Balance

So, it's been a few weeks, but at least it hasn't been a month. I'm improving, a little.

Anyway, I went away last weekend. For three nights. For fun. Without my husband or my child. I know. Craziness. I've been away from her before, but only when Mike and I had a wedding or I had to go to training for work. This is the first time I've left her for more than one night just to have a good old time with my girlfriends. And yes, I did feel the obligatory mom guilt gnawing at me from the bottom of my stomach, but once I filled that puppy with Espresso martinis and lobster, that gnawing was replaced by another feeling all together. That feeling was "Freedom!" There. I said it. Staying up late, sleeping until 11:30 (are you serious?), and doing whatever I wanted to do during the day felt pretty amazing.

Even though I've only been a mom for three years, I have grown accustomed to the constant reminder of her presence. I always know where she is, what she's doing, whether or not she has pooped, if her hair is up or down (down- obviously), if she is wearing the Cinderella underwear or the Dora underwear (Cinderella- obviously), and even while we're both sleeping, it only takes one tiny "Mommy?" for my eyes to shoot open, ready for action. When you are a mom, you are always on-call, 24 hours a day.

I think that was the thing that initially freaked me out about motherhood. I had understood, of course, that this would be the case, but it wasn't until that first night in the hospital when Lost was over and I was ready to go to bed that I realized, "Oh my God. I don't get to just 'go to bed.' There is no "clocking out" of this job, no union to help me negotiate working conditions and personal days. No, there is only this very small and very unreasonable tyrant telling me I will never have five minutes to myself ever again!" This went on for quite some time. You've all heard the sob stories about my devil baby, so I won't bore you with them again.

But now, fully emerged from the baby fog, I realize that there is life after motherhood. That I can find the balance between my role as a parent and my role as a friend. This past weekend was about celebrating the end of single blessedness for my dear friend Alex, a girl I have literally been friends with for 27 years. Going away for the whole weekend seemed impossible when the idea was first presented, not because I didn't think my husband could handle Ella (he's always been better at it than me), but because it seemed like a lot to ask of him, and because, well, I am a mom now and moms aren't supposed to spend a weekend drinking booze and riding through P-town on something called a "Funk Bus" while their friend gets an impromptu lap dance by a stray lesbian off the street. Moms don't sleep until 11:30 and play Sexy Slang until the wee hours of the morning. But then I remembered that before I was a mom, I was a lot of other things, and namely, I was a friend who enjoyed the company of her girlfriends more than almost anything. This is a part of my identity, too, an important part of it that I want to cherish and cultivate, just as I want to cultivate the relationship with my husband and my child. The good thing is that these relationships have always felt stable to me, but it is the quality of those relationships that is tenuous. Partner, child, friend. I am lucky enough to have all of these things in my life, and I know that with that blessing comes an obligation to nurture these relationships every day. That's a lot to take on, but it's a job I'm lucky to have.

So, I relished the time with my girlfriends as much as I could, and when I got home on Monday, there was a smiling little person, no worse for wear, so excited to see me that she ran in front of my car, and I had to stop in the middle of the driveway, get out, and hug her. She wrapped her arms around me tighter than she ever had before and said, "I'm so glad you're home, Mommy!" She kept grabbing me intensely all week, saying over and over again, "I missed you Mommy. I missed you so much." And I took her in my arms, holding her little body against mine, and I relished that blessing, too.

Ella B taking over my spot in bed. 

Our little Helper

In preparation for "Thanksgiving Extravaganza Year Three" at our house on Thursday, Mike and I are frantically trying to clean the house this weekend. This means that a certain someone is either spending the weekend watching T.V. (don't judge us), or trying to "help" in her own special way.

She loves to think of herself as a helper, and often asks if she can "help" me make dinner, which usually translates into her eating a pile of shredded cheese while sitting on the island and mixing broccoli and uncooked rice in a bowl. Totally super helpful.

So we often try to divide and conquer when it comes to big projects we need to accomplish, meaning, one of us accomplishes the goal while the other distracts the child. I planned on taking Ella to the store this morning so Mike could clean, but she insisted on staying home with Daddy, so I wasn't sure how much he would be able to get done.

