Payback

As soon as I closed the last post, I shut the computer and immediately felt like I was going to puke. Over the next two hours I felt the chills and fever start.

Thankfully Bryan feels better today (after a pretty intense evening for him - this is so definitely a stomach bug).

Just praying my girls don't get sick.

Valentine's Day NOT Complaining

Bryan woke me up this morning two minutes before my alarm went off: "(cough, cough) Hey babe, you're going to have to get the girls this morning. I'm sick." My response: "The girls are still asleep, as I was until about five seconds ago. Did you really need to wake me up right now to tell me that?" Awesome, right? Totally what he wanted to hear, I bet. My attitude has sucked all day. It started last night and it's been annoying myself, so I know it's annoying my family. I keep thinking about what a terrible Valentine's Day it is, which is ultimately so stupid. It's been difficult to keep my resolution to stop complaining and stay positive. I'm learning that it helps to actually write the positives down (or at least draft a list in my head) until they push out the negatives and make it all seem insignificant. So here it goes:

Despite my having to get both girls AND myself ready this morning, I was able to sit down to breakfast with them and still get to work earlier than normal. Plus I got to see my sweet Eden love on her sick Daddy. He was sleeping on the couch, and she whispered, "Mommy, his feet are uncovered. I'm going to get him another blanket." And she lovingly draped his feet with one of her crocheted blankets, softly patting them at the end like the sweet nurturing girl she is.

This morning I got to witness Leah's intense attachment to the director of her daycare. I'd heard she was attached, that the director was the only one who could calm her down in the first few days she started, but I saw it with my own eyes today, and I am now convinced the feeling is 100% mutual. It makes me so, so very happy to have my kids taken care of by people who truly love them.

I have a complicated, time-intensive memo to work on at work, and a couple of other deals heating up. It gives me something to do; things have been moderately slow lately, so I am happy to be able to stop worrying about hours. During the slow time I've connected really well with some fun colleagues, which has been nice, so I'm thankful too for distractions.

I was able to leave work early to get the girls from daycare (law firm perk numero uno in my book - flexibility with hours). When Leah saw me, she squealed and gave me the sweetest, longest hug ever; I almost cried right there in front of her teachers. For a minute I thought she was going to fall asleep on my shoulder. And even though we had to run two - TWO - errands after work, on opposite sides of town, nobody had a meltdown, and we made it home before No-Nap Eden started to get too crazy and Way-Too-Short-A-Nap Leah started to wilt.

My husband, despite feeling yucky and weak, was able to pitch in a bit at home so I could get dinner on the table and the girls both bathed and in bed. (And I'm SO thankful and appreciative of the fact that he cooks dinner - GOOD, real, balanced MEALS for dinner - five nights a week while wrangling the kiddos all by himself. I'm not even sure my brain understands what that means. Usually when I have them by myself on the weekends it ends up being something frozen I just heat up. Or leftovers I piece together.)

Miss No-Nap was whining this evening, and I got onto her for it, as we do fifty million times a day. I told her if she whined one more time, no books before bed. And she stopped. She talked to me in her big girl voice and took a completely appropriate tone. For most of the rest of the night.

And now I've got three sleeping Valentines, a therapeutic blog post written, and I am about to settle down into some productivity for the next few hours.

Thanks for listening, Interwebz.

And here's a little cuteness for your time:

Party Time! (recap)

So... My baby girl turned one last month. And we had a party for her. It was exciting and sad (She's growing up SO FREAKING FAST!!) and so, so much fun. We invited a whole bunch of Leah's friends - it was all people who know and love Leah, specifically (not necessarily just her parents, or even her big sister) and it ended up being twenty something adults and eleven kids! Crazy! The prize for longest distance traveled to be there goes to John, Kelli, Quinn, and Caroline who came all the way from Texas. We are so glad they were able to be here for Leah's special day!

I wanted the birthday party to go with the theme of Leah's bedding (pink! and elephants!) and I spent a lot of time on Pinterest looking at decorating and food ideas, and I have to say, I'm pretty proud of how things turned out:


You can't see the balls hanging from the window very well, but they're made of string and Leah LOVED them (Eden helped me make them!). They're hanging from hooks on her ceiling above her bed now. I got an elephant paper punch and had elephant "confetti" cut out from the scrapbook paper used for the banner.

