Friday

~18 months old~Probably my favorite age so far!

Some random thoughts about being 18 months old:

It seems like everyday Summer is doing or saying something new. Just today she started to "moo" like a cow when we were watching her Baby Einstein DVD and I pointed to a cow and said "moo." She also said "apple"..well it was more like "app!" But she said it each time they showed the apple, so I"ll give it to her! She said "blue" when they showed a blue cup. She has been saying "duck" a lot too and I didn't teach her intentionally. We just happened to be going to the park to feed the ducks, and then the next day she saw a duck on her DVD and said "duck!" Then she pulled out her yellow ducky at bath time and showed Dada and said "duck." He was quite impressed. So it just goes to show us that she is listening to every word we say!!

She is babbling all day long, chatting away saying who knows what! But she sure knows what she is talking about, that's for sure!

Every time we go to Trader Joe's they give her a balloon. She absolutely loves balloons! After they "die" we cut the strings short and she drags them around with her everywhere she goes. We try to name them according to color. So far most of her toys have boys names, so we've been trying to use more girls names. So far, her favorite balloons have been Miss Lavender, Miss Mandarin and Miss Scarlet.

She is very independent, strong willed full of energy and she knows exactly what she wants and doesn't want. However, when other people are around she can be very quiet and she'll just study you until she feels comfortable enough to crack a smile. Which can take a while. She's not easily "won over." Haha!

She is getting to the point where she doesn't want me to feed her with a spoon anymore. She likes to do it herself, and she's pretty good at it too. She can eat yogurt with a spoon and not make too much of a mess. Nana and Papa were pretty impressed with her spoon skills when they were here to visit. She'll even use a napkin to "wipe her face." Whenever I cough and cover my mouth, Summer will do the same.

She still gets scared by loud noises and will come running to us whenever a big plane goes overhead and she hates the vacuum. Of course, so do I...but for different reasons! haha!

She loves to eat whatever you have on your plate (even if she just ate) and she has started drinking from a cup, with a little help from us, but she's still doing it herself. We just make sure it hardly has any water in there. She never really had a bottle, so she's not too familiar with the whole "tilt your head back" way of drinking. After we weaned her she went straight to a sippy cup with a straw.

Whenever she is wearing socks, she'll fling them off any chance she can get, even if it's cold outside. Shoes too. She loves to take off her shoes. She loves to wear sparkly bracelets (especially Grammy's) and we got her a few with "diamonds" in her size and she wears them all the time. She'll even hold her arm up so they won't fall off. She still loves to put on other people's shoes and walk in them.

Her new favorite books are the 2 that Nana and Papa brought her. "What Does Baby Say?" and the "Mommy and Me" book. She loves that one because at the end of it is a mirror. So she loves that part! She also loves her new stuffed blue seal that Nana and Papa bought her at the Long Beach Aquarium. Papa named her "Lucille The Blue Seal", but we also call her the "Gug Seal" since Summer thinks she's a "gug" A.K.A. dog.

She has a sticker chart with right now she is more interested in peeling the stickers off and playing with them. But when she is good she'll get a sticker. She gets stickers for not fussing when we wipe her hands and face after she eats, for letting Mama brush her teeth in the bathtub (and not fussing) and for not fussing when we change her diaper. So far those are the only times she'll but up some resistance, but we've been tackling it pretty good with the sticker chart! She is totally aware that she gets stickers when she is good!

We're trying to keep her on a pretty consistent schedule. Right now it sort of looks like this:

Between 7-7:30 am she wakes up and plays while I fix her breakfast.
Between 7:30-9 she eats and plays. (sometimes she eats for a looong time!)
Between 9-10:30 we'll either go for a walk through the park or we'll play in the house and watch her Baby Einstein DVD-depending on the weather.
Around 10:30 we'll have a little light lunch snack, something with chicken to last her through her nap.
Around 11:30 I try to put her down for her nap. We'll read some books and have some milk.
If I'm lucky she'll sleep from about noon til about 2-2:30ish.
Whenever she wakes up we'll have another little light snack. She doesn't eat much for her lunch snacks. Which is fine since she eats so much during breakfast and dinner. So we try to make the lunch snacks count with lots of protein!
(We don't really run any errands after her nap unless we really need to. She will sometimes wake up fussy and we're gearing up for the night time routine so sometimes we'll sit and snuggle and read more books or we'll color and play with stickers or if she's having a really fussy afternoon we'll sit on the couch with a warm milk and a blanket and snuggle while we watch a calm DVD with classical music. It all depends.)
Around 4pm I "try" to start making dinner , but it's hard with a fussy baby at your feet.
Dada gets home around 5:30ish and he'll play with Summer so I can finish dinner and we'll usually be eating around 6pm. After diner we play and about 6:45 we start the bath.
If all is going well, abut 7:15-7:30 we get her out of the bath and in her jammies. We read a few books, she has some warm milk and Dada dances with her and puts her to bed. Sometimes she'll fall asleep in her bed, but most of the time she fights it and cries for about 5 minutes until she falls asleep. She's just like her Dada! Always fighting sleep!
Hopefully by 8pm, sometimes even 8:30 she is fast asleep. She'll usually cry out a few times starting around 11pm, but won't wake up. She can be a very restless sleeper. On occasion, we'll have to go in her room and help to rock her back to sleep. But she can usually soothe herself back to sleep. Which is the goal!

