Family Trip to Austin, TX

I sorted through the pictures from our trip to Austin. Unfortunately we didn't get many pictures out exploring the town or the hotel. I'm sure those of you with a baby know that it's enough to manipulate a baby and all the gear without trying to also take pictures. But we did get some good ones that give a bit of the flavor of the trip. So here goes...

For the full album in Picasa click here.

Sleeping on the plane ride there:


Pro plane rider!


Cute amenities in the crib:


Surprise anniversary flowers from DH (he also gave me a spa day with an in-room babysitter for the LO):


Room service works pretty well when you are traveling with a baby:


Coordinating mommy baby cover ups:


First time in the pool:


Dressed for a big night out:


Favorite hotel room activity, looking out the window:


On the way home... pwned it!


So some of my thoughts on the trip are:

• Traveling with a baby is not as bad as I thought it would be. In fact, it was pretty simple. The toughest part was having to pump.
• We got by without a stroller. This actually helped a lot. I was able to carry the LO in the Ergo carrier, use our backpack diaper bag (this thing rocked) and also carry a shoulder bag and roll my suitcase. We did check the suitcase but I was able to easily carry the baby and two bags on and off the plane. Also we were able to borrow a stroller from the hotel so that's worth checking into.
• There was less food available for the LO than I would have thought. She was picky about yogurt (she eats the Greek kind at home and they didn't have it) and it was tough to find stuff she could eat. I wish I would have brought a better variety of baby food. I brought the plum organics stuff because the packaging is nice for travel but it's definitely not her favorite. She ate more milk to compensate so the pumping was helpful there.
• We almost didn't make the plane on the way there. We had some snags with my ticket checking in that we didn't plan for and it also took them a while to scan my bottles of breast milk. They had to put each bottle through this machine so that was a drag. The Austin airport had a much better system for this but if you're bringing milk/juice through LAX, be prepared to wait.
• We didn't get evil looks from anyone bringing the LO on the plane. I was surprised about that. But she is so good-natured, she didn't cry once. She just played happily or slept. 
• The Gerber puffs came in handy more than once. They were very entertaining.

I am going to post my packing list in a separate post because I felt that we were very prepared for anything that came up.

We had  a great time and are looking forward to the holiday weekend. We're going to visit Lola tomorrow so that will be fun. Perhaps more time in the pool!

We're Back!

Hello there! Did you miss me while I was gone?

We had a great trip to Austin; took a bunch of pictures but have to upload them so I'll get working on that. I think I'll summarize the trip with the pictures so y'all are just going to have to wait to see how it was. But in general it all went really well and I'm so proud of the LO. We only lost one shoe. It was a favorite shoe but I think that's pretty good.

OK, well I will post more soon!

On Children

Last night my good friend came over for a glass of wine while our husbands enjoyed some time out at the bar. She has a 2 month old daughter so of course we pretty much talked about babies the whole time. I can't even remember what I talked about before the LO! It's a good thing I work because it forces me to change gears from baby brain for a bit.

One of the more interesting baby things we discussed was how we both have noticed that these little people are born with their personalities intact. The Reggio philosophy calls them "born citizens" and I really believe that. My friend was saying that when she was pregnant she envisioned molding this little person but then her daughter was born and she arrived with her own preferences and personality. I found this to be true with my daughter as well. She is calmly determined, curious and full of joie d'vivre.

I was introduced to this poem by the Lebanese-American poet Kahil Gibran through a post at Girl's Gone Child.  It really resonated with me, it is so beautiful and it helped me to contemplate my role in motherhood. Enjoy it.

    On Children
     Kahlil Gibran

    Your children are not your children.
    They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
    They come through you but not from you,
    And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

    You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
    For they have their own thoughts.
    You may house their bodies but not their souls,
    For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
    which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
    You may strive to be like them,
    but seek not to make them like you.
    For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

    You are the bows from which your children
    as living arrows are sent forth.
    The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
    and He bends you with His might
    that His arrows may go swift and far.
    Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
    For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
    so He loves also the bow that is stable.

A Little Fever

Yesterday my mom came out to visit with the LO. It was lucky she did because when I picked her up from school at noon she felt a little hot. My mom kept an eye on her but when I got home from work she still felt hot so we took her temperature. Up until yesterday I'd been taking her temperature under the arm. However, it looked like she had a fever so we thought we should use the rectal thermometer just to be sure. I was pretty worried about her reaction to it but it was really easy - much easier than trying to hold her arm down to wait for the underarm reading. So yeah, I recommend it.

