Mom Moment Monday

The following are items that you can be either truly jealous or sarcastically jealous of.... you're job to figure out which. Go.

-E said please and thank you after all questions or tasks this evening.

-She even stopped splashing all of her bathwater on to my floor long enough to tell me she loved me. twice.

-I am now the proud mother of a child that takes off her bathing suit bottoms DURING swim class only to pull them OUT of the water to show me. You can find her on the tiny tot public nudity registry.

-She ate all her carrots at dinner and asked for me. Only to be told "please eat some chicken and mashed potatoes before more you get more carrots." eat your hearts out moms of picky eaters...

-She farted while I was lotioned her butt. And laughed about it.

But, when she is as cute as this, you forgive the farts and do your best to only remember the unsolicited I love yous.

dying over how cute this suit is! and that it is from the girls section, not the toddlers..

Happy Monday people! Let's do our best to ease into the week without getting farted on, but with many I love yous..

Another milestone...

As a new mother, I found myself consumed with milestones. Is she walking, talking, doing pretty much everything little thing on time OR even better early. In an era of social media with instant communication, gratification, and a google search, we end up comparing ourselves and our children against often unreasonable expectations.

While I feel this is terrible and a sad example of things happening in so many aspects of our lives (thanks Pinterest), I find it most sad with our children and our parenting styles. It's hard to resist the urge to make another homemade learning board to match letters, or encourage early reading, math skills etc. What ever happened to allowing children to learn at their own pace or organically? Why is it the expectation that kids should be fully reading by kindergarten or doing basic math? Isn't that what our preschool and early elementary school teachers are charged with? Shouldn't some time at home be devoted to love and family, rather than continuing to a 10 hour school day?

Here's the deal. I love that E is in a preschool. I love that she loves to learn. But, I want her to do it at her own pace. Is she smart? Heck yes. Good genes, duh!

While I am celebrating a really exciting milestone today for my girl, (see below) I am also already a bit overwhelmed by choosing a kindergarten for E to start in A YEAR AND A HALF! This for me is just another parenting decision I think we've made too complicated.

Here's my point. Parenting is hard enough without the unreasonable expectations that we put on ourselves and the judgement we give to other mothers if they aren't clothdiaperingorganicfeedingflashcardmachines. Give yourself a break. All kids pretty much catch up to one another regardless of how many flashcards they did while still in diapers.

I have no idea when E is supposed to be writing her name, letters, or words. I've stopped reading up on that stuff. But, she can spell her name, is learning to write it on her own, and even (with some spelling help) wrote "Mommy" for the first time last night. I was overjoyed. She was so excited to do it and did a great job! So, indulge me and take a look at her adorable penmanship.

Another milestone in the books, ladies and gentlemen. Only 45 days until she turns 4, but who's counting?!

My holiday trip "recap"

I had great plans to share with you wonderful snapshots and pictures from our tour-de-US for the holidays. However, I am quickly realizing I don't really have any photos to share. For which, I am actually quite pleased as a mom, less pleased as a blogger.

To me, this means I spent more time making memories and enjoying my friends and family than I did capturing the moment via photos. While I can't prove it, I can tell you that our 12 day vacation was wonderful, long, but wonderful.

Here are the highlights....
- The food. Finally, good mexican, in-and-out, cracker barrel, and everything else my heart desired.
- Matching jammies for E and my niece on Christmas. This has become such a fun tradition for me and it makes for good pictures... good pictures I never took.
- Late nights with good friends and family. I laughed until my belly hurt. I had heart to hearts. I caught up, shared, and loved with so many wonderful people. My heart is full.
- Actually attending my 10 year HS reunion. I honestly wasn't sure if this was something I even wanted to do. But, it ended up being fun to catch up with few old friends... and spend the rest of the evening catching up on cocktails. A reunion is only as good as it's cocktails, right? I do have a few pictures from this night, that will stay hidden in the vault.
- A New Year's Day 5K. This isn't a positive highlight. It was miserable. But I did it with my bestie, hubs, and the bestie's hubs. Although, they all left me in the dust with my wardrobe malfunction, shoe issues, and cold. I finished... then ate myself into fat town. It was so cold and the first mile was uphill. never.again.
-Actually making it to mid-night on NYE. This hasn't happened in a while. It was a lot of fun, naturally because I was with this girl.
- Coming home. 'nough said.

I'm glad to be back, but am suffering a bit of the January blues... more on that later.

Patience.

I'm finally at home after nearly 2 weeks of travel. I promise to share more on how exhausting  amazing the trip was. We went from CO to CA to TN and back to CO in the last 12 days. And, now I'm too sick to share with you how much I loved it!

I have loved reading blogs in the last few days that have chosen a word for 2013. I haven't really ever kept a new years resolution, so I'm skipping that this year. Instead, I'm chosen a word for 2013. This word will hopefully provide something to go back to now and then to see how I'm doing. It's a check and balance that will hopefully take me where I want to be.

Patience.

This year I am striving towards patience. Patience is something I have always struggled with. When I decide I want something I'm like bloodhound hunting it down to make it mine. That's pretty much how Jason and I got married... I totally made the decision and latched on and bullied him until he proposed.... I'm joking. Sorta.

In 2013 I hope for patience...

with my daughter - to understand that she is only 3 and learning everyday.
with my husband - that we are partners in life and always just doing our best.
with my friends and family - that I am so incredibly lucky to have such amazing people that truly love me and my family, even if they drive me crazy sometimes
with my job - that I am so lucky to have a job that I am successful at.
with my home - to know that I am going to eventually have a fully decorated home. It takes time and money and patience to find things I love. No one is judging me because it isn't a match of my pinterest board. But it's mine. And I love it.
with this blog - this blog is growing and changing and a wonderful space for me to express myself. I really love the opportunity to share our life and love story.
with my heart & my faith - this is one of the biggest place of growth for me in the coming year. I'm exciting to learn more and dig deep. I'm not really sure where this journey will take us, but I'm excited to go...

patience.