sometimes you just have to leave

Last night I received the following email notice:

Dear Krista–

CONGRATULATIONS!  You are our Grand Prize Winner.  

I am pleased to announce that you won the gaming console, Wii® of our Father’s Day Contest, “Championship Fathering.”  I will tell you that it was very difficult choosing a winner, but your writing really captured the incredible impact your father left not only on you but your family for generations to come.  What a champion he is!  Thanks for sharing his story with our community.  

We will be posting your name and winning entry within the community as outlined in our official rules.  

I wrote an essay about my dad and entered it in a Father’s Day contest. I don’t normally do these things, but my mom encouraged me to do it and I thought my dad would enjoy reading what I wrote. I printed it out and gave it to my dad for Father’s Day and it was a big hit…tears and all. I totally forgot that they were going to announce a winner on the 30th so I was completely stunned to see the email above. I won! I wrote to honor my dad and now I win a prize. Yay!

Yes, I am.

I want desperately to escape this funk that has so interrrupted my life. I want to embrace the long days of lonely motherhood with a new attitude. I also want to find a remedy for the circumstances that brought about this funk….

I need to stop complaining and being lazy. I need to find joy in sweeping the floor ten thousand times a day, or picking up cracker crumbs and legos. I need to give thanks.

So, here’s to giving thanks today for this precious life that I have been given to raise. I may not always feel excited about the day to day tasks that being a mother brings, but I know that this is far too valuable to ever wish away.

Dear Aidan,

Today you are 14 months old. I can’t believe how grown up you are becoming. You have such a hilarious personality and we’ve been getting to know you even better this past month. You are now saying several words: dog, duck, ball, hot, hi, bye, daddy, mama (still only if you are sad), Steph, night night, and birdie( a couple times). You love to mimic noises we make and it makes us laugh so hard to hear you try. You definitely understand almost everything we say and you know what is “off limits” in the house. You shake your head “no” whenever you are about to do something you shouldn’t or are in the middle of doing it. It’s cute, but you are also a little bit of a stinker when you do it. You were pretty sick this past month with ear infections, fevers, cold, and a rash. You were put on two different antibiotics over a period of about 2 1/2 weeks. It was a rough time for Mommy too. You now have 7 teeth and are getting more, so you are kinda crabby, but we know that it must hurt to be getting those new teeth in. You are really into eating crackers and sign “more” all the time when you want them. You have also learned to sign “please” and it is so darn cute when you do. You went to Deanna Rose this month and absolutely loved petting the goats. You have no fear of animals and you are so friendly to everyone around you. You are aboslutely in love with your blankie and will cry and cry to get it out of your bed. You have figured out that it is accessible if you can pull it out of your crib, so you do that most every day. It would follow you everywhere if Mama would allow it. You are still taking two naps right now although you had a few days this month where you took one really long good one. I think you are in a transition period and you will eventually start taking just one nap on a regular basis. You slept for a full 4 hours one day and we were so happy about that. One of the cutest things you started doing this month was developing an obsession with blowing out candles. You start stomping and blowing if we light a match and you could do that all day. We light lots of candles just to see you blow them out.

Aidan, you are an absolute delight and I love you.

Love,

Mommy

(P.S. The picture is of Aunt Steph and Aidan at the pool this summer)

Aidan and I have been going to garage sales right and left this spring and I am officially addicted. I have gotten a smattering of good deals and it gives me such a high that I just have to keep going.

Here are just a few of my great deals:

Blurry picture, but brand new (not anymore) Teva flip flops in my size for $1

A bright fun rug to go under my kitchen table and that matches the kitchen perfectly: $2

A fun decorative china “box” : $2

Toys for Aidan ranging from .50 to 2.00

Little People car garage: $2

Big container of duplo legos! : $7

Turtle sandbox: $2

Beautiful Radio Flyer wagon: $15

Now, these are just a few of my great purchases….Other things include: Christmas tree ($3), adorable wooden kid table and chairs ($2), wooden toy box ($5), vintage shirts for me, table and chairs for the kitchen, clothes for Aidan, children’s books galore, and other fun decor items.