She did have a little fever but nothing our baby book said to call the doctor about. We gave her Tylenol to bring down the fever and just watched her to see how things developed. The fever went down and this morning she was all better. I think there has been a little virus going around because I heard one of teachers calling another parent last week saying that their kid needed to stay home because of a fever. I am glad the LO is okay. That was our first experience with her having a fever. All in all it was not too scary.

We were lucky that my mom stayed the night and we kept the LO home today as well. DH is home too because my mom needs to leave after lunch. I would have stayed home with her but I've taken a lot of days off with her recently because of her cold and then the rash scare. So it was nice to have others cover for me.

Party With Our Birth Class Friends

On Saturday we had another get together with the friends we made during our birth class. It's so great to hang out with these folks - always a wonderful time. Here are a few pictures...

Simple Pleasures

Today the LO took her first ride on her rocking hippo. She had a great time...







And yes, she's just wearing a t-shirt and diapers. Usually she wears more clothes but I had just done a fashion show with her different bathing suits/bikinis. Had to decide if we were good for next week's trip or if I needed to pick something up. Amazingly, the 2T bathing suit I bought for our trip in August actually fits okay. It's a little big but I think it will work. Have a couple other things that will work too. Too much fun.

We're Going on a Trip!

OMG - DH just called me that he's going to a conference for work next week and staying at the Four Seasons in Austin. He asked if me and the LO would want to go with! I checked with my boss and he said to go so we are going to do it! I can't believe it. I'm nervous about putting the LO on a plane and all that but it's only a 3 hour flight so hopefully it will be okay.

Hello! Free stay at the Four Seasons! This does not suck!

We are going on vacation!!! I really hope the new clothes I ordered show up this week!

Our Big Girl: Update from the GP

Good Morning . I have attached images of [LO] sitting in her chair in the kitchen. [LO] adjusted just fine into this space and she had no hesitation jumping right into eat. Sitting at the table is a nice way for [LO] to gain more fine motor skills as she can practice her pincer and palmer grasp more freely. It also supports the social aspect as it encourages the children to connect with each other. I hope you have a wonderful day.










It's so cute now that she's eating at the table! As you can see they feed the kids family style for snacks. The parents are responsible for bringing in lunch food but they feed 2 snacks a day - morning and afternoon. It's always something really healthy.

Another cool thing they do is start the smallest kids out with the largest table so that they can't grab anyone else's food. This way they learn table manners. They eventually move them to a smaller table and even give them real flatware - just miniature sized.

Our LO is getting to be such a big girl!

Weekends Are SO Different Now

Back when DH and I were dating, engaged, first married... weekends were such a different animal than they are now. In fact, the weekend unofficially started on Thursday - we'd often go out to eat and have drinks, knowing that Friday is an easy day to make it through at work.

On Friday afternoons we'd both eventually make it home from work and start right in on cocktail hour ... yeah! Then we'd get dressed up in different outfits, touch ourselves up (sometimes I'd even do a whole shower! full hair!) and go out to dinner. We'd go somewhere fun and have appetizers, dinner and sometimes dessert. Yes, there were Fridays where we'd just eat at home but it was rare. We'd go to bed late and sleep in late, having the whole weekend stretching ahead of us to do whatever we wanted. We'd often go to the farmer's market and pick out delightful things to cook for the rest of the week, hit up Trader Joe's, just do whatever whim we felt like. Getty Museum, drive on PCH, whatever.

Now Friday afternoons look a lot like every other day. I go and pick the LO up from school, and we come home and do our same routine... dinner, books, bath, bed. Then DH and I eat our own dinner (maybe with more wine than usual) and are usually in bed by 9:00 pm. We don't even watch a movie anymore because we doubt our abilities to stay up that late; a little bit of reading and then crash. Because guess what - the LO doesn't know the difference between Saturday morning and any other morning. She gets up at 6:00 every day. (If we're lucky, and we have been for over a week.)

Sometimes I miss our old carefree life. We will never have it back, not even for a second. We are having a date night next Saturday, I've hired a sitter. But we'll still do the whole routine with the LO and put her to bed. Then we'll go out while we pay someone $15/hr (okay $16) to watch our television. But it will be nice to get a little dressed up and be able to linger over a delicious meal. I get a whole week to ponder where we should go eat! I'm leaning towards Anisette because we can walk there and also be able to cruise around on the Promenade after if we feel like it.

