You guys.

I’m lonely up here.  Just a month ago, I lived next door to one of my best friends.  If I was bored, or if Penny was driving me crazy…I could literally take 2 steps, knock once, and I either had a place to hang with a mom I loved, or a walking buddy to head to the park with (also, with that same mom I loved).

Don’t let me fool you.  I am painfully introverted.  Moving up here has already really stretched me.  I’ve had a few hang outs with some awesome peeps, but you don’t wanna seem to needy ya know.

So today…TODAY!  I went to the park with my brother-in-law and there were a couple of moms there.  And suddenly…we’re talking…and I find out they’re from LA too!  And they just moved here!  And they come to this park all the time!  Then it happened…one of them said, we should exchange numbers.  BOOM.  I am now a happy owner of two new possible friends sweet sweet digits.  I, of course, do not want to seem to eager so I discussed the rules with my brother.  It’s been a while since I’ve been in the dating scene, so he was great offering up the whole  “Wait a few days maybe then, text”.

The whole time it was happening I definitely thought of THIS hilarious youtube video from WhatUpMoms.

I’m excited.  To add to that excitement I got Penny home and in bed for her nap at noon and she’s still sleeping (at 1:41).  Woot!  I’m killin this Friday!  All my mama’s say “Haaaaaaaaaaay!”.  Hope you all have a great weekend and step out of your comfort zone a little to get yourselves some mom friends!

We are mosly moved in, with the exception of things on the walls, and loose ends here and there.  I still dont really feel like we moved.  It just sort of feels like we’re just staying somewhere for a little bit…but with all of our stuff.  I cannot believe it has already almost been a month.

So far I really love where we live.  We have more space than I know what to do with, but I’m excited to get things organized and make everything feel more and more homey.  Penny is sleeping great, but her naps are TOUGH.  She’s been crashing for about 45 minutes everyday (and thats it!) which is making our days…loooooooong.  I have to admit, I’m a bit out of practice.  I went from spending about 3 – 4 hours a day with pen, to every waking moment with her.  To all my stay at home mamas…this is HARD WORK.  I do feel like everyday we find our groove a little bit more.

I was gifted an old MacBook from a dear friend and now I’m ready to get back to blogging.  I’m trying to sit and see if I can sort of restructure some things, so this space is more organized.  Since gaining my stay at home mama status, I’ve been trying to work hard at several things.  I’m cooking more, working out every day, and trying my best to get some painting in.  Some days its hard to do any of that at all, but I’m trying.  I’d like to share all of these things with you, along with sharing and maybe selling some of my art with you all.  I figure this space will be  a good place to get my feet wet before I post a shop again.

I’m also pretty far behind on my Pen posts, so I’ll make sure to catch up on those soon!

Hooray for blogging again!

I feel like it’s important to document these moments.  As much as I love this little personality that is emerging, this little girl packs a punch.  She has a will.  And she is learning how to exercise it.  Penny is a wee 1 1/2 years old, and we are knee deep in time outs.  For the most part shes pretty obedient, but in rooms with lots of people and lots of distractions its not so great.  Our days of the pacifier actually quieting our little “angel” are gone.  She’ll scream with that thing right in her mouth.  She is also reaching this stage, where she really wants to do something, but isn’t quite capable enough yet.  She gets so frustrated when she cant open something, or play with it correctly.  I sort of feel bad for her, but I’m sure she’ll get it right next week.  She’s learning like CRAZY.  Mockery is her favorite pasttime and we have officially hit the place where we may start have to watching our mouths. What an adventure this parenting thing is.  Woof.

I have seen a lot of mama bloggers, who i really enjoy, do the whole “portrait of my child each week for a year” thing…and I like it.  So i’ve decided to join the fray.  I’ve mentioned before how fast Penny is growing and changing, but I feel like this year between 1 and 2 SO MUCH happens.  I’m watching Penny become Penny, and its amazing!

I wanted to kick off this series with two of Pennys current favorites.  Her chair, and her Froggy.  She’s started saying phrases like “eer ya go” and “wa dada?”  She babbles to herself and it makes her laugh.  She loves books, animals, and is incredibly obsessed with Tinker Bell (“boogabaow”).  If you lay on the ground and say “oh no!” she will run at you and tackle you while going “RAAAAR”.  She’s just…fun.

She has her moments too…but dont we all : ).

Lovin this lady of mine.

This Saturday, actually.  Brett got a job in his hometown and we decided it would be a good move for our family for a while.  It’s a way to save money, for Brett to do what he needs to do, to have a job he wants to have, and for me to stop working full time and figure it out.

