Around 5 a.m. Maggie comes into our bed every morning, if she isn’t there already, and announces that she’s going to get her milky. We can hear her feet pitter-pattering down the hallway, the grunt that goes with her tugging the fridge door open, and the sprint back to bed. She snuggles herself in the middle of Barry and me, with Syd snoring at her feet. Most mornings our bed feels crowded because I’ll be feeding Audrey on the other side.  We make it work, all in the name of precious sleep. 

A couple days ago, the morning events were exactly like any other day, with Maggie handing me her milk cup after she announced she was ‘all done!” Without opening my eyes, I grabbed the milk cup and put it on our headboard and we all promptly feel back asleep. Jump an hour or two later, and Maggie whispered into my hear that she was going to check out the window if it was daylight. I might have murmured a response, I don’t remember because I was dead asleep. 

She stood up and lifted a couple slits of the blinds to check for the morning light. In doing so, her milk cup fell off the headboard….ON TO MY NOSE!! I have never been punched in the face, but I’m fairly certain I can go the rest of my life knowing that a milk cup did the same amount of damage and I experienced the same amount of pain. 

I went from a deep sleep to having my nose throbbing in pain in a matter of seconds, not the very best way to wake up. It has now been roughly three days and I am still sporting a fairly nice bruise on the bridge of my nose, not to mention the bump that has also become less notable with each passing day. I’m thankful that my freckles cover up the black and blue. 

The falling milk cup story has absolutely nothing to do with these pictures, but I keep scratching my nose and am reminded of the random anecdote. Plus, we’ve been laughing about it around here regularly. 

On Mother’s Day weekend, we headed up to A-Town to visit my family. We had toyed around with the idea of going somewhere and actually doing something, and leaving the kids with my parents, but one thing lead to another and we ended up having a nice, relaxing cook out at my parent’s house. We had brought the makings for S’Mores and my mom happened to have hot dogs, wine and salad (with yummy lettuce from their garden!) on hand, so it worked out perfectly. 

It almost felt like we were camping, minus the whole part about pitching a tent and not having a toilet. Maggie did some major digging and towards the end of the evening, we hauled her upstairs and directly into the tub to rinse off the dirt and campfire smell. 

My parents recently added a fence around their expanded vegetable garden and it is gorgeous! I have a deep appreciation for all the work it takes to maintain a garden of any sort, because I’m struggling with the small patch of dirt in our back yard that we call a garden….

One of my least favorite tasks is going to the grocery store. It is just such an involved process with two children, and even when I go by myself I don’t enjoy it. So I was a bit surprised by the conversation that I had with Maggie the other night as we snuggled (her new favorite word) in bed after reading books. We’ve been reading this book lately and Mags has really connected with the part about not just telling your parents you love them, but telling them WHY you love them. Being a bucket filler is a concept that she clearly understands, so there has been a whole lot of love coming from her these days, more than normal, which was already a ton! 

Often times she’ll list off reasons she loves me (I carried her over the hot sand, I snuggle with her, I hold her, I hug her,  I have loops (curls) in my hair, I took her somewhere….) and I return with my own list about her(she is friendly, she helped clean up, put something away, was gentle with Syd & Audrey….). 

When Maggie is telling me the reasons she loves me, I’m often tickled pink by her insight, memory and awareness. So, I had to laugh when this happened:

Maggie:  I love you

Me: Well, you’re lucky because I love you, too!

Maggie: We love each other. 

Me: Yeah, we love lots of the same things. 

Maggie: Like grocery shopping!!!

Ummmm….nay-bob. I do NOT like grocery shopping, and I had no idea that Maggie does like grocery shopping.

Good to know, good to know.

I love that girl.

Not quite ready for our close-up

As a child I always looked forward to Mother’s Day because it was a day that my entire family got together and I got to spend time with all my cousins and grandparents. It took me a very long time to figure out that cousins on my mom’s side and cousins on my dad’s side were not directly related to one another. I blame Mother’s Day for this confusion. All of us have grown older and now we’ve added a new generation to the mix. Some of us ‘kids’ have gotten married and that has added some more adults as well. Attempting to draw a family tree would be funny, maybe next year. Now that I’m grown, and a mother of two, I’m surprised to find that Mother’s Day doesn’t have a new meaning to me. 

I cherish motherhood all year long – I love this season of my life – and I approach the day as another opportunity to see my beloved extended family.  My only request to Barry was that I have a couple uninterrupted hours (at some point in my life) to edit photos, work on the photo books and maybe do a blog post or two.

