Friday, November 30, 2012

9 months....kinda

can we just talk about 9 months for a second? i wasn't so sure about 9 months at first. 8 months was magical all over the place but 9 months had some rough spots. i eventually decided that 9 months is magical too, after origionally declaring it the devil after monday and tuesday of last week and then eating my words when wednesday was lovely, lovely, lovely. i don't think kahree did anything different. i think the fact that i finally said to heck with the house work and spend several hours just holding and kissing and laughing might have done the trick. please oh please, let me learn my lesson someday soon.

don't ask me about kahree sleeping through the night. i'll laugh at you. we're still cosleeping, much longer than we planned, obviously. but it just works so much better that way! even on nights that she does go to sleep in her crib i just lay there awake, missing and worrying and listening to the monitor and waiting to hear the slightly squeak so that i can run in and grab her and lay her down next to me and finally sleep. i love it. i love being so close to her, i love her tiny warmness, i love when her hands find me in her sleep and rest on my face or my arms, i love when she scoots up so she can share my pillow. i just feel like this is too precious to mess with, there's no time for implementing sleep routines.

let me explain. there's a Carter's commercial (clothing company for kids and babies + my favorite) narated by the voice of an adorable small girl human talking about the first night home and how the daughter and mother have grown together and how when a baby is born so is a mother and blah blah blah, all kinds of mushy stuff. well every time it starts i grab kahree from wherever she is and sob into her little neck for a while and beg and plead for her to please PLEASE PLEASE stay tiny. i can not even handle the fact that she's getting bigger and older EVERY DAY. i can't. it's happening right now. i can't stop it. but i want to. i wish so hard for kahree to stay my tiny little daughter, for her to love and need me with all her heart forever, for her to never stop wanting to be held. right now if i offer she will stop doing anything else just to rest against my chest while i kiss her head. how long is that going to last!? certainly not long enough at all. i need to pause her right where she is until i'm absolutely sick of it. but it's not going to happen, it probably shouldn't, it doesn't work that way. that would probably just make life wierd for her. i've reasoned with craig that i'll let all the other kids grow up if i can keep her tiny and he knows i'm nuts. i can't help it. having her is just too wonderful right now. but this perfect 9 month, laugh so hard all day, kisses with teeth thrown in, babbling and crawling and SUCH SO MANY SNUGGLES- it's about to careen right on out of here, bringing month 10 and 11 and concluding year 1 all the sudden, far too soon. she's growing up and someday she'll be too cool so sleep next to me, even if it doesn't happen until she's 13 it'll be too soon. so right now i let her sleep in bed with us all night long just to keep my heart from breaking into a billion tiny, worn out pieces.

that's our life right now. too much sleep. 4 sharp teeth. "momma" "dadda" "bye-bye" and "peppa." a great big dinner of solids every day and nursing the rest of the time. reading lots of cardboard books. not enough baths. tons of walks. a new winter coat. toys and friends at work 3 days a week. blurry pictures. kisses, snuggles, crying fits, real tears, fast crawling, too much growing and not nearly enough time. it'll never be enough. but i love what we have. i do. 


p.s. i was planning on adding some super cute pictures to this post but my blog says I'm never allowed to post pictures again. maybe it'll work later.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

she couldn't help but sing





just a little peek at kahree's room. i'm pretty please with it right now but it's hard to show it off, the lighting in there is usually far too poor for taking good photos. if you want to see how charming it is you should just come visit. bring one small child for kahree to play with as an admittance fee. shush, that's not weird. just go with it.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

thanksgiving day









the morning of thanksgiving i got up bright and early and ran my first 5k. i was sore for the rest of the day. it was very chilly and by the time we enjoyed our dinner with craig's family we were hungry, hungry, hungry. kahree ate a whole bunch of sweet potatoes and some turkey and napped in her pack and play with elmo. the men of the family played football outside and when it was finally time to sleep off our feast my legs felt like brittle toothpicks trying to hold up a whole turkey.

