Beautiful Things

I have felt a lot like a failure today.  My temper and motivation have been seriously lacking, and I feel like everything and everyone is getting the short end of the stick from me.  So, instead of telling you all the rough things, I'm going to tell you about the beautiful things... because I need that today.

My Lettie sleeping is a beautiful thing.  That hand thrown over her face reminds me of every sonogram we had taken of her.  While the technician was checking for those pockets of fluid in her kidneys, I was looking for that sweet little face, always hidden behind one sweet little fist.

And lots of times, those sleepy times end up with her lying right against my heart, letting go of her desperate fight against rest, all cozied up.  Sometimes, I admit, I am totally "touched out", but a snuggled in sleeping baby, there's always some beauty in that.

Oh, and the fact that while that baby hates napping by herself, she has been sleeping 7 hours a night is awesome.

My baby brother graduated, and we got to watch.  I am so proud of him, not only did he graduate, but he already has a (really great) job lined up.  And, hey, it doesn't hurt that he has an absolutely sweet, wonderful girlfriend who graduated the same day.

 Because my brother was graduating from our alma-mater, we got to spend a little time wandering (we actually stayed four days, fit in a few shoots and lots of seeing friends).  It made my heart happy to spend some time in the place we met and fell in love.

 

And, of course, it's never bad to fit in some extra time with my parents... it's hard living so far from home!

My sweet, anxious, Nugget asks to say "the scared prayer" before we close the door at naptime and bedtime.  It came about when she started having nightmares a few weeks back.  It goes a little like this (there are variations depending on who actually says it):

The Scared Prayer

Dear Jesus, Help Anni to not be scared, send her guardian angel to watch over her and Mary to hold her tight.  Amen.

Sweet, simple, beautiful.  I'm glad it brings her sweet little soul comfort.

Beautiful things to come: getting to see a dear friend ordained to the priesthood this weekend annnnd on to a family reunion the following day.  I may need to reread this post a few times tonight to remind myself how good I've got it, but it's all true, each and every bit a nod to all of the wonderful things I have in my life.

Celebrating Three

This year, I was kind to myself, and everyone else, and didn't try to drive us crazy by attempting the "perfect" birthday party.  I knew two things 1) I wanted Anni to know that she is precious and that the day of her birth should be celebrated and she should be made to feel special.  2) That we need to make it awesome with a minimum of money and time (aka, we just had a baby and I didn't plan for months like I loved doing for the previous two).  Therefore, I begged my darling husband to help me come up with a plan.  He, being awesome, thought of everything our little gal loves and put this together: party at the park, the strawberry cupcakes she's been begging for, friends, bubbles, food.  boom.  done.  It was cold and windy, and the kids totally didn't care.  They played to their heart's content, ate yummy food, blew bubbles and just celebrated.  It was awesome!  Happy third birthday, my sweet girl, you really are the sunshine in our lives! 

 

 

 

An interview with Anni at 3

Our little Nugget turned three... so we decided to do a fun little questionnaire now that she's old enough to actually answer questions.  She completely cracked us up!  I didn't think ahead enough to modify some of the questions (I just pulled up something on pinterest and we started asking), so we may change just a few or add a couple next year, but still a fun look into who she is at three!

1) How old are you?

Two... fwee!

2) What makes you happy?

Going to school someday and playing with the toys at school.

3) What is your favorite thing to eat?

 Apples 

4) What is your favorite color?
Green color

5) What is your favorite TV show?
A Snippy one.  (Snippy=snoopy)

6) What is your favorite book?
Max's Birthday

7) What is your favorite song?
Twinkle Twinkle. 

8) What is your favorite movie?
A Dog Movie

9) What is your favorite thing to do outside?
Play

10) What is your favorite thing to do inside?
I watch rain when I'm inside.

11) What do you like to do with Mommy?
 I like to play with you.

12) What do you like to do with Daddy?
Play with my magic wand with Daddy. (They've actually never done this, maybe she was anticipating?)

13)  What is your favorite store?
A banama store

14) Where is your favorite place to go?
The store!

15) Who are your friends?
My friends with Sophia, Mrs. Kont-erba, Don Paul.  Let me think... Don Paul's baby brudder.  Let me think... Lucy maybe?  That's all for now.

16) What is your favorite holiday?
A special holiday.

17) What is your favorite outfit?
A blue outfit.

18) What is your favorite toy?
A green toy.  A yellow toy.  I have a pink toy.

19) What do you want to be when you grow up?
 I want to be Nonna and Papa's age.  I want to play when I grow up.

20) What would you like for your birthday?
Cake.  Frosting cake.  Sniger snap peas (sugar snap peas).  You spell is a-n-i-n-p.

