little-big thoughts

At least two years ago, I made practicing gratitude my New Year's Resolution. I made fits and starts of it, but at least two years later, I can't say that I have mastered the art of expressing my thanks to the people and the everything-ness that bring blessings into my life. I'm stil working on that.

Piece by piece, busy-ness has found a way to encroach upon my Life. It's sort of strange how it happened. How one week I was making all my meals from scratch and gardening and doing projects with my children and around the house, and making playdates and pursuing hobbies and having phone conversations with my girlfriends, and suddenly, just a few short months later I found myself unable to find time to breathe.

I was eating my breakfast in the car or at my desk, or not at all. I was making dinner out of boxes. My children were clearly not getting enough mom and dad time. I would stay up later just to squeeze in an hour of "relaxation" after the dishes and laundry were done and the lunches had been made, only to wake up more tired the next morning than I was before. The guilt of putting my family off and the stress of putting my own needs off was suffocating.

It's so easy to lose ourselves!
I'm happy to say I took notice, and was able to take some steps back and reclaim a bit of myself and my time. Time to refocus on what is most important in my life! My family, my health, my friends, my joy.

I'm thankful for the clarity of mind to be able to recognize when my life needs a tune-up. I'm thankful for my parents who shaped me to be this way. I'm thankful for my husband, who supports my growth faithfully. I'm thankful for my friends, who love me even when I am off track and at my emotional worst. And, I am thankful for my children, who are there to greet me with smiles and laughter every day, regardless of my imperfections.

baby loves

Tonight is my first overnight away from Drew.



It's funny, because I didn't even realize this until last night, so on the one hand, it doesn't feel like a super duper huge big deal... Plus, we've been done nursing for about two months now (not my choice or hers, but that's the way it goes) and she sleeps through the night. So, the logistics are easy.

In other words, she won't miss me much. In her world, I will only be gone a couple of her waking hours. I guess I'm just going to miss her. I mean, how can you not miss waking up to this face?



Sweet baby of mine, I love you!

homemade baby food

I do a lot of cooking, and I really enjoy the whole process! I love food blogs, cooking magazines, figuring out how to make a meal out of the random things in my kitchen that need to be used up, etc....but there isn't a meal I can think of that has brought me as much satisfaction as making my own baby food.

I love it! Like thrifting, or getting something for a great bargain, I guess it feels a little bit like cheating! I came super close to buying a 24-pack of jarred organic baby food at Costco tonight, but I'm so glad I changed my mind. Instead, I bought huge bags of carrots, pears and plums to make for Drew at a fraction of the cost!

I drove home put the kids to bed, and got busy making carrots, peas, potatoes and sweet potatoes. I'll save the pears, plums and some apples for another day. Its so fun!

Drew has never tasted jarred baby food. Everything she's had to eat, besides some packaged rice biscuits and the recent switch from breastmilk to formula, I have made myself. The ironic thing is, Addison ate only jarred baby foods. I think I tried to make sweet potatoes for him once, he hated it, and I never bothered to try again! What can I say, motherhood was a whole different ballgame for me then.

If you've never tried to make your own, I highly recommend it! If you can steam veggies and fruits and have a blender or a food processor, you can make it in a snap! There are lots of great websites that tell you how to make different things and what foods to introduce at which ages. Just google "homemade baby food" lots of options will pop up.

Happy cooking!

bzzzzzzy

I have things to say, thoughts to think
and no time to mark them up in ink!



I hope to be back with a real post soon! Two kids and work is time consuming....who knew!

Happy 4 month birthday, Drew!

Drew,

At 4 months you giggle, blow bubbles, talk and coo, suck your thumb, put your own self to sleep, cram everything into your mouth, drool like crazy, take a bottle like a champ and sometimes sleep for 9 hour stretches at night!

Your brother absolutely adores you and kisses you and thinks you are the sweetest thing. We all do.

Thank you for coming to us. I have enjoyed every day with you and I hope you don't grow up too fast.