I also feel very, very fortunate to have a mother that is so present in my life. I hope that I can be to my girls what my mom is to me. I’ve had a post stewing in my brain for a bit about my own mom and have even pulled a few awesome photos….

BUT right now our yard has been taken over by my dad, Izak and Izak’s friend, Rich, to expand our driveway and extend our fence. I really don’t have time to be blogging right now or even editing photos. Alas, here I am. Audrey fell asleep (yahooo!!) and Maggie is ‘assisting’ with the digging. I double checked to make sure that the mountain of laundry is still there, wondered if I should take a shower or sweep the dirt up again, but opted for a cup of peach tea (thanks, Sue!) and a Monster Cookie while I sifted through the photos I’ve got. 

As I looked through the photos, I kept having this thought of ‘this is what we really look like’  and how I’ve been fighting the fight of wondering how families do it. How do they get it all done? And I am slowly, ever so slowly, coming to the firm truth: they don’t. Everybody essentially has their piles of laundry, weed-filled yards, ignored dirt on the floors, unwashed hair, etc.

As I sit here finishing my tea and eating the last bits of my Monster Cookie, I’m thankful that I get to be a mother to my girls. I’m also thankful that I’ve learned enough about myself that I can walk away from the mess of a busy home for a moment to enjoy a cup of tea and cookie. I know I’ll be a better mother because of it.  

I should go check on the digging…..

He took the day off yesterday because he woke up and the sun was shining and he wanted to 

spend time with his family. 

We listened when he said to pack up the car with our beach gear and sunscreen. 

We followed when he took us to Seattle for the morning and the Marina Beach in the afternoon. 

We laughed when he acted like his toes were too far buried in the sand. 

I swooned when he traced the edge of the ocean walking down the beach holding our baby girl. 

We said our thanks that he is ours.  

To me, nothing is better than spending time

together.

Family is everything. 

]]> http://www.hbadventure.com/blog/index.php/2013/05/the-monday-that-felt-like-a-saturday/feed/ 2 http://www.hbadventure.com/blog/index.php/2013/05/a-little-bit-of-audrey-for-yall/ http://www.hbadventure.com/blog/index.php/2013/05/a-little-bit-of-audrey-for-yall/#comments Mon, 06 May 2013 07:39:25 +0000 hannah http://www.hbadventure.com/blog/?p=10439

2010

Without fail we fail, we in love with our house every single Spring. Give us an opportunity to bust open the windows and eat outside and we’re having a love-fest with it. I don’t desire to have a larger house, but after the long months of Winter, and we can finally fling open the doors, our house suddenly feels like we built on an expansion. I love our yard and the freedom that it gives us. 

Being here, in the good old PNW, is super easy when the weather is nice, but this year we have a bit more of an itch to get out and do something. I told my mom that Barry and I had the ‘come to Jesus conversation’ about our plans and she laughed, but I think she also understood it. With me being pregnant/working and then having a newborn, we were in a holding pattern with not much else on the horizon – we didn’t know what to expect with Audrey and so our schedule was utterly cleared. 

Now that Audrey is here, and she is almost 4 months old, we’re getting a bit of an itch to move beyond our little pod. We’ve got a some smaller trips planned here and there, but we sat down and looked at the BIG PICTURE. Barry and I are both nerds when it comes to plans, almost to a fault.  Inevitably, we’ll make a goal (personal, family, financial, professional…) and then when the time comes to pull the trigger or complete the final stage, we adjust the goal so it is just a bit more out of our reach.    

Yesterday when we started talking about our goals, our conversation stretched late into the night because we both totally geeked out talking about what we’re doing and where we’re headed. I tend not to be a huge risk taker, but I also love the idea of a good adventure and I want our girls to know more than just the town we live in and the day-to-day lives we lead. So, we chicken-scratched together a little list of things that we want to do with our Little Chickens. Things that are important to us and will hopefully be important to them. 

I’m not entirely sure what all this means because, as Barry said last night, we weren’t really sure what life was going to be like with two kids. Turns out, things with two kids is super awesome and we’re ready to get movin’ and a shakin’! For now, while we continue to have our conversations about our chicken-scratched list, we’ll enjoy what we’ve got. 

The Sandy Lagoon (which, funnily enough, has never had sand in it) has been pulled out of the shed and scrubbed down, we’ve got our outside blanket/gear folded and ready to spread out, and the weather looks friendly enough these next coming days. We also have the makings for S’Mores on the off chance that we’ll muster up enough energy in the evening to have some more fires to roast ‘mallows. If I’m being honest, we’re all ready for bed time on the days that we’ve been outside most of the time….