He said that she was fairly helpful. While cleaning the dresser, he kept handing her things to put away. She is good with a task like this. If you give her something and tell her where to put it, she will usually follow through, but eventually being a helper gets boring and the idea of "going camping" in her bedroom becomes much more appealing.

The same thing happened this afternoon while I was folding laundry. She came in and asked if she could help, so I asked her to find all the socks and to put them in a pile. She went about her job dutifully and when she'd found every last sock, she carried them into the livingroom leaving no sock behind, and I showed her how to match and fold them. She was very excited to find the matches and even made an attempt to actually fold them. I left her to her task, confident that she could complete it. By the time I got back to the laundry room, I could hear her laughing and telling Mike, "Daddy, these are my sock puppets." She ran into the laundry room sporting two different socks on her little hands. She was quacking like a duck, so I guess the sock puppets were ducks? I'm not too sure of the specifics, but, needless to say, the socks did not get folded.

Hopefully we will soon have a little girl who both likes the idea of being a helper and can actually be one.

Sidenote: I just wrote a blog post about folding socks. This is what happens when you challenge yourself to write one blog post every day for a month. Good God it's only November 17th. Pray for me.

Apple picking, one year later

Last weekend we went apple picking again, almost exactly one year later with the same awesome neighbors and the addition of my parents. I was looking at these two pictures of us from last year and this year and I started thinking about all the changes that have happened to Ella in the past year. Obviously 0-1 marks the biggest change in terms of physically going from being a crying, gelatinous blog, to learning to walk and talk, but really, the changes that happen from one to two are nothing short of miraculous. I was looking at some blog posts from a year ago, and I realized that last year at this time she was just learning to put words together to form sentences. She was saying "yesth" instead of "yes" and calling a blanket a "nanight." Now, she uses words like "actually" and "definitely" and requires me to "tell the truth." When I pick her up from daycare and ask her about her day, she says, "I don't want to talk about it." She tells Mike that he is her boyfriend, and when she finally gets in the bathtub after fighting us about it, she says, "See, that wasn't so bad." Now she has hair that streams down her back when she's in that tub, and when I look at her little body, I can already see it slimming out. She's getting those "kid legs" that come from spending days running and jumping like a real kid, not a baby, or even a toddler. She has cuts and scrapes now that I've never even kissed, and she knows what it means to pinky promise. She knows how to remember things, and when I first told her we were going apple picking, she said, "With Arlo and Violet? Like last year? Remember, Mom?" Yeah, buddy, I do remember. I'll try to always remember all of it, but when I don't, please remind me.

Ella B in NYC (the remix)

This weekend, Ella B took her second trip to NYC and this time she got to sleep over. The anticipation of this almost destroyed her. When I told her we were going to stay at Aunty Jessica's apartment and sleep in Aunty Jessica's bed, she just about died. I, of course, was dying to know how this was all going to work out.

We made plans to run/walk/stroll in this charity event for Big Brothers Big Sisters that Jessica's boyfriend, Alan, is apart of. I decided it would be easier to go in Friday night and sleep at Jess's than to take the train Saturday morning. Of course, this meant that Ella would have to sleep somewhere other than her crib. It also meant she would have to sleep in a regular bed in an apartment that is about the size of her bedroom. There were some very real fears about how this was going to work out.

We decided that it was best if she and I slept in the bed and Mike took the couch. The problem was how to get her to bed and whether or not I would be able to get up again once she was down. Luckily, she went down pretty easily. We took a bath, read a few books, had a bottle (I mean, what? My two-year-old doesn't drink out of a bottle. That's ridiculous. Anyway...), and then I shut out the lights and pretended to go to sleep. We told her that daddy had to "go to work" so he wouldn't be forced to lie down, too. This meant, however, that he had to sit in the living room/ non-functioning kitchen and occupy himself while remaining fairly silent. Every time Ella heard him clear his throat, she'd say:

"I think daddy's downstairs."

"There is no downstairs El, go to sleep."

She also kept putting her hand on my face and whispering, "Mommy, open your eyes."

