2!!!

Yesterday Lily turned 2! I can hardly believe it! We didn't really do anything yesterday. We are likely going to do something just the three of us tomorrow and then maybe celebrate with our families in the near future. She is 2, so she doesn't really care. Next year I will be more on the ball.
A couple observations from my two years of motherhood:
- I realize that I will never sleep as much as I want ever again. Even if given the opportunity (and I rarely am), I worry too much about Lily, and every possible thing related to being a parent.
- I have not, in the past two years, been home completely alone. I don't even remember what it is like to not have another person in the house with me.
- I was a much better parent before I had a kid.
- Even when I am the one to make her cry (you know, because I won't give her a cookie for breakfast), Lily still comes to me for comfort.
- Nothing makes me happier than watching my husband and daughter play together.
- Except maybe watching my daughter discover new things.
- "You are a good mom" is one of the best things I can ever hear.
- Topped only by whatever comes out of Lily's mouth. She is so funny and I love seeing how her mind works.
- I wouldn't trade one single minute of the last two years for anything in the world. Even the challenging times. Even the endless sleepless nights. Even the super icky diapers.
- Wait, I lied, I would trade in any moment that Lily was hurting or sick...I would take it from her.
- Being a mommy is the best job in the world.

And now, prepare yourselves...this isn't pretty...


This is much better:


And today (well, yesterday!):

Sunday Nights

Every week it is the same thing. Sunday nights are always the same. No, I am not talking about some fun family event like going over to Grandma's for dinner or anything like that. I am talking about sleep. Or, more accurately, lack of sleep. For some reason, no matter what the circumstances of the day, I cannot sleep on Sunday nights. It doesn't matter what time I try to go to bed or whether or not I have been super busy all day. This goes back to my working days too. Sunday night I go to bed and toss and turn. I just can't fall asleep. I hear every little noise, which keeps me up. The dogs and Matt snore more loudly on Sunday nights than any other night of the week. The house creaks more on Sunday nights. And on the outside chance I do actually fall asleep before 1 am, I am up constantly and have a hard time going back to sleep. Even if I fall asleep really late, I still wake up a bunch of times. And while I don't sleep like a baby every night (probably because I still have a baby, err, almost two year old!) I never have as many problems as Sunday nights. As if Mondays aren't hard enough, I get to face them groggy and bleary eyed. Awesome!

One of Those Days

Today has been one of those days. It isn't even 2 pm, yet I am mentally exhausted and physically drained. It might have something to with the time change, or being gone all day Saturday and then being a vegetable all day Sunday. Perhaps it is because Matt was out of town last week and we literally saw each other for 20 minutes between when he got home and I left for Hearts at Home. Either way, today is tougher than most Mondays, which are typically not my favorite day of the week anyway! In no particular order, here are my adventures of the day:
- Hurricane Lily. She is on a tear today, throwing things around, emptying her book shelf, scattering all her shoes all over her room. If I clean something up, she has messed up something else. She also threw her ridiculously expensive Thermos sippy on the ground, breaking off the lid, so it is no longer able to be closed up and thrown in a purse. And she tells me "a don't worry mommy,FIX IT!!!". I will get right on that melding plastic thing...
- Someone, probably me, left a tissue in something that went into the washer. We all know what happens. I likely had said tissue in the pocket of the hoodie I wore yesterday because Lily has a runny, icky nose.
- The nastiest diaper I have seen in a long time. This is day three of icky icky diapers.
- A 25 minute search for blankie. My house is small, yet Lily finds someplace to hide it and then conveniently forgets, so I am left desperately searching if I have any hope of her napping.
- When said nap time finally rolls around, I put my little angel down and jumped in a nice shower. Nice for about 2 minutes until the UPS man rang the doorbell and the idiot dogs started barking, waking Chickie up. She is still awake in her crib. But mommy needs some quiet time (and to blow dry my hair!) so she will have to go back to sleep. And she will...eventually.
- I stepped on a block, again, totally hurting my foot, again.
- I am out of Coke Zero, which is probably good since I have been drinking way too much soda lately, but I could really use one right now.
- My house needs to be cleaned, at least superficially since my MIL is coming over to babysit while Matt and I go to FPU.
- And Matt is going out of town, again. Boo!

On a positive note, I did have a great conversation with one of my oldest and best friends. You would think after 20 plus years of friendship, we would know everything about each other, but I discovered we have yet another thing in common. It is a very cool thing!

Okay...off to dry my hair...

