these glory days

Ummm…yeah, another week just went by. Sheesh. Remember when I used to blog five days a week? Ahhhh. The glory days. For blog-writing-frequency, anyway. Not actually for like life. The glory days for that are now.

September just trucked right along and now it’s basically gone. It’s fall and there’s football and pumpkin-flavored-everything (recent fave: these English muffins. Totally legit way to start your day!) and it’s finally cooled down enough that I don’t sweat through my clothes every minute of the day. In fact, it’s been raining and/or cloudy every day for pretty much the last week or two…and it’s pretty glorious. We can’t get outside much, but we’re pretty good at entertaining ourselves indoors. Or rather, Millie’s pretty good at entertaining us.

I will scream like a banshee if you put a wipe anywhere near my snotty nose or my bottom, but it's hilarious when I put them on my head!!!!!

Help, my mommy dresses me up like a basic white girl!!! I literally can't even!!!

Her current favorite pastimes include:

1. Playing her instruments (FUTURE BAND GEEK FO SHO)

Sorry, I'm busy working on my first concerto. Don't nobody need to see the keys to compose.

Then again, it would be a shame to waste my amazing maraca skills. What's the job market like for professional maraca players?

Buttttt...I'm also really great at tambourine-ing. Pantsless. Every band needs a pantsless tambourineist, right?

But if I focus on playing cymbals, I can be in the marching band!!! OH THE DECISIONS!!!

 2. Kissing and being kissed by Lola. Lawd have mercy, I feel like I’m chaperoning a middle school dance with those two…Millie, you don’t need to be THAT CLOSE to Lola…Lola!!! Get your tongue out of Millie’s mouth!! Millie!! Stop encouraging her to stick her tongue in your mouth!!! Actually, forget middle school dance. This is straight up high school marching band away game bus ride material. ;)

But I just love her so much...I will love her forever!

3. Bringing Mommy and Daddy book after book after book to read to her. I’m telling ya. Having a bookworm baby is more exhausting than I’d anticipated! When do they learn to read quietly to themselves, again?? ;) Kidding, of course. I love almost every minute of reading to her. I’m going to love ALL the minutes as soon as I get done hiding the books I don’t like/am most sick of reading…

Do you see my Mommy's exhausted face and insane hair? That's what happens after 382 consecutive hours of reading me my stories. Another thing that happens is the stories get shorter every time. It seems like the pages of the books get stuck together. I will need to work on that...

Sometimes I am nice and I let her go get a sip of water. I look at books by myself during that eleven seconds. AND THEN I PUT HER BACK TO WORK!!!!!

I'm serious, though. Little Bit gets more and more personality every day. It's like she gets a fresh impartation each night as she rests. Right now she's also the one-man sunshine committee wherever she goes. Grocery store, walking in the neighborhood, church, Target, restaurant- doesn't matter where. Millie's busy smiling and waving at every single person (and most of the inanimate objects) she sees. If you make even a halfhearted attempt at smiling or waving back to her, she will reward you with a second round of even bigger, more enthusiastic waves and smiles, probably accompanied by some clapping and maybe even dancing. She's big fun for everyone. It's the best thing ever. (Until some strange lady- clearly enamored by my daughter and probably under the influence of something other than just Millie's smiles- PICKS HER UP in the store!!!! When she saw my horrified face (and my snatching Millie away), she was like "oh, can I hold your baby?"...and I was like....NOOOO??? Ahhhhh. Anyway, it was horrifying, but luckily the lady took no for an answer. And the younger woman she was shopping with was like "MOM, you can't do that!! That's so weird!!!"...so at least Matt and I weren't the only ones who thought that was totally not okay.) (The bottom line is: if you encounter a joyful, happy, waving, laughing baby in a public place, the appropriate response is to wave and smile back, maybe say hi and comment on how cute the baby is to the parents. DON'T JUST PICK HER UP.)

Pick up pumpkins! Not babies that aren't yours!

P.S. That pumpkin is foam and weighs about half a pound. Millie loves carrying/throwing it around. We think she's going to be super confused when we go to the pumpkin patch and she expects to be able to throw around the pumpkins there...ha!

We're looking forward to October: we have a fun weekend trip to the mountains planned, as well as other stereotypical fall things (pumpkin patch, costume parties) to look forward to. Our football team is doing well this year. It's just a really great season. :)

In case you were wondering...yes, I still like to eat.

But sometimes my long days of being Suzy Sunshine catch up to me and I just....can't...make...it...zzzzzz

I hope you have a wonderful week! I'm off to continue trekking through Season 5 of Walking Dead (which just came out on Netflix...and since it's been about a year since I last watched it, it's taking me a little while to get back into it and remember what's going on...and also remember how to not throw up the whole time I'm watching it. Ick). Good night!

weekend, and a closet full of emotions.

We had a wonderful, relaxing weekend visiting my parents. Millie enjoyed being fussed over even more than usual, and I enjoyed being the proud mama of the one being fussed over. We kicked off Saturday morning with a dip in the hot tub. I really think I need to get one of these for our house. But it’s probably not as much fun if you’re the one paying for the water and electricity, so then again, maybe not.

