Watch My Baby Grow!

Here is the final result of my wrangling my child into the same place each month to get a picture of her. Watch her grow from days after she got home from the hospital to this morning...her first birthday! Enjoy!

I Can't Believe it is Here...

This time last year I was checking myself into the hospital to FINALLY have my baby. That's right, my baby girl is one year old today.

Unfortunately I am recovering from a nasty bout of food poisoning yesterday so her birthday post isn't ready yet. But it is coming. So is the culmination of her monthly bean bag photos. But for now...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PEANUT! I am SO glad you are here and a part of our family. I love you more than words can ever express.

Big First

Tonight, for the very first time, my boy is spending the night away from home. Yes, I realize he is 4 and he should have done this a LONG time ago...but when you're a single mom that's not in a relationship, there really isn't any reason to send your kid away. He stayed with my mom when I was in the hospital giving birth to his sister, but other than that, he has always been with me. Tonight he is going to his other Mom's house. I have sort of been pushing her to make this happen as I think it will be really good for him to experience sleeping somewhere else. And hopefully she will love it too. So I have packed up his little bag, his pillow pet, gotten his sleeping bag out of the garage and am sending him with big hugs and a hope for a fabulous night.

I just hope I can make it through the entire night without him... :)

PS--Thanks to Calliope at Creating Motherhood for my fabulous new header. If you're reading this from a reader, click through to check it out. She does good work!

Because of the Guilt

A meme from Cali...and I never do these, but she threw in a little guilt about how some of her blogs haven't been posting that much lately and well...the guilt won out. So here you go.

You.
Can.
Only.
Type.
One.
Word.
No.
Explanations.

Not as easy as you might think…

1. Yourself: Busy
2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend: Nonexistent
3. Your hair: Roots
4. Your mother/stepmother: Wonderful
5. Your dog: None
6. Your favorite item: Bed
7. Your dream last night: Work
8. Your favorite drink: Water
9. Your dream car: Acura
10. The room you are in: Office
12. Your fear: Inadequacy
13. What you want to be in 10 years: Happy
14. Who you hung out with last night: Kids
15. What you’re not: Mellow
16. Muffin: Top
17: One of your wish list items: Laptop
18: Time: 1:oopm
19. The last thing you did: Lunch
20. What you are wearing: Jeans
21. Your favorite weather: Spring
22. Your favorite book: Kerouac
23. The last thing you ate: Chocolate
24. Your life: Content
25. Your mood: Happy
26. Your best friend(S): AMAZING
27. What are you thinking about right now? Pumping
28. Your car: Older
29. What are you doing at the moment?: Typing
30. Your summer: Cabin
31. Your relationship status: Single
32. What is on your TV?: Nothing
33. What is the weather like?: Mild
34. When is the last time you laughed?: Today

Okay she was right...that wasn't as easy as it seemed. Now copy and paste and put it on your own blog and leave me a comment so I know to come and look!

My Baby

On the cusp of her first birthday I find myself marveling at this little girl that is growing up before my eyes. Everyday she is doing something new. Today I had one of "those moments." You know the ones. The ones where the entire world fades to black around you and you wish you could be that girl from the old cheesy show "Out of this World" who could put her hands together and stop time. One of those moments where all the years of struggling to try and get pregnant and where going through horrific sickness and bed rest and contractions all somehow came together to give you this magical little human being you get to call your child.

One of those moments that when you try and type it out for the rest of the world to enjoy ends up sounding like just another day on paper. And you realize that there is no way to explain the feelings that go on between a mother and a daughter at 6:00am while nursing in bed. But for me, this was one of those moments that I don't want to forget, so I am going to document it. I know our nursing relationship will most likely be coming to an end soon so I am really treasuring the time we have left and I think the first morning feeding is still my favorite. Favorite because she snuggles up against me like we are "spooning" and she takes her other hand and gently pats my head and then my shoulder and then my waist and then back up to my head and then reaches down and fingers her lovey kitty blanket and then pats that as well. All is well and content in her world. And mine too for that matter. It is our time. Just the two of us. And this morning, when she was done nursing she pulled her head back and locked eyes with me, her face broke into a wide smile and she said, "Hi" in that perfect little baby voice. Like, "how wonderful to see you! I remember you!" She has recently started saying that when someone walks into a room, or when she pops her head up over the table or something. But this morning was the first time that we have conversed actual real words. And like I said above, I will never be able to capture that moment in words, but it really was one of the best parenting moments I have experienced. And I have had a lot of great parenting moments.

For the record, she has a few words that are real words, used in the correct context and said on a somewhat consistent basis. Those words are, "Hi," "Bye bye," "uh oh," "up," "Gigi" (insert jealous feelings that Gigi is being said before Mommy but moving on quickly...) and "all done." There may be more, but those are the ones I can think of right now. I am trying to get her on video saying them because there is seriously nothing cuter than her little baby voice.

Quick! Buy a Lottery Ticket!

...because I am feeling lucky today.

I have talked on here probably more than I should have about the fact the my little dude is a little, shall we say, "reserved?" He has never been the kid running around the play ground with the other kids. And I am okay with that. But lately he has really come into his own. I think this new school is helping tremendously with that. Today we went to a birthday party at a local little zoo place and after the party I said we could go anywhere in the park and do anything he wanted to do. I told him I was going to follow him (I was inspired by Finding Chaos and their trip to Disneyland so he was out of the stroller walking and I was following him pushing The Girl in The Bob) but that he was leading the way. Much to my surprise he led me to the play ground area. It should be noted that if I was in charge of where I took him, I would have never gone to the play ground area. He immediately started climbing up a little net and looked over at me and told me he was a spider and he was climbing on his web. Then he went further and further and well...check this shit out!

That little dot of yellow? That's MY BOY people! Can you believe that? I was there by myself practically crying I was so proud of him. I wanted to scream at all the people around us, "LOOK AT HIM!!" "That's MY kid up there." "No. You don't understand...he doesn't DO this stuff..." I couldn't believe it. As soon as he reached that top level he wanted to come down. He said it was a little shaky for him. So he did. He made it down all by himself.

I swear to God it's moments like these that make parenting this amazing child so worth it. Speaking of that, for any of you out there who might be reading this and who might have a child that is similar to my son in any way, I was recommended a book that is just fabulous. I am only about 60 pages into it (who has time to read anyway?) but I feel like it was written just for me all about my child. It is called "The Highly Sensitive Child" by Elaine N. Aron, Ph.D. It is so unbelievably helpful. At the beginning it lists 23 different traits of "HSC's" and tells you to make a check by any that resemble your child. If 13 or more fit your child then you probably have an "HSC." I checked 21 out of 23. I will get more into this in another post because it deserves a post all of its own, but part of reading this book has taught me to embrace the child that he is. It has taught me that he doesn't have to play on the play ground like all the other kids to make him fabulous. And just when I go and accept him for exactly who he is? Well he goes and plays like a rock star.
Today was a good day. A good, good day. Hope yours is too.

Back to the Grind

It is so hard to get back to work after two weeks of having at least one child home with me. It was also the first day I had to use the pump in over a week and a half. Sure didn't miss that...

Super busy at work today but wanted to drop in to hope everyone had a fabulous holiday weekend (if you celebrate) and to give you a little family photo of my fam on Easter. Happy Monday everyone!




-- Post From My iPhone

Location:Stevens Creek Blvd,San Jose,United States