I am all about good deals and love getting almost new stuff for so much less!

I also absolutely love Craigslist and plan to do a post showing everything I have bought from there….it’s a little ridiculous.

I have been wanting to blog every day for the past few days and I finally found some time.

Friday, the 15th was my 24th birthday. I don’t feel any different, but it was fun to celebrate just the same.

The day before my birthday my mom took Aidan for the day so I could do this:

I hadn’t had anything done to my hair in 6 months…so, I spent the morning getting a highlight, cut, and complementary hand and arm massage while I waited. It was wonderful!

After the pampered morning, I picked up Seth from work for a fun lunch at Panera. Yummy! Then, came home, layed in the sun for a little while, cleaned the bathroom, Aidan’s room, and the hallway, went grocery shopping, met my mom, sister, and Aidan at the mall, shopped, but didn’t buy anything, came home, and put Aidan to bed.

Seth had worship practice at church for the evening, but came home after work with these:

I spent the evening at home watching the Grey’s Anatomy season finale and giving myself a manicure and pedicure. It was wonderful!

Ta dah!

Okay, so, my actual birthday was the following day, but Thursday was great!

My 24 year old self:

My mom came and spent the day with me Friday and we went to lunch at First Watch with the little bubbers. It was quite a busy lunch and we scarfed down our food so that Aidan wouldn’t tear up the place. We tried to do a little shopping, but Aidan decided to protest, so we came home and relaxed instead.

My mom took Aidan for the evening so that Seth and I could go out though, and it was sooo fun. We shopped at Kohl’s for a really long time and I bought some really cute New Balance shoes and a new bedding set.

The bedding is much more attractive in person, but here’s a glimpse anyway. I will probably take a pic of the finished product when I am done ironing the bedskirt and shams.

We finished up the night at Olive Garden and then picked up the baby and went home.

Saturday morning, Seth made banana chocolate chip pancakes for us and we had a wonderful day shopping some more. We got a great new color for the office that I found in the OOPS paint at Home Depot. So excited about $5 gallons of paint! Aidan was a great little shopper and a little charmer everywhere we went.

Saturday night we had church and then came home and worked hard on the house.  We cleaned and cleaned until my feet almost fell off.

Woke up Sunday morning feeling sore and tired, but had to keep Aidan entertained while Seth went to church again. We took a long walk and played a lot. Aidan went down for a nap right before Seth got home, so we enjoyed a lovely leisurely lunch together, spent an hour in the sun, took a little nap, and then were off to Deanna Rose once Aidan woke up.

Aidan loved petting the goats!

Check out my new shoes in this pic! I love my boy!

A fun time was had by all and we really can’t wait to go back again soon!

Well, that was my weekend. How was yours?

…give them a roll of paper towels to demolish. That will pretty much make any ear infection and nasty cough much better. Screaming will diminish and all will be right in the world.

My oh my! What a day it has been!

This post goes out to my sweet husband who learned early on not to ask “What do you do all day?”

Just in case you’ve been wondering….here’s what we did (from Aidan’s perspective):

When I woke up, I drank my bottle like I always do while Mommy rocked me.Mommy took me downstairs for breakfast, but I didn’t want to sit very long in my high chair. When Mommy cleaned me up I decided it would be fun to take all my alphabet magnets off the refrigerator and throw them downstairs. I just noticed that there is a room down there that I never go to. It is full of boxes and other things, and I would really like to explore it, but I think that throwing my magnets will have to do for now. I still had a fever today, so I wanted to cuddle with Mommy a lot. I really love sucking my thumb and holding my blankie and Mommy has been letting me do that a lot since I have been sick.

So, we did a lot of this today:

Excuse the Mommy in the above picture…she was sans makeup at the time. Oh wait, and still is.