My friends without kids wonder how they will make the adjustment. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I guess we could try to drag the LO out to restaurants more but it's just not worth it for me. She's so happy at home playing with her toys (okay mostly this water bottle and a shoe box) and being able to crawl around. Plus DH has become such a great cook that I don't feel I'm missing out on delicious cuisine.

Anyway, it's just interesting to me how different the weekends are now. But one thing that they are definitely filled with is tons more LOVE and LAUGHTER. You just can't imagine how much joy a baby brings into your life. She is just such a love bug I want to kiss her every single second. It's a trade-off for sure but one I would gladly make again if I could go back in time. (Sure, you're thinking, of COURSE she would say that she'd make the decision again, it would be a cold, cold person who'd admit they didn't want their own kids.) But really, I mean it. I would absolutely make this choice again, even with all the changes it's brought. They are profound changes but happy ones.

BTW, Janet Lansbury's post today is so great. Totally the type of parenting I aspire to. Check it out.

And have a great weekend, whatever it brings for you.

Little Miss Eater

I'm sure it won't come to a surprise to anyone, but the LO is quite the foodie. I have been giving her lots of new foods to try and she's been doing really well with them. She's finally gotten to the point where I can give her food to eat with her hands and she won't stuff it all into her mouth too fast and choke on it. Some of the things she's tried are pita, hummus, string cheese, Greek yogurt (basically any yogurt), raisin bread, Kix, banana, peas, corn, melon, tangerines etc.

Yesterday I actually fed her leftovers from our dinner from the night before. DH had made a corn dish with red onion, bell pepper, jalapeno(!), cilantro and BBQ tofu. She really enjoyed the tofu. She's getting better at chewing and swallowing but sometimes she holds the food in her mouth for a while. In fact she still had one little piece of tofu in her mouth when DH got home like 1/2 hour after dinner. He asked "um, what's in her mouth?" It was funny.

I think I'm going to try to give her more and more real food and start moving away from the baby food. The thing is, the stage 3 baby foods, the type with more than just veggies and fruits, are kind of gross. I try all the food I give her and I don't like that stuff. I guess babies can eat more bland foods than adults but I don't know, the LO sure liked the corn dish that was quite flavorful. So now I'm asking DH to remember to portion off a little of our dinner every day to feed to her the next day. Of course not everything will be appropriate for her but we're just starting out, little by little.

Her rash is doing so much better. It was just awful for a while there but it is almost gone. She's been chewing her hand a bit lately and a little fussy so she MIGHT be teething but every time I think we might get another tooth or two it turns out to be nothing. So we'll see.

This weekend we have two fun things to do. Saturday is another birth class reunion party (fun!) and on Sunday we're having some friends and their two girls over. Looking forward to that.

Well, that's all I've got!

Baby Proofing Information

Hello Everyone - I got a question from a friend about Baby Proofing. I thought I'd post the answers here and then also update the FAQ page. Definitely useful information to have.

We had Family First come in and do most of our baby proofing. They are quick and I found their prices to be very reasonable. They charged us the same prices as Amazon.com for most items. Also they bring an installer with them and just get everything done in one visit and very quickly.

Here are the things we purchased from Family First:

• A small pressure gate. This one is moveable and I use it every day.
• A gate to block off our two stairs and keep the LO in one area of the house.
• Outlet covers. These are much more useful then the plastic plugs that go in each outlet although we have some of those too.
• Cabinet locks. It's worth it to buy the nicer spring-loaded cabinet locks especially on cabinets you use frequently.
• Foam thing that stops the door from slamming shut on little fingers. I wish I had bought a couple more of these. 
• Door jamb stopper. This replaced a rusty old door jamb stopper - I wouldn't have even noticed this but don't you know it was one of the first things the LO started crawling to in her room.
•  Toilet lock. At first I thought these were silly but then I just felt so paranoid about toilet drowning I had to get it. I can't say we need it yet because I keep her out of the bathrooms by way of the other gates but maybe eventually it will come in handy.

We also purchased this gate on our own.  We had a large area to fence off (where the TV and computer are) and this gate worked really well. It can also be used as a play pen. The wood looks really nice.

