{this moment}

letter to Noa month 8

Dear Noa,

Clearly, the two child thing keeps me busy... but in a good way. So years from now, when you look at your not-quite-full baby book, or scrapbook with letters that are a little more than a month apart, I do hope you'll forgive me and remember that we were busy in a good way.

Each day I wake and feel so incredibly blessed. You are such a happy child and seem to delight in nearly everything around you. You are very different from your sister in your determination. Sena is determined, but more in a book-ish way. (She's right, I'm wrong, etc.) And while you will probably have the same feelings but can't verbalize them yet, right now you express your determination in your desire to try to do everything yourself. Yep, at 8 months. Whereas your sister crawled at 13+ months and then walked, you are about to crawl.. and pull yourself up.. and you think you should feed yourself too. I imagine you just want to keep up with Sena. Yesterday the two of you actually played together. (Or at least with the same toy.) And I had this little glimpse into what our future might hold (without any bickering, too!?) You smile frequently and really just glow with happiness.

As my last posts have shown, we tried to take you on a family vacation, and although you were really a trooper, we canned the vacation after one night due to lack of sleep. We'll try again in a month or so, and we really hope that family vacations are on the horizon.

I came across this quote this morning that felt perfect for where I'm at right now, and also for where I'm at..
"So there are weeds in the garden and bills paid online last minute and many other things that fall through the cracks. That's alright. I've stepped into the river, and allowed the life force, the wonderous current, to pull me along, As a mother, I've learned to just enjoy the journey and trust that the destination is exactly where I should end up."

I love you honey,
love
mama

Love

a few pictures from last week.. sena's first dance/gymnastics combo class and Noa just sporting her summer hat.

Summer is Here

The weather is warming (probably too quickly) and the girls' are enjoying their time outside.. and I'm enjoying the fact that I have two girls that Steven says I play dress-up with. Might as well. In not too many years they will both protest when I try to fix their hair or adjust their clothes, so I'm running with it. How cute is this jumper?!

Staying Put

So, last week we set off on our first family vacation. The plan? Breckenridge for one night and then Crested Butte for four (and then making the 5+ hour drive home). The result? One night in Breck, followed by the rest of the week at our home in Louisville.

It was probably overly ambitious for us to embark on such a long car ride for our first family vacation. It was probably equally stupid to try while Sena was sick (and then Noa and mama, too). We had a nice time in Breck, but for the most part it certainly wasn't relaxing. And before all of you mamas out there tell me that I'll never "relax" on a vacation again, let me tell you that we've had lots of vacations with Sena that were incredibly relaxing. Just not sure we can do that with two.. at this age..

So, we came home. And it was the best decision we could have made. Once everyone was feeling better we spent the week exploring and enjoying the area. Enjoying having papa around. Going for hikes. Going to the Botanic Gardens. Having picnics nearly every day. It was so relaxing that it will take quite a bit to persuade me to try anything different for quite some time.

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. We are skipping the single photo this week.. and providing a few from our Staycation. (See next blog post!)