so, obviously, it was an incredible day. best thanksgiving yet.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

cassidy and the cactus kid












today i'm happy for clean houses, this sweet dog, my darling daughter, blankets from grandma, pie making days and that cassidy and the cactus kid haven't yet died by my hand.

tomorrow is thanksgiving. i'm running the 5k turkeython in the morning and then we're having dinner with craig's family. it's a wonderful time.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

thank you thank you thank you

this year i'm thankful for:

  • the birth of my daughter. she is my joy, i love her so and every day with her has been worth it.
  • a second anniversary with my husband. he's the very best.
  • our new puppy and the blessing she's turning out to be.
  • our new apartment and how much it feels like home.
  • an amazing AMAZING summer full of food and adventures and down time with my two favorites. i'll always miss summer 2012, there were times when i was so happy it hurt and i'm so grateful for that.
  • a trip to seattle that ended up being the best vacation of my life.
  • a long and inspiring visit back home with my family.
  • craig's life-changing promotion and pay raise and his new pay raise last week [eek!]
  • getting to leave a job i didn't love and finding a new job that i do love
  • new friendships and meaningful relationships
  • the chance to start running and sticking with it
  • losing all the baby weight [seriously, SO thankful]
  • every single date night
  • say anything and mewithoutYou coming out with new albums that spent a lot of time on repeat in our car
  • tea and cookies and frozen yogurt
  • the hobbit coming out soon
  • alright, this is getting ridiculous.
really though. really. best year of my life. thanksgiving is this week, and then christmas next month, and then my birthday, and then kahree's first birthday, and then craig's birthday and graduation, and time just flies right by and it seems to get better and better. what a treat this life is, i'm glad i signed up for it and that i get to spend it with craig and kahree. i think if i go on any longer i'll burst into tears [mom hormones, am i right?] so i'm just going to leave you with some freaking adorable and blurry pictures and we'll call it a day. have a fabulous holiday with your loves ones and don't forget that this life is oh so sweet.





















Thursday, November 15, 2012

november






lately pepper has been turning into a better dog. kahree has been falling even deeper in love with pepper. i've been making a lot of spicy hot chocolate. and craig has been watching a lot of "once upon a time" with me.

lately november has been wonderful.

Friday, November 2, 2012

p.s.

we were saving these pictures for after halloween, these are from the night we got kahree's costume in the mail. of course we had to try it on. then we got out her giant stuffed chewbacca that she's had since she was born and had them battle.





kahree won. of course.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

happy halloween, and may the force be with you








 
kahree makes everything a thousand times more enjoyable and halloween, we found, was no different. kahree wore her chewbacca costume bravely for two days straight, i wore my princess leia getup a lot less bravely (how DID she keep her dress so white through all that?), and i thought craig was a most handsome hon solo. we did a lot more errands and went a lot more places than we normally do most days and i think it might have secretly been because we wanted as many people as possible to see how adorable kahree was as a wookie. i think i want to wear matching costumes every year. next time, lord of the rings? batman? we'll just have to see.

we celebrated at the church halloween party and with trunk-or-treating the night before halloween and with candies and snuggles in bed waiting for trick-or-treaters the night of. i may have decided to never go trick or treating. we didn't this year because our only excuse is still too tiny for candy but maybe we just won't ever start. i love giving out candy and we love being at home together more than anything right now so i'm entertaining the idea of having harvest parties at home, in costume, on halloween, cooking chilli and having corndog eating contests, snuggling and watching tim burton movies. just thinking about it makes me excited for halloween 2013.

the first pictures are of kahree and me at my new work the day before halloween. i work at a preschool now supervising a playtime group 6-9 hours a week and i really love it. it's the perfect job and although it came out of nowhere and i wasn't looking for anything like it i'm glad it found me. i can take little babyk with me and she gets to play with kids and toys and craig gets a little bit of time to finish his schoolwork in the evening. i don't know how long i'll do it for but right now it's making life a little more crazy and a little more sweet. no matter how much i feel like i'm losing my mind sometimes i'm sure i'll look back on this autumn time fondly, when my puppy was rambunctious and small, when my home was a quaint apartment, and when my daughter was tiny, and snugly, and for a few days, a wookie.