'm thinking about those who lost their loved ones on that day, and the days that followed.

Our first....

#2 in the potty! A BM! A Poo!



Ok...this growing up stuff is awesome.

Because she likes to do things herself...

Ms. Independent gets handed a spoon and some yogurt....after I cover her highchair in plastic splash mats. Oh, and there's some rubbing-yogurt-in-hair-action, too.