Holy Crow, Livers is 3!!!

January 2007:

January 2008:

January 2009:

January 2010:

I am officially the mother of a 3-year-old. I can't believe it, I really can't.

This would be way cooler if she weren't hitting her terrible twos a year late. The sassyness is going to kill me. P.S., when do kids start listening???

Normal parental frustrations aside, I am so happy to be her mom. Her smile lights up my life, and her voice is music for my soul. Every day that God has given me with her is truly a blessing, and I hope that I have the strength to forget the sometimes bad that she will throw me everyday to remember just how blessed I truly am to have her in my life.

Here's to three times infinity.

Looking Back and Looking Forward

It seems seriously strange to me that a whole decade has gone by. A WHOLE DECADE. That's ten freakin' years. Of my life. Over. The passage of time is not what boggles my mind. What amazes me is what has happened in those ten years and how I've changed as a person. Luckily I think it's been for the better.

What has happened to me in 10 years?

• The worst relationship of my life
• The best relationship of my life
• Going to NYC
  
• Flying on a plane for the first time
  
• Graduating college
• Starting my first job
• Going to Hawaii and getting engaged while there
• Getting married
• Buying a house
• Becoming a pet owner
  
• Having my first baby
• Quitting my first job to stay home with my baby
• Getting back to God
• Revitalizing the artist within
• Realizing that my childhood dreams where actually not for me

That's the short list.

I think one of the best things about the past decade, though, has to be seeing myself change as a person. I started 2000 pessimistic, needy, and mentally self-abusive. I had low self-esteem, and as a result I made bad decisions for myself the baggage of which will probably stick with me on some level the rest of my life. I left 2009 stronger, more confident, and filled with much less self-doubt. Over the decade I started learning how to accept myself, flaws and all, for who I am, and I gained a better concept of who I am and what I stand for in life.

I know there is room for improvement. Any person who feels they are perfect right now is deluded, because you are always able to become a better you. My hope for the next ten years is to become even happier and more accepting of who I am, and to hopefully pass on a healthy self-image on to my daughter. I don't want her to walk through life depressed with herself because she can't live up to certain standards, hers or others. I want her to be happy with the girl God made her and to strive to be the best that she can be and to live her life for God (heck, I want that for myself, too). I want to spend the next ten years (and my lifetime) being someone that makes GOD proud, because His standards are the only ones that matter. And I want to spend the next ten years realizing that no matter what happens--good, bad, and everything in between--that I don't have to experience them alone but that He is always by my side celebrating my good times and helping me walk through the bad.

What a Difference a Year Makes

Last year: The Obligatory Screaming, Crying, Please-Get-Me-the-Heck-Out-of-Santa's-Arms Picture
This year: Not too happy, only would sheepishly whisper, but actually sat still and did NOT cry.


Maybe next year we'll actually make it to talking to Santa!

Wanted:

Three-quarter length blue and white boatneck BabyGap shirt, circa fall 2008, in ANY size larger than 2T. Goes by the name of "Airplane Shirt". Please find before the one above is outgrown, or we're going to be up a creek. Way up a creek.


I don't know exactly why, but Livers has grown far too attached to the aforementioned and above shirt. I called it her "Airplane Shirt" because last year I wanted to get her excited about taking a flight to her grandparents and I bought her a new shirt for the occasion, and it stuck. She now wears it all the time and for many MANY days in a row.

Monday night she had an absolute conniption fit because it was in the laundry and she couldn't wear it. She was in her room quiet, and I thought asleep, when all of the sudden I heard gut-wrenching cries coming from her room. I thought she was hurt or sick or something since, you know, she was supposed to be asleep.

She was not.

Somewhere in her twilight period before falling into blissful slumber she must have thought about her shirt and the fact that she couldn't have it, and she absolutely fell apart. She was naked flailing about her bed and I could not comfort her. Every time I suggested something else to wear she got upset and screamed even louder. When I tried to put something else on her (because a child can't sleep naked) she would punch and kick and scream until she wiggled out of it. She got herself so worked up she started doing those sad cries where your whole body heaves and you start hyperventilating. It was a truly sad sight. (And kind of funny. It took all J and my strength to keep for laughing.)

After about twenty minutes I finally calmed her down enough to put on clothes and drift off to sleep, but I was left worried about what to do when her most favorite shirt no longer fits. I don't know if she'd let me sew pieces of it to a larger shirt, and I don't know if she'd let me make her a blanket from it, either. I just pray that I can find a larger one before she finally outgrows it, or it's gonna be trouble...

Fight, Tigers, Fight, Fight, Fight!

Last night Livers, J, and I went to our first sporting event together. It was a basketball game, which was nice because it was much shorter than a football one, and the team was a guaranteed win, which meant we could leave early if we had to do so. We were a bit nervous as to how it would play out, because Livers is a high activity child, and we didn't know how long her patience would hold up.

Man, did she prove us wrong! She was completely enthralled by all of the action. For the first ten minutes she sat awe-struck in her seat watching everything going on around her. When people would cheer she would get into it, and she discovered tubas when the band was playing, which she now things is the coolest thing ever. Seeing as she's almost three she did get antsy, so I took her for a nice long walkrun around the coliseum towards the end of the game. Overall it was a very pleasant experience. Usually only the Pops gets to enjoy the sporting events in the house, so it was a whole lot of fun for me, too, to get to enjoy this with him and as a family.

Too Uncreative for a Title, So We'll Just Say, "Hello"

Hello, internets.

It's been awhile.

A long while.

No hard feelings, I've just had other things that I'd rather give my attention to for quite some time. (And other things, like overactive and demanding nearly-three-year-olds, that keep my attention distracted like it or not.)

It's possible that this foray back into blogging might not last all that long, but I am starting to get a little of the writing itch back. Maybe it's the need to start expressing myself in writing again or the demands of motherhood are starting make me feel a little batty and I need to reconnect with others experiencing the same thing, but I want to attempt this writing thing.

Since I haven't written anything of significance in quite some time, I thought it would be a spectacular idea to start ANOTHER blog as well. Makes sense, right? One thing that has been keeping my attention diverted is my love of all things crafty. I was taught to knit in August and I decided to teach myself to crochet at the same time, and I am in LOVE. I've also been trying out some other things as well, and I decided it might be a good idea to chronicle my crafting endeavors in their own place. It's not much right now because I've barely gotten a crack at the layout, but if you ever want to see what else is going on, check it here:

Tales from the Rainbow Room

I hope to look back in at some point in the future and see how far I've come as a Crafty Chica. If I can update regularly, that is :)

Well, that's it for now. All I can muster as the little one and her little playmate need attention (along with the fifteen puzzles that they have scattered around the den). Until hopefully soon....

Wordless Wednesday - "Fun" at the Shore

I know it's been almost a month (gasp - a month!) since my last post, but I had to put this picture up. We'll call this a Wordless Wednesday, because there were almost no words.

I'm at the beach with Livers and my parents, and while watching Livers play delightfully in the surf I happened to look up and saw this about 15 feet away:

P.S. That's not a dolphin.

I don't think I've jerked her out of somewhere faster, even when she's in trouble.