Thirty-three....YIPPEE!

Check out the blaze on that there birthday cake!  Actually, I feel like I haven't aged a bit this year.  Literally, because through some mathematical miscalculations I actually thought I turned thirty-three last January. All year I've been thinking I was thirty-three, and telling people so. Therefore, today when I actually did turn thirty-three it was no big thang. Besides, I've always loved my double-digit years. 

And what a perfect birthday it was.  Loren gave me the day to do whatever I fancied.  After a delicious Sadie & Dad prepared breakfast, and a sort-of sleep in (Sadie kept coming in the room and waking me up by telling me NOT to come in the kitchen because there was a big surprise happening in there) I got to go on a date with my favorite spa buddy for a mani-pedi.

 It was just so nice to have some mother-daughter time.  I can tell that Sadie has really been craving some one-on-one time which is hard to do these days with Eli, aka "mama-velcro boy."  It was a fine thing to get to give this little girl some of my undivided attention.  And also a fine thing to snuggle up that aforementioned little boy when I got home.

Later, after a beautiful walk in the snowy dusk, I came home to a warm house, full of people I love.

And an amazing dinner cooked by Loren...

All day I felt loved and pampered by my peeps. I can't even imagine a nicer way to ring in my thirty-third year.  If this day was any indication of what's to come it's probably going to be one of the best years yet.

The Happy Scientist

It's funny that this last few weeks I feel like I have finally really gotten into my mothering groove.  Funny, and ironic--especially considering that in 2 1/2 months or so I'm going to be starting this crazy journey all over again--with considerably more chaos this time. No matter though, for the moment I am loving just soaking up the time with my almost-two-year-old girl. 

We have been spending as much time as possible out in the sunshine, which means all art & materials science projects have been moved to the porch until further notice. Or rain.

Sadie's science/art tray this week features droppers full of colored water, an assortment of brushes and measuring tools, cornstarch, baking soda and vinegar.  This girl will spend hours outside in the sunshine dabbling, dropping, mixing, experimenting...which kind of parallels how I feel about my parenting journey at this point.  After a lot of trial and error you have the Eureka! moment when all the pieces come together and make sense.  At least for a little while.

And any mom can tell you, it would be foolish not to treasure every. single. moment. of that little while.

Omg.

Today was one of those days. A one nap day with a sick kiddo who is miserable, clingy and insists on helping you unload the dishwasher, turning a 15 minute job into a 45 minute one. By five I needed to get out of the house so bad that I stuck Sadie in the ergo and walked to the store. On the way home she coughed so hard that she threw up, then choked on it, resulting in an awkward, but effective, baby heimlich maneuver on the street corner. When we got home I decided to make a cheese quesadilla since Loren was gone on a work trip and I figured that AT LEAST I wouldn't have to fus with dinner. But while my quesadilla was cooking Sadie dumped the dogs' water dish out, and while I was mopping that up, my quesadilla burned, setting off every effing smoke alarm in our house. When I finally sat down with my cold dinner I decided to pour me a glass of wine, after all, it was one of those days. I ran back to the kitchen to get a fork, only to hear the shattering of a crystal drinking glass...and there stands Sadie in a puddle of red wine and glass shards by the side of the table-- kid's getting quite a reach. Thank god she had shoes on. So I had to put her in her crib ( screaming her head off) in the other room while I cleaned that up. So yeah, like I said...omg. If this is how it's gonna be I think this stay-at-home mom is gonna ask for a raise. Yeeeeeeeesh.



But dad's home, baby is bathed and my three bears are sound asleep, so I am going to relish some of that rare quiet time:)

Things that are NOT awesome.

1. 6 inches of new snow in April

2. When you are painting kiln wash onto kiln shelves and a big blob of it splashes directly into your eyeball.  

3. Walking in really wet snow with your Extratuffs. For some reason the heel constantly builds its own lumpy snowball that you have to kick out every 10 steps or so.

4. When you give your baby a couple sips of fresh-squeezed orange juice and they projectile vomit.  mom fail.

What is awesome:

Sadie's sumo-wrestler ponytail.
feel free to add to the list in the comments below.

parenting with confidence...um, I think?

How many parents does it take to dress a baby?

Most people will eventually get to a point in their life where they can consider themselves a "parenting expert." Then they have children.  If having a child has taught me any one thing (and believe me, it has taught me much more than that) it is not to judge or attempt to compete with other parents.  It is so easy to fall into the habit of comparing your parenting skills with those of your peers by assessing where your little one falls into the amorphous developmental spectrum.

So easy, and so completely silly.  But how often do I get asked  (or catch myself asking someone else) questions like, "Does your baby sleep through the night yet?" Or "Is your baby crawling yet?"  "How many teeth does your baby have?" etc.. etc... And that is just the tip of the iceberg as far as topics you can enter into "mom-petitions" over.  Don't even get me started on who is the best baby-wearing, cloth-diapering, organic-home-made baby food making, crafty supermom who whittles teething rings out of the bark of the sacred yew tree.  (Its me, of course, so you all can stop trying so hard now)

A time to sow.

I have been spending this morning doing one of the best things ever.  Well, actually I started my morning early by taking Sadie on a frosty walk down to NWC to check on the kiln, and I locked myself out of the studio. Not the best, but at least I didn't lock myself out of there while Sadie was still inside.  That would have been really NOT the best.  But you know what is the best? This:

A word to your mom.

I saw this on another website today, and it made me think of my mom, and all the times one of my siblings or I pulled this crap on her.  I appreciate what she did so much more now that I am on the same path.   I thought I would post it here as a word up to all the awesome, hard-working mamas out there.