(Of course, while I finish writing this post, it's 12:08pm and I have been trying to get her to calm down from playing and take her afternoon nap! She was all hyped up and was drinking her milk like it was the last milk on earth then she was jumping and bouncing in her crib, totally nowhere sleep. Then I smelled poop. Ugh! Ar you kidding me? Ok, change your diaper, try to get you calm once again and put down for a nap. She cried in protest when I left her room for about 3 minutes...and so far it's been 2 minutes and I haven't heard another peep....But I have thought that before and I have gone up to her door to check and as I slowly creep up to the crack in her door, trying not to make the hardwood crack and squeak under my feet, gently push the door open hoping to find a sleeping baby, but only to find that she is standing at the edge of her crib staring at me. We make eye contact....I'm hoping she didn't see me, her mouth opens and she says....."up!"
Ugh! Little stinker!

I blame Dada!



Thursday

Pain in the...back.

I have been blessed with a back that lets me know when I have done too much and when I need to do more. It's quite possibly the bossiest person I know, reminding me on a daily basis of it's existence in my world..."locking" it into my brain. Sending me constant updates and tweets. 

 "Um...I don't care this much about you!" ---"Sorry, I take that back! Don't hurt me."

My back - consuming more of my daily thoughts than should be legal. Taking away days at a time, forcing me to sit (preferably against a bag of ice) and reflect on healthier, stronger days...most of which were yesterday! My back is quite frankly - a pain in my ass. Like an unfaithful boyfriend, going out on you when you least expect it, when all you try to do is treat it nice. Yea, that guy.

My back has never had my back. Constantly turning on me. Constantly on my case....unless I cater to it every single day and pay all sorts of attention to it regardless of what I have planned....like a high maintenance former friend who refuses to get over 'that one guy who went out on her that one time back in college.'  

"Yea but you didn't like him anyway....?" 
"I know, but I do like to complain a whole lot..." 
Yea, that friend. 

I have been blessed with a back that knows what it wants, lets me know how it feels, and like my children when I'm on the phone, will go to extreme lengths to get me to pay more attention to it. We've been through so much together. Pregnancy, breastfeeding, baby wearing, millions of pre and post-baby hormones turning joints and muscles into "loosey-goosey" mush,....car accidents. Don't get me started on the car accidents.  I've been rear-ended or side-swiped more times (as a passenger) than I can count. Because of this, I don't make a very good passenger ...Right, Babe?  However, I've been rear-ended as a driver too. A guy plowed into the back of us when we were stopped at a light (he on the other hand was looking down at his phone TEXTING and driving instead of paying attention and slowing down for a red light!) and I had a 6 month old baby in the back seat! Another reason why rear facing car seats are best for babies. Baby was fine thank God. Never blinked an eye in fact. 

Anyway...back2U

Remember the good old days when we were in the pilates studio 5 days a week? You hardly made a peep. You were so sweet and kind and unobtrusive and calm. Never spazzed out. Never slipped up. You were the epitome of strength and support. I thought so fondly of you back then. Such a nice back.

Which reminds me! My back also knows just how to humiliate me. "How does a Pilates Instructor have a bad back?!" Exactly.

I am extremely blessed for this very vocal, very bossy, very pushy, very stubborn, total jerk-store of a back. At least that is the positive spin I'm trying to attach to it after all these years. It's either that or start waking up at 5am and hitting the pilates studio for hours and hours a day again. Did I mention I'm an overtired new mom now? Nevermind the fact that she is 18 months old. In the grand-scheme-of-life-looking-at-the-bigger-picture-here...I'm a new mom damnit!

