Our baby is two

Two years ago, I was hanging out in the hospital, happily drugged and awaiting the same little girl who's snoozing in her crib now. Two years ago, I didn't know who Laura was or what she looked like or what her personality would be. Now, 730 days hence, it seems unimaginable that there was ever one single second that I didn't know her, didn't know what her hair feels like or how it curls under, except for the back right side, which has a mind of its own and flips whichever way it pleases at that given moment. Or that I didn't know what her tiny little finger looks like curled around mine or how her funny little naked body looks running around post-bath.

Also unimaginable is the fact that I worried way, way too much about how having her would disrupt our life, a relatively easy one (even with Big Brother's definitely-not-easy temperament) with only one extra mouth to feed, one little bum to clothe, one person to exert our influence on and hopefully steer in the right direction. I worried about raising a girl and all the potential minefields out there that we'd one day have to pick our clumsy way through. I worried about teaching two kids to get along and, with any luck, actually like each other.

But at 10:57, late in the evening on March 28, my doctor laid her tiny, slippery little self on my chest and I stopped worrying. None of that stuff mattered. It still doesn't. It was, and still is, the most profoundly peaceful moment of my whole life. From her very first breath, I knew her. I knew that everything good and pure and right in the world was distilled in all her 6 pounds and one ounce. I knew that she would change us in the best possible way. And she has. I wasn't "me" and we weren't "we" until she was here.

It is such a privilege to raise her. She's still pure goodness in one little body. When I try to talk about her and what she is to us, words inevitably fail me. They always will. I am, now more than ever, keenly aware of just how fortunate we are to call these babies of ours our own. 

Two years later, I still can't believe our good fortune. She's ours. And we couldn't possibly love her more.

Happy 2nd birthday, Sis! We love you, sweet girl!

Dispatches from yet another playground

I'm writing this while Laura is STILL sleeping (at nearly 10 am!). This is, from my Early Bird Special from birth, highly unusual but she's a bit under the weather. And, like her Daddy, she is very pitiful and dramatic about it. Will and I are more in the minimal-complaining-just-deal-with-it camp but the other half of the family fully embraces the the-more-I-make-sad-faces-and/or-moan-the-better-I-will-feel philosophy. Oh, well. To each his or her own, right?

We've had really nice weather this past week and we've been to various parks and playgrounds to celebrate Jamison not having to go to Vegas this week.

She looks so old in this picture. How did this happen?

Will is learning how to propel himself on the swings. This is a surprisingly hard process, apparently.

Will is showing Laura some ants. Laura will pretty much look at anything her big brother wants to show her.

Just for some perspective, when I said that Laura looks older, it's not because she's tall or anything. This outfit is a size 6-9 months. I was digging through her "outside" clothes looking for something short-sleeved since it's apparently mid-June around here and this is what I came up with. It's kind of tight, but it still fit her. It's hard to believe she could squeeze into something so small just a week shy of turning two.

We're not planning on squeezing her into all of last year's clothes, though. We got her some new clothes this past weekend.

The kids love watching the garbage trucks. Simple pleasures.

Laura loves going into her closet and putting on whatever she can get to. All she needs here is a mismatched legwarmer or two.

I'll leave you with a small glimpse of my pitiful girl.

This doesn't quite capture her level of pitiful-ness accurately but it was also taken yesterday before she started feeling really out of sorts. And right now, she's crying in her bed saying "Sad" every few seconds just to reinforce her condition. Even when she's sick she's a funny girl.

I realize that I've kind of been lazy writing-wise, since pictures and commentary don't really take any thought. Maybe I'll try something a little more thoughtful here soon. Deep Thoughts with Sara or something equally serious.

This weekend

Our weekend kicked off with Will tripping on his vent and coming out of his room dripping blood from somewhere in his mouth, of course obscuring his front teeth so that I immediately thought he'd lost them both.

His lips aren't exactly small to begin with, so with his additional swelling, he reached Mick Jagger proportions.

I made blueberry muffins Saturday morning and both of the kids ate way too many muffins. (Will kept saying, "I love eating these things!" He had eaten six or seven by lunchtime. True story.)

After our muffin binge, we took a nice walk around the neighborhood.

We do not, in fact, have an endorsement deal with Horizon.

Will requested that I take his picture. This was his chosen pose. After seeing it on my phone, he deemed it acceptable. 

Laura got tired of walking and promptly fell asleep in this awkward position in the stroller.

This is not mold. It's chia seeds. Jamison brought some back after a trip to Whole Foods. He mixed up this appetizing potion and actually asked me if I wanted to try some. You'd think he would know me a little better after ten years together. He took a drink, looked at me and said, "This is even grosser than what you imagine." He then proceeded to drink the entire thing. I have nothing more to say on this subject. (However, he did clean out the garage this weekend so I won't make too much fun of him.)

Have a good (chia-seed-free) week!

Greetings from the playground

Today the weather is too good to be true, so we stopped off at the playground on our way home from picking Will up from school.

It's so nice out I'm almost tempted to do yard work. Almost.

A month later

Well, I would apologize for not writing anything here lately but I'm pretty sure you've made it just fine without any of my usual drivel. I would also vow to write more often but I'm also pretty sure that that would be an empty promise. So.

Where to start? We spent a week in WV while Jamison was in Milwaukee yet again and it felt like I was on vacation! With Grammie around constantly, I forgot how time consuming the mundane areas of life with kids (preparing food, cleaning, bathing, so forth and so on ad infinitum) can be as she did a fair bit of assisting with both of the kids. And to top it all off, my mother-in-law watched the kids for a few hours while my mom and I went to lunch. Alone! I can't remember going out to lunch with my mom alone since having any of the kids so this was a much-appreciated afternoon off. (Thanks, Mamaw Di!)

We spent a morning at my nephew's birthday party. Will loved all the rides and games.

Laura wasn't so sure. We'll be going back to the same place for the kids' party here in a few weeks so we'll see if she's a little more adventurous the second time around.

We had to go to the mall so Jamison could augment his extensive collection of corduroy pants before leaving on his trip. The bonus was that we got to ride this little train all around the mall. Will loved it. Laura was ready to disembark after a few minutes.

Photo by Will. We have about 446 pictures of various parts of the van's interior.

Our activity level while in WV completely overwhelmed Laura.

The kids both got haircuts.

It was Laura's first haircut. Such a big girl now. The woman cutting her hair (Normie) is a family friend who also cut Will's hair for the first time so I wanted to wait until we were home to continue the tradition. (And yes, that's a sucker in my not-even-two-year-old's hand. Will had his first sucker sometime well into his first year of preschool so we're obviously a little more lax this time around.)

We took the kids to the playground to enjoy the warm weather.

And to the library for story time.

Will got to ride his bike some while Sister was napping.

We also went on a long walk.

Will could walk around in the woods for hours. Sometimes I think we're doing him a disservice by living where we do, a little ways away from the kind of rural childhood I had.

We saw lots more cousins and family while home but I'm not exactly consistent with the picture-taking and have no pictures to show from all this.

I'm sorry this was so boring. My writing/communication skills in general appear to be a little rusty.

Hopefully it's as nice out where you are as it is here!