Love,
mommy

A new favorite shirt

I'm so excited to share this little project with you. It wasn't hard, or super original, but it made my little guy super happy! And that is enough satisfaction for me.

Addison has been ridiculously obsessed with the United States lately, and anything about geography, really. He learned the 50 states and their capitals from the Animaniacs song, (as well as the nations of the world!) The first thing he runs to when he gets up in the morning is one of his many states puzzles, where he comes up with all sorts of games to play with the states pieces, or makes them talk to each other or just sings the songs he knows.


















So, I made him a shirt I knew he would love.



















And he does!

I just traced the outline of the states from one of his books, cut it out, traced that onto some jersey fabric of his choice, cut it out, and sewed it on! Jersey is great because it won't fray when you wash it.

Its great because I can make shirts for him for whatever he's into at the time and its an instant favorite!

Back to it!

Hello!

I'm back! Back to work, back to a little normalcy, and hopefully back to blogging.

Life is good.

We're all moved in to our new house (insert shriek of joy!) and really enjoying it all. It's really everything I wanted in a house for us, including a fully fenced backyard (that needs lots of work, but we'll get to it), a quiet dead end road with friendly neighbors and kids, new construction on the inside, a master bath, a family room, and little things like lots of outlets and a built-in dishwasher.

We are blessed and happy.

I can't believe we're now on the other side of all the changes I had anticipated for so long!

New baby girl


New house


Addison's goodbye to one preschool and hello to another


and of course, my return to work.

It's all gone pretty smoothly, and I'm looking forward to getting back to the new normal!

How are all you doing, my fine readers?

still finding time to smile

Yes, we are!

Trying to get a decent family photo

Oh well.

...because she sleeps. all. day.

We picked cherries this weekend in the orchards surrounding my dad's house in Hood River. When cherries are free, and you can pick them by the handful, its easy to come home with 10, 20, 30 pounds of cherries.



So, I did the smart thing and bought a cherry pitter (same one the chicken's got. You can see her cute girls using it on a video here.) and have spent the better part of the last 24 hours pitting and freezing cherries and making a cobbler.





After all, what else is a mother to do when the baby sleeps all day?

bliss

With the arrival of my daughter, I feel as though a white eyelet curtain has drawn closed in a circle around my little family and I am so happily swallowed up in the now we are living in.



Sure, there are lots of other things going on in the world. But none of it seems to matter when you look down and find this in your arms....

I did it!

Small and mighty, miss Drew Alexandria joined our family on Tuesday, June 23rd weighing in at 5 pounds, 15 ounces.



My labor was fast, and ended dramatically when she made a speedy entrance into the world, surprising all the nurses and causing my midwife to nearly miss the whole thing (this happened when Addison was born too).



We're home now and all is going swimmingly! She's a peaceful baby, and I'm so full of joy, I can hardly contain myself....

My mom's friend writes limericks for fun for such special occasions and I thought I'd share this one with you!

There once was a baby named Drew,
Who thought that her birth was past due.
So out she came, early,
More girly than burly,
And made all her peeps feel brand new!

xoxo

ready for her

My bags are packed, the house is clean, the nursery is set up, an extra meal has been cooked and stored in the fridge, groceries have been purchased, the plants have been watered, and I'm showered and as rested as I can be.

Time to have this baby. We will leave as a family of three tomorrow and return a family of four.

Wish me luck!

This week has been a strange one.

I received a call from my midwife while I was a work last Wednesday, letting me know that she was faxing over a letter to my supervisor that I was to stop working and go home and rest. My baby looks healthy, but she is a small one, and they are being cautious. And, we will be welcoming her into the world a little early...

I did my best to wrap things up at work over the next hour, cleaned out my desk, and drove home in kind of a daze. What just happened?

