what momma writes

due to the turbulence of stella's sleeping thru the night and well, not sleeping thru the night has caused me to take illogical action in order to cope with my aggravation and current sleep deprivation. i thought she started sleeping through the night. then there was that tooth. and that other tooth and oh yea, 2 more of those stinkers popping in... how many frigging teeth need to come in people? and to be honest, i don't know if that's the reason, but sometimes it makes the most sense. i know some parents that prayed for sleep, or good skin tone, or what have you... i didn't pray for either of those. (i mean skin tone...come on, look at mister john and i - it wouldn't be worth the prayer!) i prayed for healthy which, duh i think everyone does and we were blessed and got that. and while i didn't pray for anything else, i did secretly want a baby who was fun, happy, and very much engaging with a little sass on the side. if my baby was a girl i wanted to

burlap and stencils makes the perfect bday sign. and yes, i will reuse this every year thank you. pinterest is my friend. easy little booklets and picture book decor with ribbon. a friend of mine at posies patches made this bib for stella. she had no idea my plates were brown polka dots and yellow! more pinterest. i can't take credit where it's not due... but i made up my own verbiage. messy photoshop changing christ's cake to stella's cake. book title food labels - john made his delish chili for all. who's more excited? moma or bird? proud of bird for palming her cake. nicely done, child. a peek at our invite. library theme if you didn't catch it yet. a lil play on no one better than the old Dr. Seuss! a play on library card insert and poking fun at my own little lack of birth announcement. a year OVERDUE eh, better late th

short and sweet on giving thanks. something to live by and remember. there is something to be said about gratitude.  it surely shifts the mind to a more positive, happy place. happy thanksgiving.  give thanks. i mage via.

i can't take credit for this. my friend mel   did this with her daughter and, uh, genius! mine's not as clean as hers and i failed to do it ON the 20th of each month, but it made sure i took her diaper picture as close to that date as possible. i had to snag some with a cell phone bc that was all that was around, but all and all i like the little month by month look. it's amazing how many changes occur each month! bird went from a little newt to a little human.

happy birthday my darling, bella bird! this last month alone i feel like you have grown up on me more than ever before. my little red , when i think about this time last year  i can't believe it. i can think back to the denial i was in during the onset of labor and then suddenly there you were. and there i was. holding you, in disbelief. i don't know if there are words to say how much i love you, but the phrase "i love you to the moon and back" rings true, bird. you are so much fun! you point at everything and exclaim "dat" with the most excited voice. you LOVE pointing at people's pictures on the refrigerator. who needs toys? we have the refrigerator! and you've found your little spot in one of our cabinets. an investigator, you are - there is no question. everything has to be turned over and over and over again. you need to look at the front of the cell phone and then the back... and so on and so forth.  you like to climb up on p

it's sounds a little cliche of course, but that's where i am. i realize almost everything has an eb and flow so i'm not naive in knowing this place won't last forever. however i'm bound and determined to keep this happy place ruminating with the realization that life ultimately has hurdles for everyone, some harder to jump than others. when mister john and i exchanged love letters  we both expressed that this year, while it has brought our greatest joy, has also brought lots of challenges and learning experiences. we both agreed that these experiences have been for the better.  the last six months have been quite eye opening and i never imagined i'd be believing in what i believe today. life's interesting like that. mister john and i treated ourselves in some reiki sessions. These sessions have only helped make clear to us what we want out of life and how we want to get there. That "point b" that everyone seems to strive for... disclaimer:

mister john had a day off this week. we decided to do something fun. family fun. we'd been talking about going to the zoo (you know, like families do...) since july.  it happened to be gorgeous out so a trip to the zoo seemed like an optimal choice. (especially since my sister gave us half price tickets and we'd only be spending about 2 hours there!) after parking, $8.00's later, we arrived. i had envisioned stella obsessing over the large animals and being excited. only, it was john and i who were more interested in the animals. and, because it's november (not july when we initially talked about going to the zoo) a lot of the animals were not on "display" ... we passed many a'signs that read "brrrrr it's cold out here" aka you can't check us out until maybe, next spring (er maybe next july like we planned). we took stella in and out of her stroller to see the animals. so, i have to say, i was a little disappo