My Instagram Life: Better Late Than Never

I can’t believe I am SO behind on Instragram pictures.  Well, I can believe it.  Because in the downward spiral that my last month of “public blogging” had, I pushed off the Instagram posts simply because I was worried people would find them too boring.

I was afraid that I’d lose readers by posting pictures of our everyday lives.  Pictures that weren’t taken by a $2000 dollar camera and a $1500 lens and weren’t edited on a $1000 worth of software.  Pictures that were taken with a rinky-dinky iPhone and edited with a cool app called Instagram.

Thank goodness I came to my senses.

My instragram pictures are the meat and potatoes of our daily lives.  Multiple times a day I see the two of you girls doing something that I KNOW I will want to remember.  And a grab my phone and capture it for all time.

So let’s dive in and see what we’ve been up to these last two months…

Your daddy is what they call a “Helicopter” parent.  He hovers around, always on the ready to swoop in and save the day.  Not that that’s a bad thing.

Lil Sis, you are too stinking cute for words.  Enough said.

Baby Hiley was born!  And we were lucky enough to be near Joplin that very night and go welcome her to the family when she was only a few hours old!

Mama had drinks with daddy.  Fruity drinks are my favorite.

Shopping in jammies.  Not so much of a fashion crime as a mama-was-lazy-and-didn’t-want-to-change-the-baby fashion statement.

Dinner with my favorite two Stacy’s in Oklahoma.  I adore these two gals.

Goose… I’m telling you… you have an addiction to the iPad.  In fact, we’re considering sending you to baby rehab.

More drinks with daddy.  More fruit with a side of liquor.

New shoes from our day of outlet shopping in Texas.  Orange + Tory Burch + Flip Flops = AWESOME.

Don’t tell anyone…. but I really missed the puppy while we were gone on Spring Break.

Hand-Me-Down-Heaven.  18 “new” pairs of shoes for Lil Sis to wear this summer.

True Fact: Both of you can wear size 2T coats.

Miss Priss got a big-girl haircut!

Playgroup Movie Date

I love me some chubby baby legs and converse all-stars.

First grounding.  Miss Priss got in trouble for throwing rice on the newly groomed dog and then lying about it.

My heart melted into a puddle when I walked in to find big sister reading little sister a book.

Girl’s night out with La-La-Lindsay.

Disney On Ice

Our “Easter” side-dish we brought to the Eggs & Kegs party.  I’m proud to say that I threw it together in ten-minutes flat.

Hula girl.

Simon Says.

Miss Priss and her favorite hand-me-down night gown from the Foster family.

Oh, how I love naptime with my two sweet girls.

All dressed up for dinner at Snow White’s Cottage (also known to the public as MiMi’s Café)

Driveway fun…

Stranded cat in our tree.  Gave us hours of entertainment while playing in the backyard.

Family night at the park…

Spending some quality Miss Priss & Me time cuddling outside and counting the stars.

With the arrival of the pretty Spring weather… out came the water table.

When skies are looking grey… paint something yellow.

All dressed up to cheer on KU in the National Championship.  (They lost.)

Confession: Sometimes I’m a flat-out slob.  That red bowl sat on my office window ledge so long that the milk in it turned into a solid stinky glob.

Another moment that melted my heart… watching big sister help little sister put her shoes on.

First timeout for Lil Sis.  And as the picture shows, she didn’t seem overly concerned.

Making place cards for Easter Sunday Lunch.

I found this Christmas ornament in Miss Priss’s school backpack one random day.  Made me want to put the tree back up just so we could display it.

Our Friday "Jammie Days" tradition continues.... even outside.

Whew!!  That hearty Instagram dish only got us through the first week of April.  But there's so many more to share....

(to be continued)

Eighteen Months

Little goose, how can you already be so old?

You’ve traded chubby baby rolls for the non-stop pitter-patter of toddling feet.  And as much as I want to dig in my heels and force time to stand still – you continue growing and learning and changing right before my very eyes.

Today we had a visitor.  Miss Dorothy, who is our Parents-As-Teachers coach, came for her monthly checkup and stumped me with a very simple question:

“What do you find challenging with Lucy.”

And I was blank.  I searched my mind high and low to come up with an answer, any answer, as to what we’d battled with you over the last few weeks.  Anything that had given me reason to doubt, to fear, to even be slightly stressed out.

I couldn’t come up with anything.

You, my dear… are quite nearly perfect.

Sure, you throw food off your highchair a million times a day and know just how to get away from me when I’m trying to change your diaper.  Seriously, you throw a WAF like an Oscar winning actress.  But the big stuff?  The stuff that other moms face daily…. I can’t think of one thing you do that is challenging.

And maybe that’s because of mixture of things...

Maybe I’m more relaxed with you than I was with Miss Priss?  Maybe it’s just your funny personality that makes me laugh instead of cringe?  Maybe you just don’t push the same buttons your very head-strong sister does?

No matter…. you, my child, are the best little eighteen-month-old I could ever dream of.

And so we remember every bit of this fleeting time… because I know our challenges can’t be far away… here are just a few of the things I love about you:

I love how you wake up each morning, jump to your feet and give the dog open mouth kisses through the bars of your crib.  You hand me each of your baby dolls, one-by-one and then once they are all out of bed, you hold your chubby hands up for me to finally lift you out.