Eventually, she gave up, rolled over and fell asleep. I was able to stealthily sneak out and sneak back in undetected. She slept through the night with no problems. I, on the other hand, kept waking up to find a tiny hand draped across my face, or a foot in my crotch. Now I know why she always wakes up with a huge knot in her hair. That girl doesn't stop moving.

In the morning, we headed over to Alan's apartment where Ella couldn't wait to tell Jess, "I slept in your bed last night." We went to Riverside Park and got ready for the race. Ella was especially excited that Dora was there and we got to take a picture with her. Mike narrowly avoided a traumatizing moment when he and Ella were following Dora as she went into a little tent. Suddenly, Dora started to remove her head, and Mike quickly turned around telling Ella, "Dora has to go potty right now."

We ran/walked/and strolled our way around the park and ate a few Whole Foods sandwiches at the end. Ella was excited to see "a lot of Franklins" which were really just Ninja Turtles, but she didn't know the difference.

The highlight for her was probably when we started and impromptu parachute party. She desperately wanted to hold up the parachute lying on the ground, but with only the three of us, it was pretty difficult. A few people joined us and before we knew it, we had formed a group and the kids were running and laughing underneath the parachute every time we lifted it up. Ella was afraid at first, but soon she was running underneath between Mike and I, laughing the whole way.

She never napped, so we called it a day soon after that. She fell asleep in the car on the way home and went to bed pretty early. All in all, it was a successful trip to the city, and Ella had another first. Her first sleepover in NYC, something I didn't do until I was probably 18. Ella B, you are so much cooler than me.

Memorial Day

 For people who didn't make any plans, we sure ended up having a pretty nice Memorial Day. It all started at the Bethany Memorial Day parade where we parked ourselves in front of the old firehouse and ate fishies and juice. Well, some of us had fishies and juice and others had coffee. On the way there, Ella was getting all excited over this whole "parafe" thing, but once we got there, she couldn't understand why everyone was sitting by the side of the road and clapping at old cars driving by.

 For a while, she was more interested in stuffing herself inside the concert chair bag and calling herself a mermaid.

 Then Pop Pop gave her a better view and she got more into it. When the horses made their way down and she got to pet a pony, she started to really like the "parafe."

 After a good nap (for baby and Dad while Mom graded, per usual), we headed over to Jessica's house for a barbecue and a good soak in the pool. The only fit she threw all day was when we tried to get her out of that pool. She was loving it and kept telling Mike to let go of her. Sorry Beezer, but you don't know how to swim.

We ended the visit with a good ride on Jessica's old tricycle that her dad dragged out of the barn and cleaned up for us. Needless to say, Miss B slept well that night. What a fun day with family and friends.

A post my husband will love

There is nothing my husband loves more than to prove me wrong (and to keep reminding me about it). So, here you go Michael. You were right. Bringing Beezer to the Poconos was not a total disaster. And yes, I did have a lot of fun. Okay? Enough.

Rewind to about a month ago when Alex and Larry asked us if we wanted to spend the weekend in the Poconos with them and a few of their friends. Of course, Alex and Michael were in cahoots from the very beginning trying to figure out how to convince me to go. Truth be told, I didn't want to go. Well, I didn't want to go with Beezer. I wasn't looking forward to a three-hour road trip with a toddler, or figuring out how to get her to sleep in a strange place, or how to keep everyone quiet after seven without being a total jerk, or how to stay up late and still get up early and not be a crab the next day.

Clearly, I was not too keen on the idea, but my eternally non-nonchalant husband finally wore me down and I agreed to go. I was most worried about the drive down, but thank God for portable DVD players and big bags of Goldfish. I sat in the back so I could entertain her and keep her company. I asked her about her day, sang songs, and danced to the radio until she looked at me, pointed at the front seat and said, "Mommy- up there." From that point on she was in Kai-Lan/Diego/Dora/Blue's Clues lala land. Feel free to judge. I don't care.

Once we got there it was straight to bed. The next morning was a little rough as we'd stayed up until 1:30 and then Beezley decided to get up at 5:15. That hurt. But once everyone else woke up and Ella got used to all the people, she become her little hammy self and captured everyone's attention. She especially loved the boys and always wanted to be in "Larry's room." She insisted on eating Alex's ice cubes and touching Kofi's puffy slippers.

