Hey all! Please update your RSS feeds to http://www.momfish.com/feeds/posts/default - I switched to Blogspot's free hosting instead of using Wordpress to save the extra $7 a month. It doesn't seem like much but we are saving for something big! ;)
Things might look junky around here for a few days while I fix them up. We leave for our vacation on Saturday so hopefully things will look nice before then.
Also the message boards are gone for now. Thanks to everyone who participated. They were fun but as always, I underestimated the amount of time I'd need to put into them.
Okay so... I didn't do all the things I wanted to. None of them, really.
But I have...
watched Everly's top two teeth poke through, help her walk around the room while she holds my hands, laid in bed with my husband daydreaming about our other little one that's arriving in November (we know the sex now!), gotten pre-approved for a home loan, put the house on the market for renters, taken the house off the market for renters, been disappointed when realizing all the extra charges they add on top of mortgage these days if you don't put 20% down, been proud of my husband all the money he's saved & everything he's accomplished while supporting his whole family, entertained my in-laws a couple weekends in a row, started packing for our trip to the beach next week, cleaned the house in ways it has never been cleaned before, kept fresh flowers in the house, and taken better care of painting my toenails.
I can't promise anything any more because my "real" life is crazy busy and I like it and I want to keep it that way for now. I'll post when I post, I won't when I won't. I do have a Thirty-One giveaway still if I can get the darn pictures. Unfortunately Billy stole my bag Jenny gave me and uses it for himself apparently... to haul library books around in his car... which is actually my car... that has a "Kalen" license plate... :)
Talk when we talk - see ya when we see ya. Maybe I'll let you know the gender of baby #2 very soon? Maybe it'll be a little while longer.
The beach calls next week so who knows what will happen?
I have an awesome giveaway coming up for a gift certificate to Thirty-One thanks to my friend Jenny! I can't wait to review the bag she sent me, because I've been using it for something special and it's adorable. That will be up tomorrow so look for it!
I hate that I've been letting Momfish kind of fall to the side of the road lately, but as most pregnant women know - you're shocked into survival mode, especially with a 10 month old running around. A cute, happy, screeching, button-nosed 10 month old.
I am getting back on the bandwagon, because the fresh (HOT) weather and the relief of the second trimester are finally washing over me. But it takes time to feel like my feet aren't sliding out from under me again, and instead of reaching out for support, I've reached inward (and upward to my creator) and waited. That's something I kinda do... though I'm working on it.
So on my checklist of things to do:
* Better blogger
* Better friend
* Better keeper of promises to myself
It's like New Year resolutions only it's the middle of May so there's a slight chance I may actually pull through (with at least one thing on the list). There's also still a chance I will instead go buy Oreo Cakesters and cram them in my mouth while I stare at my pasty white legs and my dog rolls around in rabbit poop.
What I love about my life is that it can go either way at any moment, and I never seem to really be the one steering, as much as I like to pretend I am.
You're 10 months old today. Grandma and Grandpa Clark were here this morning and kept saying, "Two more months until she's one!" and I kept my fingers in my ears and said, "I can't hear you!" I guess it's because this is what I remember from 10 months ago:
You are in the habit of biting these days. I have started saying a firm, "No," and trying to redirect your attention, but sometimes I laugh. I know I'm doing the wrong thing when I react that way, but it's hard because I know you're frustrated and trying to communicate, and you unfortunately don't understand that biting isn't an acceptable way of doing that. You also stand or sit in your crib now, which makes nap time kind of painful sometimes and means that I often have to go back and lay you down again, which leaves you pleased I can tell. You are at your cutest when you're being sneaky.
You are an explorer. You study things, turning them around and admiring their colors and structure. You crawl to different corners of the house and stay interested in your surroundings for much of the day. You'll empty board game boxes, lick shoelaces, try to eat a stray leaf, practice climbing skills, and loudly exclaim when you're bored or confused. "Eh! Eh! Ah! Ah! Ah!" Hilariously enough, this is also what you do when Billy leaves the room and you want him to come back downstairs. "Eh! Ahhhhh??? Ah!? Eh!" It's adorable. Almost as adorable as when you take off in a sprint-crawl toward him and then sit at his feet and hold out your arms. You love him so much. It makes me love him even more, somehow.
It's me you really want when you're hurt, scared, hungry, or tired. You want me to stand up and sway with you or rub your back in circles. Sometimes you like me to sing for you, and when you do, I know you're not feeling yourself. When you're feeling yourself and I sing for you, you bite me or whine until I stop. You know what you want and you're not afraid of asking for it. I admire that about you and hope you don't lose that innocence. That's called being assertive, and often times some of us lose that skill because we're afraid of the backlash. Don't lose that skill, Everly. It will take you far in life. You'll be seen as an honest person and you'll always feel like you're putting your real self out there. But be gentle with it. Being too blunt with honesty can be painful and damaging.
My 10 month old sweet potato pie. You make me laugh with your crinkling of magazine papers, your excited screams when you see a toy you like most, and the way you selectively choose when you talk and when you listen. You are very purposeful in your behavior. Aunt Kin-Kin and I call you a "mature" baby, which sounds hilarious but the people that have been around you would agree. You have a certain calm about you, a certain understanding of things... it's remarkable. It is one of the specific traits that attracted me to your father. His ability to silently comprehend what was happening. The trait that attracted him to me was my ability to put his comprehension into words for him when he needed me to. We compliment each other, and I think you're going to have both of our traits and be a perfect representation of our personalities.
You eat real food and drink most of your formula from sippys now. I've thought a lot about how to explain this to you... the feeling you have when you see your tiny, helpless baby and they're effortlessly feeding themselves and drinking their formula and they don't need you... but there isn't a good explanation. It's a mixture of being proud, sad, scared, happy, excited, and obsolete. I used to tease parents that had difficulty letting their children grow up, but I'm more empathetic toward them now (though honey, I'm not gonna hold you back, I promise, even if it kills me)... ok, ok, truth be told I'm kind of holding you back already because I still give you a bottle here & there even though you're over them.
Ahem. Nobody's perfect!
I love you deeply. I love that you crawl to me and say, "Mamamamamama..." and want to sit with me and do what I'm doing. I love that you want to eat what I eat, drink what I drink, sing what I'm singing. I love that you dance, shake your head "No," and scream happily when you see Millie. I love the life you've given me.
When your dad and I fell in love, I would say, "I love you! I love you! I love you!" three times in a row. I told him that if someone says something 3 times, you know they *really* mean it. Through the years I would save the triple expressions for random moments, when we needed a spark of romance. And now, I can pass the sentiment on to you, and teach you that if you really want someone to know how you feel, tell them three times.
