Break the Mirror

I recently read a poem that included the lines, "To stay young, to save the world, break the mirror." I felt the message was to stop looking at yourself, inside and out. Focus on being present in the moment and doing good. These lines really resonated with me, not only because I am all too focused on losing the last few pounds of dreaded baby weight and examing my legs for spider veins every other day, but also because I am struggling with this blog. What? This blog? Yes! This blog! As I sit down to compose blog posts, I feel pressure to show my little world in its most positive light. A reframe of my life--like when someone visits the house for dinner, and I have been frantically cleaning the kitchen, lighting candles, cleaning the cat box, and brushing my hair into some semblance of order. "Of course I live in a Pottery Barn catalogue, don't you?" No, I don't. I live in the PetCo catalogue, massive amounts of hair included. And I don't have something wonderful and inspiring to say everyday to the world about the minutiae of my day. My life IS wonderful, but in the most general sense. I have a fantastic husband, a growing, healthy, charming child, pets that make me laugh, friends that bring me support and levity, I have coffee, ice cream, long walks, fresh air and the occasional yoga class. Everything is so sweet, and I am content. I just don't want to post a photo of the lentils I made last night for dinner. And I don't want to have to garnish them with cilantro, just so that the photo looks fancy enough to put on here. This is why I can't be a Blogger Goddess. I can't inspire you with anecdotes about who I want to be--who I am in ideal conditions--my best foot forward so that you feel like your day could be as sweet, fresh and meaningful as mine. I am breaking the Blog mirror. Which basically means that you have to simply believe that my life is wonderful without me telling you about my herb garden or the little spider I saw building her web so industriously or how I laughed so hard I cried when my baby cracked herself up by licking my ankle repeatedly. Crash, smash. Bang, boom. The mirror is cracked, dropped and gone. Now maybe I can write without feeling like I'm headed into my first school dance. xx

In like a lion...

Yay for March! Except that I went an entire month without blogging. Can you blame me? Work has picked up quite a bit, my child is fully engaged in eating solid foods, I'm trying to find time to vacuum since she is also crawl-rolling all over tarnation, suddenly there's yard work, hiking, spring cleaning, taxes--you name it, we're doing it! We did have time for a quick Sunday photo session with our new favorite photographer, Lisa Woolcock. Lisa is a friend in town starting her own side photography business. You can see some of our photos here at her photo blog!

Off the top of my head, here are some things to share. We are days away from "mama." The mouth moves silently with "Ms" galore, but she's not quite brave enough to make the sound. My girl loves yogurt. She tolerates avocado. We have a morning Cheerio ritual that involves about 45 Cheerios-- 2 into her mouth and 43 on to the floor, into the eager mouth of the awaiting dog. She's teething and drooling. She slept 8 hours one night like a champ. When her teeth hurt she wakes every 20 minutes between 2-4am. She cackles a hearty laugh at her parents, animals and inanimate objects that strike her fancy. She gets MAD at things that don't do what she asks, including her parents, animals and inanimate objects that strike her fancy. She plays independently for 20 minutes at a time. If I turn my back, she rolls under the crib, around a corner, to lick the remote control, to pull the cat's tummy pooch, or to eat Mama's legal papers left laying carelessly within her reach. In short, we are busy. BUSY. And she gets more fans everyday. She's adorable, fun and smiley. Not a sleepy child, like some-- but an exciting, happy one. And we love her to BITS.