Cute One-Year-Old is Cute

Life is so good right now.

I am so busy soaking it up that I haven’t had time to write about it! I am happy to be living in the moment on not stressing about documenting everything, but I’m starting to feel the inspiration to write again. All in good time.

A few weeks ago we had Mila’s one-year photos taken, and despite the serious face pictured below, we were able to capture her sweet and silly personality. Girl loves her some toothy grin. I think we even may have been able to document a dimple or two. For the record, there are two. All pictures by the lovely Amber Brickman Photography.

Mila Turns One!

My tiny baby girl turned one and in a surprising turn of events I didn’t end up in a puddle of tears and sauvignon blanc. Yes I have been nostalgic thinking back on the past year, but I am trying to just focus on the present and how undeniably awesome she is right this second. We calebrated with friends and family this past weekend and it was nothing short of perfect. I decided a party at a park near our house would be fun for the kids and low key enough that I wouldn’t feel any pinterest-pressure (yes it's a thing). Balloons, streamers, food, friends, and a lot of sunshine was all we needed. I made the very same Apple Swirl Cake that I made for Lily's first birthday, and let's just say I think she enjoyed it. 

HUGE thanks to my mom for so much help and food and love and also food.

The girls had so much fun, almost as much fun as I had. 

I know you are wondering...yes she kept the crown on for the whole party, no she didn't know it was there. 

Also, Mila received a bunch of awesome gifts, but of course her favorite is this owl water bottle from Auntie Jess because she can suck water up the straw (!!) and then spit it all over herself... also it's from Nordstrom and girl has her standards.

Yes, keeping her.

Still here, just not totally functional.

So… we haven’t been sleeping. Like, at all. It started a couple of months ago when my great sleeper suddenly stopped sleeping. Mila went from going at least 8-10 hour stretches to barely sleeping an hour or two at a time. To be fair, she got her first four teeth all at once, but even after they popped through the sleepless nights remained. I think there are four more teeth coming, and on top of that she still isn’t crawling and is SO frustrated about it, plus she just got over some sort of yucky stomach virus. I am hoping these are the causes of all the crazy and that there will soon be some sort of resolve, but OH GOD THE COFFEE, GIVE ME ALL YOUR BEANS.

See, we aren’t “cry it out” people. I have no qualms with people who choose to go that route, but it is just not for us. Letting kids fuss? A-OK! Hard-core crying? MUSTSOOTHEALLTHEBABIES. That is just how we are. When we put Mila in her crib (awake, asleep, half asleep, doesn’t matter) she immediately flips to her belly and screams. Poor kid. I know it isn’t forever but I’m not sure how long we can function like this. The night usually ends up with Daddy falling asleep with her on the couch, but the last couple of nights even that hasn’t worked. During the day she has been super clingy and fussy as well, so I know it is just something she is going through. Whether it is a physical or a mental development, it’s screwing with my happy-go-lucky girl!

Ryan and I are supposed to go away for the weekend about a month from now and I am just praying she has gotten through this rough patch in time for my parents to watch her overnight.

Ok, that was not the most fun update, I’ll add in a cute picture to make up for it.

 See? Still cute.

Oh also, my baby is going to be A YEAR OLD on Friday. Seriously though, someone tell me how this happened.

 

 

Road Trip!

Last week we made the 3.5 hour drive over to Chelan, WA to spend a sunny weekend with friends. 

Both girls did really well and took long naps on the drive both ways (Ryan even joined the snooze on the way home!) Sleeping all in one room with a teething baby was not the greatest thing in the world, but luckily good friends, good food, and good wine outweighed it all. It reinforced why we don’t normally co-sleep, especially as Lily has a tendency to yell out in her sleep and slowly drift horizontally. Nothing like a good foot to the face at 3am. I did enjoy waking up to her tiny hand on my shoulder and her little smile like she got away with something by sleeping between us all night. 

 

This was our first trip with these friends since we have all had babies. One couple does not yet have kids… I think the weekend was good birth control for them. At one point they went out alone and I was fairly certain they weren't coming back (they did, thank goodness.) Five kids ages three and under can be a little crazy at times, but the house was spacious and the pool was warm. 

Cam and Lily were basically just on a date the whole weekend. He is a tiny gentleman. I put Lily’s hair up before we went in the pool and when we arrived Cam greeted her with “your hair looks nice!” to which Lily replied “thank you!” Oh to be three and in love. We can’t wait until next year.

Linking up for Wordless Wednesday with The Paper Mama, 5 Minutes for Mom, Parenting By Dummies, Project Alicia, Live and Love Out Loud, Naptime Momtog, and Jenni from the Blog.

Bloglovin'

A quick reminder that if you follow blogs using Google Reader, it is time to find a new route! Reader will be discontinued next month, but there are a lot of other options for following along with your favorite blogs. I have started using Bloglovin’ and it is great, feel free to follow us over there!

Friends without Kids

I remember when I was pregnant with Lily, my mom told me that pretty soon my friends would mostly consist of other people with kids. I was a bit appalled by the whole idea. One, because I didn’t really have any friends with kids so I was about to be SOL if that was true and two, I didn’t want to become THAT girl who couldn’t hang with her old friends. 

Now, I’m not here to say that I am no longer in LOVE with my (amazing, beautiful, intelligent) friends who don’t have kids, because I am. I am so in love with them it hurts, but the honest truth is we have grown apart. I truly believe it is a temporary distance and I can already feel it closing as I come out of the intense haze that tiny people create in their first couple years of life, but the reality is that the people I see, the people I relate to, are my friends with kids. I haaaaaaate being that girl. I don’t think my life is better, or worse, than my friends’ lives. I know they love me and they love my girls, but our lives are just so different. 

I’m still in the place where your kids are so little and all your brainpower is focused on their every need at every moment. I guess it is just easier to relate to other people who are also in the thick of it (they too are amazing and beautiful and intelligent, for the record.) It is nice to talk to someone who thinks it is normal to discuss poop for 45 minutes, who understands my fears about starting pre-school, and weaning, and I don’t know, semi-sharp objects? 

I have no doubt that I will reconnect with my other friends in good time as I am able to reclaim a bit of my own identity separate from my kids. I chose to do this and I am happy to be able to be there completely in this intense time of motherhood, but it makes it a bit difficult to get out, you know? 

I miss my friends. I miss sitting around and laughing about silly things and crying about serious things and then laughing about crying. Friends, if you read this, I miss you! I’m not gone. I’m just taking a leave of absence from my life as a regular human. Don't give up on me.

  Linking up with Mandy: