This morning

...I'm having a hard time finding the motivation to get things done. The long weekend is behind us, I am without a car today and we'll be staying put, so nothing seems too urgent. While Michael naps I'm having a second cup of coffee, catching up on some blog reading, and reveling in all the inspiration.

I'm a big fan of Hip Paris. These two recent posts (Kid-friendly travel and What to do with one month in Paris) have me longing to get back to the City of Light. (We don't have a trip planned, but I have already spent way too much time picking out which apartment we will rent from Haven in Paris.)

And, speaking of Paris, check out these adorable party animals that Jordan made for her son's birthday celebration. Just too cute!

And, speaking of birthday celebrations, it's only 52 days until Michael's first birthday party! (I may or may not have downloaded a countdown app just for this occasion.) I'm working on making one of these for him to wear on his special day. Spiffy, but not too spiffy to get cake and frosting all over it :)

And, speaking of special days, this post by Kelle made my heart swell. I just love how all of her posts are woven from beauty and sincerity. Every one of them is pure goodness.

And, speaking of goodness, here are a few pictures from our long weekend. 

Michael and I had lunch with a friend on Friday and then we took a walk outside. 

It was cold, but he didn't mind.

Wrestling with his Daddy and Mozart.

Who's stalking who?

After church and an afternoon with our small group we went to the market 

and stocked up on lots of yummy food...

...which I dipped in chocolate.

My favorite shot of the weekend.

These guys love their music :)

I hope your week is off to a fantastic start! xoxo

Rooms I love

I love this library/dining room combo. 

It's beautiful as a sunny workspace, but wouldn't it be magical all lit up for entertaining at night? 

via

Fill in the blank Friday

Happy Friday! I can't wait to spend the long weekend having fun with my guys. We don't have anything planned except eating, relaxing, and playing. What a treat! Today I'm linking up with The Little Things We Do for Fill in the Blank Friday - click the link to play along!

         1.  The love of my life is  Tim - God's great gift to me :)

2.   Falling in love is  easy when you've found the right one! Staying in love takes work, but as far as I can tell if you work at it, it just keeps getting better with time.

3.  Marriage is  all about being a team - supporting and serving each other, respecting each others' feelings, setting goals together, working together, giving each other a break, and having fun together.

4. The longest relationship I've ever had was   13 years with Tim! (Fourteen and a half if you count the friendship that came before the relationship.)

5. The key to a good relationship is   being Christ-like. And seeing the best in each other!

           6. I feel loved when Tim tells me he's proud of me :)

7.  My favorite quote about love is   from a book called Gilead by Marilynne Robinson: "Love is holy because it is like grace - the worthiness of its object is never really what matters."

10 months old

The months keep getting more fun with this little guy. His world sort of exploded (in a good way) in the last month. He started blowing kisses, pointing, clapping, and cheering (specifically, he started cheering for waffles and his Dad coming home from work). He gives sweet hugs and kisses to us, and he is friendly with friends and strangers too. He's really verbal, which is a kick. He hums and chatters while he plays, while he eats, and when he is going to sleep. And the other day when Tim walked in the door for lunch Michael put one hand in the air and with a straight face yelled "Da-da!" (think "Norm!" from Cheers). He's making new expressions all the time, which keeps us laughing :)

He has four teeth now (two on bottom, and two on top), he wears 12 month clothes and size 4 shoes. He has started eating a lot more lately! He loves bananas, berries, cheerios, mozzarella cheese, waffles, steamed carrots, scrambled eggs, and yogurt. And drinking out of our glasses. He's still nursing about four times during the day and usually once during the night. He sleeps about 11 hours at night and takes two naps during the day totaling about 3 hours. A few times he has stood up from a squatting position. He cruises pretty quickly when he's holding on to furniture, but he still prefers crawling as it is the quickest way to travel.

His favorite things are baths, being naked, reading books, walking with his new push-car, taking Ella outside, Bible class, playing with Ella, wrestling with his Daddy, listening to music with his Daddy, being chased and tickled, having his back scratched, having his legs and feet massaged, and Sesame Street. He's still not a fan of the carseat or having his diaper changed, or any other form of having to be still (as you can see in the first photo - he's humoring his Mama, but he can't wait to get out of that chair).

Happy 10 months, Michael! 

We love you more and more with every day that goes by.

xoxo 

"Are you ready to go to the store, baby?"

I chatter with Michael as we get ready to go run our errands. I hold him on my hip. I push all of the carseat straps out of the way and straighten out his clothes so there won't be any uncomfortable bunching during the ride. He listens intently, smiles sweetly. He pats my face. What an angel. 

I lift him into the Jeep, bending him at the waist so as not to bump his head or entangle his feet in the seatbelt. I gently lower him into he carseat and...he arches his back and howls like there's a fire under his bottom. 