I love how you’re a little bookworm.  You’ll sit and sit and sit in your room and flip through all the pages of all your books.  I’ll hear your sweet voice float down the hall as you say the different animal names and count the things you see.  Sometimes you blow me away with how fast you pick up on things, whether it be a new song, recognizing colors or the motions to one of big sister’s games.

Girl, you’ve got an obsession with the iPad.  We can’t even have it around anymore, without your persistent little “iPad, iPad, iPad” chant.  And what does an eighteen-month old do on an $800 piece of technology?  Ha!  The sky’s the limit with you!  You know just how to open up the apps you like – the Elmo app, the camera app, the Tinkerbell app – and you swipe across that screen like nobody’s business.

Your vocabulary astounds me.  While you can practically count to five now and you’ve got the entire Baby Animal book memorized… I love that you’ve also created new words for the simplest things.

Like “gong” for water.

You won’t drink a drop of milk…. but “gong” is something I hear over and over…  All. Day. Long.

And I can’t help but hope that you never actually call water by it’s correct name.

The other day you announced to the world (me, Molly and our crazy puppy dog) that you’d gone “Poo-Poo.”  So I answered back with a simple… “Good girl!  Let’s go change your diaper!”

You turned on your heel, threw me back an impatient look and clear as day replied… “C’mon!  C’mon!  C’mon!” …as you toddled down the hall to your room.

Yes, you are quite my little talker.

Your home-away-from-home is the highchair.  I’m pretty sure that if I supplied a steady flow of food, you would sit there contently for ten hours straight.  Favorites include bananas (recent record is 3-1/2 at one sitting), carrots, cheese and fruit loops.  Things you’ll quickly chuck off your tray is strawberries, broccoli and hard-boiled eggs.

Lastly, but certainly not leastly, is how I love to put you to bed each night.  Gone are our late hours of nursing in the rocking chair.  We’ve replaced them with a marathon of books each night, books that you pick oh so carefully because only you know which books are acceptable for our snuggle time.

We play peek-a-book with Elmo, we count butterflies, we read Goodnight Gorilla.  And then you lean a little further back into my chest, I wrap my arms around you and we bring together our praying hands.  And each night we say our prayers.  You don’t fidget, you don’t talk… you seem to know that those few seconds with our hands together is Holy.

And then I stand up, bring your sleepy head to my shoulder and sway back and forth, back and forth.  I whisper how much I love you and how I’ll see you in the morning.  We sway and sway, until finally, I feel your arms droop and I can slowly lower you into the crib.  I tuck a baby doll under each arm, pull the blanket up to your chin and whisper one last “Goodnight, baby girl”.

And that, my dear, wraps up all things eighteen-months for you.  From your wispy red locks to your chubby little toes, you have become everything to me.  This past year-and-a-half has literally flown by…. it seems like just yesterday I was holding your tiny little body in the palm of my hand.

You have grown into a little somebody right before my very eyes.  With thoughts and feeling and… God-help-me… loads of attitude.  And whether it be eighteen-months or eighteen-years… you will always be my baby girl.

I love you, my silly little goose.

hello there

Well hello there my two sweet girls.

A week ago, I said goodbye to the world-wide-web.  I tearfully departed from sponsors and commenter’s and a Miss Priss & Me fan-club beyond my imagination.

I gave it all up for you.

From this day forward, you are my reader.  You are my critic.  You are my fan-club.  The rest of these pages will be filled with words that only you will hear.

Today, I will return to the reason I started this blog.

To create a legacy for you.

I want to begin by telling you how much I love you.  How you are my everything.  On my darkest days where I’m irritated and stressed and driven crazy by all your whining… I go to bed aching for you to be in my arms.  I want to pluck you both from your beds and pull you into mine, just so I can hear you breathe and watch you dream.

I never imagined that I could love anyone this strongly.

I want to apologize.  I have prioritized poorly and you have been the ones clamoring for second place.  All my hours wasted on my phone and on my computer are hours that I’ll never get back with you.  I have let cartoons and Disney movies replace precious hours that I could have been making memories with you.  For teaching you.  For loving you.

And I want to make a promise to you.  I promise that we’ll do things differently from here on out.

From now on, you will come first and my blog will come second.

Oh I’ll still continue to write.  I will tell you about our adventures together, the challenges that we face, the moments that take my breath away.  I will share with you all the things you do that make me so happy and all the silly things you do that make me laugh. 

I want you to someday look back and read my words and know how blessed I felt being the mommy of two amazing girls.  I want you to hear how my heart bursts with pride every time you learn something new, do something new, say something new.  I want you to have a time capsule of the past… times that you’ll grow up and not remember, yet were so important in carving out the women you’ll grow to be.

Over the past week, I have received email after email telling me how much someone enjoyed reading this blog.  They’ve told me how they’ve cried with me, laughed with me, and loved you without ever really knowing you.  I have touched hearts across the nation with my stories of our life, and saying goodbye to such a supportive community has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.

But as I say goodbye to them, I say hello to you.

So hello there my wild and precious girls…. let our own adventures begin.