Can we divorce a body part? Just askin'....


**Fast forward a few years to the Re-Cap: Exactly 1 year after I wrote this, I had just given birth to a 10 pound chunk-a-lunk baby via home water birth. So I have more to add to my back pain woes because this chunky monkey is HEEEAVVVVVVY to carry around!!  When you start out a 10 pounder...you just get bigger!  Funny how that works. 

The Life of a 17 month old Toddler

17 months and counting...

Baby Girl's new words are:

*poop
*bubbles
*ball
*row, row, row...(as in the song)
*blue (and she'll point to the blue flower on her wall by her changing table.)
*nose (while she is pointing at it)
*color (which sounds like "GaGa")...but she is using it in the correct context, so I'll give it to her!
*diaper "die-die" (and she'll pat her diaper.)
*balloon
*Yea-Yea! (when you ask her a question, do you want to do....?) or she'll say;
*Nah!

And last but not least, her new word is:
*A-Ga!
-We're not really sure what it means, but she sure says it over and over and with gusto! So it obviously means SOMETHING!! Sometimes it's a question, sometimes it's a statement, sometimes she sings it sweetly pairing it with "Dada" and sometimes it's like she is getting ready to karate chop something. Aside from "Dada," it's her favorite word.


She is still saying:
*I love you
*mama
*dada
*mum mum (which is for the baby cracker "mum mums", but she says it for all manner of yummy/crunchy/sweet/cookie/cracker thing.)
*up! (which also means freedom...as in give me my freedom from whatever situation I want out of!)
*dog a.k.a: "gug"
*Hi-ya!
*hello? (which sounds like He-woa?) She says it whenever any type of "phone noise" is made.


She makes a cute noise when she is eating something yummy, like mmmMMMmmm! It's very sing-songy and cute.

She makes the sign for:
*milk (milkies)
*all done (She also says, "all gone" while she is making the sign, which also means, "all done.")
*diamond (as in Twinkle Twinkle Little Star...like a diamond in the sky...blah, blah, blah)
*more
and she does these little "pincher fingers" which translates into "gimmie...."
She'll also make "diamond" when I ask her to say please. Very cute! Like a little present she is giving me.

She'll pat her diaper when you ask her where her diaper is.
She pull up her shirt when you ask her where her belly button is and she'll point to it.
She'll point to her toes and her hair whenever we sing this one song at Gymboree that mentions "toes" and "hair".

She'll eat her whole meal, drop food on the floor (because she's done) and wouldn't take money if you offered it to her to finish her meal. However, the minute you put her down, finding the food on the floor is like striking gold and you sitting down to eat your breakfast has suddenly made her starving to death and she MUST HAVE whatever you are eating. Even if you literally just took her out of her high chair because she was "all gone."

She loves to push buttons, turn on and off the fan and her music in her crib. She likes to send daddy a "text" on the blackberry and listen to music and babble to her monkey and dance and sing songs with mama. She is always walking around singing a little song that only she knows the words and the tune.

She now puts her toys away when we sing the "Gymboree Clean Up-Clean Up Song"...we've learned to love that song as it has come in handy, but it took a while.

She loves to sit in her little chair and watch Baby Einstein DVD's and eat mum mums.

She loves stickers and has a sticker chart and is TOTALLY aware when mama says, "Don't fuss while I'm wiping off your face/changing your diaper/wiping your nose and you'll get a sticker." And she makes sure that a sticker is produced when you promise said sticker! Her favorite thing is to pull the stickers off her "Good Girl Sticker Chart" and stick and re-stick them on anything and everything until there is no stick left in the sticker.

She loves to walk in other people's shoes. Literally.

She laughs whenever I say, "Dada" or, "say hi to dada."

Whenever I say "no" to something her response is, "Dada!"

She'll give you a hug or a kiss or do the same to her monkey or baby doll and she always says "Awwwwww!" (Like, "awww, how sweet!")

And the best of all, she'll come running into my arms when I scrunch down and hold my arms open to her. I love it! She's my little sweetheart who is almost 18 months old! Where did the time go??

I guess I better get her 1 year pictures taken soon, huh??

My first attempt at writing and publishing a blog in the time it takes Summer to eat lunch!

Saw Elizabeth Gilbert last night, author of Eat, Pray, Love. She told me to write everyday and not to judge it too harshly...so here I am...writing and not judging. Heck, I'm not even going to proof read before I hit "Publish Post." ...OK, that's a lie, but I'm not going to save it to post for later and end up getting it deleted like the last 2 posts I never got to post. (Insert sad face.)

