It’s finally happening.

It’s literally the worst timing ever.

But we are making it through.

Funny thing is we knew we needed to move this month but for some reason the timing just didn’t click in our brains, so for the past couple weeks we’ve been scrambling to find boxes and then pack them and then find a place to live and then get over there. Fortunately God is good! We are moving into a pretty stellar apartment.

Here is some perspective:

Currently we live in a one bedroom + bonus room, one bathroom, tiny condo. It’s been fantastic. We love it. It came fairly furnished (couches, bed, book cases, dresser etc.) Our landlord, Adam Doi (this link will lead you to his awesome photography), lives out in the Sunshine State but got this place a while ago and has used it as a sort of ministry since then. The people who lived here before us were in ministry and lived here four years and added their permanent touches like curtains and slip covers. Then we came in and were planning on staying here just as long…but a baby came along. So we are on our way out but leaving our own little touches.

(Disclaimer: This is not how we normally have our place set up. We are packing, remember?)

We are going to be living in a fantastic two bedroom + office, two FULL bathroom, huge condo. It’s such a great move for us. We also get a garage spot and a huge deck. We have laundry in unit (if you don’t live in the city you probably can’t appreciate it. But let me tell you, with all the poop I constantly am dealing with, it’s a life saver). We have a bigger dishwasher which is timely since we have a new person to take care of. And now we can actually have a guest room for people who come to stay. (*Ahem* Grandparents!)

Gawwgeous.

And that little piece of crown molding off to the right side? Yeah that is a well-vented fire place. Yup. Fancy. I’m so excited.

So since I’ve been over there a couple days now cleaning (the previous owners had a pet and it was not a clean one…yuck) I have gotten to know it well. When we got home today we just were spent. So instead of helping Daddy pack, Amelie and I had a photo shoot.

She doesn’t particularly care for all the cleaning fumes. I don’t either. They make her not sleepy. I hate that.

Tomorrow I have a solid gig! I am shooting a debuting, which is what people of the Jewish faith do to share their new baby with their friends and family.  A friend who is hosting the party hired me to take pictures so the family didn’t have to worry about it at all. So I get to go photojournalist which is my fav. I love to take posed pictures, but I prefer to capture people in the moment. I feel like it’s easier to connect to emotionally and holds more memories then when time was stopped in order to pose.

Anyways. The next time I write to you will be from our new home, with new internet, and new neighborhoods and a happier family.

Lovies

Did you really think you could get away with out more pics of my lovely?

Can I tell you that I feel like we are in the terrible twos….which I realize mean that my daughter must be two years old. She isn’t. Thank God. She’s two months.

And honestly, I think if you strip away the apartment hunting, then the apartment getting and lease signing, then the major hurried packing preceded by packing box acquiring, then my daughter getting more lively (aka crying more and requiring more entertainment) — I tell you it’s rather intense.

I’m rather overwhelmed. I really believe that once we are in our new amazing place, life will slow down. OK, well perhaps not slow down but it’ll at least become structured. And Amelie is telling me these days that she needs structure. Bed times are really affecting how she functions during the day. Which means my sleep is all over the place, and my exercise is sporadic.

BUT I have started Weight Watchers again. I’m really excited about it and I’m forcing myself to get really involved. I’m doing blogs on their site, really tracking everything and going to the meetings. Exercise is going to be a forced event, but we are going to be living two blocks from a huge park, so no excuses.

And can I tell you! we are going to be around SO MUCH!

1.5 miles to the beach

1.5 miles to the mall

2 miles to Walmart

.5 miles to a fantastic market

2 blocks from a huge park

2 houses in from the largest Indian and Pakistani street. Can we say “Naan!!!!!!!!!!”

WELL, exhaustion is overwhelming me and I’m not making much sense. So I’ll leave you with some pictures.

This is my sweet heart ten days old! So new! BAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!