For pictures of our initial baby proof work see this post. I've since rearranged a few things but it's basically the same.

OK - keep the questions coming! All very good for the FAQ page!

Mother's Day

I had planned to sleep in a bit on Mother's Day - well, as much as I could before I had to pump. (Arg pumping! I can't wait until I am done with you!) Instead, DH came in to the bedroom with the LO, concerned. She started getting a little rash on Saturday afternoon and on Sunday it was worse. Poor little thing, it was all over her chest and stomach. I was up anyway so I just started my day. Sleeping in until 6:00 am is pretty good anyway.

DH was sweet and went and got flowers and champagne for a little Mother's Day celebration. He wanted to make a big fancy breakfast but I wasn't feeling it because I wanted to focus on lunch. Our plans for the day were to have a picnic with the LO but with her rash the way it was, I thought it was best to keep her out of the sun. So we all went grocery shopping and bought things to have a nice picnic - in the house. DH and I ate a great lunch while the LO took her afternoon nap. It was a nice relaxing day. We did the camo jacket photo shoot and just hung around at home.

Like my friend Janice, I am not big on gifts. DH knows not to even ask anymore. We just don't exchange gifts, even for our birthdays or for Christmas. We prefer to do nice things together. My sister and I did get gifts for my mother and grandmother - because I can't assume that everyone likes living gift-free like me. I love it though - no need to keep buying endless things.

It was a great first Mother's Day - DH was awesome and helpful all day. It was nice to just be together as a family and relax, especially since DH has been traveling so much lately.

On Monday, the rash got even worse so I stayed home from work to take the LO to the doctor. Turns out it was as I suspected, an allergic reaction. I have my theory as to what caused it. When our housekeeper came on Thursday we were out of dryer sheets. She bought some more but she bought the outdoor-scented ones instead of the dye and fragrance free stuff that I usually get. So the LO's clothes were saturated with dryer sheet perfume. Well Saturday was a beautiful day and DH took the LO out for a long walk - I think that being out in the sun with her newly fragrant clothing just was too much for her sensitive skin. Poor little thing - the rash was awful. Luckily she wasn't scratching it. Our pediatrician recommended Benadryl - 1/2 tsp every 6 hours. She looks better today and I skipped on the Benadryl because I didn't want to make her groggy again. She still has the rash but it looks like it is going away. Bummer though.

I do have a funny little story from the rash incident. On Sunday night I wanted to soak the LO in Aveeno oatmeal bath. However, she is so into kneeling and standing now that when I put her in the bath it's mostly just her legs that stay wet because she's up holding on to the side of her little tub the whole time. So I filled our big tub with the oatmeal bath and got in there with her so that I could keep more of her skin submerged. Well, this is only the second time we've ever taken a bath together so she's not used to mommy being naked. She was very interested in my nipples - she probably doesn't remember breast feeding since I stopped at 2 months and went to all pumping. So while I am trying to soak her in the oatmeal bath, she is trying to pull and twist my nipples off. Not very pleasant. Next time I soak with her in the bath you can bet I'll wear a bikini top for protection! Ouch!

Mother's Day Photo Shoot

Yes, I have realized my matching outfit dream. It is as awesome as I'd hoped.

Also, it seems that we need some better lighting. We've had trouble with the photos being dark. So that's the next thing I'm going to look into.

Hey Ho - DH Here.

Happy mothers day MAMA.  It's so amazing to celebrate your first mothers day.  I look at LO, especially after having been on a couple of overseas trips this last month, and I see an eager 8.5 month old girl.

Now she is

• Crawling to explore, escape, and discover
• Standing, while holding on to safetly fences, couches and my knees
• Manipulating objects with her hands, small things with her fingers, edible and not with her mouth
• Talking in Squeeks, in calls, and her own little syllables
• Sometimes Falling, banging her head, landing on her bottom as aimed,  always getting right back to it.

I know why she is so successful.  She has her MAMAs determination, intelligence, and her MAMAs love has left her with the confidence to thrive.

Happy MAMAs day MAMA.

-DH

I am a Working Mom in the City - Part 2

Every morning, I get to play with my daughter and get her ready for the day. My mornings are filled with babble and laughter. I love picking her outfit and getting her prepared for her adventures.

