one woman army

I need to be a one woman army today. The move, as moves do, has exploded on me. Plans changing left and right, and still there are babies and children to entertain. So fortunately for me I found this shirt while packing a few days ago. Purchased way back when at the Toronto Women's Bookstore, it no longer fits my post-two-babies body, but damn it, I need today.

I'll be back once this mess is all over with!

Date Night

I'm going to interrupt my regularly scheduled rant about having too much to do and too much to pack and too much sleep not enjoyed, and give you an update on my Life List. I wanted to offer some evidence that I had indeed accomplished #34, which required that Matt and I find a sitter and have a date all to ourselves (thanks, mum, and may it happen many more times). We enjoyed dinner, coffee, and ice cream, all to ourselves. It was glorious. Now here is the evidence:

I'm not sure what this proves, except that maybe we had caught a little bit of the crazies, spending all that time away from The Children, and all.

An awfully big Monday

Here is my Monday to-do list for today:

• get rid of nasty head cold that appeared out of nowhere
• nurse Shira, suffering from same head cold, back to health
• sell some furniture on craigslist
• pack up some of the kitchen and the toys
• tackle that pile of paperwork that is threatening to smother us in our sleep
• have a really long nap

So that last one might not happen, but I am determined to be in bed by 8:30 tonight. I was out late last night, partying as usual (ok, so I went on a movie date with a friend. Bridesmaids is fabulous and you should probably go see it tonight) and now I'm dragging myself around this to-do list. 

There is an unbelievable amount of things to do before Thursday, when we will pack all these boxes and bits and pieces into a moving truck. And of course because I'm like this, I still have some working hanging over my head that needs to be finished before we go. Whenever things get crazy like this I just want to sit down and knit. But instead, I will need to power through and get all this done.

Have I mentioned that Alyce is in daycare this week? (Yay!)

Any good packing strategies?

And now she is one

Modeling the cap she wore coming home from the birth centre one year ago.

No matter how much I try to avoid it, Shira's birthday did happen. I know everyone says they don't know how it happened so fast, but why does it happen so fast? I sometimes have a hard time remembering Alyce's first year, and I wonder all the time if I'll remember the details of my days with Shira as much as I want to. Everyone always tells new parents that you're lucky to forget so much about that hard first year--the pain of childbirth, the sleepless nights, the sleepless days--but I learned the first time around that you also forget some of the good stuff. I can't remember so much of what my days were like with Alyce as a baby. I remember the events of that year (like Matt getting a job here in Delaware), but like with most things, the day to day stuff is harder to remember. I will never forget some of the really good stuff, like how her skin smelled and the noises she made while breastfeeding, but I wish I could remember so much more.

Clearly, I should have started this blog three years ago.

So with the passing of Shira's first year I'm feeling a bit down about the things I might forget. Like the sound of her voice when she yells at me for more strawberries, or the way she fits against my body perfectly when she nurses in bed with me at night, or the look on her face when Alyce walks into the room. But here's what I won't forget: how she immediately became part of our family, like she was here all along. I will never forget her sweetness and the gentle way she greeted us each morning. And I will never forget all those glorious hours we spent in bed together, my little nursling and me.

 
P.S. If you are interested, you can find some details about Shira's birth here.

Somewhere in Philly there is a giraffe wearing a purple hat

Oh, hi there.

Maybe you noticed, maybe you didn't, but I have been around here much this week. I have three excuses for you. I think they're good ones.

1. Blogger was down for some reason. But that only accounts for one day.

2. I had a job interview to prepare for. It was my first interview ever that wasn't for a job serving beer or fancy dinners. But that's for another post.

3. Oh, and I'm moving permanently back to Canada after three years of going back and forth between two countries. In six days.

A lot has happened this week in the meantime. There was a first birthday, anxiety about the job interview, a trip to the zoo, baking these incredible cookies for a farewell lunch with a good friend (my farewell!), and the usual chasing after my children. I'll be back with some of these details soon. Right now I'm off to do some packing. A lot of packing.

I'll leave you with my favourite photo of the week. At the zoo on Wednesday Alyce wore her favourite purple hat, a recent gift from her Nana. I guess the urge was just to powerful, because the second my back was turned, Alyce thew her purple hat over the fence into to giraffe enclosure. Of course she did. 

Ten things about my day

1. I began my day being slightly irritated by Pomegranate, who didn't let blinds stand in the way of sitting in a window.

  

2. Who am I kidding, I began my day sleeping in an extra hour and not caring at all about Pomegranate. It was Matt, up early with Shira, who took this photo. I didn't become slightly irritated until later. 

3. It's beginning to hit me that I won't be spending much more time in Delaware. And by not much more time I mean next week I'm leaving for good. Am I sad to say good-bye? I'll miss some incredible people a whole lot, and there are a few things about Delaware, and the U.S. in general, that will be hard to part with, but mostly I'm just excited. 

4. It also hit me that enough with the reflection and nostalgia, and finish packing already.

5. I think my priorities might be slightly off kilter when I worry about packing up my stand mixer, because what if I need to make brownies the day before I move? What then?

6. I realized today that one of the perks of having children is being able to indulge in some delicious luxuries for the children. Like tomorrow is Shira's birthday and I declared that we really should have a birthday breakfast, with pancakes or french toast, because it is her birthday. Shira, of course, would be happy eating cat hair, which she daily.

7. I packed away, for selling or for giving away, piles and piles of books that I've been holding on to from my dissertation research. This is such a big deal that I can't even talk about it. So right now, I won't.

8. In other news, I'm seriously thinking of packing away, for selling or for giving away, our three cats. 

9.  You know how, as parents to a young baby, you sort of waffle around about introducing certain foods to your baby, because you're not sure if they can chew it or handle the carbs or the sugar or whatever, and then your baby disregards you and tackles the bowl when you're not looking, grinning at you with a mouthful of contraband food? You know what I think? It's about time someone made a decision. And it's about time that someone wasn't me.

10. Tomorrow my baby turns one. This time last year I was watching the series finale of 24, which was made all the more exciting by contractions every six or seven minutes. The next morning, Shira was on the outside. Now she looks like this:

 

Sleep well, Shira. Tomorrow is a big day.

Spring crush

I don't think it could have been more beautiful today. I'm having a huge crush on spring this year.

P.S. Sometimes I feel a bit like a dork posting all my photos online that I take with my iphone, and not a fancy pants camera (that I do hope to own one day soon). There are some stunning photos out no question (like these I found today via Pinterest). But on a day like today, when we took an impromptu after dinner walk/hill roll/chase in the field next to our house, I feel lucky to have that phone in my pocket. Because you all know that I'm too lazy to carry anything else but a baby on my back and a phone in my pocket. 

P.P.S. When's the last time you rolled down a grassy hill?