Did I tell you? I was at this awesome mom’s group this week, which I go to on Tuesday’s, and there were two new babies there. One was two weeks and one was three weeks and they were SO little! But they were bigger than she was when she was born. So now she’s a giant. Holy cow!

See? What a chunky monkey! Can you even that she is the same person? She has filled out so much. My arm use to easily curl around her back to under her bum while she was feeding and now I have to use two hands to hold her in place. And she’s so jiggly and movementy.

I love it though. She’s so aware! She follows me all around with her eyes and has started smiling.

Ok. Enough.

Lovies!

I’m sure in one year and 18 months I”m going to be freaking out about having a two year old, but right now, these two months seem like they’ve flown by but also gone so slowly!

So some first for Amelie. She:

Smiled, and while she was awake! Not in her sleep!

Cooed and made other delicious sounds instead of just cries.

Made lots and lots of eye contact.

Made lots of eye contact with me and smiled!!!!

Started really finding your thumb…and other fingers. It takes you both of your hands to get even just a fist in your mouth, but we’re on our way to self soothing!

You traveled to over 20 apartments with your Momma trying to find our new home.

You went and visited Daddy for lunch and we ate next to the lake on a beautiful day. Well, you slept. But food was involved.

You’re momma quit her job to be with you full time. You are a lucky girl! She is a lucky Momma.

You’re starting to wake up so I have to finish this list, but I love you. And your cute toosh and your cute eyes and the way I hear little slurps and know you’re almost awake but trying to sleep so you try and suck your thumb and wind up eating your whole hand.

You’re the greatest Amelie! My sweet city girl!

Lovies.

But seriously, my dental story is like non other. It’s what I get for growing up overseas…in a developing country…where clinics are actually in people’s spare bedrooms.

It all started…well…when I was a baby, because I sucked my thumb. No matter what my parents tried, I just loved that darned thing. I still remember how it tasted or even smelt. (gross, I know, but if you were a long time sucker, you know what I’m talking about.)

By the time I was ten-ish(how old was I mom?) I had the worstest, most ugliest, overbite there ever was. It was atrocious.

When I was seven-ish I was swimming in this awesome pool in Shell, Mera. A small jungle town in Ecuador. The pool is just a big cement rectangle with fresh water coming in from a mountain on one side and swooping out into a small dam on the other. It had this awesome vertical metal slide at the deepest end of the pool and I decided going feet first, belly down was the best way to show off my awesome swimming skills. Unfortunately, in this instance, I also decided to lower my head to soon and broke off half of my front tooth on the metal slide and proceeded to freeze my nerves in the wicked cold mountain water.

I don’t remember where, but we had to get a fake for the other half of the tooth and the only guy that could do it couldn’t even make it look real. So I had basically a yellow Chiclet as one of my two front teeth until I was in 9th grade.

Hott, I know.

Nothing eventful happened again until we moved to a small town called Ambato. It’s gorgeous. Has great Colada Morada. If you aren’t from there you don’t know what it is and it’s not part of the story so I’m not going to describe it. Look it up. You’re online already anyways.

Anyways, we had a dentist – he was sort of legit – (this classification is important for future references) who checked out my mouth, told my parents I needed braces and set up an appointment. The braces couldn’t go on until he took out my leftover baby teeth apparently. So he had to pull two teeth. One was a baby tooth. One was permanent. I remember when he took my teeth out I was in so much pain. Finally, my parents realized the reason I was in more pain then normal was because the freaking tooth was PERMANENT! He was also the guy who added my braces…nothing exciting there other than my love affair with having gross greasy wax in my cheeks began. He said I’d only need braces for one year, maybe one and a half.

I had them for four and a half years.

SO one tooth down. For the rest of my life. I still have a little gap there.

I think we went to some dentist in the States next but he was all good so nothing worth mentioning there.

