summer days

Since the family visits and birthday festivities faded away, I found myself in a bit of a slump. 

There was no party to plan for. No house to clean for guests. No crazy, last minute painting of newly purchased kitchen tables. It was just me and the babe alone all day in a house whose constant "to-do's" have somehow vanished (maybe because I ran around like a crazy person for two months trying to accomplish everything in record time, now I am bored...)

So we have just been "hanging" out. This babe is entering the stage of actually wanting to be entertained. She has done a remarkable job of making toys out of nearly everything in our house, but I can tell she gets a bit antsy and wants something more. I guess this is when I should start creating educational activities for her.

 So I attempted to do finger painting. I bought food coloring and mixed it with yogurt. The colors were oh so beautiful and vibrant. I thought, "she is going to love to delicately mix the colors into a wonderful masterpiece." Well, she did something like that...

 She had no interest mixing the colors and painting with her fingers. The only mixing of colors occurred when she shoveled it all in her mouth. This learning activity lasted about one minute and then she was off to explore the sidewalk. At least I tried, right?? 

Another activity she enjoys is ripping up just about anything. So when we received a birthday present from my friend Claire, she went to town. She discovered the cutest, most adorable shoes. Even though she was very resistant to take a picture with them on, I know she loved them.

Another activity I was hoping she would not ever discover, is pulling all the books off our bookshelf. She went twelve months with out even realizing she could take them off. However, one day after work, Will decided to read a hiking guide and she quickly put the pieces together. If dad could take a book off and read it, so can I! 

And those are all the recent pictures I have. Hopefully, I will have more after this week. We are going on a huge family adventure. We are driving for ten or so hours with our "hate the car" baby and "refuse to lay down in the car" dog. We are going back to Bozeman for the week. I am really excited about going back and introducing Madison to people who have yet to meet her, but the getting there and back is a little daunting. 

Lets all pray for safe travels and an in tact marriage!

twelve months

At twelve months:

* She is a riot. She makes us laugh continually. We just can not get enough of everything she does. From the dramatic tantrums to the trying to wear everything as necklaces, its all so great. 

* She is finally sleeping. Hallelujah! Takes two naps a day and sleeps roughly 11.5 hours at night. Our days start at 6:30 am, but going all night with out any interruptions 6:30 am is just fine with me. 

* She is finally starting to stand on her own. Maybe she will take some steps in the near future. 

* She understands everything. Listens to me when I tell her to do certain things and knows exactly what she should not do. This does not mean she always decides to listen and do what she should do, but I know she knows. 

* Gives tons of kisses. Has transitioned out of giving open mouth kisses on the nose, but leans in really still and wants to kiss right on our mouth.

* Still nursing a couple of times a day, but its quickly coming to an end. I am a bit sad about this, but it is also slightly freeing at the same time. I am so thankful we have made it to this point and it will always be something that warms my heart to think about. 

* Copies nearly everything I do. Can mimic all my chores. Sweeping, she pretends to put things in the dust pan. Laundry, she takes "clothes" out and slams the door to the washing machine. 

* Is a mess and into everything. Which is fun and bothersome at the same time. Not so fun, when I am showering and all of a sudden see my clean clothes being dropped into the shower. 

Like I said earlier, I just can not get enough of her. I want to squeeze her tight and never let her go. Its really amazing that now the majority of my day is spent laughing with her instead of crying with her. Such a transformation.

I love my baby boo and can not wait for all the adventures we have a head of us.

the mush

There we are. Just me and my baby. Mother and daughter.

For nine months I had her all to myself. The kicks, the hiccups, the growing pains. This mystery grew inside of me and I had nothing but the idea of her to cling onto.

Then she was born and all of a sudden I was flung into motherhood. There was absolutely no preparation that could have been done to equip me for the journey ahead. I thought that I had a pretty good idea what being a mother meant, how to take care of a child, how to balance my life with her, but turns out I had no idea what I was doing.

I fought this new role hard. I fought it every time I could not get her to sleep, every time I had no one else to turn to except the baby I could not get to sleep. I fought it every time I had to face another day alone with her. I fought it when I just wanted a few moments to talk to my husband after being away from him all day.

I did not understand how we got here. How did the "real" world hit so hard and could I ever adjust?  I was used to having my husband all to myself. I was used to running wherever and whenever I felt like. I was used to knitting and creating in my spare time. The never ending responsibility of Madison was really difficult for me to come to terms with.

But the months kept ticking away. She kept growing and so did I.

Somewhere in the past year I was finally able to find my footing. I was able to fully grasp and accept my role as Madison's mother. And dare I say, enjoy it!