I'M SWIMMING WITH MY MOMMY AND DADDY!!!

We spent the day lounging, watching football, eating, and shopping. While Millie napped, my mom and I hit up my favorite kids’ consignment store and completed (hopefully!) Millie’s fall/winter wardrobe shopping! It was the MOST fun…I’m really not sad at all that we have no more hand-me-downs. Shopping for my girl is way too much fun. Plus I get to keep them. And not feel guilty if she ruins something. All bonuses. In addition to her regular clothes, we also found this year’s (drumroll, please!) Halloween costume!!!!! Which will remain a carefully guarded secret until the time is nigh, so…sorry. Just know that Matt and I are super excited, it is part of a family ‘theme,’ and it is very us.

We spent the rest of our time enjoying the back porch, otherwise known as Millie’s personal amusement park.

Oh hey girl. Just swinging in the almost-buff...toldja my fall wardrobe was slim.

Cindermillie, Cindermillie, night and day it's Cindermillie

Her cousin Carley came over and the girls had fun playing with (or near, as the case may be) each other. And I enjoyed hanging out with my sister-in-law and mom and watching the girls play. I still get all warm and tingly every time I watch one of my long-awaited dreams come true, even when it’s for the tenth time…she’s played with her cousins many times by now, but it’s special every time. Naturally, I have no pictures to illustrate this fuzzy moment.

I'ma pretend I'm at the beach, okay Mommy?

HEY MAN, GET OUTTA MY WAY!!

We came home last night and I immediately embarked on the task of sorting through Millie’s closet and dresser and pulling out all of the out-of-season/too small clothes. It was unexpectedly emotionally challenging. The more recently-outgrown stuff wasn’t so bad, but I still had all of her coats and jackets from last winter hanging up (so they were like 0-3 and 3-6 month stuff)…and they were all just SO tiny and it kind of took my breath away. Most of her stuff was hand-me-downs and I have bins full to return to the kind friends that lent them to us, but the stuff that is mine…I don’t know what to do with it. I save it all (or most of it- I’m donating the stuff I never really liked in the first place, ha), but I don’t know why. Will I need it again? Will I just lend it to the next friend who has a girl? Should I sell it? The odds of ever having another baby (let alone a girl born with the same size/season matching as Millie) seem so slim that I feel silly packing it all up and carefully labeling the boxes…but I just can’t bear to get rid of it. It’s weird. I didn’t expect that to be so hard.

But once I had all the tiny, adorable things put away, I got to focus on the new stuff: the huge (okay, 18-month), still-adorable fall wardrobe! And it’s pretty awesome. Millie was a super cute and fun baby, but I’ve gotta admit- she’s infinitely more fun now. It’s true. And her eyelashes are even longer and more dramatic. And she has a PONYTAIL. And like…personality. And so packing up the old stuff is sad, but pulling out the new stuff…I mean, it means that my daughter is growing. She’s healthy and growing and a year older, and isn’t that what every parent hopes for? And isn’t that what I spent so many years hoping for? It is. I am so incredibly fortunate.

So I packed away her baby-est clothes and tried to squash down the sadness and uncertainty about what the fate of those clothes will be, and now I’ll focus back on what’s here before me: my perfect, beautiful daughter. Whatever else the future may hold, we will hold her. It’s all that really matters.

fashion and blankets and anniversaries- oh my.

Today and tomorrow are the one year anniversaries of two of the very best days of my whole entire life: Millie's dedication and adoption finalization. Good grief- rereading those posts and seeing that tiny little lump of a baby...the tears. They flow. What a year it has been. I remember those two days as clearly as if they were yesterday. The day we (officially) dedicated our daughter to our God. And the day the state officially dedicated our daughter to us. Big days.

But that's ancient history, Mommy. Let's talk about NOW!

 In more recent news, Millie is the most fashionable and adorable baby ever. It seems that the hand-me-down-clothes train has officially left the station and we're on our own for clothing our babe...which is a bummer for my wallet, but a big win for the part of me that LOVES picking out outfits for this girl. Her current fall wardrobe consists of about six things, ha. Luckily, they are all super cute. I'm hoping to hit up my favorite consignment store this weekend so that I can quit doing laundry every night, though...

I'll humor you and sit on this painted bulldog, Mommy, but I really want to go back to eating those delicious wood chips.

 We've been delighting in this cooler weather. We spent Saturday morning at the park and Millie definitely approved.

What I approve of is the wood chips. I'm only going to ask you one more time...TAKE ME BACK TO THEM!

I know I've mentioned it before, but Millie (and Mommy and Daddy) are huge fans of her aden + anais bamboo swaddle blankets (they are infinitely softer than the normal a+a blankets, trust me). We have four of them, which works out fabulously...one at daycare, one in the car, one to play/sleep with in the house...and one to be rotating through the laundry. It's perfect. But in the event that Millie finds more than one blanket floating around the house at a time, she feels compelled to carry both of them. Or all of them, as the case may be. No blanket left behind...that's her motto.

Leave me alone. I just woke up. If you're not a blankie, I'm not interested in you right now.

