3 more weeks of maternity leave ... I am holding this baby as much of the day as I can get away with! She's so sweet, calm, and precious.
I realize these pictures are not interesting to anyone except my mother but I'm obsessed with her little face!
Since the theme of this week seems to be deep and sappy, I'm going to run with it ;) Someone linked to a post on their Facebook status last week to a blog post about regrets of the dying. It's kind of deep stuff but it really resonated with me and what I've been feeling lately about my family, friendships, and focusing on the things that matter. I have always lived very consciously - in other words, I think carefully about opportunities that are presented. Many people shy away from things that scare them, it can be something as extreme as skydiving or facing a fear, or something like taking a new job. Anytime an opportunity presents itself, I try to ask myself "will I regret this later if I don't do it?" This attitude has helped me immensely in seizing the day and truly not having any regrets. I have purposely tried to live with intent - taking advantage of opportunities and making the most of each day. I don't say all of this to sound overly confident or annoying - I call my mom almost every time I do something scary and have her give me a pep talk. A few of these decisions to "seize the day" have had bad results - the job that was terrible, etc. but I don't regret the decisions because I learned from the experiences and know I would have had regret and wonder over the possibility of a lost opportunity. I highly recommend you click over and read this post.
#4 (I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends) This made me thankful for the friendships I have - friendships take work, time and effort but they are SO worth it.
#2 (I wish I didn't work so hard) - This one made me glad that my priorities have shifted away from work and focused on my family, friends and experiences. I don't work to make a living, I work to make a life.
#1 (I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.) I am lucky to have had parents who truly let me be me. There were no expectations for what I "should" be so I didn't have to fulfill anyone's dreams but my own. I think in the past couple of years I've become even more true to myself - maybe it's maturity or maybe I have realized that life is too short to spend it trying to impress or please other people.
#5 (I wish that I had let myself be happier) I think if you read my post from yesterday you would know I am letting myself be happy right now!
1. I was on another blog and just saw the cutest YouTube video on her Tuesday 10 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L64c5vT3NBw&feature=player_embedded
2. One of the benefits of maternity leave is not having to pay attention to what day of the week it is. It's not that I'm sitting around eating bonbons and watching Oprah (it's pretzel M&M's and Top Chef) but my tasks don't necessarily require me to keep tabs on the day of the week.
3. I'm in my final month of maternity leave and have started dreading July 18th. It's not that I don't want to go to work, it's just that life is so utterly perfect right now that I'm afraid that changing something will change that state of perfection.
4. At times, living with a 2 year old is like having a broken record playing constantly in your ear. If you don't repeat what she says back to her - she will say it over and over and over. If I hear her tell me she went to Tampa to see a big Nemo one more time ... (it's SO cute though)
5. I was describing my ideal "stay at home" situation to a friend the other day (part time help with the kids, unlimited spending, personal trainer, lunch dates) and she laughed and told me "You don't want to be a stay at home mom, you want to be a kept woman who happens to have children" Would that be so wrong?
6. I should really go to bed right now, I'll be kicking myself if Ava gets up again at 5:00 this morning.
7. We are driving to see my parents next week. I am SO excited and only a little nervous about the 7 hour drive with the little ones. That could be a bit insane.
8. This weekend my husband looked around our living room and said "it looks like someone broke in here and was looking for something" I laughed because it's so true! Addison has perfected the skill of ransacking the living room. That, combined with the fact that we don't have much space in our current house, it seems like we live in a state of chaos most days.
9. I am so addicted to Top Chef. I am watching past seasons now and I can't stop. The only problem is that before this I actually thought I was a pretty good cook. Now I feel "pedestrian at best" (one of their phrases, not mine)
10. Isn't this adorable? I love that she has her Bert & Ernie dolls with her, she came back into the living room to get them last night before she would go to bed. Although I have hundreds (thousands?) of photos in pretty dresses and settings, I have a feeling this will be one of the ones I cherish the most when she is all grown up.
