Mover and Groover

Wow, time flies when you have a mobile child!!!

This new talent happend 2 months ago and I have been chasing her ever since!!!!

She just gets faster and faster each day. Here to there, there to here. One second she is to my left, the next she is no where to be found. Add to this, the major interest in tasting EVERYTHING on the ground...this momma is always on her toes!

Thankfully, she is the most wonderful little girl in the entire world...otherwise, I would just be a frazzled mess. But that little giggle or scrinchy smile makes when I catch her makes it so totally worth it!!!

I love my little love bug!!!!

Daddy's little Seahawk fan

If you know my husband, you know he is a Seahawk's fan. Not the kind that starts rooting for them once they make it to the play-offs, or just when he happens to catch a game...but an ALL OUT, DIE-HARD, THE WORLD STOPS ON SUNDAYS (during football season), WIN OR LOOSE-HE IS SCREAMING AT THE TV FOR THEM, fan.Well, the Seahawks did something amazing; even though they had a loosing record, they managed to make it to the play-offs this year. So, my sweet P's daddy got to dress her for the occasion!
That's right, she is dressed head to toe in Seahawks gear...right down to her teether!!! I have to admit, she makes a dang cute Seahawk's fan!

Daddy's hoping some day she will join him, on Sundays, in screaming at the TV and rooting his favorite team on (because momma doesn't get it!)

2010

As the year comes to an end, I am looking back and realizing that the last 6 months have been something to be exceptionally grateful for.

There are many people who have been a part of that and I want to take a moment to tell them how thankful I am to them and how much I love them.

To Presley; You have changed my world. You are the most beautiful person I have been lucky enough to meet. Your smile is contagious, your happy go-lucky personality is amazing. I am so thankful to get to be your mom.

To my sister, Karla; Thank you for being there for Presley's birth. Without any hesitation, you stayed by my side for the three days it took to bring her into this world. You are an amazing sister and I am so glad that Presley has you for an auntie!

To my husband, Ken; Thank you for all those breakfasts left on my night stand so that I could have a little food in my tummy and be able to stay in bed a little longer in the hopes of a little more sleep. As Presley grows, I have no doubt she is going to get to experience some truly fabulous adventures with you.

To my sisters in law, Trina & Jaime; thank you for being there while I was on bedrest and being a 'back to bed nazi' while I needed to heal. Trina, you went above and beyond each time you were here. I am embarassed and thankful for all the dishes, laundry and cleaning you did. Presley is very lucky to have you as her aunties!

To my friend, Amy; You helped me keep my sanity with your frequent visits while I was home stuggling with feeding for so many months. Without you, I would have forgotten that there was a world outside my door. You patiently encouraged some outtings and helped me realize that I may still have struggles, but I could take them on WHILE being out in the world. You are an amazing friend and I look forward to many more outtings!

To the boob duo, Shawna & MJ; thank you for your ongoing support as I tried to learn to breast feed my daughter. I understand why so many people give up and go to a bottle and without you guys, I may have missed out on the remarkable experience of breast feeding my daughter.

To my mommy partner in crime, Laura; This experience has been all the more exciting having met you and going through this journey at the same time as you. As hurdles arise and triumphs have been achieved, being able to talk to you and share them with you has made this even more wonderful. I am looking forward to many more playdates and conversations!

To all of Presley's Grammies and Pappas; thank you for loving my daughter so much. She is truly blessed to have so many people around her that are proud of her and love her.

To all of our friends and loved ones; your support and encouragement are amazing. Thank you for listening to my never ending stories about her spit up, naptime routines and milestone developments. I am sure it is torture at times and I really appreciate you listening with a smile and a warm heart!!!

2011, I am looking forward to meeting you and seeing what you have in store. Thank you for an awesome 2010...it has been an amazing gift!

Painfully long upload times.......

I would love to keep this blog updated, I really would....

But I only have a few baby free moments a day to do so. Generally, her 15 minutes naps are the only oppurtunity I really have. That precious 15 minutes, if it is not used to eat food, pay bills or fold laundry, could be my blog posting time.

COULD being the important word here.

The painfully looooooooooong upload times take every bit of every second of those few spare minutes. In the end, the post is a hurried mess and I left out half of what I wanted to document.

And so...instead of thoughtfully written and documented moments of time, Facebook wins with instant posting and picture sharing. Though, not everyone can see what is going on as publicly...at least it gets posted.

Oh blogger, how I wish you would update your technology.....

Wait, what happend to November?

November makes her 5 months already??? WOW! Where in the world does the time go???

One moment you have this new born baby, the next she is this amazing little girl.
At 4 months she had started sitting...not with total control, but sitting none-the-less.
At 5 months, Miss P can not only sit, but she can catch herself if she starts to fall. She can flail her arms with excitement at the same time too! It's a whole new world this little girl is seeing. And if that weren't enough, she goes and discovers she loves standing!!!
Her Auntie Jacque came over to see how big her neice had gotten, imagine her suprise when she saw this after the last visit we were still being ever-so-careful with her neck and head!

The time just goes by so fast. I am doing my best to burn every moment into memory, but with so much I want to remember about her, I worry that my brain is going to burst.

She is wonderful, she is amazing, she makes me so happy to have her as my daughter!