Upon our return to Ecuador we moved to the capital, Quito. My new dentist/orthodontist was an older gent. With glasses. And one fake eye….and only half his large intestines. He lost the other half to cancer. I don’t know why or how I knew this….I think his wife was his secretary (scandalous, I know!). Anyways. He trained in Germany apparently. We found this out after Mom discovered a maze of twists and turns and extra gadgetry in my mouth when he decided that tightening the wire was best done on the front of my mouth rather then in the back. Thus the eternal scarring I have on the inside of each cheek. But he was the last one I had braces with and so he was the one who took my brackets off. But he never took of the extra glue on my teeth.

He died soon after.

His patients were referred to a colleague of his so we set up an appointment for a cleaning and whatever needed to happen next after getting my braces off.

During my one…and only appointment (I think..I only remember one) he hit on me, popped all the blackheads on my face (I was a teenager, you had them too!) and didn’t even saw down the left over glue the other guy left.

My mom saw my puffed up lip and immediately asked for my file. I don’t think we ever returned.

Then I started having a tooth ache. Like really bad. By the time we got to it, we found out I needed a root canal.

In Ecuador root canal’s didn’t take one hour, they took three weeks.

So first I went to the dentist who saw down my tooth to a little pulp. Then he put on a temporary crown. Next I went to a specialist who pulled out the roots. She only gave me Novocaine so I felt everything. We were in a small room in her house and a Spanish soap opera was playing on the teli. I laid there, with my mouth propped open by a blue plastic gizmo and cried silent tears of pain. I still feel it sometimes.

She put the cap back on and I was off. It didn’t stick so I could pull it off whenever I wanted. It smelled really bad. It didn’t hurt though since I had no nerves left. A week or so later I went back to the first dentist and he put on my new permanent crown. It felt like it took up half my mouth…it looked like it too. This dentist was amazing though. He had just returned from a seminar in California where they learned new ways to make fake teeth look real and use some type of thing that makes the tooth last for a really long time. Since they were just learning it, I got my new front tooth, that looks super real, for free!

By the time I was 20 over half the teeth in my mouth had fillings, and most of those fillings are metal. Sexy, I know.

When I was 16 my wisdom teeth were thinking about making an appearance. The dentist said I should get them removed before they surface and mess up the four years of braces. So we went to a clinic where he started by taking one side out, and two weeks later, the other. Oh, did I not mention that he also only had Novocaine? Yeah, so I had my wisdom teeth pulled out of my face while I was quite lucid and felt everything. Numbing your gums means nothing when your teeth are being wretched from your mouth.

Mom said she could hear me yelling, ” Just pull them! Don’t stop, just pull them out!”

I remember kicking my leg up so high I almost knocked over all his tools..which wouldn’t have mattered because he was only using plyers.

At least I got to sit and watch soccer and eat ice cream. That was a perk. And because he gave me a big ol’ shot in my butt, I didn’t swell up even a little bit.

In 2008 I had to have another root canal. It took an hour. I didn’t feel a thing.

Oh, United States of America. I appreciate your need for malpractice insurance.

I’m almost done, I swear.

In 2009 the cap on my first root canal fell off. I lost it at a friends wedding while chewing gum…not at the wedding. But while we were getting pedicures the day before the wedding. SO instead of it costing me $50 to have them glue it back in, I had to spend $400 for them to make a new one.

Two weeks ago I went to have my teeth checked, and upon x-raying my whole mouth, I was told:

1. My root canal wasn’t done properly and if I don’t have it re-done in the next year or so it could get really badly infected.

2. The cap that the American doctor put on wasn’t actually made to fit so there has been a little gap between my crown and my gums allowing for anything to get in there and fester. No infection yet…but it’s imminent. Thanks. What was I saying about malpractice?

This last dentist is the best one I can remember. He actually told me everything he was doing, he made sure I was comfortable, and he even has a chair that massages your back. With a mouth like mine, I’m in for life, I might as well be comfortable.

This past January when the whole family was together my mom demanded (in her sweet little voice), “Kids, smile!”

As nothing funny had just been said you can imagine the awkward faces we made.

” There’s over $30,000 right there. At least you look good.”

