Favorite things, early fall edition

Birdie's smiles, all sparkly eyes and crooked mouth.



The way she coos. She hoots just like a little owl.

Penelope calling, "Lud you, Mama, night-night!" as Jeffrey carries her to bed.



Pea's continued obsession with the phrase of her own making, "jingle-bop", and its many derivatives. It's her catch-all, fill-all, no more words necessary statement. How are feeling, Peanut? Jingle-bop. Oops, you dropped your cup! Jingle-bop. What does a lion say? Rawwwr-tingle-bop! I love you, Bug. Tingle-bop, Mama!



Toddler-hood. Never thought I'd say it, but I am completely in love with this stage of talking and singing and questions and ideas and learning and exploring. Every day is truly an adventure for Pea and it's just like everyone says--I see everything new and anew through her eyes.



The baby sleeping 8 hours at night. It's been a week. It could change. Still, it's been a week and I am really, really grateful. Now if only I could get more than 5, we would be getting somewhere... And for the record, she's still so little that this pretty much means she's nursing all day long. Which means I'm not getting a nap. Which means that I have nothing to complain about AND I'm exhausted.

Aden and Anais muslin swaddling blankets. My friend Kelly was absolutely right--these are the very best blankets EVER. They are huge, swaddle a baby super snugly, and are super breathable. And they wash up beautifully. They are my new favorite baby gift to give.



Our fleece Peanut Shell sling. This is the coziest, most comfortable sling I've tried and Birdie loves it so much that she will pretty much nap on command in it. It has been an absolute lifesaver for the worst weeks of colic and I have no idea how we would have survived without it. The only problem is that I can't lie down with her in it (duh) and man, I would love to nap more...



Pea's latest sayings. First one was in the car today, said while vigorously pumping arm across chest: "Mama--I am paying a vi-ulin with a thtick!" When I told her that the stick is called a "bow", she was completely confused. Then she said, "Mama--I'm paying my vi-ulin with my bow, now". She had grabbed the tiny bow on her shirt and was attempting to move it back and forth in time with the music. Okay. You kind of had to be there.

The second one was also said while we were driving home today from the park. I was telling her about her name, as she has recently begun calling herself "Pu-nelope Eta (Aoife) Kaye!" and she was asking why that was her name. I told her first that it was the most beautiful name I could think of. Then I asked her if she wanted to know what it means. When we got to her middle name, I said it means "lovely, joyful, and radiant." "Yeah," she cried, "and RADIO!"



The way Adeleine sucks on her little hands. She is so slobbery and lip-smackery and downright noisy, working her little fists and hands over and over while she tries to cram them in whole. No matter how many times I try to show her a finger or thumb, she goes right back to the whole hand. It's so amazingly cute. And she smells like milky slobber all the time now.



Waking up to fresh, French-pressed coffee made with the yummiest, most delicious beans on the planet (in my humble opinion). From one of the best coffee shops we've found so far--really good coffee, amazing cappucinos, really nice people. For those of you who don't know (or care) that's a REALLY hard combination. It really helps on those mornings--oh, that's most of them--that start WAY too soon.



The hope that we are moving out of the worst of the colic. For real.

The hope that life is going to feel less overwhelming at some point. I love being Mama and I love my girls so dearly, so intensely and we are so lucky to be able to spend our days together and our nights with Jeffrey. But it's not easy.

Ocean Time

A cool September morning, overcast and still, seems the perfect time to remember our time at the beach a few weeks ago. This is actually my attempt to re-create a post I spent hours on this morning (all the while hitting "save" over and over) only to hit "publish" and have Blogger eat it. Thank goodness I actually checked the front page of my blog and saw that the only thing that published were some of the photos, saved several days ago into a draft. Heartbreaking. And then the day seemed to go further and further downhill until I just had to pour myself another cup of coffee and walk away from the computer.

So here now, finally, are some of my favorite photos from our time at the beach, carefully selected from hundreds taken that week. You can't really tell from most of these, but we actually had pretty amazing weather. Especially since the Oregon coast can be a bit unpredictable and last year we had incredible hot and sunny days the whole time and it's easy to feel that that means the following year is going to suck.



Birdie started smiling for real this week, so I had to include this one. And her skin broke out all over from the environment change and new surroundings. Feels like it's just been one thing after another with this sensitive little girl. I'm so sorry, Baby.



My sister's dog, Charlie. He enjoyed playing in the water a LOT more than his breed is supposed to. He and Penelope are great friends.





Penelope had so much fun just chasing him and being chased, up and down the beach and all around the beach house.





Some shots of the short walk from the house to the beach.





I will always remember what Penelope looked like this year, running down the pine needle-covered path under the trees, then down through the beach grass and onto the sand. She never failed to be excited about all that water to splash in, all that sand to dig in, and open places to run and run and run.