So I know this is 2 months after the fact but I realized based on a photo comment from a pic I posted recently that I never shared the details of Ava's birth-day. No worries, I don't "over share", but then you already know that if you've been reading this blog for any period of time. Although many of the people that read this blog have heard all of this before, for those who haven't, here are the details of the day we became a family of four.
Ava was born on Good Friday, April 22. I was exactly 39 weeks pregnant to the day. The night before, I had started having some contractions and that morning I woke up thinking "today is the day!", only to have the contractions stop as soon as I got up and started my regular activities. Daycare was closed that day and my husband had to work. He was nervous about me being home alone with Addison, just in case I went into labor (we had been warned it might be a quick labor) so I asked Crazy Betty to come over the hang out. We had an uneventful morning, laundry, playing, and hanging out. Uncommon Husband came home mid-afternoon so I could go to my weekly OB appt. I went to the Dr, waited about an hour and spent the time texting friends and being frustrated with the delay. We had a babysitter lined up for that evening and were going to have dinner out and see Water for Elephants as a final date night before we entered "crazy town" with 2 little ones. That date was not meant to be! I had my exam and the Dr told me I should head straight to the hospital because I was 5 cm and he promised I'd have regular contractions by the time I arrived. I left the Dr's office at 3:30, and everything felt very surreal! I called my mom, sister, and of course, Uncommon Husband, and told everyone it was "go time." I stopped by the house, picked up my bags, kissed Addison (such a bittersweet moment!), and we were off to meet our new little angel. We arrived at the hospital at 4:00 and the Dr was correct about the contractions! Ava was born at 6:30 pm - after only 2.5 hours of labor, and honestly, only 1.5 of that actually felt like labor. I am SO thankful for the Dr's appt because had I waited until I felt like I was truly in labor, it would have been very late in the game and much more stressful. I feel lucky to have gotten there in time for an epidural and done with everything in time for a late dinner! My sister arrived with a milkshake that night and my mom was there in time to surprise Addison when she woke up in the morning. It could not have gone better - timing was good, we had a babysitter lined up who stayed with Addison, everyone was healthy and happy! Betty must have been in the car with the engine running because she made it to the hospital in record time once she got the "all clear" to come up there!
I hesitate to say Ava's "birth-day" was easy because anyone who's been through it knows there's nothing "easy" about having a baby, but I will say it was about as easy as a delivery can be! We are so thankful to have a healthy little girl!
It's no secret that I'm feeling very happy and content these days. I feel happy for many reasons but something I read last week really hit home and made me feel extra grateful for all that I have in my life. I read a blog post about an experience of one of the Compassion International bloggers. Truly amazing how much we have to be thankful for. Please read this, you will see what I mean.
There are days I swear I am quitting Facebook. My husband did because he said it was a time drain. He's right but I think I am a little too attached. There are weeks when I only log on once or twice and days when I am on every couple of hours. There are the status updates and pics of current friends, the "train wreck" updates that you can't help but watch and enjoy, and lots of random people from days of the past. I also keep telling myself I am going to delete about half of my friends list and just keep the people I communicate with in recent years but never get around to it. The other night I was reminded why - hilarious and ridiculous stuff! There's a "friend" who is convinced that UFOs exist and the government is covering them up, the friend who posts constant passive aggressive messages to her "haters", and one of my favorite status updates ever:
"I hate when you put a pair of pants on in the morning and by the end of the day they are completely butt sprung!"
When asked to clarify what this meant, she replied "Like all loose from sitting and movin! Like they get knee sprung from ur knees being bent and then you stand up and still see where ur knees were!"
I was laughing so hard from this one!
Crazy Betty came over Tuesday night to help me out. Let me start by saying she really was a big help. Uncommon husband had to work late and although I am perfectly capable of handling the two little ones on my own, he made a good point - why try to tackle the hardest part of the day (dinner, baths and bed) by myself if I don't have to? So, I invited Betty over for dinner and to assist/distract the little ones while I performed the nightly routines. She loves to see Addison and Addison adores her. It is pretty cool that my 82 year old grandmother can crawl around on the floor with Addison while wearing my husband's t-shirt because Ava spit up on hers. I wish I had taken a picture ...