I got tired after Mommy took me on a walk and I slept for a little while. When I woke up I was very very hungry. Mommy tried to give me some food, but I just did not want to sit still and eat. I just wanted to play. While Mommy was trying to clean up the kitchen I decided to be sneaky and go up the stairs without Mommy. She caught me and I got in trouble. I needed to cry for awhile to feel better about it. Mommy is very nice, but she does not give in to my disobedience. After getting permission from Mommy to go upstairs, I decided to pull things apart in the office while Mommy was talking to Daddy. It is fun to be naughty while Mommy is busy.

Then, Mommy had the grand idea to find the froggie pool she bought on clearance last fall, so we found the pool and she blew it up.  I didn’t know what to think about it all, but it looked interesting. Mommy made me go inside while she tried to fill it with warm water from the kitchen. She was carrying big bowls of water back and forth and she spilled a lot of it on herself and the kitchen floor. I cried because I thought she was going to leave me inside forever. While Mommy was filling up the water, I decided to be sneaky again and get in the kichen cabinets even though I know that I am not supposed to. While Mommy was standing at the sink I grabbed the coffee pot from inside the cabinet and it shattered all over the floor. Luckily, I wasn’t hurt, but Mommy was not too happy about it. She put me in my crib and I cried. After Mommy cleaned up the mess and finished filling the pool up, she got me ready to go swimming. It was a long process and I didn’t know if we would ever go outside.

Mommy put me in the water and I thought it was kinda fun. But then she sat me in it and I was not happy at all. She bribed me with some toys, but I hated the pool.

Here I am looking happy to be in the pool

Don’t let this fool you, I really did not like it one bit.

I was so happy to get out.

Wait, did someone say happy?

Mommy told me to take a nap when we came inside, but I didn’t really want to listen. It took me quite awhile to obey, but I finally fell asleep.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about what strategies I have learned to not only survive the day, but to thrive in it and enjoy it.

Newborn stage:

- If you have an incredibly fussy newborn like I did, it is always good to find ways to alleviate their distress while keeping your calm. Going outside worked far more wonders than all the shushing and rocking that the books encouraged.

-Use an infant bouncy seat in the bathroom in order to get a shower and keep baby close.

-Relax. This too shall pass.

-Write down your baby’s eating and sleeping times to see if any patterns develop and try to adhere to a flexible schedule.

-Read blogs and check email while nursing. Rent or borrow seasons of your favorite T.V shows if you have a baby that takes a long time to nurse.

-If the baby’s noises, grunts, or even presence is keeping you awake, move them to the other room and keep the doors open. You’ll hear them when they wake, but get some sleep in between.

Baby (not mobile) stage:

-Exersaucer, Exersaucer, Exersaucer!

-Put the exersaucer in front of a full length mirror and let your baby “talk” to themselves

-To keep baby entertained during family dinnertime, put them in a Bumbo seat in the middle of the table.

-Baby wraps are great for wearing baby while doing activities.

-Getting them in a more consistent routine will make everyone more than happy.

Baby (crawling):

-Set up safe play areas so that they can explore while you get things done.

-Put fun toys on the lowest bookshelf for baby to discover.

Toddler stage:

-Keep things interesting by changing activities often.

-Have them play only in their room for a short time then move to other actvities.

-Keep different toys in every room of the house.

-Go on walks…often.

-Get lunch and dinner ready before they wake from naps or start becoming fussy.

-Use teething biscuits as a distraction while preparing dinner if you didn’t get it done early enough.

-Give them plenty of time to play alone and then spend some intentional time reading or playing with them.

-Teach your child what is off limits and stay consistent so that you won’t have to keep getting them out of things…

-Always clean the kitchen after each meal so that it doesn’t get too overwhelming by the end of the day.

-Use naptime as time to refresh yourself and also get chores done.

-Let them play in their crib after waking.

-Interact with them while you do chores and let them help with simple tasks.

-Take your time and remember that everything with a toddler is much slower.

Right now, having managed to get his blanket out of his crib again, Aidan is lying on his back sucking his thumb and listening to the classic rock radio station blaring on his little Cd player that he managed to break the antenna to this morning. My child is totally weird, but that is what makes him so precious at the same time.