Oh hai. I’ve been doing birthday stuff.

I didn’t forget that I’m on day 14 of NaBloPoMo. We’ve just had the most jam packed day with celebrating Bella’s birthday (it’s tomorrow but Sam will be gone). Tomorrow we head out with my girlfriend here and her kiddos to go to the zoo for the morning.

It’s hard to believe that 2 years ago right now I was in labor, my mom and Sam at my side, and having absolutely no idea how much my life was about to change. [Read more...]

Plum Organics Review – Why I Love Them

Thanks to Plum Organics for sponsoring my post about tips for baby feeding magic. What if you let baby choose what’s for dinner? Check out their cute “Quest for Yum!” video and see what happens!

When Bella was ready for solid food, I felt totally confident in feeding her at home. [Read more...]

Worth the Wait

Oh. My heart…

It was so worth the 20 years it took to come back here.

I can’t even put into words yet all that I felt. I really can’t. It’s so overwhelming and so much to process. But I have what I came for, I feel like in a way I was able to tell my childhood here goodbye, and this has been one of the biggest events in my life.

Truly. I’ll never forget it.

I’ll write it all down later – things happened here that had God’s hand all over them. One thing I wanted to share was how it was almost exactly the way I remembered it. Scenes in my head I’d replayed for so long were real – none of it was distorted or changed. I was so thankful for that, and it hit me again hat an impact living here must have had on me. No where else we ever lived made me feel this way.

So thankful I came here and got to share these moments with Erika.

My home:

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The church next to us. My dad was the pastor:

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Erika and me on the back porch:

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Lots of tears. Healing ones. I’ll share the rest soon. But I couldn’t sleep till I told at least a little.

I think I found one of the missing pieces of my heart by coming back.

Going Home.

When I was a little girl, we moved. And I never got over it.

You know you love my sweats. And our rockin' bedspread. 80's flashback...

We lived in this small town in New Jersey, one of those places you see in the movies with big trees and gabled homes with shutters, and I rode the bus to school and back with my friends. We had a big backyard with honeysuckles, a neighboring barn, and a tire swing. My dad was the pastor so we lived in the church manse, but at 6 years old it was just my home.

At the time it was just me, my brother and my sister, both younger. My other little brother was born much later. Us three did everything together – forts under our bunk beds, story telling, pretending the sprinkler was a door to a magical world, and reenacting the Christmas nativity scene by wearing dishcloths on our heads. I had friends within walking distance – one of whom is Erika from NAMAmmaSTE. [Read more...]

Things that go bump in the nap.

Yesterday around 2 I finished up all my work to hear Bella (who is almost 23 months) in the other room, waking up from nap. While she usually plays happily for a few minutes before starting to call for me, this time I heard sobs and, “Uh oh, uh oh!”

I walked down the hall, remembering how I thought she sounded quite loud, and pushed open the door only to bump into something. A thought quickly raced through my head of, “Did her cloth diaper pail tip, and how on earth?” Then I heard an even louder wail and pushing the door wider I saw her little face poke around it, tears streaming down, a diaper half off as she said, “Uh oh, diaper? Uh oh.”

In complete shock, I just stood there for a second, sputtering out, “Wha… how did you get out, did you climb out of your crib? Wait, how did you do that?!” [Read more...]

Bella. Vlog Style.

I haven’t done one of these in a while. The other day I snuck into Bella’s room while making dinner, and got her on camera reading her books. Note that when she comes to the butterfly page in The Very Hungry Caterpillar she screams – that’s because when we get to that page I let out a huge gasp of *surprise* every.single.time.

And please enjoy her tiny voice. The ending melts my heart. You know, even if I do beat my kid I still love her to pieces.

:p