Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the fabulous mothers in my life:

My mom,

My godmother, 

My mother-in-law,

My Nana,

And my grandmothers-in-law,

But today, I especially want to honor my Grandma, Dorothy, who passed away a couple weeks ago.  She was a honest, trustworthy, humble and dignified woman.  She is already missed, but leaves a great legacy and many memories.

And to all the mom's out there--keep up the good, hard, rewarding, exhilarating and exhausting work.   Your efforts will produce greatness.

play with kate

today, i am thankful for...

1. Family who help watch Liam every week. I know that it is a lot to ask of family to be caregivers every week, but they do it with love and joy. My mom (Mimi), mother-in-law (Grammy) and occasionally, sisters and sister-in-law are the best sitters around. When you add in our fantastic nanny, Brooke, the Liam "babysitting calendar" looks pretty complicated. But we, and he, wouldn't have it any other way.

2. Coffee.  Take one sick baby, multiply it by three flights in the last week, add a hotel room and subtract any semblance of a schedule...you know what that equals? No sleep. Thank God for Peet's coffee, which helps me keep my eyes open at work. It was on sale at Safeway this week--$7.99 a pound--and I stocked up.

3. Kenra Dry Shampoo.  I could marry this product.  In less than 30 seconds, my roots are clean and I have saved 30 minutes.  An extra thirty minutes these days is PRICELESS.

4. My "McJob."  Some people think McDonald's is a dead end job. It is anything but that. I work for a company that rewards hard work, that offers enormous opportunity for growth and that invests in my future. And I work for a company who understands that I am a mom first.

5. My Husband He should really be at the top of this list. He is a hard worker, the best father and makes me feel like the most important thing in his life. He makes me laugh everyday, grounds me and supports me in the midst of difficult circumstances.

9 months!

So, for those who come to the blog for pictures, they are right at the front of this post.

For those of you who like to read novels, I have the start of one below.  I don't usually write so much, but my little 9-month old is quite inspiring.  It's more of a letter to him, but you are welcome to read.  But beware, it is a long one.

**Official 9 Month pictures to come once we get our laptop fixed (Uggghh, second Mac down in a year).  For now, a couple IPhone photos to tide you over:

your shy & sneaky smile (with a cereal mustache, no less)

about to pout--get that bottom lip out!

  

favorite time of the day--bathtime!

clean monkey!

I am a couple days late for the monthly post, but penned my thoughts on a flight a couple days ago:


Happy 9 Month Birthday, William!
I can't believe you are already nine months. You have been in this world as long as you were nestled in my womb. I remember, month by month of my pregnancy, marveling at how you were growing inside of me--wondering who you would be, what you would look like and how you would impact my life.

Now, I see who you are and little glimpses of who you will be. You are becoming our “little man”—laughing with your one syllable “ha!” and taking pride in your accomplishments—crawling all over, pulling yourself up, giving us “raspberries” on our arms and kisses on command.

Sometimes, when I look at you, I am overwhelmed with emotion and awe…that something so perfect, so adorable came from me. Confession time: When I was pregnant, there were times that I would find myself wondering what you would look like. I have seen a couple of awkward babies in my time, and I didn’t assume that my child would automatically be a supermodel. But I had nothing to fret about. Including your extremely large front teeth (which I think are a most adorable trait) you are picture perfect. I actually had someone ask me recently if I had considered getting you an agent. Another perfect stranger stopped us in the grocery store and told me that you were so cute and should be a “Gerber Baby.” I am proud of your handsome looks, but honestly a little worried about the prospect of young ladies adoring you in your future. I am not ready to give up my position as the main woman in your life.

You are growing like a weed—taller and thinner every day. You are stretching out, barely gaining any weight in the past couple months-- rather gaining height. Your hair is still fuzzy, seemingly sticking up on end most of the time, the light brown wisps almost see-through in the right light. Your little nose looks an awful lot like mine, but judging by the amount of times you faceplant into the floor or furniture I wonder if it will be permanently swollen from impact.

You have two smiles for two different settings. The first is BIG, your mouth almost making the shape of the letter O, your two large front teeth dominating it. This is your smile for most people, and you give it to me and your dad anytime you see us after we have been away from you for a while. Your second smile is a bashful one. You tilt your head down, peer up with your eyes and curl the ends of your lips into a grin. I haven’t pinpointed why you do this—I think it is mostly for people you aren’t completely comfortable with, but I also think you reserve it for when you are feeling slightly sneaky.

And oh, boy—how have you impacted my life? All for the better. Life seems a blur before you—less important. From the moment I hear you talking on the monitor in the morning, to the moment you are snuggling me in your rocking chair at night, you bring me so much happiness and contentment. I find myself wishing for more time with Liam at the end of the day. I love staring at you while you sleep and watching you learn when you are awake. You still love books. You still love being outside.

You have begun to take interest in watching other children. Last night at the park you were mesmerized by two boys kicking around a soccerball and others zooming by you on scooters. In your stroller, you like to sit on the edge of your seat and pull yourself to standing, wanting to get as close to the action as possible. Sit back and relax? Not in your vocabulary! You are fun, you are curious, you are easy going, you are engaging, you are well behaved.