Thanks Mom. Thanks Dad.

I do have a sexy smile. My teeth may not be genuine, but my smile is.

So that is my dental history for any who care.

Anything comprable?

Lovies.

I know my daughter is 8 weeks old. This slightly inhibits her speech….but apparently my husband is getting her to talk.

This morning he took Amelie out of bed and gave me an extra hour or so of undisturbed sleep. AMAZING.

When I finally woke up, I came out to a kitchen where my baby was in her bouncy chair and my hubby was talking to her while making coffee.

He said he’d been teaching her how to say words:

Naph: “Amelie, say ‘the-ra-pu-tic.’”

Baby: ***drool, drool, drool*** “Gah!” (yes, she’s drooling now. It’s 98.5% cute and 1.5% detrimental when I wear any other color than white or black…or something with a pattern)

Naph: “Good job, baby! Now say ‘the-o-lo-gy.’”

Baby: ***staring at this crazy man***

Naph: “Oh, you’re so smart! Now say ‘re-formed the-ology.’”

Baby: *** single cry because she see’s her mommy out of the corner of her eye and wants this crazy man to stop speaking to her with that crazy smile.***

Um.

Wow.

So it begins.

Sidebar. Did you know that we have a natural instinct that kicks in that makes us talk in high pitched voices to children because their hearing is still adjusting and they are the most sensitive to high pitches? Now you don’t have to feel so stupid for sounding like you inhaled a whole helium balloon. It’s biological.

SO here is what it was all about because lots has been defined in the last week.

1. Today I quit my job with Starbucks.

It was simultaneously the hardest and easiest thing I’ve ever done. I know, that makes no sense. But since I’m blonde, it works. Shall I explain further?

Well, Starbucks has owned my life for almost two years now. When I started it was with the contract of becoming a store manager within 6-8 months. 10 months later I still wasn’t a manager. Over a year later I found myself in the third store of my career with the Bux and still and equal amount of disorganization with middle and upper management. I don’t want to sound arrogant, but my lack of promotion was completely based on my first manager quitting, my district manager quitting, my new district manager informing me of protocols that should have been followed with my training but weren’t therefore we had to start over and then a failed interview because I answered a question in a way that a different new district manager didn’t approve of.Despite the fact that it was a splendid and well thought out answer. (It had to do with sales projections and changes based off of our promotional metrics and how I promoted change in a sales pattern to increase overall coffee sales through education, close monitoring and encouragement of our staff.) It was also the answer I knew was my stumbling block the first time I interviewed so I even had a chart to show my knowledge….

In fact, that last interview happened one week before my maternity leave and it was mentioned to me that perhaps one of the reasons that I didn’t pass was because I was going to be leaving for two months on maternity leave and they wanted to make sure I came back and acclimated to the business again before getting my own store right off the bat. While this is true it wasn’t what I was originally told.

Anyways, that whole subject feels like a dead horse that keeps getting beaten. So I digress.

But while trying to figure out how to be the best momma to this sweet baby I realized between the costs of a nanny or day care and the amount of energy zapping work I’d be doing, I’d only be bringing home a small percentage of my own check. Was it worth? To work all day training, never being enough, dealing with the constant struggles that are typical of the retail food industry and then try to come home with a good attitude towards the struggles that can be mommy-hood?

I think that if I had a normal office job, or was doing something that I absolutely love doing, it would have been harder of a decision. But considering that Starbucks retail has never been my end goal, and never been what has made me tick, it was an easy decision. So now I get to be a full time Mommy!

Still, other things are in the work. I am starting my own photography business which will be shared under my husband’s freelance business of Wovenland. I’ll be in charge of project managing and helping him get jobs for his at-home time while he’s hard at work with his daily job. SO I get to do what I love, pray that my business grows and support my hubby in what he is doing, all while being part of every day with my little lady.

