i never thought i'd say this...

...but I am totally completely satisfied with my body. Seriously.

Let me back up a bit.

I was watching the Oscars last night, and was struck multiple times with how thin all of the actresses were. I don't know if it was the camera angle, which shot them from below making them all look 7 ft. tall, or the fact that the are all indeed size 0, but I noticed it more than usual last night.

Which got me thinking about my own bod. And for once, I don't feel insecure. I guess I've come to respect it. After all, it did incubate, grow, hatch, and expel two of my favorite people on the planet. That in itself is pretty cool. And I've put a few hundred, maybe thousand miles in on these legs. (Now that I wrote that, it looks CRAZY! Thousands??? I'm going to have to keep track to see how much I run in a year. Is there an App for that?) Between running down the street and running after kids, I'm in pretty good shape.

I maintain that pregnancy and child rearing is an awesome diet plan. You're so freaked out that you'll never lose the baby weight that you're extra vigilant about what you eat. Plus, you're so sleep deprived after the baby comes that you forget to eat. There were days (more like months, really) that I'd have a Carnation Instant Breakfast shake around 7:30 am and then not eat until lunch. And I was nursing to boot, which burns lots of calories. It's about the only nice thing I have to say about nursing. But that's another topic.

Are there still spots that make me groan? Of course. I defy you to find ANY woman ANY where who doesn't have something she'd rather chop off. But all in all, I'm ok with myself.

Yet another sign that I'm all grown up.

my daughter is a loser

She's a loser of things. This frustrates me to no end because I am particularly particular about keeping track of things. To the point where I'll clean them up as we're in the middle of playing just so that I know that they're put back where they belong. Odd, I know, but we all have our quirks, right?

On Friday, she "borrowed" a pair of my socks. Really soft, fuzzy, warm, cozy socks that I only wear to bed. She had them on for a whopping 25 minutes, tops. And then...they disappeared. Poof. We searched high and low but the socks are nowhere to be found. This frustrates me on two levels: One, as I mentioned, I really don't like to lose things. Arrgh. And two, I'm irritated that she can't remember, seemingly from one minute to the next, where things go off to. I tried teaching her to retrace her steps, but it might as well be quantum phyiscs for as effective as that was.

So today, she took the jacket out of a CD that we borrowed from the library. She was "reading" it in the car, brought it in the house, and then...wait for it...Poof. Gonzo. Of course, I didn't realize any of this until 7:05 pm as we were in jammies and getting ready to snug in with a book and some sleeps. Insert wild goose chase.

"Maybe it's in my bookbag?"
"Maybe it's in my library bag?"
"Maybe it's in the bathtub?"

You get the gist. After much frustration on the part of her parents, and many giggles on the part of said loser, I spotted it under the Legos and on top of the Memory game. Right where you'd expect, of course.

So, is this "normal" for a 3 year old? Or do I have a habitual loser on my hands?

Answer carefully.

how cute are they?

Check out these two cuties.

it's not what i expected

Being a stay-at-home-mom, that is. I don't know what I thought it'd be like, but it's definitely not what I expected. I remember a teacher friend who was just coming back to the classroom at the same time that I was leaving to stay home telling me that being home is hard. And I just stared at her like "Are you kidding me?" I was so consumed with guilt for leaving my daughter with someone else all day long that I couldn't possibly imagine that being home would be hard.

But it is.

I thought my house would be cleaner. I thought I'd have more energy to play. I thought I'd occassionally get to watch grown-up TV. I didn't anticipate never peeing by myself, ever. I expected that laundry would get folded on the same day it was washed. I figured my breakfast dishes would be washed before lunch was prepared. I envisioned that I'd make delicious, healthy meals from scratch, every day. I thought I might get to paint my toenails occassionally. I didn't realize that I'd be able to write my name in the dust on my furniture. I foresaw myself doing more crafty projects with the kids. I thought I'd run 5x a week. I hoped I'd get to knit or scrapbook once a week or so...during the day. I saw myself wearing cuter clothes that didn't always have someone else's breakfast or lunch on them.