Hearts at Home

Yesterday I attended the Hearts at Home National Conference. All I can say is WOW!!! If you have never been, but are a mom, particularly a Christian mom, then I would highly recommend going! The conference started with a main session where Jill Savage spoke. The theme this year was Mom's the Word and Jill spoke about four types of words our family needs to hear us speak (affirming, accepting, appreciating and apologizing) and how what is in our hearts pours out our mouths. It was very thought provoking and it really inspired me to be more careful and intentional with my words, both to my husband and to my child. Nicole Johnson also spoke and did some dramatic skits, which were amazing. And Christy Nockels performed. She was amazing. She sings worship songs, which have never really been my thing but are now!
After the main session, we were set free on the campus of ISU to attend our other workshops. The other workshops I attended were Measuring up as a Mom, Living with Less So Your Family Can Have More, Navigating Friendships, and Real Moms...Real Jesus. I was really fortunate to have Jill Savage as the speaker at two of my workshops. I enjoyed all of them, but Jill is just an amazing speaker. I will admit that my attention really waned during the Navigating Friendships workshop. The room it was held in was really warm, plus it was after lunch and I had had too little sleep the night before. Also, a couple of the women I went with went to a different session during that time called Growing Grateful Kids, which I strongly debated switching to (you aren't really supposed to switch up your schedule) and apparently it was just amazing. So I guess I wish I would have broken the rules!
There was an afternoon main session as well, which featured Christy Nockels again, as well as Julie Barnhill and more from Nicole Johnson. I really enjoyed Nicole. She was amazing. Her talk at the end was about how as moms we are sometimes invisible, but we are doing great work in our children and God sees. She compared it to the great cathedrals in Europe and how the builders would work their entire lives on cathedrals and would never see them finished and never get credit for their work, but the work was for God. And as a funny aside, I just finished reading about a month ago a book called "The Pillars of the Earth" which was about building a great cathedral in England in the twelfth century.
All in all, the conference was amazing. I laughed, I cried (who me? I never cry!) and I learned so much! It was great being away for 24 hours to recharge and be inspired. I was a ton of fun to get to really know some of my MOPS friends better and to spend some time with people who totally get me at this stage of my life. I mean seriously, there were like 4500 women there! That is a lot of estrogen!
I almost forgot - a man spoke who is former sponsored child from Compassion International. He spoke about what it means to be sponsored and how his life could have turned out. He spoke about meeting his sponsor after twelve years of sponsorship and how he and his wife and his brand new baby girl are living in the US right now, training to go back and become ministers in the community he came from in Uganda. It was truly inspiring. Sponsoring a child is something that has really been on my heart the past couple months, and while now isn't the right time for us to do it, I really hope one day soon is!

Hehe! I just read this to proof read and realized I use the word "amazing" to pretty much describe everything! What can I say - it was AMAZING! so I am not going to change it!

The Eco-Nomical Baby Guide - A Book Review

I was given the extraordinary opportunity by Joy and Rebecca over at Green Baby Guide to review their new book, The Eco-nomical Baby Guide. Let me just tell you, I wish this book had come out about two years earlier! I did or do a lot of the practices outlined in the book, but I had to do all my own research (a lot from their blog). This book would have saved me tons of Internet hours!

The book is "a down-to-earth way for parents to save money and the planet." It is 193 pages of little things we can do as parents to save some money and save the planet, which I think is just awesome, because really, who doesn't want to leave Earth better for our children? I think a lot of people want to do the green thing, but are put off by the cost they associate with being an eco-conscious parent. Joy and Rebecca outline topics such as necessities versus niceties (and let me tell you, I know from experience that you don't need half the stuff that BRU tells you you do!), buying used gear, supporting eco-friendly companies, cloth diapering (my fave!), feeding your baby (breastfeeding and making your own baby food, as well as organic store bought options), and simple things you can do right now.

I think the thing I like best about this book is they say throughout "progress, not perfection." The attitude of the book is that every little step helps and you shouldn't beat yourself up if you can't achieve a negative carbon footprint. And all their tips are tried and true! The write from their experiences, so they have had success with the tips they write about. Aside from some very simple tips, they also give actual cost breakdowns and websites.

I would highly recommend this book for any new or expecting parent, not just the ones with a tendency towards the greener lifestyle. This book spoke to both my "crunchy" side as well as my frugal side!

Where've I Been?

Umm, around. Life has been busy lately. Stuff going on. You know, the norm. Spring seems to be here, finally, and we have been getting outside as much as possible. I want to spend every free moment outside, for fear that the nice weather may go away and never come back. Unfortunately, we are supposed to have rain the next four or five days, so boo! to that. But spring and rain mean thunderstorms and while I am not sure if there are any in the forecast, I sure hope so! I love thunderstorms! We will see what Chickie thinks of thunder this year. She has yet to be afraid of loud noises, but if she doesn't like thunder this year, I may change my tune about thunderstorms.

So a couple Chickie updates:

- She will be two, yes TWO!! in a little over two weeks. When did this happen and how do I stop it! I am so not ready for this.
- We went to the zoo on Saturday. Roaring tigers don't scare her, but llamas do. Who knew?
- She also insisted on walking almost the whole way through the zoo. I am all for her getting exercise, but it was very slow going.
- She also convinced Matt and I she needed a stuffed polar bear. Fluffy is now part of her entourage, because she didn't roll with enough loveys as it was.
- She talks in complete sentences now.
- If I am upset about something, or stressed or whatever, she will rub my back and say "a don't worry mommy." Melts my heart.
- When I say "Hey Lily, want to eat lunch (dinner, breakfast, or what to do pretty much anything) she replies enthusiastically "I love lunch!"
- Her favorite food is quinoa. If I sit her at the table and put some in front of her, she shouts "quinoa!!" and scarfs it down in no time. And then asks for more. And then scarfs that down. And then asks for more. She loves her some ancient grains.
- She loves to run around the house with her arms out screaming "I'm flying."
- Every baby she sees is "a baby sister". I thought my sister Steph taught her this since she keeps telling me to have another baby, but have since learned that it is from Olivia on Nick Jr.
- And pretty much Chickie is just the friendliest little girl. Maybe too friendly. She has no fear of strangers and I love her innocence and the fact that it would never occur to her that not all people are nice, but I wish she was a little wary of people she has never met.

I will try to be around a little more. No promises though...the great outdoors are calling...

And now, some pics:


My loves



Mocha, the scary llama



the not scary tiger, who was quite vocal. when is it too early to teach your child about which animals would gladly make a snack of you and which wouldn't?



I like taking lots of pictures, but it means that there are never any good pictures of me and Chickie.



Yep, that's Fluffy. And Chickie insisting she walk everywhere...sigh...