It always seemed like the natural next step, but my desire for security and the predictable and plan-able interfered. See, in this last week when I’ve really been praying and researching this idea, I finally could tell this was what God was leading me to. I told Naph that, short of an audible voice from the Lord, I knew that leaving Starbucks and pursuing my own business while staying with Amelie was the best choice, the choice we’d be the most blessed by. And part of this, I believe, is because He is trying to do a good work in me and my own desires for security get in the way of His greater plan and provision.

SO this is the biggest leap of faith I feel I’ve ever taken, but I don’t feel at all like I thought I would. I thought I’d be more panicky, more flustered and worried. Instead of I have a peace, and hope and an excitement that goes along with the anticipation of what is going to happen in the future and how God is going to show up and bless us.

And as a new phase of this blog, I think it’s time I added a few anecdotes here and there about my life. I need to remember things, have them written down so I don’t forget them in my old age. So be on the look out.

And, because I can’t end a post without a picture or two, here you go.

We have been apartment shopping and came across the Leaning Tower of Pisa….in Niles, Illinois. Ridiculous.

Our future baby sitter starting to get her feet wet with holding babies.

Amelie had her first major projectile vomits today….yes, plural. I got the brunt of one of them. Our couch got the other one. I was scared to death.

At least she got some good sleep out of it all. My poor baby.

Alright. That’s enough.

Lovies.

ps. I apologize (wait…no I don’t, I simply acknowledge) that my blog pictures have moved from cool artistic pictures, to adorable baby pictures. If you don’t like to look at cute babies than you have no soul and should be reading my awesome blog anyways.

pss. I realize that I started this off with 1 point. There were going to be more. But I never made them. I have nothing more to say about that, simply that I know about it.

My six weeks of vacation maternity leave ended on Sunday. AAAAnnnd I didn’t go back to work. I officially have until May 24 for a full 12 weeks but the last six just aren’t paid. But I figured since I had to pay for my insurance all the way up to April 30th I might as well take my leave all the way until then.

SO I”ve been enjoying being a house Momma and getting play dates and appointments and Mommy Group times in. Like a normal life.

People keep telling Naph and I how chill we are with this new addition to our family. But I think that the reason I feel so relaxed, so happy and so content with this part of life is that it’s something new, unexpected (even though I had 9 months to prepare), and it’s just the change in pace that I needed. I’ve spent every minute since my time in High School working. I’ve always worked at least 36 hours a week even in college between my campus job and running a festival. Every time I’ve taken time off I feel obligated to fill it with something; an appointment, a lunch date, a stroll or run but never plain old relaxation.

The only time that I didn’t have anything planned on a day off was when I was sick. So you can see that the reason there is such inconsistency in my postings is because I’ve just always been to exhausted when I get home from work to even sit down and recount my laborious day.

To be completely honest, I haven’t felt this happy in life since college. For the past 4 years I’ve been working my butt of at jobs that are “ok” but they make me feel like I’m slowly waisting my life, not accomplishing anything that actually matters. I mean seriously, if you could choose between working with troubled teens or serving a latte…which has greater impact? And I know that some of you hesitate because you can’t function much less form a non-offensive sentence with out a little espresso. But seriously, there have been days where I get home and after giving a disertation to my husband on coffee, adn the things I learned, and the politics of corporate America, I think “seriously, is this just what I waisted my breath on? I could have been talking about (insert deep heart passion here) and known I was making a difference but I just deal with retail food service and the b—- who didn’t like the foam I poured her.”

Now let me state for the record there is a very clear reason why I work for Starbucks. It is all about the coffee, but beyond that, it’s also heavily about how that coffee gets into your hands. It’s about tracing that cup of coffee all the way back to the farmer, and the farmer’s family, and his livelihood, and how his children are doing, and his town’s economy, and his nation’s success. There is a great global impact happening, and that gets me excited. That is why I’ve endured what I have and been ok with it.

But now I have a new thing that has taken that passion’s place. And that is Amelie.