The best part of all came when Genny, Jake, their baby Penny, and their dog Grizzly showed up. Ella fell in love with Grizzly and wouldn't leave him alone. The rest of us fell in love with four month old Penny and wouldn't leave her alone. She never knew who would be holding her next. I was pretty impressed with Ella for letting me hold Penny for quite a while. A good sign for the future, I hope. It was also nice to have other parents there who understood the importance of little person sleep. Also, I'm pretty much in love with my new friend Genny.

So, overall it was a successful trip. The weekend was filled with tiny giggles, awesome food, silly games, too little sleep, and a lot of really great people, and we would have really missed out on a good time if we'd stayed home. Thank you Michael for making me go.

Sunday Cuteness

What can I even say? This little girl is really starting to murder me with her cuteness. Today she became a tiny fashionista. First, when we went outside to play, she put on the above hoodie and upon realizing (apparently for the first time), that it had pockets, she stuck her hands inside and kept them there for a solid fifteen minutes. Also, she has pretty much been wearing that hat since I came home from Target with it on Saturday.

Later, she put my socks over her leggings and came running to show me how amazing she looked. I have to say, I almost dropped my sponge and Kaboom foaming spray (yes, I was actually cleaning the bathroom), and ran out to buy her some legwarmers; she looked that good.

When my mother arrived (because it is inevitable every couple of days), she had brought with her a bag of clothes from my sister. As soon as Ella saw these clothes and heard that they use to be Izzy's, she had to try them on. Before I knew it, she was decked out in a winter coat, boots, no wait, sparkly dress shoes, no wait, Christmas dress, no wait, another pair of boots, no wait, nothing, until finally there was nothing left and she stripped down naked and got in the bath.

Looks like I've created the Punky Brewster kid I always wanted to be. Move over Soleil Moonfrye!

Fall Weekend

Had ourselves a lovely little Fall weekend. It all began Saturday morning when this little lady decided to help me make pumpkin muffins. She has become quite a fan of cooking and can't wait to get on the counter and start mixing. That morning was particularly exciting because she realized that something even more fun than stirring the batter is tasting it. Wow, the whole world opened up for her after that. She promptly turned into a pumpkin-muffin-batter monster as you can see in the photograph above. Unfortunately, the muffins didn't turn out so great (apparently baking soda is not an optional ingredient- who knew?), but we sure had fun anyway.

Our bellies full of dense muffins and caramelized onion and mushroom omelets (courtesy of my resident omelet chef, Michael B.) we headed over to Movenastics with the Miss Violet and Andrea. Wendy and the boys joined us, too so we said fair well to the toddler class in style. We had considered going to the Halloween hoot, hence the skeleton pj's, but opted out when I saw how tired Miss B was after all the tumbling and scootering and whatnot, so we left and she promptly passed out in the car.

On Sunday we headed over to Lyman Orchards with Andrea, Steve, Arlo, and Violet and picked up some pumpkins and apples. Arlo was very particular about which pumpkins he wanted, while Ella was more interested in rocks than anything else. She did, however, house 2.5 apples and then pass out in the car once again.

We ended our lovely weekend with Nathan T.'s 6th birthday party, which is always a costume party. Kristy had purchased this super cute garden gnome costume back when she was unable to go to a store without buying Ella a present. Remembering the family costume of my childhood (Candy was Strawberry Shortcake, my parents were Strawberry's parents, and I was a strawberry), I decided we should give it a try. Since Ella was the garden gnome, I became the garden and Mike the gardener (though he kept saying farmer just to spite me).

We wrapped it all up with a handful of candy corn and called it a day. Pretty awesome weekend all around. Hope yours was filled with friends, family, and Fall festivities, too. Happy October!

Movenastics

Thanks to Jeremy and Christina for doing five different blog posts in the span of a weekend and making me feel like such a dead-beat blogger that I am now blogging at 10:30 on Sunday night when I should be sleeping. PS- check out their awesome new blog over at http://lovereverielife.blogspot.com when you have a chance.