She goes to school where she experiments with new things and plays with friends.
I go to work and see my own friends and stretch my brain (most days anyway).
I am proud of my contribution to our household.

I am so excited when it's finally time to go and get my girl.
She is always happy to see me too!

When we get home we have time for more play, dinner, books, bath then bed.
Each day it seems like she does something new.
Rolling turns to crawling turns to pulling up...some day will turn to walking.
Lord help us!

She is such a happy, curious soul.

The weekend rolls around and we have two whole days to enjoy ourselves and our surroundings. Sometimes I take extra days off work to prolong it.

When the week starts again we're back to our routines.
Of course there are difficult days.
On the whole?
It works pretty well for us.

Original Post

A Whole Night's Sleep

Well, the LO really did it last night - she slept the whole night through. Granted she woke up at 5:15 but I'm okay with that. I think she'll eventually make it longer in the morning. I put her to bed at 7:00 and she didn't cry but she didn't go right to sleep either. She kind of played and talked to herself until about 7:15 or so. But then she slept and slept. At some point I heard her coughing over the monitor - I think around midnight - but she didn't cry and she just went back to sleep.

I can't believe it!

Of course, I doubt she'll ALWAYS sleep all night from now on, but the fact that she did it at all is great. I feel like we're really making progress. Even waking up before 6 is manageable when you sleep all night long.

In fact, I was so chipper and organized this morning that I had us both all ready to go and it was only 7:20! I don't leave the house until at least 7:45 because I don't want her to get to school before 8:00 even though it's open at 7:30. So we had some extra time to play today. Lots of people told me that it gets easier and I really think it does. You get more used to the routine and getting a longer stretch of sleep is so helpful. Taking 2 days off this week is also helpful!

My sister is coming to visit tomorrow so I'm excited about that. They are having a mother's picnic on Friday afternoon at school so we'll go together to that. Just a nice time to play and relax. DH comes home on Friday too! I talked to him today and he's doing well but wants to come home. He misses me and he REALLY misses the LO. I can't imagine being away from her for over a week. I don't know what I would do.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

I've Crossed Over

Well, one thing about being a parent is that it's full of twists and turns, you never know what's going to work until you've tried it.

Before the LO was born, I was all about sleep training. I couldn't wait for her to turn 4 months old so I could start doing it. But then she got here and I just couldn't do it. I had her in bed with me for a month, then in her crib right next to our bed for another month. Once I moved her crib into the nursery, I pretty much just woke up when she cried and fed her - or DH would feed her. Often we would take turns. We would feed her and change her diaper, then hold her until she went back to sleep.

This worked out pretty well for a long time. We felt that she was making progress and sleeping longer and longer stretches. Then some time around 8 months it just started falling apart. I don't know what happened. She was starting to wake up more times at night, some nights only going for 3 hour stretches when before she was able to make it so much longer. Also she was fighting naps and taking much longer to put to sleep.

Of course I've read a ton of sleep books so I knew all the different ways to handle it. But then one day at nap time I just decided to try it - to let her cry and see when she'd go to sleep. God it was awful. Awful, awful, awful. At first I walked out of the room and was letting her cry but that was a mistake because DH was home and after about 7 minutes he went in there, picked her up, gave her a bottle, tried to soothe her - he couldn't take hearing her cry. But the problem was she was already tired. At this point she was now tired, cranky from crying, and still in need of a nap. So I had to take over. I told him I'd take her and then I put her back in the crib. I had the lights low, her music on, and I just told her it was time to take a nap. She thrashed around like crazy in her crib and cried so much. I was very sad for her but I knew she just had to do this. She cried for about 50 minutes while I sat in the rocking chair and watched her, telling her to sleep every now and then. Then she fell asleep, probably out of sheer exhaustion. She slept for 3 hours.

Since then, we've been letting her cry a little bit when it's time to go down for a nap or go to bed. That same night, I put her in her bed and told her it was time to sleep. She cried for about 10 seconds then was out for the night.

I was hesitant to write about this because I wanted to make sure it was really making a difference. But it's been over a week and her sleeping has really improved. She now only wakes up once a night and during that time I give her a small amount of milk - 2 oz or so - and then put her back to sleep. Honestly I could wake up once a night forever and not have it bother me. I'm going to slowly wean her off this one waking but for now I feel like we're doing pretty great. She has had a little cough as well so that also might be part of her waking up. But man, it's such a difference.

