Mother Love

It’s so hard to believe that this weekend was the last one before Christmas! Christmas has totally snuck up on me this year, and I also keep thinking it’s on Thursday instead of Friday. Ben has to remind me almost every day that it’s not on Thursday, ha. #mombrain We had a great weekend, so here’s the little recap!

Saturday: We actually slept in past seven o’clock, which we rarely do and I always feel somewhat accomplished when we do that on the weekend, hehe. We had scrambled eggs and cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and woke Ayla up for the day together at eight o’clock. She’s been an extra sleepy girl this whole week, and most days she’s been taking a two hour morning nap and sometimes a second two-hour nap in the afternoon (like…whaaaat?!). Ben stayed home with Ayla for an hour or so while I ran some errands in town, and then he did his errand run once I came back. We did house work and I made some jam bars to take to a dinner party that some friends from church invited us to that evening. It’s been so good to be making new friends and connections here, and especially with church people…it just makes us feel more settled and a part of the community to be getting to know people! We decided to leave for our friend’s house in Nashville an hour earlier than we needed to so we could stop for coffee before hand. There are a ton of great coffee spots in Nashville, but so far Steadfast Coffee is one of my top faves…so we grabbed some coffees from there and hung out for a while. We drove over to some local shops that I’ve been wanting to check out and browsed for a little, and then loaded back up in the car to drive around while Ayla napped before heading to our friend’s house. We had a great evening with delicious food and fun conversations and watching our three little girl-babies. It’s seriously so fun to be friends with other first-time parents with babies the same age! Which means that the majority of our conversations are about how our babies, sleep, and fill their diapers, hehe.

Sunday: We wanted a super relaxing day at home so we spent the entire day (besides church) at home taking naps and reading and staying cozy in front of the fireplace. We did venture out for a little walk after lunch, but it was just such a nice quiet day for us. We went to church in the afternoon and it was such a beautiful Christmas-inspired service that just made me feel so festive and Christmas-y! For some reason, I’ve been struggling to feel super festive this year…like, I’m not a Scrooge by any means, but normally I’m just feeling all gung-ho Christmas all month long. It’s just taking longer to hit me this year, I guess!

Here are five things I love:
– this song (a couple from church sang it this past sunday and it was so inspiring and pretty)
– ALL of these dessert ideas (having a hard time deciding which one to make for our christmas day)
– this is TOO SWEET
– this reminder for 21st century parents
– these Christmas Eve tradition ideas

Have the best holiday week, dears!

Seven months!

She is growing up so fast lately, it seems…and suddenly it hardly feels like she’s a baby anymore in some ways. A few days ago, I was looking back through photos from her birth and those first few weeks of her life and I just about couldn’t take it! How was she so teeny and small and new just seven months ago? It feels like she’s been our girl for an eternity already. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…I cannot imagine life without her. We first fell in love with her the minute we discovered she was growing inside of me, and then all over again the minute she was born and laid on my chest…and yet it seems that there are moments throughout every single day that I feel like I fall in love with her all over again.

I find myself facilitating between wanting to freeze time and keeping her at least this small for forever, and then in the next moment looking so forward to her growing up and being able to teach her things and take her shopping and going out for coffee dates and talking about life with her. I was making some Christmas cookies earlier this week and she was there on the counter beside me in her Bumbo just watching me and chewing on kitchen utensils and throwing measuring cups around…and I had to think about how different the scene will be next Christmas….and the next, and the next. Time is such a beautiful, conflicting thing, and you really just have to be intentional about soaking it all in as it happens, right?

Here’s what she’s been up to lately::

– sitting on her own! She will still topple over sometimes still so we try to always keep a pillow or piles of blankets around her when she’s on the floor. She loves to sit in the living room and play with her basketful of toys. So far she hasn’t shown any interest in crawling or scooting around, and hates being on her tummy so much! I’m actually ready for her to start moving around on her own because I think she will be much more entertained when she can get around (and i imagine that i’ll be a lot more entertained as well, hehe). I guess she’ll learn when she’s ready!

– eating solids! We started offering her solid foods around six months, and it took her a while to get the hang of eating from a spoon, but she does good with it now. Some days she won’t eat as much and will wrinkle up her face at certain things, especially if it’s a new flavor. Then other days, she will open up her little mouth wide and eat and eat and eat and get impatient if you take too long to get her the next bite! She likes banana, applesauce, avocado, and sweet potato so far…and we’re working on getting peas on the “will eat” list. I can’t understand it…peas are so yum!

– “talking”! She’s becoming quite the chatterbox lately, and she’ll sit on the floor with her toys and just jabber to herself. It’s the cutest thing! We’ve been trying hard to get her to say “da da” and there are times when she does make a “da” sound and of course we think she actually tried to do that and make a big deal about it, hehe. #firsttimeparents

A LOOK BACK: six months, four months, two months, first week, and our birth story.

What about you: what are some cute/fun things that your child(ren) are up to lately?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!