His hat slides down over his face and his jacket twists around him. He marches in place for a moment and the carseat straps end up right where he is going to be sitting. I keep my cool. I tell him it's time to buckle up because we have to be safe while we're in the car. I manage to pry the straps out from under him and fold him at the hips to sit him down in his seat but in the struggle he ends up sitting crooked in the chair. 

Now he goes limp. He is 18+ pounds of completely dead weight as I try to position him correctly in the chair. As I put one of his arms through the strap he leans forward, and with the free hand he un-velcros and removes one of his shoes. I tell him we have to leave our shoes on because it's cold outside. I put the shoe back on and he has gotten his arm back out of the strap. I can't decide if it's more funny or infuriating and I laugh through gritted teeth.

I manage to get both straps over his shoulders but they are too tight to snap. That's because in the melee they have become twisted. Michael clamps his mouth shut and makes sounds like a threatened cat. I untwist the straps and snap them in place.

He sneezes and an outrageous amount of snot gets all over him and the carseat straps. I reach into the front seat for a wipe and when I turn around he has again removed his shoe. I clean up the snot, put the shoe back on, finish buckling him in, and apologize for torturing him in this grizzly manner. I give him his sippy cup and a toy. He promptly throws both of them out of the carseat. The sippy cup lands on the ground in a puddle of I-don't-know-what. I bend down to pick it up and when I stand up I whack my head on the open car door.

At this point I really need to take a deep breath and calm down. I'm sure I must look like a crazy woman. My face is contorted with a mix of anger, laughter, pain, and frustration. I'm talking out loud to myself as I close Michael's door and turn to walk around to my side.

And that's when I see my neighbor sitting in her car watching us and laughing. 

We've been at it for about ten minutes and she has been watching the whole time. 

True story.

~linking up with Monday Mom Musings~

Valentine's Day

I got up and made waffles with berries for my valentines this morning. 

Michael really liked it. I've never seen him eat so much!

He actually cheered with his hands in the air at one point.

That look in his eyes! It cracks me up! And makes me nervous.

I got a little crafty this year. 

The cards in the stores didn't seem special enough for my guys,

so I made my own (saw both ideas on Pinterest). 

For Tim...

...and for Mikey :)

And I whipped up some of these for later! 

We're staying in and getting Thai food from our favorite place tonight.

Sounds perfect to me :) 

Happy Valentine's day!! - xoxo

Rites of motherhood (and a date with my love)

From the moment Michael was born I loved him with all my heart and knew he was mine, but it was a while until I started to feel like a real mom. I had enjoyed all of the wonderful, beautiful parts of motherhood - giving birth, feeding my baby, seeing his smile, holding him and breathing his sweet smell, talking with him and singing to him - but I knew there was another side to this motherhood thing.

Then, when he was six weeks old he had a medical procedure - nothing serious but it was painful and scary. I had to swallow my own tears and hold him as he went through the pain and then do my best to comfort him. In the car on the way home I cried and thought, "I'm a real mom now." A few weeks later I woke up in the middle of the night with a stomach bug. Between trips to the bathroom I would nurse my eight week old and try to rest. I was laying on the bathroom floor when I realized that the day would start as usual in just a few hours - nurse, change, play, nurse, nap, repeat - regardless of how I felt. Again I thought, "This is real motherhood." In a weird way I felt proud. I was joining the ranks of all the mothers who had gone before me. 

I had another one of those experiences this weekend (the circumstances were a lot more pleasant, though!) For the first time we left Michael with someone who was not my Mom or my sister and went on a date. I'm blessed to be able to stay home with him full-time, and leaving him in someone else's care has been surprisingly hard for me. As I was getting ready for our date I had a flashback to one of the families I would babysit for as a teenager. Just before the parents would leave, the mom would come out of her room looking and smelling pretty. Her three kids would gather around her to say goodnight. She smiled brightly giving hugs and last minute instructions, and when she got to the baby she would kiss the back of his hand and her lipstick would leave a kiss for him to look at. I've never forgotten the way that baby would smile proudly and look at his mama's kiss on his hand. He was so young, and I was so young, and she was leaving her kids with me!? How must she have felt about that? And how did I become the mom who is leaving her baby with a babysitter?! "I'm becoming a real mom now."

I packed his favorite books and snacks into a bag, kissed him and smiled as I left him with our (wonderful, capable, awesome) friends. I cried a little in the car. Just for a minute. Then my husband put his hand on my arm and told me it would be okay. Through my tears I saw his smile and I knew he was right. And we had an amazing time together! 

I know there will be so many more of these challenges along the way. 

But I'm taking them one day at a time.

Michael takes his baby steps and I take mine :)

My handsome date :)

We even had time for coffee and dessert!

And Michael did great! 

He played the whole time and didn't cry at all (until we walked in the door). 

Then he passed out cold on the way home :)