Girls day!

Today I did little housework. I fought back the urge to go through the spare bedroom and rid it of anything not needed and sort through that mountain of paperwork from the past month. Instead I spent the time playing patty cake and singing toddler tunes. I took her to BabyGap and she pointed out (and pulled down) all the pretty clothes that she liked. She always knows when we are shopping for her. I can't figure out how she knows. When I walk into my department she immediately is a disobedient shopper. Customers and employees talked to her and made her feel like the center of attention. We snuggled up fora  nap together which mommy needed just as much as she did. I adore the days when I kiss my cares away and just enjoy the company of God's beautiful creation. I know she will grow up so quickly and I don't want to look back and say to myself that I should have enjoyed the moments far greater than I did. It's days like these that your heart feels warm. The sun shining in the window seems brighter and your shoulders feel less burden. Her only worry right now is getting the object thats out of reach. She lacks patience and determination. Something that I might not notice if I were too caught up on the household tasks. I painted her nails for the first time today. I did manage to get most of it on her nails and little on myself. I consider that a huge accomplishment. She seems so much happier when I take the time to listen to all her stories and make her giggle at my funny faces. So precious is a life that you helped create.

On another note, yesterday I spent the day labor ridden. I painted up the stairs and in the loft area. An area that I thought would only take me a few hours turned into most of my day. Out with the yellow paint!! Savannah showed me yesterday that a tension gate will not work at the top of the stairs. I thought it was pretty tight. Well at least as tight as I could get it. She eventually rolled over there and kicked it down as my back was turned. My heart jumped only to see the baby gate laying in two pieces at the bottom and a little Savannah smiling from ear to ear kicking her legs at the top of the steps. Baby gate attempt #1 failed so we will have to invest in something a little more powerful. :)

Were Here Part 2

After many hours of unwrapping and unpacking and organizing,  I feel the end is finally getting near. I can finally hit the stores and fill in the gaps with things that I need at this place to make it a home. Such as the kitchen is smaller than what we had. (I know hard to believe) Ok maybe its not smaller, just I didn't design it and they didn't use the cupboard/drawer space efficiently. This has "forced" me to go to Bed Bath and Beyond to search for organizers in order to fit everything (well at least the necessity items) in our kitchen. Believe me I have plenty of overspill.

When the boxes started to arrive here on Thursday I have to say, I have never seen so much cardboard and PAPER. Oh my goodness, the amount of paper they used. I think I killed one tree with just the amount of paper they used to wrap all my stuff. I've been told that they need to use that much paper so stuff won't break. Well I have to say that it worked. Only one thing has been broken and its replaceable.

My painting is yet to be completed. I think if we didn't have Netflix and if I didn't all of a sudden get addicted to a series on there, I would be a lot farther than I am. Oh and also if I didn't have to take care of a 10 month old. Moving is completely different with a child. Not looking forward to doing it the next time. I kept thinking that when I was unpacking all our stuff. This is only temporary and we WILL be moving again in 6-12 months.

After all the commotion of a move and unpacking, Savannah turned 10 months old. I woke up that morning realizing that now would be the time to start thinking about her 1st birthday. It didn't take me long to realize for the first time since knowing about the relocation that this never occurred to me. I couldn't throw the party I had been thinking about since she was born. I had to think of a new dream. But before coming up with a new dream, I had to throw myself a little pity party. I think that I deserved to be able to throw myself a little pity party. I have given up a lot this past year and Jeff has acknowledged it over and over. He has been very grateful for me not complaining about some of the sacrifices that came with flipping a house and going down to a one car. I feel like the benefits for all that sacrificing are just starting to play out. We now have a savings account again and no credit card debt! We have 2 cars! There is so many great things that this move has brought to us. So many opportunities and blessings. There is always a few thorns though. Being hours away from my family and friends. Not being able to celebrate Savannah's birthday with a big group of family members. But I know when we move back to the MN area in the future we will have big birthday parties. Right now it will probably just be the 3 of us plus any friends we make along the way.

We're Here Part 1

I have been anxiously awaiting to get Internet back so that I could fill everyone in on some details about our move. The packers coming was a little, umm, overwhelming to say the least. Trying to keep an eye on 3 people plus a child was challenging. I did end up forgetting a few things such as a coat for Savannah. Oops. She got a new spring coat out of the deal though. The drive went way better than either one of us anticipated. Taking it a couple hours at a time proved to be very effective. Savannah got a good fill of Baby Einstein from the back seat and also got a lot of good naps in since hotels are not a place for babies to have a good nights sleep nor mommy's. Besides the waking up every 2 hours in the hotel room, I couldn't have asked for a better transition.

Our family is becoming well acclimated with our surroundings. I thoroughly know my way to and from Target. I have spent a small fortune there replacing all the things that had to be thrown away because the moving company would not pack them. I finally got to buy Savannah her Shabby Chic curtains that I have been eyeing up. I can hardly wait for the curtain rods that are on the semi so I can hang them up tomorrow. Savannah is starting to get adjusted to living here too. She's not quite as fussy as she was initially and she is back to waking up only once at night. Aww, routine. It's times like these when you really start to appreciate routines. I think tomorrow will be like Christmas for Savannah. She will get all her toys back and especially her crib. I'm thinking a full nights sleep is ahead of myself. :) I will for once have a place to sit besides the floor to eat or just relax.

