A letter to my {first} daughter: Seven!

Gianna!

This is a slightly delayed (and by slightly, I mean by 3 months) letter to you for your birthday. I wrote you one in our letter journal (albeight it last month) and somehow never got around to putting anything here. Life, as has been the case for the longest time and will probably for the next many years, passes by without me being able to take a few moments to put all the things swirling around in my head down in writing.

Enough about that – let’s talk about you!

The past year, the age of six (now the beginning of seven), was one that was FULL of changes in your life.

We moved twice, you went to a new school, changed dance studios, lost a lot of teeth, made a lot of new friends and your confidence is growing by leaps and bounds. Little babies grow rapidly as they develop, but big kids it seems, grow just as rapidly but differently. For example, I realized sometime in the spring that i hadn’t tied your shoe in weeks – because you learned how to do it yourself! Sometimes Idon’t even realize how much you’ve grown and learned until I’m doing something for one of your sisters and it hits me that I don’t need to do the same for you.

There was so much that happened it is really hard to capture it all, as is typically the case.

You are such a little girl, who sometimes wishes she wasn’t so little (and that’s okay), but I think you also don’t want to grow up so fast (I appreciate that!). There was a moment a few months ago, you and your sister were getting ready for bed and I was brushing your hair – I forget now what was so funny, but you were CRACKING UP – all I could see in the mirror was a little girl in the middle of a giggle fest – I tried so hard to burn that image into my head: an image of innocence, sweetness and laughter – it was perfect.

It amazes me how helpful you can be – how much (at times) you want to help your sisters, to help me, to have responsibility of your own. I’m greatful for your kind spirit and your big emotions. You’ve always felt everything with such magnitude and the only thing that has changed about that is how you recognize it too. You’ll often say to me when you are upset about something “I just have a lot of feelings!” to which I tell you it’s okay to have a lot of feelings!

One thing you REALLY REALLY wanted for your birthday was an ipad. We debated and finally got you a new-to-you ipad – you would have thought we bought you a pony! You were so so happy! Technology isn’t something I always put a lot of emphasis on, but the world does, so we need to embrace that a little here with boundaries and responsibility/responsible use. So far, so good. (Also, facetime and iMessaging are her favorite things to do!)

Confidence growth, I think, will be the name of the game going foward. Confidence in your ability to do anything you want (practice and work hard!), confidence that you CAN, confidence that you can learn anything. You’ve shown this in the way you’ve learned to read even when it was really really hard, in the way you’ve made new friends when you were shy, in all the new things you have tried this year, in the way you’ve grown in dance and just in life. I’m so proud of you and I am really loving all of the big kid firsts happening in your life!

 

Love you much, my little G!

Mommy

These Days….

There is so.much going on around here (always?!) and 101% of the time, I have no time to really even process all that is happening in our lives. I am going to give a quick rundown and I really, truly (honestly) hope to expand on most, if not all, of these things going forward.

* Gianna started FIRST GRADE last week. We ended up moving her from Catholic to public school after a really long debate. I think we made the choice that made the most sense. The first week went well for her, so that’s exciting for all of us!

* Aleesia is officially 2.5 and she is THE SPUNKIEST ball of energy I have ever met. I’m lucky she is mine, but also, wow – she makes me tired!

* Being a full-time work at home mom for the past 6 months has been so great. And so hard. And so many things. There are a few things I can say for certain though. This wouldn’t be possible without my village – our nanny, my sisters, my parents, cousins, so many people who help out when needed. Being at home has been so fun and the flexibility I have is wonderful. But it is HARD to be “on” all of the time.

* We are going to the beach in a few weeks! We are going to Hilton Head for the first time and really looking forward to it. If you’ve been there – tips, tricks, places not to miss are all greatly appreciated! We are planning on vising Savannah as well while we are there.

* Our new house! Oh my gosh, so much I can say about our new house. We have a pre-drywall meeting this week and we are looking forward to that. I have pictures of the whole process and will hopefully do a few posts related to our building process (which has been really great). Things are moving along and I am ALL OVER the Pinterest boards with updates and ideas for decorating a house that is significantly bigger than our previous home.