Anyway, back to the funny parts. What would an evening with Betty be without some good blog material?
Uncommon husband came home and found a copy of our tax return and some other personal papers on the bed. He said "you put this in here so your grandmother wouldn't go through it didn't you?" He's a smart man. Crazy Betty loves some good personal information.
She called Ava "Eva" twice. That's a pretty name but it's not her name! I teased her about it but I'm sure it will happen again.
Betty is extremely bothered that we are always one sock short in every load of laundry. Doesn't everyone's machine eat socks? (or one gets left in the hamper, etc) Apparently not Betty's because she thinks it is very irresponsible of me ;)
Betty told me that she preferred that I not leave the car running when she stays in there with the baby while I run errands "in case it slips out of gear." I assured her that it was perfectly safe but she insists that cars are recalled all of the time due to this malfunction. I have my doubts and I left the car running, it's 99 degrees out!
She also thinks at least one of the girls has a "rattle" or a "wheeze" in their breathing every time she comes over. I'm sure there have been times when Addison has had a cold but not every single time she sees her! I think she needs to have something to worry about.
She insisted that Addison say "may I be excused?" when she was done with her dinner. Yes, this was something I was taught to say when I was a kid but she's not even two! Addison defied her by replying to Betty "All done!" every time she asked her to say it.
Oh Betty ...
By the way - isn't my baby adorable? I'm not biased or anything :)
One of the projects I am going to be working on over the next few weeks is getting all of my photos organized on my computer (hopefully this means I'll blog more photos but I can't make any promises). I started 2011 so well keeping everything in folders by month, but there are hundreds of pictures in some of the folders and I need to narrow down some favorites and delete some duplicates, etc. This way when I make our yearly digital album I can do it easily and with no stress. I should have never let half of the year slip by - it would be so much better to just do it monthly. I also hope to pick back up on my photo a day project. I am actually taking a photo a day (mostly of Ava because we're home together and she's so darn cute!) but loading them onto the computer and selecting one to post is just hard right now. Once we finally get everyone settled in the evenings, I usually just fall asleep!
I started going through photos this afternoon and was so surprised when I looked through the pics from the beginning of the year. There are tons of photos of Addison and it really made me realize how much Ava has changed our family. It feels like she's always been here and it's hard to remember what it was like just having one! Both stages are wonderful, I'm glad we soaked in every moment of fun with just us and Addison because boy is it busy now! I also can't get enough of Ava and love having two little girls. I just had no idea what it would be like to look back and see this moment when we introduced Addison to Ava. Everything shifted, not just the focal point of the daily, weekly, and monthly photos - our hearts grew 3 sizes!
This is totally funny, I wish I could take credit for it because I feel like most of it is stuff I think all of the time!! Found here ...
• More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can’t wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that’s not only better, but also more directly involves me.
• Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.
• I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.
• The letters T and G are very close to each other on a keyboard. This recently became all too apparent to me and consequently I will never be ending a work email with the phrase "Regards" again.
• Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.
• There is a great need for sarcasm font.
• Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the heck was going on when I first saw it.
• I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.
• Was learning cursive really necessary?
• Lol has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say".
• I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.
• Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".
• How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?
• I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent an aggressive driver from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!
• MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
• Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.
• I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.
• I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.
• Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!
• Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?
• Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from; this shouldn't be a problem....
• You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren’t doing anything productive for the rest of the day.
• Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.
• There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.
• I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.
• When I meet a new person, I'm terrified of mentioning something they haven’t already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.
• I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.
• Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.
• It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.
• I wonder if cops ever get annoyed at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.
• Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it.
I'm still on a high from this wonderful weekend. I'm also enjoying some goodies left over from the festivities. My mom went to a u-pick blueberry farm Friday morning before they left and brought us (me!) a gallon of the most delicious blueberries ever!