So, yesterday we popped over to Woodbridge Rec for a little toddler gymnastics class run by my dad, aka "Pop Pop," aka one half of Ella B's most favorite people on the planet. Enrollment for the Fall class has been low, super low, so I tried to recruit some of Ella's besties to come with us, but no one was free. So, we ventured to class anyway and ended up being the only ones there. Yes, picture this: Ella B in a giant gym full of balls, things to bounce on, things to slide down, her Pop Pop at her side, and no one to share it with. Needless to say, she was in baby-girl heaven. Of course, I think it would have been a whole lot more fun with Violet and Bella there, but this little lady didn't seem to notice. Sorry gals.

She spent the entire hour leading her Pop Pop around from station to station, sliding head first, stepping off high things, chilling on the balance beam, running as fast as her crazy legs would take her, and basically doing everything I was (okay, am) afraid to do.

The whole thing gave me flashbacks to when I was the little girl in gymnastics class who refused to swing on the parallel bars. The instructor at the time told me she would bring me a box of salt water taffy if I did it just once, and I still couldn't do it. I guess the only thing that trumps food bribery is fear of being upside down, but I digress.

All in all, it was an hour well spent. Unfortunately, they won't be able to keep running the class if enrollment stays like this. So, if you've got a little munchkin who needs a place to wiggle it all out, won't you chill with us on Saturday morning at 10:30?

I hope everybody else had a movenastics weekend!

Not Wordless Wednesday: Bounce House BFF

As I've told you before, Ella is quite enamored with our neighbor, Arlo, and every time we drive by his house or play in the yard, she points and calls his name. Sometimes I tell her "Arlo is sleeping" or "Arlo is at school" because, honestly, no matter what time of day or night it is, she knows what those things are and it makes her stop. Other times, like when I want her to get in the car at daycare or to get her to leave somewhere fun, I will use the Arlo bribe, telling her that if she does x (whatever x may be) we can go and see Arlo. By the time we get home the Arlo bribe is usually forgotten and we can move on to the next obsession (swinging "big" in the swing, "driving" the car, etc.) but sometimes the thought of Arlo is still fresh in her mind and I am obliged to keep my Arlo promise. So, we trapse over to Arlo and Violet's house unannounced (ya know- cause we're BFF's) and interrupt whatever nap time/meal time/playtime situation they have just recently begun and settled into.

We joke about Ella's obsession with Arlo (his father suggested she needs a signed poster of him above her bed), but I think that when she says "Arlo" she is actually talking about both Arlo and Violet. I realized this when the girls were sitting on the lawn mower together and Ella patted Violet's back and said, "Arlo." Unfortunately, "Violet" is just too much for her little brain and mouth to figure out right now. So, Arlo it is.

The funniest part about it is that these two girls who can't wait to see each other don't actually spend any time playing together. Andrea says that Violet is forever pointing towards our yard and yelling, "Hi! Hi! House," but as soon as the excitement of seeing each other wears off, they go running in opposite directions. The only time they interact is when Ella tries to bully Violet into giving up whatever toy she has, or Violet decides to sit in the wagon seat that Ella has decided was hers. Andrea and I spent a solid twenty minutes giving each of them a turn in the swing while the other one fussed from the ground, yelling "wee! wee!." When they are together I spend a lot of time trying to get Ella to understand sharing and being nice, but I wonder if she is too young to be a good friend or a good hostess.

Despite all of this, there is apparently one thing that can bring these girls together and that is a good old-fashioned bounce house. We brought the whole crew to the Bethany Harvest Festival last week and set them free amongst the cotton candy stands, hay mazes, and mechanical bulls (seriously). Violet found the bounce house first and fearlessly dived right in to the sea of eight-year-old giants. Ella was a little more timid, but once she saw her gf in there, she couldn't pass it up. They were having so much fun playing in there- no fighting, no pushing, no whining- that I had to go in and drag them out. I guess every friendship needs some sort of anchor, some common ground, and in this case that ground is all squishy and filled with air.

Ella B and Mason D

Today is my nephew Mason's 1st birthday and it couldn't have been a more beautiful day to spend some time running in the grass, laughing with family and friends, and enjoying a little dump truck shaped cake.