So write everyday. I told myself that same thing not too long ago, then life gets in the way. Or rather, Facebook, I Am Pregnant (message board) and e-mails get in the way. I'd like to say that dishes and floor scrubbing and laundry folding gets in the way of writing, but alas, I'd be lying. However, lately, my chiropractic appointments have gotten in the way. My search for a painless life is still underway...


According to Ketut in the book, Eat, Pray, Love, I need to meditate on the pain...or the disappearance of pain I should say. But I'm afraid I have been born into the wrong culture. As a Westerner even a chiropractor is considered "out of the box". So to meditate away my back pain that has anatomically caused my pelvis to shift and tilt on it's axis is sort of...well, quackery. However, I'm at the end of my rope in a sense with this back pain, that I think I'll try anything. I've told myself for years that I would never to go a chiropractor, yet here I am, 10 sessions into it and I feel that aside from doing regular pilates and swimming laps, it is the only thing that seems to be helping.

Join me next month when I dare to try....acupuncture!

Please comment with your thoughts on chiro or acupuncture!

Friday

Status Update:


Strike a pose!

Now that Todd is back from his work travels (insert extreme happy face!) I will get back to my regularly scheduled program of blogging. Please join me and I hope you enjoy!

A Summertime Photo Shoot!

My good friend Susan (Suse), whom I've known since I was 13 going on 14....(actually, I think we were 14 going on 15.) We met at church camp, which cracks us both up...considering...well...whatever. We met at church camp, or as everyone liked to call it, "Camp Surf", because it's waaaaaaaaay cooler as a teenager going into 10th grade to say you have gone to "Camp Surf" on the border of San Diego and Mexico and slept in a tent on the beach under the stars, enjoyed camp fires, making HUGE messy smores, singing to acoustic guitar with adult supervision that still remains forgettable, than to say that you went to "church camp" with a bunch of dorks (you being the ring leader) where we all forgot to wear sunscreen and got fried to a crisp because we're not yet mature enough to do anything without our parents...OBVIOUSLY!

Ahhh...the good ol days! No bills, no mortgage, the only life we were responsible for was our own, (and that's stretching it! Hense the Great Sunburn Disaster of the Summer of 9th grade-going-into-10th-grade.).....the life of a teenager. We all thought we had it soooo baaaaaad, but looking back we had it soooooo_darn_good! (Thanks Mom & Dad!!)

Well, that is where I met Suse and that summer of Surf Camp/Camp Surf (I never really knew the exact name), sleeping 4+ in a 2 man tent, jumping out of trees with a trash bag as a parachute (another blog for another time, haha), Taco Bell, roller-skates, bike rides, babysitting, spending cash on candy, horror movies and talking about boys, boys, boys; we were absolutely inseparable creating memories that still make us laugh to this day with the mention of one or two words.

Fast forward.....a "few"...ahem....years, and Suse and I are both happily married and deep in the trenches of new babies, toddlers and preschoolers, careers, say-at-home-mommy-life, playdates, minivans and "practical" SUV's, deciding that a clean house isn't more important than playing with your only-so-small-for-so-long babies and trying to balance quality time with the kids, meaningful conversations with your husband that don't involve "teething", "shopping lists" or "poop stories", finding the time to reconnect with the friends who've been there from the beginning, navigating life in the work force after baby and of course the all important-but-MUCH-too-neglected ME TIME! We both agree that there is nothing sweeter than a little time by yourself to roam the isles of Target!

(I'm a big believer -HUGE believer- in me time. I feel you come back to your "life" feeling recharged and ready to tackle it once again and I make no apologies for the fact that I absolutely need and require and schedule Me Time!)

I read a friends facebook status the other day, Michele, and she wrote something like this: "I told the kids I'm taking a break and not to talk to me until my break is over!" OMG Mish!!! LOVE IT!!! It's priceless and absolutely necessary! A woman with four children is gonna have things figured out way better than a woman with just a 16 month old. (I don't know how you do it Mish! And on top of it all, her kids are absolute sweethearts! You are a goddess!!)

And as usual...I digress.

This blog is "supposed" to be about the photoshoot Summer and I had with Suse a few weeks ago at the beach. But I'm finding it's more fun to talk about old friends and nostalgic stories! I'll have to do this more often. Afterall, this blog can't be TOTALLY about life with a baby. I did in fact have a life "pre-baby"...I just can't for the life of me figure out what exactly that consisted of at this moment. haha! Aside from Surf Camp, of course.