She is my new heart passion. Actually she isn’t my new heart passion…she is the heart passion I always had, but I just had to meet her to know it. God’s timing is IMPECABLE. I was beginning to feel like I was withering away, I was becoming mundane, I was allowing for too much complacency. And when I found out I was pregnant…well you can revisit all those tough posts I wrote, but it wasn’t easy. Now I see, and realize, what an emotional, physical and spiritual rut I have been in and this little bundle of humanity and vulnerability has been my big slap in the face.

So when people tell me I’m a natural I’m flattered. But I agree. I am a good mom. I have no idea what I’m doing half the time, and I definitely think that my love for her is growing more each day rather than one big shabang like many mom’s feel, but I love every part of this journey. I love the sleepless nights even tough I’m exhausted and feel frustrated. I enjoy her little cries even though they are getting louder and louder because they are so unique and individual and they break my heart. It’s nice to feel that empathy for another human being and it’s even better to be the one thing that will make them stop.

I tell you, there is nothing in the world, nothing at all to which I can compare the feeling I get when Amelie is crying bloody murder (with her father) and I come and scoop her up in my arms and that second, that very instant, she stops.

She looks at me with her darling little lower lip and chin quivering and she looks at me like “where have you been Momma? I missed you!”

What a fool, what a flaming fool I was to think that having a child was not what was best for us right now. I’m so ashamed to have thought that way.

All you soon to be mommies out there: from the moment you see your baby for the first time you’ll be in love in a way you never have before. So take heart. These hard days, these days of worry and fret, these moments of feeling like you aren’t going to be what your baby needs, you won’t do a good job, they’ll see right thru you…they will come to an end! Whether it’s right then, when the amazing instincts God equipted us with kick into gear and you somehow know how to do things you never realized you did, or over the course of the first several weeks as you get to know your little person, you’ll realize all your meanderings were silly. Find peace in knowing that you get to figure it out with your little baby and with your spouse and by the time you have a hang of it you’ll have other mommies to speak into your life and uplift you.

hmmmm…

I think we need a Ya Ya Sisterhood but for all the wonderful Mom’s in the world. Some type of ceremony or rite that takes pride in the work a woman does for her babies.

Peace on all your bellies my friends!

Lovies

My leave from work is soon coming to a close and I’m trying to decide if it is the right decision for us as a family. I’ve been working out the finances and playing devil’s advocate with all sorts of scenarios. It’s quite exhausting. But the long and the short of it comes down to my security issues.

We’ve been doing the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University program for the past couple weeks now and it’s very refreshing. We’ve finished paying off one 6 year old credit card, and we are months away from our last credit card and one of my student loans. But we need to move because our place isn’t big enough for the three of us now and if I don’t go back to work we’ll be living off Naph’s salary alone.

BUT here is the catch. If I don’t go back to Starbucks, I’ll be starting my own photography biz. I’ve already done quite a few jobs and have a good looking portfolio but it’s always been on the in-betweens with work. Unfortunately I can’t keep doing it that way. I can’t go from work to photoshoots to home now that I have a gorgeous little one. Plus I’ve always wanted to do photography, so is it selfish to want to quit the job that provides our family with benefits and security so that I can pursue what I know I’m really good at but never had the guts to jump whole heartedly into?

I just don’t know.

I was talking to my sweet Momma about it yesterday and she made a great point. “You’ve worked so hard to get to the management position with your job, that going back would ensure you getting there. But you also worked very hard at this little one you’re holding and that is going to be sticking around for much longer than that job.”

Yikes. Such good points.

I know that security is the biggest thing on a woman’s mind when it comes to finances so giving that guarantee up is very frightening. But the excitement I feel to actually be pursuing what I want for the first time in…well….ever…is also exciting too.

So….if you’re a prayer, I could use a prayer of peace. I think I know what I have to do, but I need the peace in my heart and mind to do it. To know that God is going to provide and fulfill no matter what I choose because He is good and He loves us and He wants the best for us.

