Keep In Touch

Monday, January 30, 2012

food and thoughts

a couple of weeks ago, we started giving Kenzie some real food...which i was excited about since i felt like i had more control over what she was getting as far as nourishment.  i'm not a huge fan of formula...although, i really have nothing against it at all...i just prefer giving her things which are natural and was somewhat disappointed when i had to switch to formula as her main source.
so, i started out with carrots...
carrots stain everything!!
including my hands, spoons, bowls and bibs...

so far, she has enjoyed:

bananas
apples
carrots
sweet potato
peas
pears

and she loves all of them...


UNLESS, i'm the one who made it
and then she seems to hate it!!

she only looks like this...


...if her food came from a jar.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

bacon is ham

so, at some point yesterday...nate and i got into a discussion regarding pig meat.

yes, you read that right...pig meat.

he made the statement that "bacon IS ham".

which i denied.

then he said, "and ham IS bacon"

which i, again, denied.

he made the argument that
"since bacon is pork and ham is pork then bacon IS ham".

these statements are the types of conversations we have that usually get me to say things like,
 "i'm gonna punch you in the face"...
which, i admit, would be totally rude and disrespectful,,,
IF i was serious...
which, i wasn't...
i don't think.

the conversation finally disolved until right before bed when he again proclaimed,

"Bacon is Ham!"

at this point, i'm starting to question myself...

"IS BACON REALLY HAM?!?!"

he then made the argument that
"saying bacon isn't ham is like saying a mirror isn't glass."

hmm...getting me thinking now...

he rattled on with a few more debatable opinions...

....he almost had me convinced...

but then he said,

"and sausage is ham, too"

yeah, he lost me there.



Tuesday, January 24, 2012

easy going

my girl is so easy going, she doesn't even make a peep when she's falling out of her chair...




i don't know what we did to get such a happy, easy baby; but we'll take it! Here's a "too close" pic..



Clearly, she isn't ALWAYS easy.
And a few more from this week...




(this one was after her 4 month vaccines. She made this same face for about 30 minutes....
not sure she even blinked.)

-Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

in love.

...with my iphone...
bet ya thought i was gonna say Mykenzie, huh? :)

...back to Mykenzie though...

my iphone makes it so much easier to capture every adorable moment with her...my phone is never too far away; whereas, my camera is tucked away, i think in my underwear drawer...not even sure. and forget it...to take a picture with my camera and then search for the cable to download it to my computer...we're talking nearly impossible for this girl. my iphone is synced with my computer network via iCloud and automatically downloads them to my computer, making my pictures available for facebook, my blog, shutterfly and any other photo project i endeavor.  also, i love the photo editing apps that can change this photo...
into this...
or this photo...
into this...
easy peasy!!!

she's adorable either way.
yup, my heart loves her...
...and my iphone.

my guy

i've been thinking a lot about my husband recently...
how four years ago, we experienced the same thing...
but there will always be snippets of our experience that might be a little different.

for instance, as i was on bed rest, he had to visit the nicu...
he saw preemie babies and he saw the kind of situation we might be in...
and he did that without me.

i remember he came upstairs and told me,
 "those babies are too small. he needs to stay in. we need to pray he stays in."
i know he prayed silently...
while i was protected from our reality.

i know i had dreams for zachary...
and he had dreams for him just the same...
i know he dreamed of taking him to a Red Sox game and teaching him all about baseball...

the day he went to heaven, we were sitting on the side of his isolate when the doctors abruptly pulled our seats from underneath us and began cpr on my little boy...i saw them trying to bring him back to life and my husband stood between and hid my face in his chest knowing that although we had to be there for zachary, he had to be there for me.

i'm thankful that mixed into the most horrifying moment of my life,
i have a sweet memory of our marriage vows in action.

when we were in the depths of grief, i could only think about my own survival...
at times, i was consumed with it...

he should know that when i lost my mind and he held me, he was literally holding me together.

he showed me God's love when i couldn't "feel" it...he was God's arms to me.

God used him to keep me sane. He's the reason i'm here.
i wish i could have been that same strength for him.

as the mom, i get too much credit for staying strong.
he's my strength.
 i'm so grateful to have him on my team....
because for every time that i showed strength,
there were behind the scene discussions of how i didn't think it was fair...
when he lovingly refocused my attention...
and refreshed my memories of zachary.
...and i'm thankful that God brought us through together.
i really think we can handle whatever comes our way...
we say, "eh, we've been through worse".

i love that we've had conversations that are never meant to be shared.
"just us"
things only we know.
because we went through it together.
we're veterans.
we talk a lot about how we were just kids when we got married...
we could have easily unravelled with our life experiences...
but honestly, we love our life together...
we think it's crazy and twisted and messy...
we are certainly not perfect...
we argue...
and roll our eyes...
...and just downright get on eachother's nerves...
but we're together...
and we have no regrets.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

this girl

i've had this image in my head of what i feel like i should look like on the outside considering how i feel on the inside. yes, i think i'm that girl that rides my vintage bicycle to the farmer's market and carefully examines my organic fruits and vegetables for quality...i place them in my fabric, reusable produce tote and load it into my bicycle basket...on the way home, i stop in a meadow to read a fascinating book and pick wildflowers...my hair is long and i'm super skinny...i run...i run for fun and it just happens to keep me in shape...i wear dresses everywhere...i look carefree and like my style is naturally thrown together.
clearly, i'm not that girl. i eat brownies. riding bikes is uncomfortable. i have no memories of me running for fun or for exercise...i can't get my hair to grow past my shoulders...i'd be terrified to be in a meadow alone...and truth be told, i'm not fascinated by reading <gasp>
so, although i don't get to be that girl....i do get to be this girl...

this girl takes her shower after her daughter is taken care of first (and sometimes, that means taking a shower right before bed)...she gets rice cereal in her hair...she wears mismatched pajamas until shamefully late hours of the day...she washes bottles over and over and over again until her hands crack...she changes countless poopy diapers...she dreams big dreams for her daughter....she makes up silly songs that don't rhyme...she keeps her nails unmanicured because although she has time to paint them, she has no time to let them dry (she bites her nails til all she has is nubs anyways)...she has tumbleweed size dust bunnies rolling across her floors...she spends more time watching her daughter sleep than she does anything else...she gets spit up on and just rubs it in...she leaves the house and then wonders if she remembered to brush her teeth...she takes 20 minutes to pack the diaper bag before leaving the house...this girl does not know "carefree", but she does know "thrown together"...she's not perfect, nor pretends to be...she has no time to be pretentious, but makes time for the precious.
yes, i think there are more of us out there that are this girl than that girl....
and i believe being this girl has more merit.
this girl wouldn't have it any other way.
love your kids.

you never know how long you have them for.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

i realized today that i'm experiencing the life i always dreamed of.

there's not much better than a dream come true.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

i'm somewhat resolved

i don't really believe in new year's resolutions...mostly because i almost always fail at keeping them...in fact, i've been eager to start exercising to burn off this baby weight...i figured i'd wait til after the holidays to make it more likely to succeed...but now i don't want to fight for a treadmill in the gym because resolution-makers are hogging them! maybe i'm just making excuses...yeah, that's probably more likely my reason for not going...

so, here are some goals:
1. already mentioned: lose the baby weight (17 pounds...ugh)
2. read more
3. watch tv less
4. craft more
5. read the bible and pray more
6. take more classes at RISD
7. be more active
8. cook dinner more
9. cuddle more
10.  ...and call me crazy, but i wouldn't mind being pregnant again by the end of 2012...we'll see :)

what about you guys?

Sunday, January 1, 2012