Last week, you were Mr. Flexible and Mr. Sweetness. I hijacked your ordinarily regimented schedule with a 12 hour, all night, road trip to Seattle to visit your Great Grand-mama Pelton. She is very ill and is in hospice care. I didn’t really expect anything less from you, but you were a complete blessing to an otherwise difficult couple days.

Each time we walked into her room, you reached out for her and wanted to give her hugs and slobber kisses. Your smile not only brightened her spirits, but also those of family members visiting and coping with the pain of losing her. It went beyond our family, even touching nurses and volunteers at the house. Over the four days we were there I heard multiple times: “He is so adorable and so well behaved.” One nurse made me realize how sweet it was to have you there, saying: “It is so refreshing to see new life in a place like this.” You brought life and joy to a situation that would have been much more painful without you.

The sweetest moment was when you were taking your morning nap. I was holding you as I sat by Grandma’s bed. I showed her your precious sleeping face, and asked her if she wanted to hold you. Too weak to hold you in her arms, I laid you, swaddled, in the bed right next to her, your head cradled in the nook of her arm. You slept there peacefully for over two hours. The last hour, Grandma drifted off with you…both of you sleeping together. It was a priceless moment, captured by camera and the film of my heart. Though uncharacteristic for you—both the long nap, and being held that long, I was not surprised by your ability to adapt to the situation and be an immediate blessing. Those are your definitely part of your budding character.

You have no idea the joy you bring me. I suspect that you won’t for many years to come—maybe not until you experience this with your own son or daughter. But for now, I will write about the joy I have in you so you can read it later and know how much, how deeply I care for you.

Happy nine month birthday.

Love, Mum-Mum

Sweet and Simple Wall Mural

Last week I spent a couple evenings out at Matt's sister and brother in laws' home, helping with the finishing touch of their daughter's nursery.  Sarah had asked me to paint a little something above Peyton's crib.

To tell the whole story, we have to go back to October--even before Peyton was born--to her baby shower.  I hosted a shower for Sarah and Peyton at our home.  The theme was "Sweet Dreams" complete with beds for tables, bedtime stories in lieu of cards and a midnight snack dessert table:

And in true Hannah fashion {I was my cheerleading squad's designated sign maker}, I made a butcher-paper sign with watercolors that said: "Sweet Dreams, Precious Peyton Ryan."  You can sort of see it below; although my chandelier {isn't it fabulous, by the way?} is hiding it:

I figured I would just throw the paper sign away at the end of the night, but Sarah took it home and hung it above Peyton's crib, where it stayed until last week.  After four months of looking at the paper sign, Sarah was ready for something more permanent.   However, she liked the look of it, so we decided to keep the words as it but make it look a little more sharp.

I'm posting this because #1 - I thought it turned out pretty nice #2 - I like reading about how other people do crafty things on their blogs and #3 - I don't have any recent pictures of Liam to post tonight :)

Nursery Mural Tutorial:

1. The first thing I did was mock up what I wanted it to look like in Word, including picking some cute fonts: "A Font With Serifs", "Sketch Block Bold" and "Clementine Sketch"-- all available for free download at dafont.com  Then I printed out the letters.  I cut them out individually and traced them to the wall. 

2. For the word "Sweet," I turned the page over and traced the letters in charcoal. 

3. Then I placed it on the wall where I wanted it and pressed firmly {I used the eraser end of a pencil} on the letters to transfer the charcoal to the wall.  I traced around the charcoal with pencil, then wiped the charcoal off.

4. After all of the letters were traced out, I began painting.

5. And painted, and painted and painted.  I added a moon, stars, clouds and a dot border.

6. Voila!

The Sweater

My mom gave Liam a sweater last week--a creamy cable knit.  She said it reminded her of a sweater that my siblings shared growing up.  Our family mastered the art of the hand-me-down, so I am sure that all four of us, including my brother, wore it at some point.

And crazy enough, as I was going through old pics {as mentioned in yesterday's post}, I found a photo of "the sweater."  My younger sister, Katie, is wearing it below.  I am pretty sure we are in Tahoe in the picture.  Good memories.

Time is flying!

One of my favorite things to do {when I can actually find the time} is to scroll thru my iPhoto and look at old pictures and videos of William.  And boy, do we have a TON of photos of him when he was a wee little one.  Here's one that made me smile today.

Isn't he the chubbiest 7 week old ever!?!  His cheeks are so heavy, he can't even smile.

I remember how {before I went back to work} I would feed him, and then we would spend an hour or so in my bed singing and playing, smiling and cooing.  Fast forward to today:  Matt brings William down in the morning for his feeding and, afterward, I attempt to have "mommy and me" time in bed.  In reality, William waits a total of two seconds before he is crawling off the bed, headfirst; trying to find my phone and eat it, or telling me--in his adorable jibberish--that he is ready for his breakfast of champions--cereal and fruit.

For all those mommies out there with itty-bitty babies: cherish those snuggle times, those quiet times alone with your babe--those times when your little one can't crawl off :)