Posts tagged motherhood

Wake up slowly, run to the kitchen, heat up bottle, run back to Ellie, feed bottle, change diaper, [try to] cuddle to get a few extra minutes of precious sleep, give up, go into Charlotte’s room and start the dance all over (but replace feed bottle with feed breakfast while listening to, “I HUNGRY!  I need a waffle, I need juice!” etc etc….).

All this in a mere 10 minutes time….and it’s not even 8am.

This, my friends, pretty much sums up being a mom to two little ones under the age of three.

Motherhood.

A strange, tumultuous, blessed, empowering, and exhausting journey.

I can’t think of anything else that brings equal amounts of joy and frustrations each day.  Except, maybe…marriage (ha!).

Sunday marked my third mother’s day.  This year was incredibly special because now I have two little girls.  Two amazingly funny, beautiful, smart little girls who God chose for us to care for each and every day here on earth.

I didn’t have any huge expectations this year for mother’s day.  I’m happy just to spend time with our family, go to church together, and smile and think about how much I have grown as a mommy in the past two and a half years.

But, actually—my mother’s day was incredible.  I felt so appreciated, so loved and the people I care about most spoiled me to pieces. (!!!)

I don’t need to go into a laundry list of details—but I wanted to say:

Thanks, family.  Thank you for making me feel like I’m doing something right in this crazy season of my life.  Thanks for spoiling me with flowers, food, homemade cards and good company and making me smile the whole day Sunday.

I love you all, and I’m so lucky to have you in my corner.  <3

All the love made the 6am wake up call that much easier on Monday….!

Mother’s Day 2013: Charlotte and Ellie—I love you so!

Moms are funny beings.  Especially moms raising their kids in this social media frenzy we live in today.

We go to the playground, and like every other mom there hold our iPhone’s, Blackberry’s or giant Cannon DSLR cameras and snap, snap snap away.

You’ve seen it—the:

“I’ll give you a lollipop, 10 ponies and a new bike if you just smile ONE time!”

or,

“HI HI HI HI HI HI!!  LOOK HERE!!”

Yep.  Those would be the bribes and cat calls babies and toddlers get from their parents just so we have the simple satisfaction of that perfect Instagram or “blog-worthy” moment.

Guilty as charged.

But what about the un-captured moments?  The ones that are too precious to even think about pulling out the camera or iPhone?

I’ve had so many of those this week.  So many, in fact, that I realized I had forgone blogging, and a few days without “instagramming” some cute shots of the girls.

Moments like:

Charlotte wearing a tutu, spinning in circles around the living room with her arms straight up in the air.  Her hair cascading around her sweet cheeks with a smile the size of Texas on her face.

Ellie laying her head on my shoulder while I rocked her to sleep—her deep, mouth-open breathing that formed into a sweet smile before fluttering shut those piercing blue eyes.

The childish giggles coming from my first born little girl who has just found the courage to swing really high on the swings.  ”Higher mommy, higher—I brave!” She squeals with delight on a cool, breezy day.

Those moments are only a few of the never ending joy I’ve come to look for on an average day.  The kind of joy that cannot possibly be captured for social media.  

The kind of joy that is better captured in my heart—forever.

I can’t remember the last time I did one of these…but with this crazy week, it is perfect timing to get a few bullet points going—I have a lot on my mind!

• I don’t think I have mentioned on P2P that I am going away this weekend to Miami for a girls weekend.  My best friend, Leslie, is getting married in November—so I am heading down to soak up the sun with a few ladies to help celebrate this amazing lady!  I am SO.EXCITED.  I don’t think I have ever been this excited to go away.  I don’t need to express how much I will miss my girls, because obviously, I will—BUT—I need the break right now.  The girls are a lovely handful at the ages they are and I think a few days of reflection and girl time is just what I need to be the best mom of all time when I return (ha).

• Ellie is a maniac.  I say that in the nicest way possible…but truly..she is!  She not only crawls everywhere, she gets into EVERYTHING!  I never had to baby proof a single thing with CG.  She would just sit and play, and once she started crawling she would just crawl to her toys.  Ellie…not so much!  She loves anything she could possibly choke on, eat, not eat, hurt herself with or fall down from.  I have turned into “mommy hawk”….making sure I have 18 eyes on her every second of the day.  She is hilarious and makes me laugh so incredibly much…but she is also a handful!

• I have been on a spinning kick for the past few weeks.  I was intimidated to try our gym’s indoor cycling class because it had been about 4 years….but I finally found enough guts to walk into a class and since then I have been loving it!  There is nothing better than a great hour long work out to help center myself.  

• Have I mentioned I’m going to Miami on Friday? 

• As crazy as life is right now, I actually feel like I have it all semi-together in the mom department.  We have such a wonderful routine going each day and the girls’ personalities not only keep us on our toes, but bring us so much joy.  Andrew and I have been laughing each night recently about all the funny things CG says and all the sweet and silly things Ellie is doing at this stage.  Life is good, and we are blessed :).