I get a bit sad that I have not always felt the way I do now towards being her mother. I think that is why I do not want any more time to pass and I want to just sit back and soak up every minute with her because I did not do that at first.

I think that I finally came to realize that we are raising a child right now. I have to stop fighting this. There will be a day when we can train for more marathons, rock climb all day, and hike those mountains taunting us out our window. But for right now we have this beautiful baby desiring nothing but us. We will never get this time with her back, its nothing we will be able to recapture. We either soak it up now or regret it later.

So that is where we are now. Fully embracing our role as parents. Loving the chance to raise a child together because I am all too familiar now with how quickly this time is already becoming a memory.

party before mush

Madison turned one on Saturday. I feel I have so much emotion running through me, that I am just not quite sure how to express yet. So I will just post the fun pictures from the party we had for her. 

To top off the emotions I felt about her turning one, we had my entire family (mom, brother, dad) all here for almost a week. There were a few times I thought my heart my literally explode with happiness. I can not fully describe how wonderful it was to have my family celebrating and enjoying Madison along side us. Not to mention the tremendous help they were in finishing up projects around the house and all the entertaining they did for Madison. There was one moment where we were all outside of our house, sitting on the porch, watching Madison explore in the yard, that I thought I could freeze time and be content to live there forever and ever.

Anyways, I said I would talk about the party before the mush, so here it goes...

Madison's party was our first time to really host a get together like this. I did not want to go over the top with the decorations and party planning, but I still had just a few moments of panic. Luckily, my family helped with so much, that I could just really enjoy the day and soak in my one-year old. We cooked hamburgers on the new grill my dad bought us, I had fresh fruit cut up,  I made her strawberry birthday cake, and I made all the decorative tissue pom-poms. So pretty simple, but it was still really great. My dad also convinced us to buy a window-like AC unit, which made all the difference in the world for the party. 

I kept saying that everything was exactly how envisioned it would be in my head, and I was really sad when the day was over. It was just so great and then poof it was gone. Kind of how the entire year has been, just poofing away.

Will and I both feel like we are truly loving every moment of where we are in life right now. We have this beautiful house that is uniquely ours, this amazing child who finally sleeps and is wildly entertaining, we have each other, and a family who supports and loves us. It is just so great and I want the days to stop passing.

its july???

It is always hard for me to believe how fast time is going by. I am not sure I will ever really come to terms with it, but in ten short days my baby will be ONE. 

I still remember exactly what it felt like to be so pregnant last July 4th. Pretty sure I sat on my moms couch all day and could barely hold a conversation. I was convinced I would be pregnant forever (why do people even think that, no one has ever been pregnant forever, but I was certain I would be). And now fast forward a year and I am swimming in a pool with my baby girl and cheering her on as she nose dives in the water. 

I would much rather have this 4th of July than last, but I am still a little bit sad at how fast its all flying by. Especially now since she sleeps (almost) through the night and does the most adorable things ever. I just hope it just keeps getting better because right now life with Madison seems pretty darn good and I am not really in a rush to see it pass. 

We are still really loving our home. Besides the whole no AC thing, what the heck Colorado is supposed to be cooler than Texas??? We have been still trying to accomplish those pesky items on our never ending to do list, but still trying to take time away from that list also. 

We bought a bike trailer for Madison a couple of weeks ago and have already used it quite a bit. The first weekend we had it we rode 26 miles to a farmer's market in the town next to Denver, called Golden. The ride was not too bad, but it was so flipping hot, we practically cooked in the sun. She seems to like the trailer and it has been nice to cart her to the grocery store and such. 

I have taken a hodge podge of pictures the past couple of weeks so here they are... 

 This is what my days consist of, continually cleaning up after my little mess. I trade cleaning up the mess for the 30 minutes it keeps her entertained. I love that she knows how to put on my necklaces. Surely she did not learn it from me because I have not worn those things in forever.

 We borrowed this walker from one of her "friends." She pretty much keeps her mouth open the entire time and makes a humming noise. Its like she is so happy she can finally walk around she just can't keep it in. (excuse my pajama shorts, it takes longer than I care to admit to change out of them in the morning).

 Here is the free china cabinet I scored off of craigslist. I do not have a before picture, but it was a typical ugly wood color from back in the day. The green is a wee bright, but our house has a lot of bright colors, they make me happy. The antiquing method takes no time at all to do, I even painted this with Madison. You can vaguely make out her hand prints on the bottom right cabinet. Even though I get really frustrated with her "helping," I love that she is leaving her marks all over.

My loves. Every time Will holds her like this she straightens out her legs and flexes her feet, I can't get enough. Aww, I love them. 

I think that is about it. My family is coming in next weekend to celebrate the big birthday with us. I am really excited about this, I have been craving family time.