As for food, since the party was 3pm (post-nap) I didn't do a ton of food. I wanted everything to be finger-food (to reduce the cleanup!) I made cake pops (white cake with vanilla coating and strawberry cake with chocolate coating), a "smash cake" for Leah (strawberry cake with strawberry frosting), roll-up sandwiches, and PB&J sandwiches on wheat bread cut up with cookie cutters. We also had cheese and crackers, and big sliced pepperoni. And I picked up a bunch of pink and white candy at CVS (such a great thing having a girly party just before Valentine's Day!). Some of my coworkers made a bit of fun of me when I mentioned that I had bought two big bags of M&Ms in Valentine's Day colors (red, dark pink, light pink, and white) and then picked out all the reds because they didn't go with the theme - but that's how I roll, y'all. And some of you out there in the Interwebz will totally get that. And an awesome friend from our community group brought chocolate-dipped fruit and put together the (pink!) punch for us.

OK, now that I read all of that, maybe it was a lot of food. But there were 30-something people. And I didn't make much of it...

Anywho.

Leah was in perfect party form after a nice long nap (I swear, despite the frowny face, she was a delight):


She spent most of the party with this guy, who I'm now calling her boyfriend, Paul. She won't leave his arms for anyone willingly. EVEN MOMMY.

She got some good playing time in with her baby friends, too (there were two little girls in our group of friends born just about three months after Leah, and they're buddies):




And, of course, there were lots of bigger kids, too:

And some cake eating!!:


And a moment to relax with Mommy and Eden on the stairs away from the hustle of the par-tay... (Notice the matching dresses - courtesy of Auntie Megan, of course):

It was a fun day. Lots of people in our little condo, but we love the energy and vibrance of a full house. And it was really special that all of those people love our little lady so much. I think she had absolutely no clue what was going on, but she had a great time!

One Year Old

Sweet Leah,

One year ago, you came into our lives, and brought with you two precious dimples, a flexible and adventurous demeanor, and a sweet, joyful spirit. You've grown into a near-toddler overnight, and I sometimes can't believe my eyes.

You're incredibly portable; you're up for adventure pretty much anywhere. You attack life with such purpose, such drive, and I know that you're going to stake your own claim, make your own way, and take whatever life throws at you in stride. You do occasionally get upset when we divert you from something, or throw your arms straight up, making yourself as straight as possible, when we try to pick you up and you don't want to be picked up, which makes me think you may be as strong-willed as (or maybe even more strong-willed than) your big sister.

You never stop moving. Even sitting in your high chair, you rock back and forth and grin that huge grin of yours and sometimes scrunch up your nose like something is so hilarious you can't stand it. When I'm holding you I'm often a bit afraid you're going to pitch yourself out of my arms and onto the floor - and you've come close a few times! I always have to make sure I have a good hold on you, girl!

Despite your love of movement, you still have very little interest in walking. On your birthday you got yourself to standing on your own (without pulling up on something) for the first time, and you've done it a few times since then. But always, once you realize you're standing, you slooooooowly crouch back down to sitting. You do walk with a push walker just fine, but you haven't yet figured out how to turn it around, so when you run into something, you just repeatedly slam it against the wall or furniture and yell until someone comes to turn it for you.

You're such a lover, and you're a great hugger. You love to hug your baby dolls, the doggie puppet you got from our former landlord for your birthday, and - most of all - you love your SISTER. "Duh Duh" does NOT, as we initially thought, mean "Dada" (you actually say "Daddy" pretty clearly). It means "Eden" and it's the first thing you say in the morning. I love that relationship SO MUCH. It was the thing that I was most excited about when I found out you were a little girl, still kicking around in my belly. I wanted you both to have a sister. There's nothing like it, and I pray that it continues to be as sweet a relationship as it's starting out to be.

You continue to eat like a champ, and when you're all done you wave your arms like crazy and then start throwing food on the floor. You're now 100% on whole milk in sippy cups, and we've cut out the bedtime milk altogether (you did that on your own) so you pretty much only take milk with meals and snacks.

You still take 2 naps a day most days, but you're starting to slowly transition to one. That transition is about to be accelerated, though, because you're starting daycare this week and your class is a one-nap class. I'm confident you'll do fine, but I also think you'll probably sleep at least 3-4 hours of the day. (Yesterday I had you at home, because you were sick, and you slept from 11am to 4:15pm, when I woke you up to get some fluids in you!)

Other than "Duh Duh" you say "Daddy" and "bye-bye" and "Mama" (when you want to, which unfortunately is NOT very often!) and "Uh-oh" (which comes out as "uh uh ooo ooo"). You can still only reliably sign "bye-bye" and "all done" but I think this morning you signed "milk" and you've gotten the point that shaking the head means "no," and sometimes you shake your head at things you know you're not supposed to get into. But mostly, you point at things and grunt to get your message across, and it's working for you right now.

I wish I could adequately convey what fun you are, what a JOY you are. People comment all the time on what a happy kid you are, and they're absolutely right. You're so good, so happy, so precious, and I can't wait to see who you become, my littlest love.

Keep smiling, keep being unstoppable, and keep growing big and strong! I love you so much I can't stand it, my Munchie.

Love,
Mommy