Last night I put her to sleep at 7:00 and she fussed a bit but then she slept all the way until 2:00. I was up with her for about 15 minutes, then she coughed in her crib for a while (sad) then she slept all the way until 5:30. Yes, for me that's good. I think she kind of fell back asleep in her crib because she started making noise again at 5:50 and that's when I went and got her. I think waking up at 6:00 is totally fine, especially when she goes to bed at 7:00. Hopefully as she gets older she'll get to sleeping from 7:00 pm to 7:00 am but for now I feel like things are going well.

I don't really use a technique. I just go with my gut. Like if she wakes up at night and I give her the 2 oz and she then cries for 30 minutes, I usually go back in there and give her a little more milk. But that only happened twice. So we'll see. Of course, just when you get a handle on things, they change again. But this has been working for us so I'm going with it.

Just a Little Bean

Yesterday I took the day off from work (yeah!) and visited my friend and her 1 month old baby. I took some pictures for them.

I even brought my famed white piece of felt:













I think it's a cool background. It was fun to spend time with a tiny baby again.































When I got home to see the LO, it just made me realize how much she's grown in this time. They do grow up so fast!

Things have been going well with DH gone. I think taking extra time off from work was key. Also, my mom came out to help and my sister is coming on Thursday. I'm also taking Friday off work. Just taking it easy has been great.

I'm taking a baby signs class on Friday. Our pediatrician said that she discourages signing because speech therapists say it delays speech. I am not really that concerned about it. I have pretty much stopped listening to our pediatrician and sometimes think about switching. But she's really accessible and I think I'll just stick with her. It was so odd, at the LO's last appointment she mentioned something about no swimming until she's a year old. I didn't even ask her why she said that. I don't have plans to take the LO swimming until our trip to Maine anyway and she'll be a year old then. So I guess it doesn't matter. Does anyone have any ideas why you wouldn't take a baby swimming until a year? I'm thinking maybe their ear tubes not being fully developed? Not sure.

Well anyway, just chugging along here. Hope everyone's week is going well.

Grateful

Sometimes I feel like being a mother puts me in this daze - where no matter where I am, I am only half there. I am distracted - always thinking of my daughter, always thinking of chores I need to do and things like that. Just getting by from day to day.

But then other times being a mother has opened up this whole other side of me where I'm so much more connected to the human experience and so, so grateful for the people who touch my life. I have always been lucky to have great friends but now I just appreciate them so much more, I feel so thankful for the beautiful souls I have in my life.

Today has been one of those grateful days. Since DH is gone, I was prepared to tough it out and go it alone. But the reality is the LO is getting easier and easier to take care of. Especially on the days I don't have to go to work. So today I made plans to go to Main Street with a friend. I took it easy this morning and napped when the LO napped, when usually I would have showered and got everything ready. I actually showered when the LO was awake ... I put her in the exersaucer right in the bathroom while I quickly showered and then had her with me while I blow dried my hair and got ready. It actually worked pretty well.

Then around noon, the LO, my friend Brieanne and I packed into the car and went out. I even put the stroller in car myself for the first time - it was actually not bad at all. We shopped for jewelry at a really cool store and 20% of the proceeds went to Karma Rescue, a cool dog rescue group that my friend participates in by being a foster dog parent. Oh and they had free mimosas at the store, score. Then we grabbed some food at one of my all time faves, Holy Guacamole, and ate it at a park near the beach. Oh and maybe we had a bottle of wine from the liquor store. That would have been an A+ day already in my opinion. But then when we got home the awesomeness just continued. We went to Santa Monica Seafood and Brieanne picked up dinner to make, this great stuffed salmon, roasted tomatoes and spinach. We also got wine and cheese, so great.

We just had this awesome day. We hung out, ate, and drank wine. She helped with the LO and even fed her a few times. The day flew by. It was so awesome and fun because we got to have girl talk and just enjoy everything but also involve the LO. It was low key and just perfect. Ah days like these are just shining pieces of gold.

Ah, good times, good times.

I hope all of you are enjoying your weekend too. I want to say thank you to all of my friends and blog friends - I truly appreciate every kind word, every trial and triumph shared, each bit of this shared life. We are all in this together - let's try to make the best of each day. It's so easy to forget sometimes and just forge ahead in the daily routine. But each day is truly a miracle. We are all so lucky to be a part of it all.

****