Happy, on Thanksgiving

Happy Friday!

Fall Afternoons...

were made for playing trucks on the sidewalk with good friends.

Eleven Happy Months

This month's photo shoot happened early last week.  For the last 10 months Ever has been such a compliant model for me.  She'll give me her biggest smiles and kick excitedly while I snap 20 or 30 shots (I'm officially a mom, 20 shots is no biggie).  

This month, not so much.  She was a little squirm for sure.  The second after I put her down she'd be positioned like the last photo.   You can see her gearing up for the flip above.

She's tasted freedom and no giant mama (even with dad's iphone) is going to deter her from the promised land of running around playing with Owen.

Little chubby cheeked bug.

At 11 months, Ever:

-is  walking.  All over, all the time.  I turned around yesterday and she was standing in the doorway to the kitchen.  Her big grin showed how pleased she was with herself for sneaking away from Dad and Owen to find me. 

- eats more than Owen.  The girl loves everything.  When she's done she'll fake you out - opening her mouth and then, just before the spoon hits, turning her head away and covering her mouth with her tiny fist.  She also will stick her tongue out and spit when you clean off her face.

- loves to point at things.  Usually with two arms stretched straight by her ears.

- Says "Wooooooww!" and "Yea!"  Also knows dada and nainai (night night) and mama but those are used more rarely.  She can blow kisses (sticks her finger in her mouth), and sign please (clapping).  But where she really excels is sound effects.  She does car noises, cows, and ducks pretty distinctly and tries other animals too.  

- loves people.  She gets so excited when we're on a walk and we see anyone or anything.  She'll scream at them and point and wave.

- has just about 6 teeth.  They're almost all through.

In about 2 weeks this little one will be 1!  So excited about the life we have ahead with her.

Why I love fall

Trees look like some sort of lung structure.  And glow.

Morning light.

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue

Even the shed flower stems are beautiful. 

Cute little knit hats.

The sky turns upside down.

Traveling

We had a few big airplane trips to wrestle with this summer.  I'll admit that I went in to it all with very low expectations*. 

 Not in a pessimistic way.  More in a 'I know that this could seriously rough' way.  I think it helped.  Compared to what I was prepared for the trips were a breeze.  (*I am all into crisis management though - so I think having low expectations comes with the territory.)

I joked with another parent-friend that a flight before kids was definitely not glamorous.  After kids, if you fly without them, it's kind of a vacation (they bring you fooooood!  I could read a whole boook!)   I definitely didn't bother taking a book.  I slept.

And I'm glad we ended up packing light.  Besides, it's better to use the extra space to pack fun treats like a mini helicopter (which Owen flew for almost the whole DC-Miami flight - too awesome!)

It helps to bring along a cute, happy baby.  People LOVE them.  And we found out that bringing a smallish one is a double bonus because of the bassinet.  The bassinet is your ticket to the good life because it means you have to sit in a bulkhead row.  SCORE!  Leg room AND instant bathroom access.  It also means that everyone waiting for the bathroom will play peek-a-boo with your cute infant (who is supposed to be sleeping in the bassinet) at 2am.  And apparently a lot of people need the restroom at 2am.  Babies love this and it seems to make the other passengers happy too.  Win-win (win).

We just took it slow.  And kissed our cranky (or happy...) babies a lot so we'd remember that we love them so much that we couldn't bear to leave them on the other side of the big, big ocean.

Scheduling in loooooong layovers helped too.    I don't know who needed them more but they were a great chance to rest and see a new place at the same time.  

Even though it was over 40 hours of flight time this summer (not counting layovers or car time) I we actually had fun

Which really had nothing to do with my planning (or low expectations even)

In fact...looking back at our flying 'adventures' I can only attribute it to a whole lot of grace, protection, and mercy.

So some major thanks got given (and get given) to God.  

 In sum, what I learned on summer vacation:  Less packing, more praying and take a cute baby with you for entertainment.  :)  [ And on long flights try to get a bassinet. ]

How Ever Spent Her 11 Month Birthday Morning

Some art time.

Sit-ups with Mama.  

A little light reading...

Interspersed with pensive thinking.

aaand a snack.

Tuesday

Morning trains.

Afternoon walks with crunchy leaves.

Evening baths.

Today was one of those normal days.  The type of normal that makes me thankful.  To say that God gives you the desires of your heart doesn't just mean that He gives you what you want.  But that He determines what the 'wants' are if you let Him.  And sure enough, He has made nurturing something that fulfills me even as He expands that area of my life.  Something that I never saw as myself until I let Him rewire that part of my dna.

I've got a long way to go until I get this job down.  Balance is still being defined and humility is being painfully learned as I fail frequently...constantly.  But isn't that part of any career climb?

And daily walks in the late afternoon sunshine is kind of a nice perk.