So my friend Suse has decided to take off on a new adventure and dabble in photography, a great idea in my opinion, and we went to one of her open shoots a few weeks ago at the beach. We were the last group to arrive because Summer napped right through our original scheduled time, but it ended up working our perfectly because we were there right at "golden hour", my absolute favorite time of day, and she was able to capture some really great shots of Summer and I. (Todd was out of town on business. Insert sad face.) So I wanted to post some of these pics to share. I love them and will cherish them always. Thanks Suse!

Enjoy! It didn't give me enough room for all of them...so here are some of my favies!


Summer watching the waves crashing against the rocks.



My sweet little angel baby all snuggled up after going in the water.




I love what she did with this photo! The colors are so fun!



This is an unusual smile for me, but I really like how this one came out. It just looks very relaxed. A perfect day-at-the-beach shot. Summer looks so cute here!



Nothing is more precious than a baby laughing!






Building a sand castle for a princess!


Thursday

Aloha Cutie and Lots o' Curls & Bows!

Summer's first hair bows~15 1/2 months old

She's still deciding if she likes them or not.


Too many bows mama!

Is that the sweetest little baby pony tail you've ever seen? I guess it's more like a pig tail!

She held still just long enough for me to snap a pic of her curls!

Our little Island Princess (and her credit card!)


So Summer finally will let me put a bow in her hair and she looks so cute! However, most of the time she will rip it out, throw her bow on the floor then step on it as she's walking away! Little stinker! But I was able to get a few pics of her in her cute little aloha dress, and a few in her baby pig tails. I love my little princess baby!

She dropped her toys in the box, folks!

Wow, this baby girl changes so much each day!  I just can't believe it.  Today at Gymboree we started singing the huge crowd pleaser, "the clean up, clean up song" and I watched Baby Girl as the teacher was heading for the center of the room with her "busy box" ready to scoop up every last toy.  This is not our favorite part. I could almost see her thinking, "wait a sec...this is the part of the class I DON'T like!"  And we all start singing so Baby Girl stands up and I thought for sure we were gonna have a runner, but she watched in awe at how other kids were actually putting their toys away.  So she thought she'd give it a try.  She muscled her way through the crowd of 10-15 months old babies, got to the edge of the toy box, reached over and dropped the toy she had in her left hand.  "Good girl Baby!  Mama's so proud of you!"  She looked longingly at the toy she just let go of, having second thoughts and was just about to drop in toy #2, when all of a sudden a brand new walker of about 1 week - Javier, bumped into her throwing her off her game, dropping the toy when she wasn't ready and she panicked and started to dumpster dive!  Mama swooped in and scooped her from the scene and again with the stiff arms and legs, grunts and yells.  

So I'd say that's one for mama and one for baby.  

*Shaking my fist* That darn Javier and his wobbly legs.  We were so close...so close!

Tuesday

A Toddler and Her New Love, The Baby Monitor.


Isn't it funny how you can be around other people's children all the time and you don't really notice all the little things as much; the milestones, the progress, the subtle changes. But of course when they are your own, you marvel in the smallest things!

Lately, it's almost daily that Baby Girl is doing something new and makes me think, "oh my gosh, my little baby girl is getting so big!" And although my heart is soaring for her, it sinks a little too as I think about the tiny infant who couldn't even hold her head up or uncurl her little baby fingers just a short time ago. And now she's almost 16 months old!

So yesterday she walked over to the table and grabbed her baby monitor and was walking around with it, holding it by the very end tip of the antennae. You know, a good sturdy spot. And ever since we've been going to Gymboree (the Play and Music Place), I have been trying to do some similar things here at home that we do there, like have them put away their own stuff.

One of the things they do there is to bring out a box of toys to play with during class time. The "busy box." They only let them play with this new, exciting stuff for like 2 minutes, then they sing the "clean up, clean up song" and make the babies put everything back in the box, which just ticks her off to no end!  

The first few times we were there and they had them clean up so fast making a few babies cry, Baby Girl included I was thinking, "this seems a little rushed that they are already cleaning up", because the "busy box" of toys is so exciting and such a huge hit!  

Why rock the boat? 

 She has cried a few times, and still will if she hasn't had a nap before class, but she's getting better about putting the toys back so soon. We haven't actually gotten to the point of her going up to the box and dropping in her loot and waving, "bye-bye," but we're working on it. Right now we're still at the point where I have to prep her for clean up when I see the lady head for the box and walk her over to the box (sort of like walking a dog through the vets door), and say, "Ok Baby, say bye-bye, time to clean up, put it back in the box", etc. 