50mm f1.8

As you know, I love taking pictures..my camera goes everywhere with me.
I have more photo albums filled on my book shelf than anyone I know. (Speaking of which, I have 300 photo prints waiting for their place in a photo album right now)

With the addition of Miss P, I have had even more reason to snap away!!! I have used the heck out of my point and shoot camera...and the dSLR stayed in the bag because I didn't really know how to use all those functions. Yeah, I took those photography classes in high school so I knew a little about how to catch good candids of people, but when you start taking about f-stops and apertures you've lost me.
Then a friend from my knitting group, who happens to be a local photographer (see Sweet River Photography), decided to offer a 'how to use your dSLR camera' class. I jumped at the chase. In very simple terms, she explained apertures, ISOs and f-stops. We snapped lots of pictures with our ISOs high and low and with our shutters fast and slow. We learned so much my head was spinning and I was excited to get home and pla with my camera...the one that had been collecting dust for 2 years.

And I have played and played and played...
Immediately after the class I purchased the 50mm f1.8 lense and I have been having a ball ever since. Before those numbers wouldn't have made any sense to me, now my http://www.amazon.com/ wish list is filled with lenses like the 10-22mm f3.5-4, the 15mm f2.8 fisheye, the 24-70mm f2.8 and the 70-200mm f2.8L and I am trying to figure out ways to add them all to my collection.
With this new information and my snazzy new lense, my pictures have improved a hundred times over. My only regret...not taking the class sooner and capturing Miss P's first weeks in far better quality than my point and shoot did!!!

Diaper time

I can't believe how fast Miss P is growing!!! It wasn't even 4 months ago that she weighed less than a bag of flour...now she is as big as a bag of potatoes.

Before she was born I made 20 diapers in a '0-6 month' size and 28 in a '6-12 month' size. I don't know who decided what sizes for babies, but they are WAY OFF!!!

Miss P, like I mentiond, isn't even 4 months old yet (but will be in a few days) and she is now comfortably into 9 month old clothing. That also means, the first 20 diapers I made her and history...they are already packed away. The other 28 diapers, which were going to last until she was 1 year old, are not far behind.

So, now it's time to make more. Yes, I know I could just buy some. However, if you compared the diapers I have made to the cotton ones you can buy, you would see why I won't even waist my money on them. (Honestly, I am not sure how those store bought ones last longer than an hour on a baby...they do not look terribly absorbent). My diapers are soft, thin and absorbent.

My original ones were made following the basic prefold shape. Absorbent part in the middle, single layer of fabric on both sides. They do work awesome, but I thought I'd try something different with the next batch. I figured, if I am making them, why follow that same basic design...why not have a diaper that I don't have to fold before I use it.

And so, the 8prototype was created. And I have to admit, they worked pretty fabulously!!! I have tweeked the design a bit, mainly for more coverage.

Now, it's just a matter of finding some hands free time to get them cut out and sewn-because this daily diaper washing is getting tough to keep up with!!!

Wish me luck!!!

The pumpkin patch

Woke up to a gorgeous Saturday morning in October!!! Days like this are few and far between as the night comes earlier, the weather turns colder and fall is upon us. So we had to take advantage of it by heading to the pumpkin patch. We met up with some great friends we met in our birth class. Laura and Carl had their little guy, Wyatt, just a few weeks after Presley!

After lots and lots of cute baby pictures we headed out into the patch to pick out pumpkins.
With so many to choose from, there was a little wondering going on to find the perfect ones. Finally we each left with our family of 3 perfect pumpkins....We also left with sugar pumpkins for pumpkin pie, carmel corn for grubbing on, a bushel of brussle sprouts and acorn squash for dinner.

What a fabulous day!!!

I expected to be covered in spit-up...

As June 20th approached, I prepared myself for the things I knew were going to happen...I knew that I was going to be covered in spit-up every day and I was going to have be OK with that.

I knew that sleep was going to be in 3 hour blocks and that was as good as it was going to get for a while.

I knew that everything I used to do with my time was going to be put on hold for a while.

I knew that she was going to cry unconsolably and I was going to need to be patient and just comfort her.

And on June 23rd she arrived...and it all began.
The crying, the spitting up, the short bits of sleep and zero time to call my own....
She did everything a baby is expected to do and she did it well. What happend that was totally unexpected was I love every single minute of it!

The middle of the night feedings are the most magical time I ever thought possible. Just her and me, everything is completely quiet and she is in my arms. I get to watch her as she eats. Watch her little nose wiggle and her little hand reach aimlessly trying to gently grab something. I get to listen to her breath as she drifts off to sleep when she is done. Then I spend the next hour just watching her sleep (knowing I need to go to sleep because we will be doing this again in a few hours)When she cries unconsolably I happily take her in my arms and stroll around the house, rocking her and loving her and soaking up the memory of her beautiful cries. Long after she has quieted down, you can still find me holding, rocking and loving her. Again, I do everything I can to burn these moments to memory, because I know they won't last long.

And just as I am soaking it all in and loving every perfect little bit about her it gets even better.
She starts to coo and the sound just melts my heart...the gentle beautiful sounds coming from my beautiful little girl art the most magical thing I have ever heard.
And just as I think it can't get any better than this, she learns to blow little spit bubbles. Perfect little clusters of bubbles coming from her lips constantly, drenching the front of her shirt and making me laugh.
Then, when I believe my little girl can't be any more perfect, she laughs back at me. I have never been so proud of anything as I was when my baby girl laughed for the first time.


I may be sleep deprived, I may be covered in spit-up and I may not get a chance to put on my make-up every day, but she is perfect in every way and I could not be happier to be her momma.


This is love, this is magic, this takes my breath away.....