Trike is Short For...

Trick Bike...obviously. I myself had never made the connection.

But don't worry my ten month old connected the dots for me. 

We can learn so much from little ones. 

Sometimes I am afraid (literally) that Millie inherited SO much of her father. She is so very adventurous.

Last week I watched Millie drag a box to an end table to use it as a step stool. She's just so busy...and smart. 

I know Mom..."Be careful."

Disclaimer: Baby was not crying. She fell is slow motion. I decided to see how this was all going to work out.

She has learned to fall gracefully from pretty much any position. And can get herself out of most predicaments.

My mind is flashing back to when one of my brothers was really into trying to be a BMX rider. Ramping, jumping, no hands. Oh the bandaids and bikes we went through. Good thing we had a friend who worked in the "Sanitation Pick Up" industry. Endless supply of dumped bikes.

I think we are heading down that same road.

This time she managed to wriggle her way out without a fuss, stand her trick bike back up, scoot it a little ways, and hop right back on.

See mom, I'm fine.

Be careful baby.

Blessings!

Laundry Lady

It's Laundry Detergent day at our house! 

Excuse the drip pans. I think they are beyond cleaning-I've tried. Time for new! 

Every couple months I get my borax out, washing soda, and some other necessities and mix up a big batch of detergent. I have always made our detergent. This time I decided to try a different recipe. This is the recipe I used. It's along the same vein as what I have been making but just a bit different.

You see, every other time I've made my first recipe it turns lumpy, bumpy, and annoying. It still works but it looks nothing like how it's supposed to. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. So I had enough and went to Dr. Google. Lo and behold Wellness Mama had something that looked pretty good. I do love her blog. So I've mixed up her recipe and it's looking better than my old recipe.

I swirled it around and it's gelling up already. No bumps. No lumps. So far-not annoyed.

So laundry detergent day has come and gone again. Ahhh...the life of a housewife. Do you make your own laundry detergent?

Blessings!

10 Months of Millie

We have hit double digits! Seems like I just sat down to write the monthly Millie post but thats what the holidays do-speeeed everything up. Like always this month has been busy, busy. 

This month Millie has become a fashion icon and innovator. Momma's shorts turned baby infinity scarf. The girl is going places. 

We had opportunity to use the swing still earlier in the month. Now not so much...

We have trekked to quite a few basketball games donning our orange and black. Go Uncle Evan!

When she isn't at Basketball games or creating new fashion trends, Millie loves to eat her toes.

She's also taking modeling lessons from her dad. I call this "Blue Steel." Name that movie.

Then of course we had Christmas where Millie had so much fun and received so many nice things!

Like this really cool trike! Girlfriend just sat up there like she was born to do this.

Then we got all dolled up for Christmas Eve. My mom made her dress, I made the hair bow, Millie made the outfit. Look at her "ankles". Love my squishy baby. 

I dreamed of a classic picture in front of the Christmas Tree on Christmas. Millie had other ideas...so did Jerrel's hair.

 Presents! We need to open presents guys! No time for pictures. Millie loved floating from person to person, seeing what they were opening tearing up the paper and moving on.

There's a nice picture with Momma! I found her jammies at the Thrift Store for $0.25. Hardly worn-of course. I figured they were worth the photo opt! She wore them all week I think.

Then we had our own little family Christmas. Millie was quite pleased with her new blocks and push toy.

So another month has flown by and I'll admit that I'm starting to plan her first birthday. Reluctantly yet excitedly. We had a month of learning to shake our head "no", blowing kisses, playing with new toys, giving Chester said toys, moving and then uses boxes has step stools, showing us her tongue on command, new teeth, playing shy, and so much more. It's a joy and an honor to be her Momma. 

Here's our girl from 9 to 10 months. Is it just me or has she grown? 

10 months going on 10 years.

Happy 10 Months Millie Girl!

Blessings!

New Year

I've never been a "New Year's Resolutions" type of person. Always seemed to me that the same people were making the same resolutions every year. The same weight loss companies produce the same commercials. The same organization tips surface. Come February everyone is eating the candy and not using the planners anyway. I just couldn't seem to get why people couldn't get their stuff together. 

I promise I'm not always so cynical. 

But this year, I've decided to make a couple changes, vows, or yes...resolutions. 

The first is to read more. More specifically-read more books, to myself and to Millie. I have gotten a lot of recliner time as a milk maid and I have slipped into the bad habit of wasting time online or on Netfilx. Generally I am reading something online. But I miss books. The smell, the sound of the pages, getting totally lost in a story and anticipating the next time I can sit down to read. I used to loose hours in a good book. I'd settle for loosing 20 minutes in this day and age. 

The reading more to Millie bit? I've already figured out my trick. Bath and Book time. She plays, splashes, and glances now and again at the book. I have a captive audience, she isn't trying to tear or eat the pages and she isn't trying to wrestle with me or running off to terrorize Chester. So far it's working. 

The next is to write more. The last two months have been nuts. I had a writing dry spell. I suppose with something that is creative-like writing is for me-the ebb and flow is normal. However, I didn't like it. So I'm going to try to make time to write more often. Even if I don't publish the piece. 