This is usually followed by me having to then pry the musical instrument, ball, rattle, squishy thing, bumpy teether, etc., out of her sweaty little baby hands and convince her that this is fun! Sometimes she goes for it and sometimes it ends in arms and legs stiffening up like a soldier and animal grunts coming from the bottom of her throat while she is kind of bouncing in protest.

Other kids are happy to pick up every toy they see on the ground and drop it in the box. Not my child, she'd rather take things out faster than everyone else is putting them in and stash them away for future play. And you can see her little baby mind working;

"Ok if I tuck this toy here and squeeze this here I can fit this here and hold this here..." 

 Sorry baby girl, we're singing the "clean up, clean up song."  Doesn't it sound happy and fun? Doesn't it? Everyone loves to clean up! (The first lie we are teaching our baby!)

So long story short, I'm trying to not just take things out of her hands that she isn't supposed to have and then redirect her onto something else. I do sometimes if we are in a hurry or it's the end of the day and mama needs a nap! But mostly I'm trying to take the time to teach her to put it back and get something else. 

Yesterday was a breakthrough and mama almost wept!

Summer grabbed her monitor and started walking through the house with it and when I saw it I thought, "crap, I forgot to move it from the coffee table from when she was napping!" So I said, "no-no, go put it back on the table." and at first I thought, "yea right, this is gonna work." Then she stopped and gave me a look like she knew she wasn't supposed to have it and kinda stood there and then shook her head "no" (like only a toddler can perfect) and said, "Dada?" As if Dada will say yes. So I thought, "well, maybe this will work." So I said again, "no-no Baby Girl, go put it back on the table." (I kinda had to say it a few times and use lots of sign language motioning to the table.) and she actually turned around and walked back over to the table! I was so proud. So I said, "Yay! Good girl for following directions!" 

Well, mama made too quick with the endless praise because said monitor antennae was yet to be pried from her pudgy little grip. So she lifted it back off the table, looking at me with the "I know I'm not supposed to be doing this...buuuut..." face and again I started at square one. 

"Put it back on the table." 

We played a few rounds of "if I set it on the table, but still hold the tip of the antennae is it considered putting it back?" game.

I resisted the urge to just walk over and gently remove it from her hands and give her something else to play with. I was trying to teach her that it was OK to put something back on your own in addition to following directions. Plus, she wasn't really going to do any damage to the monitor, I figured we'd just take the time to learn something new. I tried to hold back my "good girl, Baby" praises until she actually released her grip, but I still wanted her to know that she was doing what mama wanted her to. So I fused the two and said, "good girl Lovie, put it back on the table." Although she was reluctant she actually set it down and let go as opposed to just rubbing it all over the top of the table appearing to have put it back, and she walked away clapping! So of course mama was thrilled and was singing her praises. She was feeling giddy and clapping for herself and actually seemed proud of her accomplishments. Then we did a "high-5," something we just learned the other day.

...and as quickly as Juliet searches for her forbidden lover Romeo, Baby Girl walked back over to her baby monitor, rescued him off the coffee table and made a mad dash in the opposite direction.

*sigh*

Baby steps mama, baby steps.

Saturday

Ahhh...Saturday morning pilates in the park!


So refreshing, so relaxing, so invigorating and such a great way to start off the day!  I was chatting with Carmen (one of the ladies in my class) and we were talking about group classes indoors vs. outside in the fresh air and the warm breeze, and we like it outside so much better!  Every Saturday we see either butterflies, humming birds, dragon flies, or sometimes we see everything as we lie in the shade under the canopy of trees taking deep breaths in and exhaling everything out.  Calm, serene, beautiful.

I love it!


*Poipu Beach palm tree, Kauai.

Friday

Blogger is the new facebook. (Or at least for me it is anyway.)


In an effort to redirect my few and far between "free time" moments into something more productive, I have decided to ditch my networking sites for the "pen" and focus more on my writing.  Over the years my hard bound leather journals and spiral notebooks have slowly and reluctantly been replaced by my new found friend; the lap top.  So this is where I'll continue to journal, to find the creativity that has been lost in the chaos of becoming a new mother, to post my photography, to rant and rave and of course...blog.

...More soon to come.  Feel free to follow and comment as you please.  


*I shot this photo in June 07 on the east side of the Island of Kauai.

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