a fabulous ordinary

Oh wow- apparently I'm a Sunday blogger now? Sunday only? Sheesh. Pull it together, Erika!

Last week was a really busy, fairly unremarkable week. I took shockingly few pictures to document it. And yet it was a good week. Work was crazy busy, but I come home to a sweet little nugget (who spent most of the week battling a stomach bug) and an incredibly awesome husband-daddy, and it makes it all worth it.

Milie still doesn't sleep in her crib much (not at all at night, occasionally for a nap), but it's our favorite place to set up her toys and plop her down for some independent playtime. She does a great job entertaining herself (well, with the help of her favorite toys) and I just love listening to her babble and giggle and play...and I love that I don't have to worry about Lola licking her incessantly the whole time. Most of the time I'm just doing other things there in her room, and over the weekend Millie discovered that she can keep better track of me (and/or Lola) if she pulls down the bumpers to peek out!

She thinks she's pretty smart stuff! And I like to hide down there so that when she pulls it down, she has something awesome to discover. This is probably the cutest game ever and makes me feel a lot better about the 2,000ish hours it took to sew those bumpers, ha. At least she's getting some entertainment from them!

Today the weather warmed up to the mid-70s and is sunny and perfect. Naturally, Matt and I wanted to spend the afternoon outside getting the yard and gardens ready for spring. It's hard to know what to do with Millie when we're outside- wearing her doesn't work because I can't bend over to pull weeds or dig or do whatever if she's on me (front or back)...she gets furious if she's sitting in her stroller but not going anywhere (no clue why)...she does pretty great sitting on a blanket in the grass, but our fire ant situation is NOT under control yet, so that makes me nervous to leave her there without sitting right next to her. Anyway, today I decided to turn our soft-sided wagon into the Millie Zone...it was perfect!

I could keep her in the shade and next to me, she was out of fire ant reach, she had all her stuff and didn't get grassy...it was great. Obviously this would not be great if she were mobile or could pull up, but for today...perfect.

Happy mama, happy baby. Sad weeds.

 We've been doing a lot of extra laundry this week, thanks to Millie's stomach bug. Luckily, she's a great helper when it comes time to fold. And having 'conversations' like this with her is pretty much the greatest thing ever. Her adorable babbling makes my heart explode.



I assure you that we actually do play sometimes (and not just plop her in the crib, or a wagon, or on a bed while I do chores)...those just weren't the things I happened to capture on camera this weekend, ha. 

I'm excited about the upcoming week. I should be significantly less overwhelmed at work, which means that hopefully I'll have more energy and excitement in the hours after work (and maybe I'll even blog or respond to my emails or something). The weather should be beautiful, which means a) MILLIE'S SPRING WARDROBE (like the little navy dress she wore today- RIDICULOUSLY CUTE) and b) we can enjoy the longer days by taking walks in the evening after dinner. We're having dinner with friends one night before small group, and our small group is just awesome this semester- it fills my heart with joy to meet and share and worship and pray with these friends. Oh, and a book I've been wanting to read finally came in at the library, so I'll have a new book to dive into.

It'll be a good week. An ordinary week, but that's what life is, right? It's mostly ordinary. I love my ordinary now. I love that I'm not just living for our next vacation or our next adventure or our next big thing- I love where we are right now, in the middle of March, in a normal work-week. My ordinary is pretty darn fabulous right now. I'll never stop being grateful for that.