When I was on a walk with Amelie the other day I saw this painted sign at a shirt company called Threadless. It’s a sweet shirt company right down the street from me. While I was praying about all these choices and scenarios I saw this sign. I needed that peace…though it was only temporary.

And just so we don’t end off this post in a depressing mood, here is a picture of my gorgeous darling on Easter Sunday.

Lovies

1. As a woman, and especially as someone who was pregnant for 9 months, I always knew that I wouldn’t be getting much sleep once Amelie was born. But I never really understood it until I started not getting any sleep. I keep thinking “why didn’t anyone tell me that I wasn’t going to have a continuous 8 hours of sleep for the next forever?!”

2. I’ve learned that the next place we live in better have a washer and dryer because all the blow outs are making me go broke!

3. To that end, who knew a 15 day old human being could poop SO much?!

4. During Amelie’s first month of life it has been my job to simply to feed and soothe, and family and friend’s job is to marvel and cuddle.

5. Babies can be tricky little buggers. They are so calm and cute with strangers, in public, at parties, but angry and terrified with full on tears when their alone with Momma in the car.

6. I knew how to change her diaper, pat her back, give her a bath, put on her onesies and soothe her cries by breastfeeding from day one. Daddy has known how to be gentle, sensitive, tender and protective from day one. Both very important things, both very different.

7. Taking a baby out on St. Patrick’s day will get you lots of “oh’s” and “ah’s”. It will get you lots of “Are you serious?!” and “Holy Cow!”s when you tell them that your baby is only 13 days old.

8. Having a picture of how I looked pre-pregnancy is important motivation to continue breastfeeding and loose this weight!

9. my IPhone was the best investment we ever my, my Canon 50d is the second best.

10. There are certain faces Amelie makes that only I ever get the priviledge of seeing because she makes them while she’s feeding.

11.Co-sleeping = at least 3 hours in a row of sleep for Momma.

12. Not all babies developmental stages are created equal, so when people tell me how exceptional it is that this little girl lifts her head all the time, straightens her legs so I can’t make her sit and is awake and alert for a large part of the day, I know I’ve been blessed.

13. Every time Momma changes a diaper, its smooth sailing. Every time Daddy changes a diaper, she pees. Every. Time.

14. Daddy keeps his cool when Amelie poops in his hands on the way into the bath.

15. Amelie is all girl. From the “ooh’s” and “ahh’s” to the cries and even the way she holds her hands and crosses her feet.

I know I have lots more lessons to learn and I look forward to every single one of them.

This is the best adventure ever.

Lovies

So in honor of Amelie’s third week of life tomorrow, I figured I’d show you some pics of her via Instagram and some editing work by my hubs.

Right. So you’re saying, “Where is Amelie in this?” Um. She’s in my belly. 7 weeks old. An amazing friend, Phil, took this picture and my hubs edited it.

All time favorite. Thumbs up. I had been thinking about this shot all through out pregnancy. When my parents were here last week they helped prop her up on the guitar and I got to shooting. Naph did the editing on this sucker which was nice because I’m just dead on my feet most days. I’ll try my hand at them in a bit and give you a different look perhaps. There is another one that has to do with a fedora…it’s adorable. Will be posting soon.

When she was 13 days old I had enough of being inside. We had only been out for her 4 day appointment and I was feeling cramped up, especially because it was a gorgeous 80 degrees outside. We were going to go for a stroll to the nearest Starbucks, about 4 blocks away. But by the time all was said and done, we had agreed on going to Navy Pier. So we all dressed in green and headed over to the water. She did so well! Slept most of the time and wasn’t a bother the other times. There were thousands of people there and she got her fair share of compliments. It was wonderful.

And this isn’t an Instagram but a Photo Booth pic but I loved it. I just decided to take a pic of us through the camera on the computer and didn’t realize I had selected for it to take four pics in a row. This is what I got…a real smile! It stuck that way for ten seconds…I think she was in shock. It was fantastic. A wonderful new memory.

I love being a Momma to this little girl.

Lovies