And when the weather changes, and it will, we’ll be ready with some indoor activities and our chicken-scratch list to geek-out over. 

Last week we went to Harrison Hot Springs for a few days with my parents and brother, Izak. It came at a perfect time, as we’ve been busy around here and sometimes it is hard to wind down. Maggie was very excited to go on vacation and was even more excited to find out that there were ‘swimming pools’ right out of her front door. To go swimming multiple times a day is about as good as it can get when you’re 3 years old, especially if you’ve got an uncle, grandparents and parents to play with. 

She was pretty pumped and even though she doesn’t know how to swim yet this is what she looked like most of the time we were there:

Audrey, on the other hand, showed her excitement for the water by falling asleep in my mom’s arms….in the pool! As my dad said, that must mean that they’ve got the temperature right! The time that Audrey was in the water, and awake, she was all smiles and happy. 

I tried to force a few pictures of the girls one afternoon, when Maggie wasn’t wearing her massive robe and suit, and Audrey wasn’t having it. Sometimes that’s just how it goes….Maggie is the sweetest big sister and is patient with Audrey when she’s screaming. Maybe because she knew that shortly after we snapped these, we’d be heading to the pool! 

Remember what Maggie looks like while soaking in the warm water? All smiles: 

I am 33. Audrey is 3 months and Maggie is 3 years old. It seems fitting that we’re all sporting the number three in our age. Everything seems to be coming together and we’re a trifecta of goodness right now. Maggie’s birthday party was a smashing success. This was by far my favorite of  her celebrations because it was all her idea, from the parade to the people that were there. If anything, it made me love our girl so much more, and quite frankly, I wasn’t sure that was possible.  Hopefully I’ll get around to doing a birthday post because it was a fabulous day. 

My dad and Aunt Sue showed up with their arms loaded down with instruments and hats and we were able to throw down a parade that fit Maggie’s high expectations. (Side note: I discovered that I no longer can play “A Whole New World” on the trumpet and am only limited to a scale and a little bit of “Tijuana Taxi”. The world might be a better place because of this, but I was a bit saddened. Also, my lips swell up after about ten notes.)

A couple mornings before Maggie’s birthday, we were cuddling in bed and I was hoping that she’d fall back asleep, as she often does after she crawls in with us. More often than not, she likes to talk and ‘snuggle’ and it takes me a bit of time to transition from deep sleep to full-on conversations. Thankfully Maggie recognizes this and the early morning conversations are sweet and full of love with not too many questions that require long answers. On this particular morning she was rubbing my back (I have to face away from her if I’m feeding Audrey) and chatting away. 

All the sudden she squeezes me and says “I love your veins, Mama!” and then follows it up with “I even love your blood.” I asked her to repeat herself because I wasn’t quite sure that I’d heard her correctly, but it turns out that she really was emoting over my veins and blood. One of her favorite books to read with my mom is all about the body and she has become fascinated with all parts of the human body, checking to make sure that we all have veins lately. Turns out some of the information really struck because she LOVES my veins and blood. 

As funny as an anecdote this is, I took it as the biggest compliment in the world. My 3 year old daughter loves ALL of me. If she knew that I was full of guts, she’d probably tell me she loves my guts too. I love all of me, too. But lately, in this post-partum body of mine, I have been feeling a bit more jiggly around the edges. This means that I’m much more critical of myself – bouncing between feeling great and feeling bad about not being all slinky and slim. But then I check myself and check my priorities. 

I am a mother. I am a role model to my daughters. Yes, I want to be a thinner, less bouncy, version of ME. I’ll get there soon enough, with a bit of hard work. But the work – the eating healthy and exercising daily – is something that Maggie can be apart of. She doesn’t need to know about the chubbiness I feel and the double chin I’m trying to get rid of. She needs to see that I love my body in all shapes and sizes, that I’m happy right now and I’m still going to be happy down the road. It is important that she sees that I love me just as much as she does because a day will come, hopefully WAY down the road, that she’ll feel critical of her own body and I want her to think of me as a confident, smart,  beautiful woman. It isn’t too early to start promoting that image. 

Tonight, to speed up the process of bed time, we took a shower together. I don’t think we’ve taken a shower together since she was a baby. As we stood there together, I talked with her about all the different parts of my body that I was washing and then I encouraged her to do the same to her own body. There we were, covered in soap, chatting away in the shower….and she takes a step closer to my leg and wraps her little 3 year old arms around it and squeezes with a grunt and then proclaims….”I LOVE  YOU, MAMA!”

And I belive her with all of my heart because I love her just as much – blood, veins, and all.