My wise old friend Christina once said, "Nothing reminds you of the passage of time like seeing children grow up." I thought about this at the party today as I watched Mason and Ella play in the yard. I thought about how exactly one year ago we went to the hospital to see the brand new Mason, all shiny and pink, and how Ella was just six months old herself. I took her for a walk in the Baby Bjorn and stumbled upon an old cemetery. It seemed an odd juxtaposition at first- a cemetery right next to a hospital- but maybe because it was such a beautiful day, a day just like this one, it felt like a complement to the new life emerging next door.

And here we are, one year later, and these two little people have changed so much. Their lives have already doubled, while that same year for us seems like just a blip. I can only imagine what the next year will bring. Happy Birthday, little man. I can't wait to keep watching you grow.

Happy Birthday Ava!

Today we headed out for Ava's 1st b-day party and had ourselves a ball. It was the first time Ella seemed like one of the kids at a party and not just one of the babies tagging along. She spent most of the afternoon swinging with her dad, sliding down the slide all by herself, and following around the older girls. They are only four, but with their super-cool outfits and complete command of the English language, they are like rock stars to her. As you can see below, she even got to hit an awesome owl pinata and eat a mini three musketeers bar. Score.

With her daddy

They had a giant tub of self-serve Italian ice in old-school paper cups. Ella saw mine and had to have her own. They also had a Philly cheese steak cart. How cool is that?

Here she is having a go at the pinata, with a little help from her mom, of course

All in all, I think it was a pretty good day. Looks like Ella B agrees.

PS- I totally forgot to say that Ella wore the same dress as the birthday girl. So, she was totally that girl at someone else's wedding wearing white. Who does she think she is?

Bubbles and Rain

There are many challenges that come with having a child, especially a "spirited one" like mine, but also many gifts. One gift is that you get to enjoy the whimsy and pleasure of childhood all over again.

This morning, as I made my way towards the kitchen for a much needed cup of coffee, Ella B banged against the kitchen door, begging me to take her outside. "But it's raining," I thought, "and it's 5:30" and, "I'm wearing a nightgown." But Beezer didn't care about any of that. She only knew that she needed to go outside and pleaded with me like a puppy dog with a leash in its mouth.

So, Beezer and I sat on the porch and watched the rain, and I blew bubbles while she chased them. She squealed with delight as she popped each one with her tiny fingers or chased an errant bubble until it disappeared into the sky. And she was so happy, and I was happy because she was happy.

People who don't spend time with kids don't get to experience moments like this. We are all genuinely far too busy with life to waste time blowing bubbles and watching the rain. But part of my life, the best part, is out there on that porch, and if it weren't for Beezer, I'd be missing it.

Ella reminds me of how wide and wonderful this world is, and without even knowing it, she gives me that gift everyday.

Thanks Beeze. I love you.

Eat, Play, Love

So anyone who has ever had a child knows that the weekend is not quite what it use to be, in good ways and bad. There is no more sleeping in, relaxing over a cup of coffee and the morning paper, making dinner plans with friends, etc. As an English teacher I never really had much of the lazy Saturday, anyway, but now we are up at 5:30 and on the move ready to eat, play, and love. Saturday Night Live has become Sunday Morning DVR'd because I now go to bed at the same time every night, which I suppose is much healthier anyway. The upside to all this is that by noon we have usually already eaten two meals, mowed the lawn, emptied the dishwasher, washed two loads of laundry, grocery shopped, and hung curtains. Sometimes we look at the clock and say, "It's only 10:30?" because we have already done so much. It also means lots of fun times with Beezer and that is the best reason to get up at 5:30. Here are some of her highlights from the weekend:

1. Blowing bubbles with daddy





2. Eating Sunday breakfast at Nene and Pop pop's house





3. Looking at Aunty Christina's funny belly button (cause it's poppin' out preggo style)





4. Flirting with Uncle Jeremy





5. Wearing daddy's shoes





6. Getting a big blue ball at Walmart





7. Eating guacamole





8. Petting Madilyn the kitty katty





9. learning to say "meow" and "quack"