* Vivian is such a sweet baby! She finally started to sit up on her own and can go from laying/crawling to sitting. She’s been crawling for at least 2 months so she gets all over the place and flashes her amazing smile at us! She is a bit of a mommy’s girl and she doesn’t love to sleep without touching me. It has been hard to get her in a sleep routine, but we’ll get there. We started to give her some baby food a few weeks ago and she is just now really getting the hang of eating from a spoon.

* I ran a half marathon last weekend, it was a great race and I had a pretty huge PR. I’m looking forward to my next one in September. I also finished my 4th (or 5th?!?) MBA class last week. I’m looking forward to finding some good books to read on vacation – any ideas for me?

Overall, I’m not ready to give up summer yet but also ready for the routine the school year brings. We have fun plans that will get us through the end of September and then our fall plans (and moving!!) start up in October! I don’t feel like I am as organized and on top of life as usual right now which is frustrating but somehow we are all getting through our days!

Moving On

In May of 2010 I felt like a real grownup, we finally owned our own home!

It wasn’t very big and it wasn’t very fancy, yet at the same time it was just right.

We made the space work for us turning the rooms into a variety of bedrooms, playrooms, and offices as we needed to change the space to meet our needs. We grew our family in that house, quite literally, as since we moved in as a young Family of Three.

But as we expanded to our Party of Five – our small house, while it held us and all of our stuff and all of our memories relatively well, wasn’t going to hold us, our stuff, and our memories for too terribly long. It was time to get this little house sold.

Thankfully, we only had to endure about 3 weeks of keeping the house spotless and over a dozen showings before another young couple decided our house was just right for them.

We said goodbye to our small house, the white house according to Gianna, last week.

But now where do we go?

For now, we are going to have an extended sleepover at my parents house – which we are so incredibly thankful to be able to do.

And sometime before October, this beautiful plot of grass will become a beautiful new home for us!

We never EVER thought we would build, we had in fact, said we would definitely NOT build – but we are very excited for this adventure, for a home that checks all of the boxes on our wish list.

If I felt like a real grownup when we bought our first home, I can bet that I am going to feel like a really blessed grownup when our new house gets signed over to us.

Bring on the busy(er)

Now that the holidays are over and a whole new year is here I feel like I can start thinking about the year ahead a little bit.

There are a lot of big events and plans and goals set for 2014:

• train for and complete the Run Nike Women DC 1/2 marathon in April
• start my PhD program (this one has me a wee bit freaked out)
• decide on where we will send Gianna to Kindergarten (just when I think we have made a decision, I change my mind again!)
• get stricter with our debt-reduction plans
• hopefully list and sell our house
• which means we get to buy (or build???) a new house

But! the very first big event of 2014 is a certain little girl’s first birthday – say what?

A lot of these things are “bucket list” items for me which is exciting in it’s own right but I am all of a sudden feeling very overwhelmed.  I think the anticipation of starting new, big, time consuming projects is worse than actually being in the middle of the business.

so, bring it on 2014 – the good, the exciting, the scary, the fun – I’ll figure out the how and when it’s all going to happen along the way.

What does 2014 have in store for you?

Never say Never

We all know that Never is a word we should not use in the context of life, motherhood and all things growing up.

Except I am sure we all HAVE said it.

And here is where I insert foot into mouth because I am guilty as charged on the never say never front.

• I swore I would never give my child a nickname. But I did.
• I swore I would never use a list when I went grocery shopping. But I have no choice unless I want to go back to the store 3 more times to get what I forgot.
• I swore I would never change her diaper anywhere besides a designated changing area. But I do. All the time.
• I swore I would never wash my clothes together. But I am lucky to get them into the washer so I can’t mess with the whole division of colors stuff.
• I swore I would never make separate meals for my kids. But if I don’t, she would probably starve 6/7 days a week.
• I swore I would never let her go in public with dirt on her face. But somehow, that dirt just jumps on there when I am not looking.
• I swore I would have all of our boxes unpacked by now. Living in a new house for 3 months still counts as just moving in, right?
• I swore my pictures would be edited/uploaded/shared/printed on a regular basis. I am currently working on the end of June through present. And I discovered I haven’t ordered prints since March. Oops.
• I swore I would never let my child eat anywhere but the kitchen table. But if I don’t let her have snacks during the day, we get back to that not eating thing.

