One year is a big deal

Happy Birthday to Dylan. This is your tiny newborn foot the day you came home. So tiny. So precious. You're a little bigger now. Your big, happy, healthy, cheerful and have we mentioned happy? We love you lots. Sorry we aren't there to see you dive into your first cupcake. I'm sure you're having fun. You've done a great job your first year of life! Keep up the good work!

One of these things doesn't look like the other

I looked up from working the other day and realized I had cute baby socks sitting on my work. I figured I should capture it...as I'm sure the items scattered over my desk will change over the months and years.

Budgeting...toddler-style

As I've been tightening our belts one dollar at a time, my lovely 2 1/2 yr old added to our monthly budget in toiletries today...here's the tally as of 8:22pm

• bottle of "special" lotion to calm roseacea...$50
• bottle of Aspen cologne...no idea of price, I think it was Matt's from Junior High...not too upset about this one except the fact that the house smells like a boys junior high locker
• 1/2 bottle hand soap
• Entire bottle of my only "non-cheap" shampoo (I mention this because there was 3 other cheap bottles she could have chosen). The only way I knew she was dumping it out was the song of "bubbles, bubbles, I love bubbles" from the mid-day bath she was taking to wash her "ouchy"butt that had soaked in aformentioned liquids earlier while I was mopping more of aformentioned items off floor.
• 1/4 roll of toilet paper
• 2 razors (only after she "shaved my face like Daddy". Yes, there was blood. )
• 1/4 bottle of hand sanitizer
• 1/4 bottle lotion

Luckily she did not get into the other side of the medicine cabinet...so I guess our toddler proofing needs to increase it's height restriction.Hope you're having a happy Tuesday. This face cheered me up...

blue love

blue, originally uploaded by Erica and Ryan.

I had the greatest valentines day. We made english muffins and apple/carrot/lemon juice.
And this guy spent all day telling me he loved me and hugging me. Sweet Ryan.
I've been pretty stressed lately. I am super busy with work. So much that it feels like I won't be able to finish it all. It is actually affecting my sleep. Which is bad because us mommies need to capitalize on the moments we have to sleep. Then he insists that if I'm feeling stressed and can't sleep, I need to wake him up. I did, he rubs my back and bam...I'm asleep.
Today I feel very rested. So I think I should remind myself of somethings I love right now.
- Mali's little coos and sounds she's making...all the time. Oh, and her laughs and her smiles.
- The decaf coffee we brought back from Hawaii
- the faint chaco tan I have on my feet from 8 days spent in the sun
-sunny february days like today that remind me March is right around the corner. I love March.

Just a little overwhelmed...

As I sit here listening to our first African-American President, I am consumed with emotion…Yes I could still consider myself post-partum even with an 11 month-old, and I am moved by the sound of my husband and daughters “making tea” and chasing each other around the house as I make them dinner out of my first cast-iron Dutch oven given to me by my remarkable mother-in-law…but I am crying… and now to make things more inspired, my sister just called to inform me she got into Berkely’s School of Journalism…her dream school…
I am so damn proud of my little sister who thought she came from a family of mice, ran away from home with only her teddy bear weekly, and generally has been trying to save the world from an early age. And that my 62-yr-old mother is doing her first triathlon this year with myself and 4 other 30-something friends.
In this era of amazing change and compromise, and of course in my developmental I’m-30-and-have-kids-and-care-about-the-world decade, I am amazed by our complexities…and the simplicity of my 2 year old shoving Burt’s Bees in my face and asking “Shall we put on lipstick, Mommy?” Or how enthralled Logan, Matt and I were about how cool it looks when ice cracks under your feet on the Missoula Osprey’s baseball field as the pink sky reflected off Mount Jumbo and Sentinal reminding us what a beautiful place we live in. Or the pride and contentment I feel finding out that Logan got into the Preschool that we wanted to start in the Fall (and how amazed I am that my little suckling baby will turn 3 in 6 months)…Oh, how the life we live flys by and only a couple years from now I will look back with a much different perspective and of course 20/20 vision.

If on more person says I need to be on Facebook...

Here's my current thoughts on Social Networking (which by no means will be my current thoughts anytime from right this moment). That being said, here's an exerpt from a FLYLADY reader...

"getting caught up in social networking is giving in to a very powerful thief of
time. Now, not only do we “have to” read all those emails, but there’s Facebook
and millions of beautiful blogs. And of course, we’ll all want to make
our own blogs. This stuff is addicting .. sometimes impossible to spend only 15
minutes at a time .. I know that I can just ignore it .. but what if I miss
something useful? This kind of thing sucks people in... The more sites that you
link us to, the less time we spend on our routines, and the less time we spend
with our families …
I object.
Thank you for listening.Comment by Emmy
01.11.09 @ 10:08 pm"

Ok, just had to be said...

Positive Karma

...what goes around, comes around...wear this necklace as a reminder to keep the circle positive, peaceful and loving.

I had to share this beautiful necklace (picture coming) my best friend gave me yesterday. She just had a baby and of course is going through the overwhelmingness of a new bundle of joy, sleepless nights, crying with no answers to why (the baby, not her), and just the general adjustment of new motherhood. And might I add, she is doing wonderfully! Taking it slowly, not freaking out, and she had a wonderfully supportive husband...ok I'm gushing a bit, can you tell they are one of my favorite couples? So anyway, in her first outing with Clubby by herself she made it shopping and bought me this beautiful necklace as a thank you for helping in this transition. I can't express how nice it's been for me to hang out with her, watch the Food Network, cook (or order in), hang in her VERY clean house (I might add), walk in a wind storm, and just generally chat with a woman I don't have to impress.

Thanks Mary, I love you and am so impressed with your Mothertude! I will continue to pay it forward and remember to maintain my good karma! Who would've know we would be doing this a year after this...