21 months of Juliet

Dear Juliet,

Today you turned 21 months. You are such a delightful little girl.

We went to the zoo today and had so much fun as a family. You loved watching the monkeys and the camels;  I liked the anteater! Daddy carried you around on his shoulders and you pointed out each animal with delight.

Daddy took you on the carousel at the zoo. It went very fast and you weren't too sure about it at first. He says you hung onto your horse for dear life, but every time the carousel turned toward me, I saw you grinning from ear to ear while you daddy had a protective arm resting on you. As soon as you got off, you pointed the horse and exclaimed, "More! More!"

You adore your sister Audrey, and are so kind and gentle with her. You love planting kisses on her forehead. She watches your every move and I can tell you are going to be very special friends. Sometimes it takes my breath away to watch the two of you giggle at each other. I am amazed that I created two such beautiful children and I am so glad that the two of you will always have each other.

This morning I took you and Audrey to my morning workout group. All the kids were sitting in their respective strollers, waiting for their mamas to sprint up and down a nearby hill.

Every time I rounded the corner and returned to the stroller, you stood up, threw your hands up toward the sky, and very, very enthusiastically shouted, "Hiiii! Mama! Mama! Yaaaay!!"

You were the only kid doing this, and it made me beam with pride and joy. Thank you for being my own personal cheerleader, and thank you for being so joyfully delighted when you see me round that corner to come back to you. I know sometimes it's scary when you don't know exactly where I am, but I promise- I am always here, and I will always, always come for you.

I love you, forever and ever.

Love,

Mama

6 months of my darling Audrey

 Dear Audrey,

You are 6 months old today. I love you, my sweet, happy girl.

You giggle all of the time now, and it is the best sound in the world.

You're not my little newborn anymore. You are strong, vigorous, and growing. I have no idea how tall you are or how much you weigh, but you're starting to outgrow the 6 month clothes and move into 9 month clothing. You are still nursing well and I'm proud that you're getting such great nutrition and growing so well.

I love the quiet time I have with you in your room when you nurse. It's our special time together and I will always cherish the memory of sitting in your nursery in the dim morning light, rocking you and nursing you while the rest of the house sleeps. I love how you reach up to hold my face while you nurse, and then cling on to my shirt in your sleep with your precious little baby fingers.

You are sitting by yourself so well now that I've started putting you in the bath tub with Juliet every night for an evening bath. You love it! As soon as I put Juliet in the bath, you start lunging your body toward the tub and making it quite clear that you, too, want to be in the water. Juliet loves to have a new bath partner and scoots over to make room for you, patting the water where she wants you to sit. You splash the water with vigor, and giggle when Juliet hands you a new toy to splash. You have a joie de vivre that just radiates from you, and it makes me beam.

I love you, forever and ever. I'm so lucky to be your mama.

Love,

Mama

Last Minute Valentines

First, I'll just say: I am a procrastinator. This has not changed since my status has changed to "Mama".

I recently joined a mom's workout group called Stroller Strides. It is awesome. I literally couldn't walk for 3 days after my first workout. Squats, lunges, sprints. This mama is going to be smokin' hot by summertime.

Anyway.

The workout group also does playtime and crafts with the kids at the park afterward, and this week we were invited to bring Valentines to pass out to each of the children. I had a week's notice, but kept forgetting to buy a cheap little pack of Valentines when I went to the store. You know the kind- those cardboard Valentines with some cartoon character like Snoopy.

Since I procrastinated, we made last minute homemade Valentines instead.

I greatly prefer the idea of having them be homemade, anyway. I think I'll be doing things this way from now on. The bonus is that the project was completely free, and Juliet and I got to work together on an art project.

The downsides is that 1) no one else made homemade ones, so we stuck out a bit, and 2) it was a lot messier. And now that I think about it, neither of those things is such a bad thing!

I hope that over time, these small actions will teach my children to value creativity and thrift over commercialism. (Something I also need a reminder of, sometimes!)

g

still here...

I'm still here! Don't give up on me!

I've been a busy mama with very little time to sit down and write. There's so many things I want to share. Soon!

In the meantime-- my day looked like this. How about yours?

And in honor of Valentine's Day, here is the first of Juliet's artwork to be proudly stuck to the fridge door. Happy Valentine's to the best dada of them all!

Mr. and Mrs. Phoney Pants

Juliet is getting to the age where she's learning names of everything and everyone. When I ask her "Who's in your family?", she enthusiastically answers, "Mama! Dada! Audrey!"

When I point to a family photo, she can correctly identify all of her Aunts and her Grandpa. (Jamie- sidenote, but when she sees photos of Eva, she says, "AUDREY!")

So my newest parenting dilemma is-- What title, if any, do I expect her to call our adult friends and neighbors?

My mom was always, always "Mrs. Guth" to our childhood friends. And likewise, we were expected to call my mom's friends "Mrs. ___". To this day, I can't call our lifelong neighbors (P__, K__, M__ families for those who know them) by their first names. I'm 31 years old and I feel like I might somehow get reprimanded if I called Mrs. M__ "Ginny" instead!

There were a couple exceptions when I was growing up. Somehow we've always called my Dad's best friend by his first name, Gene. He's a total hippie so the concept of calling him Mr. just seems a bit ridiculous.

I have a couple best friends who have become "Aunties" to Juliet, so that question is resolved. But for everyone else, I need to figure out my game plan. Something consistent.

Calling adults by their first names just seems so...disrespectful? Because of how I was raised, it's just an innate feeling of discomfort. But on the other hand, the idea of having children call me "Mrs. H__" is also just bizarre. Nor can I really picture some friends being called by their last names or being comfortable with it (I'm thinking of you, Samin.)

How did you grow up? Will that impact your choice as a parent? 

I'm having one of those mornings where I feel like this:

I HAVE EVERYTHING THAT I WANT IN LIFE.

I don't write in all CAPS very often, so you should know this is serious.

Gary's baptism

January 29, 2012

For the record, this is my most favorite photo of Gary in the entire universe:

my amazing husband