Never underestimate the joy in the simplicity of…

Planting flowers on a spring day:

Watching your 8 month old learn to pull up to stand:

Running around with no agenda or care in the world:

A squeeze from your little ones while they both still fit in your lap:

I was reminded by my husband the other night of something that caught my attention.  Right now in our lives, we aren’t in our “ideal” situation.

 We would love to buy a house with more space for our girls to run around in, and have our own back yard.

We would love the freedom to live comfortably with the ability to take big vacations and save for the future.

We would love so many more “things” that right now we just don’t have.

But Andrew said to me the other evening on our little porch—“You know…we are going to look back on this time and think of it as such a happy time.  When our babies were still babies and everything was simple.”

That pierced my heart and brought tears to my eyes.  He’s right.  We are happy, healthy and have everything God has planned for us for this moment and stage in our lives.

So—I’m going to work on enjoying the simplicity in this season we are in.  The bigger and better aren’t necessarily bigger and better, and I want to cherish these days. 

In PA, the weather has been the #1 topic of conversation lately.  Our friendly Groundhog told us back in February we would be sure to have an early winter.

He was wrong—VERY wrong.

In fact, I recently looked at some pictures I had posted on Facebook from March 2012—we were wearing spring clothes and playing on the playground.  Nothing like this March where it snowed for more of the month than not.

But now, our winter weather seems to have finally faded away and in it’s place we have had a string of gorgeous sunny spring days.

This weekend was exceptional—not too warm, not too cool.  Robins running around the grass, birds singing sweet melodies in the distance—and that “springy” smell has arrived.  

You just can’t help but smile.

Yesterday before church while Ellie was napping, Charlotte and I took advantage of one of our first spring mornings of the season by sitting out on our porch.  

I sipped on hot coffee while she sipped on cold orange juice, and we sat together like girlfriends.

We watered her brand new pansies, and talked about the different sounds and smells around us.  She pointed towards the blue sky and I explained to her all about birdies and nests, and what flowers need to help them grow.

In that small moment, I realized something.  A year ago out on our porch, Charlotte was a baby.  She would toddle around and I would watch her, and make sure she didn’t fall or get too dirty.  I was her care-taker.

Now, of course, I’m still her care-taker—but our relationship has grown in just one year.  This year—she is my pal.  We have real conversations and laugh and tell stories.  We play together, and she asks me big life questions like “where the birgies live mommy?”.

I have found a friend in my two and a half year old.  Sure, she may still be a toddler and she has a lot of growing to do—but there is no one I would rather share a morning coffee and a giggle with at 9am than my sweet Charlotte.

How blessed I am to have a daughter—I know our relationship is only beginning.  The years we have ahead of tears, laughter and girl talk has only just begun.

Didn’t I just write one of these posts?  March FLEW by…and I think Ellie turning into an active baby has kept be busier than I realized!

The biggest milestone actually happened ON her 8 month birthday: Ellie started crawling!  She has been really trying hard to crawl for about a month now, and finally figured out how to move forward.  It is so much fun to watch her zoom around now.  She is still so little, and younger than Charlotte who crawled at 9.5 months—so she looks like a little wind up toy moving around the room!  Ellie skipped the army crawl and went straight for hands and knees.  I’m already looking up baby knee pads for those sore knees of hers!

Ellie is really starting to interact with us.  When I play music, or sing a song she will bounce and “dance” to the beat.  She also imitates clapping now and babbles all day long!  She says: “ma ma ma”, “da da da”, “ba ba ba” and “rah rah rah”. And of course, still blows raspberry bubbles and sings along to the music in the car.

Ellie still proves to be an awesome eater and sleeper.  She takes four formula bottles a day and eats three baby food “meals”.  The only thing she absolutely will NOT eat are bananas.  She makes the same face Charlotte used to make for pretty much every vegetable—ha!  Ellie tried yogurt this month and absolutely loves it…she gets jealous every time her sister eats yogurt.  The jealousy has already begun!

As far as sleeping goes, she has been sleeping a lot recently.  I think now that she is more active she needs more rest.  E goes to bed around 8pm and wakes between 7-8am each morning.  She takes an hour nap in the morning and recently has been napping 2-3 hours in the afternoon.  

Ellie has reached the stage of wanting anything that is not hers.  Stickers, paper, spoons, plastic bags, ALL of Charlotte’s toys etc.  Charlotte is having a hard time with this recently.  Now that E can crawl, CG can no longer take her toys to another part of the room.  I’m trying to encourage her to share or to give Ellie another toy instead of pushing and yelling “NO ELLIE!!!”.  It’s a constant battle!

Speaking of Charlotte—Ellie just loves her sister.  She doesn’t need much entertaining from me because she has free “TV” by watching her sister play and trying to join in.  I smile every time I see them interact—it is such a joy!

I love this little bundle more and more every second of the day—life is just perfect with you in our lives, Ellie Virginia!  God has truly blessed our family :)