I picked up Addison from school and we went out for ice cream. I was prepared to give him this big mom-to-son talk about how things had changed, how his baby sister would come early, and how I wasn't going to be working anymore, and would just be resting. In my head, I carefully crafted sentences and vocabulary that he would be able to understand and wouldn't be alarming. Well, I must have done a good job, because I was surprised that he didn't have any questions. Basically, it went like this:
"Ok, mom. Can I have a bite of your ice cream? Wanna try mine?"

And that was that.

The rest of the week has been easy on my body and spirit, and my family and friends have been extremely supportive, bringing food, flowers, magazines, helping out with Addison, and doing some light cleaning. Its the transition time I didn't even know I needed, but it has given me a chance to fill up on "me" time before I give so much of myself over to this new little girl.

It has been an emotional week too, with much time to stew over the coming changes and obsess over the things I hope will or won't happen, but mostly its been fun and relaxing.

Last night Ben and I went on what is very likely the last date night to be had in some time. We enjoyed a relaxed and romantic dinner at a cute, authentic feeling italian restaurant called Lorenzo's.




My black linguini with scallops and shrimp was delicious, but things really got interesting when I started having regular contractions for about an hour (Ben, of course, had to time them all on his ipod Touch). We started getting excited and realized how quickly our lives could change at any moment...

But the contractions subsided and we headed to see Away We Go.















What a perfect movie for us to see. Not only was it hilarious, but is was a very sweet story about love, and finding what you need among what you already have. Go see it!

Now its a new day, and I'm doing my best to appreciate each moment as it is. I don't know how to end this post, except to say, I hope you're enjoying the now, today, too!

waiting for my real life to begin

I'd never heard this song by Colin Hay until today.

It makes a beautiful soundtrack while on bedrest and waiting for the arrival of a baby girl.

honesty

When I had Addison 3 1/2 years ago, I was 25. Not terribly young to be starting a family, but by far the first of any of my friends or family to have a baby. Addison was born in the dead of winter, days before Christmas, and to be honest, my entry into motherhood was a painfully traumatic transition in my life. Like many mothers, I was overwhelmed by my new responsibilities. The night wakings were difficult for me, and I literally did not sleep for more than 3 hours at a time for the first 7 months of Addison's life. I spent my maternity leave feeling isolated due to the wintry weather, my inability to drive (I won't get into it here, but I did not obtain my driver's license until I was 26), and, primarily, the reality that most of my friends were busy starting their careers, working 40 hour work-weeks, and staying out late at bars on the weekends. I spent most of my days on leave at home, alone, counting the hours until my husband would be home from work. I really tried to keep a positive attitude during this time, but the loneliness and responsibilities were frequently more than I could handle emotionally.

I'm happy to say that this darker period in my life has passed. With one month to go until my baby girl arrives, I am excited to do things differently this time. Much has changed. I drive. I know the fun places to go with babies and small children in tow. Most importantly, we now have a large community of supportive friends who also have children. And, I'm excited to have a summer baby and enjoy much of my maternity leave enjoying the outdoors during the best months Oregon has to offer.

I still have little anxious moments that it will be too hard. That I won't be able to handle all the change and newness and responsibility. But those moments are fleeting, and I do my best to let them pass me by.

I truly want to enjoy every little moment of having this new baby girl. I'm really ready for all that life will bring me over the next few months. Ready and armed with a smile and open arms.

surprising growth

My plants are going crazy!!!
It was just last week that I showed you how everything was growing nicely. For example, here were my yellow patti pan squash and lemon cucumbers one week ago:


They must be loving the heat, because check them out this morning!


I'm shocked! We even have some little thumb-sized squash hiding among the larger-than-life leaves. I think we may be harvesting soon!

I'm also honored to share my son's very first drawing of "mommy" and that's daddy next to me (with the hair).


This took me by such surprise! When we draw at home, it is all numbers and letters, all the time, and I had never seen him really attempt to draw people, so when I found these in the pile of art projects brought home from school, I literally had tears streaming down my face and gave Addison the biggest hugs. There's nothing quite like seeing your own portrait through the eyes of your first child.

