Constant Beginnings

my babies are absolutely delicious. i could eat every grin, laugh, smile, tear, frown, pucker. every. stinkin. one. i love them that much. it is true. as mya gets bigger, she is becoming more interested in doing things as claire does. her latest interest is babies. she is holding claire's dolls, snuggles them tightly and occasionally, opens her mouth for a big open smooch. she is just as interested in sophie. she grabs sophie's ears, looks in her mouth, and feeds sophie goldfish. mya is loving music, which tends to bring out her groovy body bops, playing with the leapfrog toys on our fridge, rides in the stroller, being tickled, peek a boo, looking at books with babies. this kiddo is also so done with babyfood. she wants nothing to do with it. this change started a month or so ago. she literally has a meltdown if she isn't given the same food as everyone else. despite the early onset of drama, i can truly say that everyday gets better and better. claire is becoming a lit...

I've been busy sewing.... I even made my own applique, complete with hand stitched detailing (which you can't see in the pic). I am so proud. I made two of these, one for Claire and one for our niece, Ava. I do love dressing kids the same. I may make one for Mya too. We'll see.

six months ago we put our house on the market in the anticipation for our next assignment. what an adventure of stress and headaches this process has been. today was the end. we closed. thrill does not properly describe what i/we feel. it is such a relief to know that we are ready to make a fresh start at our next location (wherever that may be). knowing that i will not have snow to worry about, grass to mow, weeds to pick, numerous windows to wash not to mention the vast amount of space to clean while chris is in korea, brings such happiness to my face. although we loved that house, putting our blood, sweat and tears into making it the beautiful thing that stands there today, we have been comforting ourselves by talking about all that was not loved---the sirens at all hours, trucks sounding as though they were flying through the bedrooms, traffic on the busy street outside, the small yard, continual battle with the backyard grass, the lack of cupboard space in the kitchen, the squ...

I'd like to think I am just plain smart with my latest adventure. Grocery shopping online! Yippee. Does it get any better than that? There is little I hate more than loading up the kiddos, trucking through the store, wasting at least 30 minutes filling our cart with junk, loading it all up again, and unloading at home. Yuck. Groceries and laundry. No thank you. Much to my delight, I was reminded of an on-line grocery delivery service. peapod.com. I am trying it out next week. I searched through my cookbook of the week (Biggest Loser), typed out my list online and loaded up my virtual cart. Wednesday, the nice man will bring my groceries to our house in his cute, yellow containers where I will give him a big ole thank you and put them in the cupboards. I am all about simplifying my life and this could be wonderful!!! If nothing else, I'll be experiencing one less headache and one additional hour of freedom.

chris and i have been trying to figure out what to do with mya. well, only in regards to her sleeping. otherwise, she is perfect. simply perfect. sleeping is a whole other story. she has her moments where she sleeps through the night. then there are other times where she is up every four hours. we've been trying to figure out a pattern, do what we can to ensure she'll not be hungry and wake up during the night, and keep her up later. nothing seems to matter. her doctor claims that at nine months, there is no physiological reason as to waking during the night. she shouldn't have to eat. with that being said and some encouragement from our friends, we bit the bullet and went ahead to ferberize her. we had already begun the process months ago by putting her to sleep. she is a pro with this. the issue is strictly waking during the night. so, with a plan in place, we gave it a try on saturday night. she woke for 10 minutes or so at 11:00 and then 2:00 rolled around. she cried bl...

we've made Saturday's our day with friends. we enjoy it thoroughly. alison, henri, michelle and lucy came over after their swimming lesson to share some breakfast and chatting. the kiddos played and we talked, laughed and talked some more. these girls are awesome. our babies have definitely brought us together as great friends, but they are ones that feel i've had my entire life. love that feeling. chris and michelle's husband, rocky, joined us a bit later. rocky was kind enough to help chris move the remaining items from our house into the storage unit. we are so thankful for friends. we've got some great ones. after some lunch, a nap and the realization that it was 4:00, everyone went home. it was such a nice day. we love these friends.

Laundry is something I hate despise. My goal is to get it done as quickly as painlessly as possible. That being said, when Chris suggested using Downy Fabric Softener and knowing full well the frequency with which he does laundry, I rejected the idea. However, on a whim, I picked up a thing of Downy. A world of goodness has opened up before my eyes. Mmmm. There is nothing like sitting at my desk working away and every so often catching a whiff of Downy floating by. Mmmm. Lovely. I am sold. It adds another expense to our laundry costs, but it is worth it. Mmmm .Downy.