What do I do all day? I referee, chauffer, cook, clean, play, read, dress, undress, redress, wipe, blow, create, defend, sing, make-believe, shop, launder, plan, organize, schedule, doctor, nurse, counsel, locate, chase, vaccum, feed, rock, teach, and generally fascilitate the day-to-day operations of a busy family of 4.

Now, I wouldn't trade it for anything, anything. Do you understand? I MEAN that.

But, it's not what I expected.

new 'do, aka jump around

What started out as an attempt to take a picture of Emerson's new haircut...

...quickly turned into an impromptu photo session with my little kangaroo. This one will be a cute scrapbook page, don't you think?

I love this one, even though her head is cut off. It captures her motion and I love the blissed-out smile!

yeah, what she said

Read this post. It's a good one!

http://www.beckyhiggins.com/blog/2011/02/7-ways-to-increase-charity/

emerson is...

...such a great helper. She fed Pete his breakfast and then packed his bag on Tuesday when he spent the day at Grammy's.

... stubborn as a mule, particularly when it involves going to the bathroom. She'll literally dance around for 15 minutes denying that she needs to go, just so that she can have things on her terms.

...really getting into playing "girl" things, like dress-up and babies. Granted, she uses her stuffed animals as opposed to baby dolls, but that's just logistics. She got a "Christmas" present this week (you know, the ones I've had tucked away in the basement for when we have a week of subzero temps) and it's a mini stroller, pack & play, high chair, potty seat, diaper bag, and monitors. Just perfect for her menagerie of buddies.

...is prone to giggle fits of epic magnitude. Especially around 6:00 pm. She laughs so hard that a.) you can't understand what she's saying and b.) she forgets what was so funny in the first place.

...has reached some milestones this week. Gone are the bedtime binkies (YEAH!!) with absolutely no fuss whatsoever. And we graduated from her car seat to the booster seat this week. It's SO much easier for me. I can unhook her without ever going around to that side of the car. Score!

...is a tyrant. She refuses (and by refuses, I mean has a knock-em-down, drag-em-out temper tantrum) to wear a shower cap. A freaking shower cap! I certainly never saw that one coming. But due to a skin condition, she's now taking showers instead of baths, and since I don't need to wash her hair daily, shower caps are becoming part of our routine. Do you hear me, Emerson? They ARE becoming part of our routine, at least every other night.

Love that kid. She certainly keeps me on my toes!

This picture of the 2 of us was taken last week during the Great Blizzard of 2011. She's standing on a snow pile that used to be a tall grass bed next to the driveway. And we're both wearing ski goggles because the snow hurt when it pelted you in the face!

milestone pete

Ah, I have completely stunk at blogging. Oh well. I've stunk at lots of things lately. Like keeping up with journaling in Pete's journal. So, I'm going to tell you about what's he's been doing. That counts, right?

He's 10 months now, and is about 18.5 lbs. He spent the better part of 2 weeks ago tossing his cookies (and cereal and peas and ham and...you get it.) He lost about a pound and is now working overtime to gain it back.

At 8 months, around Christmas, he started repeating "DUC," "DAH-g," and "Go". These words are "duck", "dog" and "Jiko," (our cat) respectively. He still pipes up with these words occasionally, although not usually on demand.

While he's not crawling, he does scoot all over creation. Like all the way from my bathroom through the bedroom down the hall and into the kitchen (we have a ranch). And he's into EV-RY-THING. I remember a wise friend telling me that my little boy would wreak havoc like I had never known, and I scoffed at her. Ha. Live and learn, I guess. Oh, and one more thing about scooting...I think if ALL kids tried it, no one would ever crawl. Pete can carry things with him as he moves around. That's WAY better than crawling around empty-handed, right?

He's starting to think about pulling up, but since he will only use his right arm to get up, I think we have a ways to go before he's fully there. But he's working at it and I'm amazed at how quick he is.

And last night, as we were leaving my cousin's house, we were all saying our goodbyes. Pete, aka the Smartest Baby On The Planet, started waving. Waving. Like, communicating.

That kid just makes me smile.