He even mocked one up of himself...

which, you've got to give him credit... is pretty accurate!


I love you, my bubs.

Season of changes

I'm kind of up to my ears, people.

The good news is, we had the luxury of, count 'em, 4 nights and nearly 5 days with no children in the house, which allowed us to tackle a number of things on our overwhelming to-do list as we prepare for huge life changes.

We finished up the final pieces of Addison's new big boy room, and we are pretty happy with the way it all turned out. Its nice to have most of the toys contained in his own room instead of being strewn about the house. He seems pretty happy with it too!



We also got our child care situation squared away for the fall (after much toil and hard work by us, and un-professionalism on the part of the school we were originally trying to work with). And, we got rid of furniture we weren't using, set up the nursery in our ginormous bedroom, cleaned, cleaned, cleaned, and even had time to relax!



It's nice to know that if this baby made her appearance tomorrow, we'd be ready for her.



There are still a gazillion things left to do, because we're also beginning the process of possibly buying our first house in the fall (I know right? Pile it on!!!) But, if we don't, we are perfectly happy with the many other changes that are coming right around the corner.

at our house

Although the laptop is still broken (fixed, then wiggin out some more, so back to the shop it went), I FINALLY was able to get some of the pictures off of my camera. You have no idea how itchy I was getting about it!

We've been busy over at the Soon,Then household, trying to get all the to-dos done before our baby girl arrives in about 6 weeks! We've got a few more big things to do, but we've really accomplished a lot!

We finished planting the garden, and are enjoying watching the little carrots and chard sprout up from seed, and the peas grasping to the bamboo trellis. We've also planted golden beets, walla walla onions, shallots, pole beans, lemon cucumbers, yellow patti pan squash, brandywine tomatoes, sungold cherry tomatoes, red potatoes, bell peppers, jalapenos, strawberries, and a variety of herbs.

I am so looking forward to the summer. Addison is entirely absorbed in writing his numbers on every flat surface outside with sidewalk chalk, and this can occupy him for a good deal of time while we work in the yard.





We've been having fun drawing our favorite foods, flowers, and people, too. He also loves to help me water the plants and is showing interest in climbing trees, watching worms and bugs, picking flowers (sometimes not ones I want picked!) and of course, sampling all the herbs. All I need now is a big comfy lounge chair back there so I can nurse and nap in the shade, or just watch Addison wear himself out on lazy afternoons.

Inside the house, we've been in a buying, selling, moving and repurposing furniture frenzy. We got an IKEA Expedit for Addison's room in an effort to contain most of his toys in his own room. Addison helped Ben build it with his little squeaky toy hammer.





The shelf looks great, and he loved helping me "redecorate" his room. He ran around putting toys and books just where he thought they should go. I'm so glad he's taking all the changes around the house quite well and enjoying it all. I can only hope he continues to be so positive when his baby sister arrives!



I'm in the pretty uncomfortable last legs of this pregnancy, with about 6 - 8 weeks to go! It sounds like forever, and so soon at the same time... But for now, I am still enjoying mostly restful nights of sleep, being able to do projects around the house, cook meals, spend uninterrupted time with Addison, and I plan to get at least two more dates in with my husband before she comes!

Here's to being in the now....

growing

Our laptop isn't working... doh! This is such a bummer on a number of levels, one being that I can't get the pictures off of my camera to upload and share with you. I really hate blogging without pictures, and I sort of hate using others' pictures just to pretty it up around here... It feels like cheating.

So, I guess the best thing to do while I wait for the computer to be back in good working order is to post some oldies. That's sort of fun too.

One year ago....

It had just gotten warm enough for a spontaneous trip to Jamison Square for some splashing.




And my little boy had just learned how to feed himself his own soup.


Two years ago...

It had just gotten warm enough for Addison and I to enjoy our first picnic together on the waterfront.


And I was just starting to pay attention to my own photography...


Oh how wonderful it is that each year brings many of the same things so we can see how we've grown....