Finally I want to keep my closet clean and organized. Does this one make me sound like a child? Overall I feel like a better human when I have a clean closet. I can see what I have. What I don't wear, what I want to wear. My time is used more efficiently when my closet is easy to use. Keeping my closet clean snowballs into a whole other issue; I must become more discerning about what comes in, more practical about what stays and harsher on what goes. Right now I have about 7 shirts I want to keep but I don't have enough hangers for them...so something is going to have to give because I'm not buying more hangers. It's part of the process of keeping my closet from going to the dark side.

So if you have tips, suggestions, tricks, have your own resolutions, or want to join me, I'm listening! I'd love hearing from you!

Here's to my three year-long goals. 

Blessings! 

The Year of 2014

When I entered 2014 I was growing, carrying, and a little bit scared of the tiny, sweet, being inside of me. I remember thinking "So how is this all going to work?" And I meant ALL of it. 

We were waiting, we were excited, we had no clue. 

No clue of the growth that was to come, the love that was about to wash over us. The sleep we were about to miss, the laughs we were about to share.

But then she came. She meaning Millie, of course.

All 8 lbs. 5 oz of her. Wide eyed and bushy tailed. Ready to take on the world. And like everyone does we jumped in. There is no just sticking your toes in, in this parenting business. You are either in or you are out.

The year of 2014 is Our Year of Millie. 

She is sassy, spunky, smiley, sociable and adventurous. 

And she is the sauce boss. Clearly. 

We've taken pictures, went on trips, given hugs and kisses, said no, said sorry, played with toys, changed diapers, and loved Our Year of Millie.

While we still have about 2 months until the official year mark of meeting Millie I can't help but be a little emotional about the change of year...you know how I am with change. But if I just think about how incredible 2014 was to us I can't help but be a little curious of 2015.

So in not too long the clock with strike 12 midnight. The year will change. We will ring it in in our jammies cuddling our girl.

The girl who made our year.

Happy New Year to you and yours from us and ours!

Blessings!

A Daddy's Birthday

Today's a special day at our house. It's a Daddy's birthday. 

The man that I married. The man I parent with. The man that probably cooks more dinners than I.Yet is clueless on how to pack his lunch for work. The man that is endlessly patient. Endlessly kind. The man that is quiet and reserved. The man that provides and protects. 

The man that knits, that can fix a leaky faucet, who can take your blood pressure, and do some other gross nurse things.

I couldn't ask for a better man to parent Millie. I couldn't think of a better man to share a home and last name.

To my forever favorite-Happy Birthday Jerrel. We love you, we respect you, we can't wait to spend the day with you-celebrating all the wonderful things that make you-YOU!

Blessings!

9 Months of Millie

As I was getting the pictures together for the chronicle of Millie from the last month I found not as many pictures. Not sure why, could be that I'm busy chasing her around or the already hectic holiday season. Either way a short post ensues and so here we go! 

Millie and I keep pretty busy during the day. I dust, she dusts, I do laundry, she does laundry, She plays, I play. She naps...

I uhh, REJOICE! These shots came one morning about 9 am. Millie had been up and playing with me in bed but then laid down (on a clean diaper) a fell back a sleep. So sweet. 

So I tried to take advantage of the time a wrote a story. But you know who woke up after 30mins a wanted to help. 

Of course you can help baby doll. 

Told you last month that girlfriend would be walking by the end of the month a I was right. She took her first step on the 3rd of November but really "walked" on the 11th and she hasn't stopped working at it since. She can now stand up without pulling up on something and over the weekend she climbed a flight of stairs (with a spotter). She's just such a go getter. 

But sometimes we make the choice to crawl. It's simply more efficient still. 

Seeing your baby do things for the first time is always a mind blowing event. One moment they can't and the next the can. Literally.

We also decided to wave and clap this month. Our wave is quite regal and the clap is darling.

Millie also started to show interest in table food. I had alway had an "exclusively breastfed for a year" goal but she showed an interest and so we are just barely touching on babyled weaning. She doesn't eat much-that may be because she nurses before each meal-hey it's just timing...or it's part of my diabolical plan to make sure I nurse her as.long.as.possible.

Anyway she's eating a little bit of table food and enjoying experiencing it. For those of you that don't know about babyled weaning it's different than purees and spoons.

This is one of the meals we had and the little bit we offered Millie. She loved the meat and figured out how to get the raspberry on her finger and eat it that way. So much fun watching her.

I'm a firm believer in "Food before one is just for fun." She doesn't need it-the breastmilk has all she needs but meal time is a social and tactile experience for her so we enjoy including her even if she works over a single sliver of venison for the meal ...Nature's chew toy. She's having fun and I'm cleaning up messes!

Millie is catching on to social cues. She mimics coughs or sneezes and laughs when others laugh. I know I'm biased but our girl is mighty intelligent. 

The fourth this time around was a bit hard. I've had her in my arms as long as I carried her in my womb. When you have a baby and you get clothes for 6 months or 9 months down the road you think, "Oh that'll be forever till they fit in that." But it's not it's next week or tomorrow-depending on the day. 

It just goes fast. Way fast.

Here we are from 8 months to 9 months. 

So I leave you with 2 more pictures of our toe headed, walky, talky, sweet, spunky, smart girl. 

Kiss your babies. For they will always be yours but not always actual babies. 

Happy nine months Millie we are so grateful for you! 

Blessings!