Shots from the two evenings we (attempted) to have bonfires and food down by the water. The first time we were a little off in our estimation of high tide, and so shortly after we had begun to eat the hot dogs we'd cooked we were hurriedly packing up kids and gear as the water suddenly rolled in really, really close. The main reason this is funny to me is that I'm married to a Boy Scout who is usually over-prepared in any and all outdoor situations. The fact that for once in his life he just decided to take a guess on tide times and then have it be wrong... And also have it be very, very dark and WITH his babies... It just completely cracks me up. (Sorry, babe) The next time, we made sure we had PLENTY of time before high tide, brought down a huge pan of homemade lasagna and everything to make s'mores, and Jeffrey and my brother brought down their guitar and djembe. We were just settling in--playing music, watching the surf, eating--when it suddenly started to rain. And I mean RAIN. So once again we were hurriedly throwing stuff in Pea's wagon, gathering the rest of our firewood, packing up food. The best part of all this is that now when Pea plays "beach" at home, she will pretend to lay out her blanket, build a fire, eat hot dogs, and then suddenly she yells, "Pack up! Pack up! The water's coming!"



Our good friends, and two of Pea's favorite people, came and visited us for the day. We are so glad they now live closer than Texas.



The girls and Grammi. Penelope is starting to look a lot like my mom did when she was little.

And check out the smokin' decor. The house, which we rented kind of last minute, turned out to be in a GREAT location and was the perfect size for 5 adults and 2 kids. It was also chock-full of idiosyncrasies. I'll have to see if I have a picture somewhere of the wall of windows forming a cross. Too funny!



Pea and Auntie. You can tell they like to do similar things--and they have so much fun together!



Pea and Uncle J. One of the few upsides to all the pregnancy sickness of last fall (other than Baby Birdie, of course) is that my brother watched Penelope so much that she is now just as attached to him as she is to my mom and sister. I can't even begin to tell you what it's like to have a funny, involved, and SAFE uncle for my girls.





Shots from our day trip to another, larger and more well-known, beach in order to see tide pools. It was fun, but seeing the crowds and commotion and tourists and well-tracked sand just reminded me again how much I love the beach where we stay. The sand is almost unmarked, the passers-by are mostly residents and locals, and sometimes you can go for hours without seeing another person. I much prefer this to the tourist experience, especially in my home state.





I actually have pictures of all of the adults taking turns helping Adeleine sleep. There were a lot of really rough times with her, poor thing, but everyone took turns swaddling and rocking and holding and soothing and usually, in the end, everyone fell asleep with her.





And here are the two girls, one deeply asleep after a morning spent playing, playing, playing, and the other warm little baby body is exhausted after crying, crying, crying.









Fun times with Daddoo and Mama. Not as sarcastic as that sounds. Really.









More family times.


And now my favorite pictures of Penelope from the week.








And Adeleine.








Such a fun week. I'm already dreaming of our next trip away, though I'm afraid it won't be for a while. But that's what dreaming is for, right?

***

Now back to today--very hard at times. The Blogger frustrations were just the beginning. Then there was the poop on the floor, a baby that wouldn't sleep, hormonal issues (I won't go into it publicly but my body is continuing to be weird and unpredictable), and I almost ruined dinner.

But there were also some very bright moments. I woke up to fresh, French-pressed Ethiopian coffee, thanks to my very thoughtful husband, and my mom and sister came over for a bit and played with the girls. And then Jeffrey came home from work with a bundle of the same stripey-orange/red calla lilies we had at our wedding. And then I re-created the vacation post and it just might be even better...

And now I'm going to try and sleep. Family pictures tomorrow and the bags under my eyes aren't going to go away by themselves.

Anniversary

One introduction by a mutual friend.
Fifteen months of dating and falling madly but seriously in love.
Five months of planning our dream wedding on a seriously tight budget.
One wedding, full of family and then-new friends that are now our other family.
One week on Orcas Island.
One new job each and Jeffrey's becomes an even better opportunity than we'd thought. (We've kept it.)
Countless birthday parties, restaurants, beach trips, bottles of wine, family dinners, game nights, and evenings spent in bed with dinner on trays and movies on the television.



One pregnancy that includes early hospitalization and reduced workload for me.
One natural and looooong birth resulting in a beautiful, strong baby girl who still has her own way of doing things.

One family.



One house, all our own, in a neighborhood we love.



A second pregnancy, even harder at the beginning.
A second baby girl, this one born surprisingly fast in big tub of warm water.
(One incredible midwife, one amazing husband, and one beautiful friend helping me do this.)



Two lovely and sweet and strong little girls.


One kind and strong and funny and safe Daddoo.

One life we've made--full of challenges and mistakes and learning and loving and laughing and growing and healing and, most of all, loving every single minute spent together.


Five years.


Jeffrey--our girls are growing up knowing so much love and happiness and security that sometimes I have to pinch myself. Falling in love with you was the best decision I ever made. I really hope we do get another 45 years... I can only imagine what they'll hold.