I’m starting my last week of work, and I’ve come off of a full weekend of “Good Byes” and…I’m a mess.

The thing that keeps running through my mind is…I wish I were better.  We had a small good bye party with some of our favorite humans on the planet and as I looked around at their faces I was overwhelmed.  At one point I said out loud…”This isnt making me want to leave, this is just making me wish we did this more.”

Its so easy to get caught up in life, and the amount of time we don’t have for things.  Which makes me wish, I were better.  Better at making time for the people I love most.  Sacrificing couch time and TV zone-age, for good solid relationships.  I have friends who live 5 miles away and occasionally saw each other.  It’s probably a pretty huge case of, don’t know what you got till its gone syndrome.  But, I’m feeling it.  Heavy.

As we pack up and head out for this next adventure, my biggest hope is that these plans of visits and weekend trips happen.  That life wont get too hectic in our new town, and that we’ll follow through on these plans.  I don’t want to say “we should get together!” and then never do it.  I want to follow through and shake of the flakiness of having your friends too close.  Relying on Sundays at church to get some face time in.  Blaming bed times, and long weeks for no hang outs.  I want to be intentional.  I want to be consistent.  I want to follow through.  I want to be better.

I’ll probably be updating this space more often and spending more time here.  Penny will be growing like crazy and I want to make sure I remember all of it.  I also have some big plans to build some things and paint some things and really figure out what I want to do.  I’ve always had to work full time and haven’t really had the opportunity to figure out what I want to do, or be, and I’m thankful that my husband is going to be working hard and giving me the freedom to figure that out.   I’m excited to see this blog, and hopefully creativity, develop more and I’m excited to share it all with whoever reads this business.

vivalaadventure!

I haven’t visited this space in quite some time.  My last post was on Penny turning one and shes now 14 months!  This lady, you guys!  She is crazy.

Some of my favorite new things about here are as follows:

• Any time I am holding a mug, no matter what its contents, Penny looks and says “hhhoT, hhhoT, hhhoT”.  with a hard “T”.
• When we slowly approach her, like we’re about to chase or tickle her, her defense is to fall flat on the ground and not move.  It is completely ridiculous and adorable.
• Words she uses often are “WHOA!” “Was this?” “butt”, “duuuuude”, “hhhoT” ,”nono” ,”CAT”, “GO!” ,”baBA” ,”byebye” ,”hi!”, “uh oh”, “peek-a-boo!” and of course “mama” and “dada”
• Animal noises according to Penny are:  Cow says “boooo”, Cat says “MOW”, Dog says “bow wow”, Sheep says “ba”, Elephant says “fooOOO” (complete with arm as trunk motion), Duck says “DUCK”
• This morning when I went in our room to grab my keys and purse, she followed me in and said “bye bye”. (tear.)

She really has quite the little personality and she makes me laugh…often.  There are so many things I love about her and I want to remember all these little funny quirks.  I’ll end this little post with a story from late last night or early this morning.

Penny has had a pretty rough cold for about a week and a half.  She gets these little coughing fits that wake her up in the middle of the night and she (and we) are uber frustrated about it.  She started crying out at about 1:30am last night.  I woke up and decided to just try and get her to snuggle in bed.  It should be noted that she DOES NOT snuggle.  We’ve tried.  Our bed is “play time” for her.  Its the big comfy place where the tickle monster lives, and whenever we set her on it, she giggles in anticipation.

So, I calmly went into her room and swooped her up and took her into bed with me.  I leaned back on my pillow and she suggled up in a little ball on my chest.  I was slightly uncomfortable but I didnt want to move because I didnt want to ruin it.  She stayed there for about 20 minutes.  And in that moment, I wasnt frustrated, or exhausted…I was the happiest mom in the world.  Then, she woke up and started screaming again and it took us until about 3am to get her back down.

It was just the perfect picture of parenthood to me.  It’s just crazy, and tiring, and so relentless (such is life), and then…theres this tiny moment.  It’s 2am and I have this tiny human snoring on me, and my free hand resting on my very best friend to the right to me.  And I think, this is it.  I could never sleep for the rest of my life and as long as I have these two humans at the end of the day snuggled up to me, that’s enough.  I am so incredibly exhausted this morning, and so full to the brim with gratitude.

but…lets hope she sleeps through the night tonight : ).

Our little booger turned 1.

It was a billion degrees, but Penny didn’t seem to mind.  She was 100% in her element.  People everywhere!  All in all, it was a great day celebrating our little one.  There will be a full post on the day over at Fox and Bear soon!