Confession time. Have I lived up to Casey's "Movin in March" guidelines? I'm afraid not, but I didn't really plan on following them exactly. 1. We did eat out. 2. I did exercise 3 times last week!! 3. I didn't eat any candy! The bag of cadbury minieggs is still locked up tightly in my cupboard. 4. I did lose 1.4 pounds. Although my week didn't go exactly according to plan, I am okay with it. I am pleased that I actually made it to the gym. I am even happier that I ran 3/4 of a mile without throwing up! Perhaps that isn't really a possibility--I probably should have written "without having an exercise induced asthma attack." Chris can speak to this condition. I really do have EIA--or so I tell him. On the food front, we are ordering Chinese food for dinner tonight. Yummy. Not eating out really isn't a realistic guideline for me, so I have to tweak the plan a bit. Here it is for this week: 1. Exercise 4 times. We will be break...

Each day, I see more and more of me and my personality in Claire. For example, most recently, she's begun making up songs about random things. This is definitely me to a T. I sing about EVERYTHING. I LOVE that she does too!! Today we were at our house packing up the garage when we discovered that Claire has my green thumb. This is her creation... Do you suppose the new owners will water and tend to her garden?

Curious George. Claire has been a fan since the days when we didn't have cable. PBS was the only kid friendly channel we had while Chris was deployed last winter, so we became fans. The first show and basically only show she watched/watches is Curious George. Well, it just so happens that "Curious George Live" came to a stage near us, so we bought tickets. It was pretty cute and Claire and Mya watched intently for quite some time, but I must say that the close spacing of the seats, frequent adjusting and length took their toll. Chris moved up a few rows with Mya to an area with no people and Claire and I soon followed. It was definitely a good choice and the view was great. We cut out a bit early before the mad rush. That too was a good choice. Although the show was a bit long, it was a great experience for Claire. She has been quite eager to share her experience with anyone who would listen.

Stressed. This is what I am. Work is tough. Our director wants to change the way I am servicing my students next year. With very little direction and a whole lot of components to consider, I get to make that happen. Ugh. I try desperately not to bring work home, but it is home and on my mind much of every hour. I really need to get exercising to help relieve my stress, but I can honestly say that we are exhausted. I do, however, have intentions of going to the base gym tomorrow after work while I am waiting for Chris to finish work. Intentions. Such a great word. Let's change it to---I will go. That's better. I am dieting/eating healthfully, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that I will receive some encouragement from the scale this week. That would definitely help my mood. We have the closing date for our house--finally. I will be thrilled when that is all wrapped up so we can close that chapter in our lives. I still love that house, but I am becoming very bitter with t...

So, we were four weeks into P90X when our lives were flipped upside down by the house sale and move. It has been a crazy few weeks and although I am not wanting to get back on the wagon, I hear my body screaming at me--telling me to get off my big tooshy. I have my "skinny jeans" hanging on the door (a helpful tip from my pal Ali) and I'm ready to go. Tomorrow will be day 1 of my 53 day plan to eat healthfully and exercise. Yippee!! Jessica and Nate's wedding is just around the corner, so it seemed like a good marking point. I can hold off on eating the bag of mini cadbury eggs sitting in my cupboard until the April 26th at which point I will most likely eat the whole bag (Chris leaves for his year long deployment and I will be off on my 365 day journey of single parenthood with no family supports nearby--thank God for friends and family that will fly here at the ring of a phone!). Anyway, I've spent some time thinking about this tour at Hanscom and things I'd...

With my new found freedom, I enjoyed some time this weekend working on a little sewing project. I am not finished yet, but here it is so far. Pretty cute, I think. 

I came across this little puppet theater last summer. Obviously with a newborn, our life was a bit too chaotic to undertake a performance requiring attention and focus for an hour. Things have changed quite a bit and we are in a great place to experience these short story-like plays. My friend Michelle described the building as "hoaky" and in all fairness, it kind of was, but cute at the same time.It had a little "Enchanted Garden" and several little pieces representative of different stories. Pretty cute. We saw Sleeping Beauty. It was recommended for children over four years due to the scary dragon and mean witch, but Claire did great. Mya sat attentively for quite some time as well. It was a fun-filled hour. Claire even came out of her shell a bit answering some questions posed by the narrator. It was nice to see her watching the other older kids and following in their shoes. The performance was followed by a trip to the treasure chest where every child picked a...