Thursday, March 31, 2016

Happy Birthday Felicity!

Since no family was able to attend Felicity's birthday I figured I would make these photos almost life-size. That way you can stare into her little baby blues, pretend to rub your lips on her fuzzy hair and kiss those squishy cheeks as a wet hand pushes you away. I know her face is covered in runny nose, chocolate cake, slobber and who knows what else, but my babies are never gross to me. It's like a rule of momdom. Your baby's slime just isn't gross. 

I honestly can't believe that F'liss (Hannah's nickname for her has stuck!) is one-year-old. Seriously. It feels like ages ago that I was pregnant and lying on the bed with a gargantuan headache. We've done so much this year, but at the same time I can't believe it's been an entire year and that my baby is on her way to toddler-hood. 

It always seems that right after my girls hit the birthday mark, they experience a personality explosion. Felicity has shown a few more of her colors since turning one. My favorite new trait is her silly side. She LOVES to make people laugh and if she has your attention, she'll try to be goofy or talk to you. She makes funny faces at the dinner table, shake her head back and forth and try to be silly. At bedtime she loves to stick her fingers in my mouth or crawl away. Brian has always looked at Felicity and said, "no no no no" to get her to shake her head back and forth. Well, Since we've been skype-ing with Brian, as soon as she sees him on the computer she shakes her head back and forth because she knows that's their game. It's pretty adorable. 

She likes to laugh and does so easily. My favorite is when she relaxes on me but it's so rare these days! She pulls up on everything but doesn't cruise yet. 

She mulches her food and won't eat apples. My other kids loved apples! She just spits them right out. But she will eat beans with rice, my purple cabbage and avocado almost every lunch. She loves scrambled eggs. She climbs the stairs but hasn't figured out how to get back down.

She's still sensitive and cries at the small injustices enacted upon her by her older sisters each day. Her bottom-tooth grins is adorable. 

I really love this little baby girl. I still think what I thought one year ago as I looked at her in the hospital: that she is a little angel, that she's patient, good and kind. That she is needed as part of this family and as part of the group with her sisters. Brian calls her Our Ocean; steady, calm and a peacemaker. I love you Felicity!  














Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Dolls.


I read Liesel "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane" while she was sick this weekend. I really loved it.

Made the kids pancakes for dinner to lighten the mood. The beans and rice for lunch followed by the lecture that 2/3rds of the world's children were probably eating that same thing was a little heavy handed for pre-K kids. So pancakes saved the day. And let me tell you, they CHOWED. And they put on all of their own toppings and made a giant mess and had a great time.

Ignored/turned off/ purposely left my phone today. I felt so sick of it. And then I paid for it because Brian thought I was being attacked or something. Sometimes I don't want my attention to be divided more than three times.

Spent hours organizing and cleaning our closet upstairs. Something I've wanted to do for about a year. But I didn't finish and now I have a bigger mess than before I started.

I should be editing a wedding right now. Thinking about outsourcing all of my post-processing. It feels scary to let go of my control over my images, but I want to look into it.

The high school puts on a community Off Broadway production. I've wanted to be in it for a few years but was always nursing or too pregnant. This year I spent two weeks trying to convince people to do it with me and the last 4 weeks practicing. I've really enjoyed it. It's nice to do something that I want to do every once in a while. Even if it does add stress.

Felicity unrolled an entire roll of tp this afternoon. She also ate something out of the trash (?!). She really liked feeling like a big kid while playing with play dough today with the girls. I think she's transitioning out of 2 naps and I haven't figured out when to put her down yet.

Life feels different with Brian gone. The kids seem so cranky. I feel like the un-fun parent. I miss having someone to talk to and to talk things out with. I miss looking forward to seeing him each day. He was voted one of the three corporals in class by his peers.

Hannah finally returned to normal yesterday after 8 days of sickness. It was so nice to have her back. She's so animated and I missed her energy.