The only problem is that- as you may notice- the blankets are rather long. Or Millie is rather short. Or both. And our floors are rather slippery. This does make for some tricky situations...but Millie doesn't let it get her down. Figuratively. Literally, though, they do get her down.

VICTORY!!! I'M NOT TRIPPING OVER MY BLANKIES! Vision is overrated.

 Two seconds later...

Oh, never mind. Scratch that. Hey, can we get back to talking about how fashionable I am?

Please note: no babies were harmed in the making of this amazing photo montage.

Tonight she found one of my winter scarves hiding on the coat rack. She thought it was pretty great.

I heard leopard was in this year?

 I tried to help her wrap it a little better so that we didn't have Millie's Face and the Floor: The Reunion Tour.

That's because we're about to have Millie's Mouth and the Dried Grass: The Reunion Tour. YUM!

 In conclusion...I wish I were as cute as my kid. That's about it.

Dream on, Mommy. And also...fetch me my blankets.

sometimes we're fancy, sometimes we're not

Matt's brother got married last weekend, which made for a fun weekend of food, family, and my personal favorite- coordinating outfits. 

"Selfies are SO SCARY, Mommy!! I'll hold on for dear life!!"

Matt was busy with groomsmanly duties most of the time, which left plenty of time for Millie and I to walk around flaunting our perfectly-coordinated teal, blue, and white ensembles. It was pretty much the best thing ever. I mean, besides the gorgeous venue, delicious and freely-flowing foods and beverages, and gaining a new SIL.

After the ceremony, we finally got a picture with our favorite man. Luckily, his groomsman ensemble looked pretty snazzy with our dresses. And Millie has decided that boutonnieres are her favorite accessory ever and that they should be worn by all people at all times.

"BUT I WANT TO GRAB IT!!!!"

 Millie had a lot of fun all weekend with her cousins Eliana and Timmy. It is so much fun to see them actually interact as the babies get older! Millie's preferred way to interact is by...uhhh...asserting her physical prowess. Proving she's the Alpha Female. Eeesh. We'll work on it.

"I'm twenty-four pounds of power, Mommy. I just wanted to show them..."

We enjoyed having Monday off to recover from all of the excitement. A short work week is never a bad thing. Especially when it's a short week that is significantly less swelteringly hot than normal!

Tonight we celebrated the cooler temperatures and lovely rain by letting Millie run wild and free. Go ahead and insert your favorite cheesy/sentimental "dancing in the rain" quote here, because here we go...

"I WILL STOMP AND STOMP AND STOMP!!!!" 

"THIS IS SO FUN I CAN HARDLY STAND IT!!!!"

"Why is there water on the sidewalk? Are we swimming? Is it bathtime?"

"I have my Mommy and my Daddy and my rain puddles and I'm good to go."

"PLAYING IN THE RAIN IS THE GREATEST THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED TO ME!!!!!"

So between getting dolled up for the wedding and playing like drowned rats in the driveway, I think we've covered all the bases this week. Millie and I also managed to survive our first night sans Daddy! He spent a night in the mountains for the bachelor party and we missed him very much, but somehow managed to make it on our own. Wellllll...."own" being a relative term. When "own" includes having your SIL come over for the night (bringing sushi, wine, and helping hands). But you know, basically on our own.

Ignore her unimpressed face. She's as happy as they come. As are we.

lies, all of them. LIES. but also, ponytails.

Let me be the first to tell you: you shouldn't believe everything you read on the internet.

Crazy, but true. True. Unlike some things you will read.

Things like...Pitch Perfect 2 will be released on Netflix on September 1.

Apparently that was just a pretty little lie. And I was too excited by it to bother fact checking. Waaaaaah.

So in conclusion, much to my dismay- PP2 is NOT on Netflix right now. As you can imagine, this totally wrecked my day. Buuuuut then I recovered, because Millie got a ponytail.

(These things may not seem related, but somehow...they are.)

I got a ponytail. It came with a side of sass.

She got her ponytail yesterday and I 100% can't even deal with how freaking adorable it is. Ask anyone I work with. All I could do was shove pictures in people's faces all day. LOOK AT MILLIE SHE HAS A PONYTAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...repeat, repeat, repeat.

I got all the chalk, too. Because I'm the boss.

 Millie's two-year-old friend that lives next door told his mom that Millie is "pretty like a flower." That made me happier than it probably should have. Then when he was over playing with us tonight, he told me "the snake bit me" as he pointed to our garage. Two true things, W. You're on a roll. Unlike the internet. 

So you know how Millie is a really happy, smiley baby? She is. Except for when she's not (exhibit A: when she's wearing a life jacket). But for the most part, she is.

Except for on school picture day. School pictures, apparently, are not her thing.

I don't like it and you can't make me pretend like I do. 

Add this to the list of things I obnoxiously forced my coworkers to laugh at all day long. I can't help it. It's too good. Millie is not amused. Don't even try her.

So my Netflix dreams all crashed and burned this week, but my cute girl got even cuter, brought home some hilarious pictures, and got called a "pretty flower," so in the end, I can't complain.