If it wasn't for all the painting I did today, I would have a hard time sleeping due to all the excitement but I'm exhausted. Exhaustion is far more powerful than my excitement right now. Will post more once I have some more energy.

There's no 2 alike

I think one of the best things in life is getting married. Your husband will challenge you and teach you so many new things about yourself. I've learned to save more than I would have if I wouldn't have gotten married. It's so much fun learning about the differences you have at times. The way you think about something can be totally different than the way they see things.

So far this has been the best 9 months raising a child together. The way I would take care of Savannah is different than he would. I could go into lots of detail about such stories but I just wanted to share one that made me laugh so hard this past week. Jeff was trying to tell me that we could save money by potty training Savannah. In his mind, she's ready. (There's all kinds of laughter in my head as he says this) I told him if he really thinks shes ready that he can work on it this past weekend. He thinks its no big deal. You just have to watch for her "pooping face" and put her on the potty. (Like I have nothing else to do with my day besides watch my child's face for the "pooping face." So Saturday 8am came and Savannah started filling her diaper. I looked at him and said ok now you need to get her pants, onesie, and diaper off before she poops. Ready, set, go. (Big smirk) His excuse was she didn't have a potty her size. I just told him to hold her over the toilet. He thought that I was ridiculous for suggesting such a thing. Needless to say, there wasn't one clean diaper and not one attempt to get her to the potty. Do you think I have taught him its not possible yet?

Another page to turn, a new adventure ahead

Tomorrow will be our last week in the house. Wow where did the time go? When Jeff first came home and told me where we were going and when we were moving it seemed like a long time away. Now its within reach. In another week we will leave the place we have called home for 15 months. The place that we fought and made up, learned so much from each other, and brought our first child home. As much as I'm excited to see what else lies ahead for us in the future, its a little sad to leave this place. I won't ever get to see Savannah take her first steps here or for that fact even crawl. I won't get to see the bulbs, that I so diligently planted when I was 8 1/2 months pregnant, blossom. We will be off to make new memories at our new place. I hope this job brings the happiness that Jeff is looking for. I know I've said that before, but that is my true hearts desire. I knew the guy he was in college and I have longed to see that spirit in him again. That was of course the man I fell in love with.

I'm also very excited for the person that will be living in our house. I hope that she will be grateful for the beautiful backyard and of course my flowers. I hope that she will appreciate all the hard work that we put into the house and that it all goes well for her in the house.

So next week we are off to our next chapter in life. I hope this one is just as good as the last one was.

Ruffles, Frustration, and Determination

I set out yesterday afternoon with a sleeping baby. I held off her morning nap in order to get her to take a longer one in the afternoon so that I could sew more on her ruffle blanket. As I sat down at my sewing machine and started sewing, I soon realized the machine I had left working yesterday was all of a sudden all out of adjustment on tension. I fiddled around with the tension. Nothing. Rethreaded the machine. Nothing. Turned the machine off and back on. Nothing. Ok lets rethread again. Still nothing seemed to work. I still was getting the tangled thread look on the back of whatever I sewed. I seriously spent 2 hours working on this. Savannah was now up. I decided to throw in a movie for her to buy me some time and also give her a snack.

Yes there is a big pile of snacks on the floor but I didn't care. I will vacuum later. My sewing machine still isn't working. Now its been 4 hours and Jeff is home. I begged for him to do something to fix it. I was in no mood to talk and my frustration was growing by the hour. He kept asking if there was something he did because I was in a bad mood which just made me more frustrated. He should know better I was thinking. :) Today Jeff finally took it apart. There was a small ball of thread against the tension that was throwing it off. Today I spent the day working on her blanket. It didn't turn exactly like I wanted it to but I am proud of it because I know how long it took for me to make it and all the hard work I put into it. I will cry the first time Savannah spills something on it or worse throws up on it. It's cute enough to be fit for a princess right now though. 

A mother's struggle

First off I want to apologize to my friend Jorgen. I try so hard not to write too many blogs about my mommy lifestyle now but this is whats really been on my mind. I hope you can put up with me for a little bit Jorgen :)

Savannah's doctor appointment went extremely well on Tuesday. Doctor said that she is teething on top and bottom but everything else appears to be in perfect health. She tipped the scales again this appointment with everything being at the 95+ percentile. I myself am disappointed that she is not crawling. She has no problem getting herself around places by scooting or rolling. She also has just learned how to take steps as I'm holding onto her. She sometimes tries to shake my hand away so she can dance but quickly realizes that she isn't that good yet. I feel saddened when I hear about another little baby that is crawling or reaching those milestones that I want her to reach so badly. I try to convince myself that its a good thing she's not crawling all over yet. But its kind of like when your in the last stretch of pregnancy and everyone is going into labor except you. You know its eventually going to happen for you but you can't help feeling sorry for yourself. I should know better than to fall into this trap. I think we may be doing some hardcore crawling practice this weekend. Time to build up some more muscles. I think personally that daddy is looking more forward to her crawling so he can chase her around than I am.

I have been working diligently on her ruffly comforter today. I'm giving myself until we get packed up to get it done. I don't want pieces of material packed away. So far I am very proud of how it's turning out. There is some things that I will do differently next time but not too shabby for first time around. You gotta start somewhere.