So spill it friends, what do/have you had to insert your foot in your mouth for?

Move it Move it

As my most fabulous Aunt Stacey told me, we now have our very own horror story to go along with our closing.  The title company tried to tell me we couldn’t close until Tuesday when all along Friday had been written into our contract. I cried acted like I was smarter than them and clearly, we closed on Friday.

I then had to bitch convince the plumber to be here Monday to hook up our new stove and put in the waterline for our refrigerator because my small child couldn’t go without. 

Next up, painting the kitchen. We forgot to tape the ceiling at first, so that ended with green paint where it doesn’t belong.  Not so terrible.

Saturday, which would have otherwise been a perfectly fine day to move, was already booked up with Grease! and Mike working. So, we got next to nothing done.

Sunday = moving day. A very unorganized orchestration. But, productive. And let me just say, that had we not been moving close by it would have only taken 1/2 a trip to convince me that yes, getting a U-Haul or other large capacity vehicle was the smart choice.  But, we had 1 pickup truck and 2 SUVs. About a million and two trips back and forth. And there is still more stuff to be moved.

But.

We are in.

Boxes are everywhere and the house is in a state of disarray.

But, we are sleeping here. The cable works. The refrigerator and stove work. The neighbors are a bit unique. The living and dining rooms still need painted. And furnished.

It’s all ours to do whatever we want with.

And as hard as I have tried over the past 48 hours to click my heels together 3 times and summon some small elves to unpack and organize, looks like all the elves are busy. Or, my shoes are broken again……

1st generation iPod and other randomness

Moving = Packing.
Packing = Discovery of random things
Discovery of random things = WHY do we have that?!!

Some things that fall under the why do we still have that category:

• 1st generation iPod (that doesn’t work) (would be fun to find out what is on there though!) (that things is HUGE compared to the Nano we have now!!)
• trash. (literally, why was trash hiding in some of the boxes we had in the basement?!)
• A glass platter shaped like a leaf with acorns in the middle.
• Letters from middle school “boyfriend”.
• Cards from random birthdays.
• Broken things. These include: picture frames, binders, flatware and more.
• speakers to a computer we don’t have.
• at least 4 old cell phones.

I have been in weed-out mode so probably a good 30-50% of the stuff we had when we moved in here, is not moving out. Well, it is moving out – to the trash.  I blame the fact that we moved all this dumb shit into this house because I was pregnant and I didn’t want to deal with packing at that time.
This time? Not pregnant and moving a whole new persons ridiculously large amount of belongings too.  G has enough toys for 5 kids and enough clothes for at least 6.  I am not so much into purging her stuff, but she is not immune from me donating a few random onesies, blankets and toys. 
It makes me happy to see those boxes packed and the amount of stuff in the garage to be taken to the curb and donated. 
Also, I wouldn’t doubt that once we unpack all this stuff, more will be tossed. 

Birthday Month

May is the best month of the year.

Because it’s my birthday month! (and my sister’s, renee, danifred, jj and a few other fun people!)
Also because it’s the beginning of warm weather. Sunshine. Almost summer.

I have been pretty blessed when it comes to birthday months, they have pretty much rocked for my whole life. And, since my birthday is at the end of the month I get to celebrate longer!
This year, my birthday month is even better. Because the big thing I told you about here, is happening. It’s the biggest, best birthday present ever.
Approximately 1400 square feet big.

After what felt like forever, we finally found a house.  I can’t begin to tell you how excited we are about this. 
What I am not excited about, is packing.  I hate packing. A lot. There will be many bitch sessions posts regarding this topic, I am sure.