10. Picking buttercups and wild onions for my mom

Beezer and the Cornfield

It sounds like the title of a children's book, but really it is just what we did on Saturday. Amy invited us to walk around the cornfield with her as part of a fundraiser for the relief efforts for the disaster in Japan. I was nervous about going for all the usual reasons: too close to nap time, beezer doesn't like the stroller, blah, blah, blah. But then Michael, in all his wisdom said, "Just go. If she's terrible, then come home." And ya know what? He was right. (Don't tell him I said that). This is one of my husband's greatest qualities, and one that I sorely lack. He is very, very chill. This can be annoying at times, but when it comes to Ella, it is usually a good thing. I am constantly keeping myself (and her) from doing fun things because I am always worried about how she is going to be (bratty, snotty, sleepy, grumping, what-have-you) and this paralyzes us and keeps us locked in the house. Michael always tries to push me a little beyond my comfort zone and sometimes it doesn't work out, but sometimes it does. Saturday was one of "does" days.

We walked around the cornfield in our fancy jogging stroller and beezer quietly fell asleep, no pacifier or bottle or anything. Amy and I were able to have a nice walk and some girl time and beezer got her nap. It could not have worked out better. When she woke up, we headed over to the bake sale and all shared a giant scone. Even Amy's beagle, Bowie, got in on the action. Everyone kept admiring how cute she was and for one fleeting moment I became one of those women with the wonderful baby that everyone is envious of.

Me. I was that mom. It was awesome.

So, the moral of the story is. Sometimes, you just need to relax and take beezer to the cornfield (insert your own "beezer" and "cornfield," whatever they might be for you).

Also, sometimes, whether you like it or not, your husband is right. (Sorry ladies).

Hope you had a great weekend, too!

You're still a mother on Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day, and in case you forgot, I am a mother (wierd, right?). So, today is my day to relax and enjoy the fruits of all my hard work being one serious mother. I told Mike that I didn't want any presents/cards/what have you, I just wanted to sleep in (until 7:30- crazyiness!) and I just wanted Mike to be in charge of Beezer all day. So, basically, on Mother's Day I just didn't really want to have to be a mom. Is that wrong? Well, before you judge me, it didn't work out that way anyway. Beezer ended up getting sick and spent the entire day either crying or sleeping in either of our arms. I felt pretty bad for my little nugget and for us. I guess there really is no day off for moms. So, today wasn't as great as it could have been, but I still get to be the lucky mom of the cutest little nugget on the planet. I'm also pretty lucky to have such a great mom myself. And happy birthday tomorrow, Mom!

Yesterday I was also lucky enough to spend time with my sister and her family and my cousins Kristy and Jacob. We played outside, ate pulled pork burritos and chocolate cookies, and walked to the park. Who's better than us? (Hint: no one). So, there were some ups and some downs, but I guess that's what being a mom is all about.

Happy Mother's Day, everyone. And Happy almost Mother's Day to the prettiest pregnant girl in the whole world, Mrs. Christina Allen!

Sights from the weekend

This past weekend was simple and lovely. We took Beezer to Woodbridge Rec to play with Pop Pop, but it got canceled so we played at the Beecher playground instead. Beezer loved sliding down the slide and swinging on the swings. Mike even showed us some of his old playground moves on the rings. I was pretty impressed.

We spent the rest of the day playing outside and taking cute pictures. Beezer's favorite thing to do is collect rocks and dandelions and hold them in her hands. She also likes to eat sticks and plants and gets mad when you tell her not to.
This rock is too big to hold, so she decided to stand on it. She's pretty cute, right?

She also slept in her crib during nap time. Go Beezer! No picture of that. We don't disturb sleeping babies.





On Sunday, we did some gardening and Beezer helped by putting leaves in the leaf bags, trying to eat mulch, and climbing up and down the front steps.

Neither of us have ever really planted anything other than vegetables, so it is a work in progress, but we are getting there.



This last picture is of the Beez wearing her new bib c/o Kim and Meg. It is a reminder to myself to keep blogging, even when I want to just go to bed and forget it. I know it will be worth it later on when we have all of these electronics memories.

Thanks for checking in and a special thanks to Alex, Larry, Christina, and Jeremy for an awesome birthday dinner at Barcelona. Yum!