Seven Quick Takes: Volume II

1) Guys, I'm overwhelmed.

Like, have to catch my breath because sometimes I can feel the anxiety of having nothing done, ever, rising up in me, and feeling like I spend so much time spending five seconds on each thing that not only does nothing get done, but, well, nothing gets done.

2) But, I keep trying.

So, um, we decided to do Anni's birthday party this Saturday.  That's... tomorrow.  A few months ago, I figured we'd be in a house in May (our lease is technically up on our apartment in less than two weeks).  Then the housing market got insane, we didn't find a house, we extended our lease three months and now we're in a place in which there is no room for a three year old and her little buddies to run and scream like they should when celebrating a birthday.

Henceforth: party at a nearby park (praying that the snow storms stay away this weekend), and pulling together easy and yummy food (Anni's choice, her main request being "strawberry cake!")  Luckily we know someone who makes an amazing strawberry cake... I'm talking epically changing your view on strawberry cake amazing.  But, anyway, decorations, maybe?  We're headed to a party store tomorrow to see what fun, but quick, things we can use to decorate the gazebo.  This isn't going to be a party decorated and designed to the "t", and I'm reminding myself to be okay with that, because it's about Anni and celebrating her, whether or not we can afford crazy extravagance.  Everything a three year old needs: friends, food, fun.  Done.

3) I worked out for the first time since early in my pregnancy with Lettie (a workout which I abandoned after 15 minutes and realizing it was going to make me vomit everywhere, despite my determination to "train for labor", ha!)  It may never happen again (though my brain is making goals I'm not sure my body can keep up with... so here's hoping!), and it's possible I asked Daniel to go get me a bar of dark chocolate to recover... don't judge (oh, and my husband is pretty amazing that he didn't even blink when I begged him).

4) We made our first "overnight trip" since Lettie's birth last weekend, to Daniel's parents' house a little over an hour away.  I did a couple shoots while we were there and met this amazing, strong, mama (and took photos of her sweet little gal... stay tuned on the business blog for more of those someday soon!)

5) This morning I may have realized that it had been... a little long... since poor Lettie had had a bath.  Therefore, I decided, with five minutes before we needed to leave for my mom's group, to wash that sweet girl's blonde locks.  Best decision I made all day.  #3 comes after that.  I love her fluffy post-bath hair.

6) Anni is very into cooking with me right now, which I both love and struggle with.  Love: well, what's not to love, right?  Adorable girl wanting to throw on an apron and "mix mix"?  I love the bonding time and teaching her a life skill, but to answer the "what's not to love" question... it makes things just a tad slow!  When we didn't have little Lettie requesting my attention, I had a little more luxury in time spent in the kitchen... but now things need to be thrown together as fast as physically possible if it's going get done.  We tend to strike a deal that I let her help with some parts, but do take over at some point so that we get our meal going eventually (on time?  well, not quite).

7) Just love.  Yes, I'm overwhelmed, but I have this snuggly, snuggly baby to hold, her big sister to sing and dance with, and their daddy to love all my days.  I'm a lucky gal no matter what else is going on in my life.

More Seven Quick Take Fridays here.

P.S. My eldest sister had a birthday (and an un-birthday due to the fact that her hubby's hospitalizations have put a damper on her birthday the last few years... but not this one!) this past Tuesday.  She's amazing in ways that I actually can describe, but choose not to at the moment because I need to snatch sleep before my littlest wakes up.  Either way, send up some beautiful thoughts and prayers for her... I'm lucky to have her as my big (er... little?) sister (and she's one of the few to read my blog on a regular basis... so, there's that, too!)

Colette at 2 months

 Our little lady Lettie turned two months old last week.  My heart may break at the sweetness.  She is an expressive little gal... it's not hard to guess how she's feeling at any one moment.  She gives out recklessly adorable smiles in abundance, but also has the sweetest "I'm just taking this all in" face.  She gained two pounds and two inches since birth, so apparently we're doing just grand in the feeding department.

We also had one night where she slept through the night(!)  That night, I woke up at 3 am and just stared at her, making sure she was breathing and such.  We haven't had any repeats of that night, but she does tend to have at least one long stretch at night... now if I could just condition myself to going to sleep at 8 when she does... but then I probably wouldn't have a business... or a home you could even remotely see the floor of (that is still questionable some days).  

Quiet is much harder to come by these days.  I never thought of Anni as loud until I tried to keep her quiet around the baby.   I'm so grateful for the quiet moments with this babe.  It's been really wonderful to have those peaceful snatches of time to reflect on the beauty of my little ones and motherhood.  I try to reach back and borrow peace from that reserve when everyone is crying (including myself) and it feels like I'll never be caught up (probably true). 

Happy two months, sweet little Lettie!  You are loved!