About the thing I learned from opening my mouth when I shouldn't have

You've probably never noticed, but on the About Me section of my blog I've given myself a Grand Canyon-sized disclaimer about how I really can't (read: won't) blog about "the really good stuff." Truth is, I usually do write about the good stuff--at least most of the sort-of-interesting-to-people-who-know-me stuff. At very least my daughter is cute and my family can come here to see the latest pictures of her adorableness.

What I can't (i.e., won't) blog about so far has been much more personal. Stuff like, oh, I don't know, the fact that I haven't been to church since Norah was blessed. Yep, I just put that out there and, nope, still not ready to talk about it.

But I relearned something this weekend. And even though I can't really share, I still want to share. See, I thought that I knew how to be the bigger person. Ever heard the quote "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle"? I thought I was all over that shit. Like, "Oh, you don't think someone should be able to marry whomever they want? What if that person was your child? What if that person was you?" Or, "Who am I to say what I would do if I were destitute? I would probably do whatever it took to get into the U.S. too."

Bam! I'm so not judgmental.

And then I got offended.

And then I started judging.

And then Nic got involved.

And now more people are involved.

And now we have a family member who isn't speaking to any of us.

So that "hard battle" I was supposed to be aware that everyone is fighting, was just made a lot harder for a lot of people because I felt like I needed to make myself heard.

Now, I realize that family drama does not begin or end with me, but if I could just put this out there to anyone who has managed to read this far: Be kind, people! Everyone you know if fighting a hard battle.

...

And lest you get distracted by my little church disclosure there at the beginning, look! Adorable pictures of Norah!

My mom and dad were kind enough to watch the babe while Nic and I were in Las Vegas for the weekend. These are two of the pictures I was sent. See if you can tell which one was titled "Like Grandma" and which one is "Like Grandpa."

Being festive

I put up a tree this year. It didn't have ornaments, but it was completely lit, which is more than I can say for years past. Every time we came downstairs for breakfast or came in the door from work, Norah would smile and say, "Tree!" This alone is motivation to start decorating for holidays.

Norah discovered the art of unwrapping the presents that were under the tree. I totally let her because I'm a sucker and don't want to argue with an 18 month old about why sometimes we can open presents and sometimes we can't.  

We spent Christmas Eve and morning with my family, which was delightful as always. We also witnessed a Christmas miracle as Norah slept the entire night in a crib that was not hers. She went to bed without a fight and woke up being her usual, awesome self. Unprecedented!

At some point the pajamas came off and the nakey reading began.

Norah entertained us Christmas Eve by dancing to Beyonce for at least a half hour. Christmas morning she was still in the dancing mood. She's added quite a few new moves to her routine--like jazz hands.

We spent Christmas evening with the Stewarts. After being so good for more than 24 hours, Norah had had enough. I bribed her and two cousins to be good by watching Tangled, which just so happens to be the only movie that Norah will actually pay attention to. It sort of worked--meaning we didn't have to leave before presents, but we didn't ever get back to the 1,000-piece puzzle we so optimistically started.

I have never experienced Christmas madness like I have at the Stewarts. There are so many kids and so many adults and so much excitement and so much good food. It's exhausting and completely wonderful. 

The best part is gathering in the basement to open presents. It's a mad house and I highly recommend it.

As always, I'm overwhelmed by the love of family and friends who make our lives completely magical. We've been blessed with a lot, and we have a lot of people to thank for that.

Cleaning house

Remember the weekend before Thanksgiving? Norah doesn't. But here is proof that I took her to her second apple party and attempted to get her to enjoy it. My dad made a valiant effort and even got her to help for a bit.

I ruined it by trying to get an adorable picture of her in the apple bin. Colman and Alexi loved this when they were little!

Luckily for me, J.J. was there to make her smile again.

Oh, and also, I turned 30 this month. The best part was that I didn't even have to freak out because Nic did it all for me. He is seriously not okay with the end of our twenties and could possibly being having an existential crisis of some sort. His reaction completely absorbed any anxiety I would have had about my birthday. All I could think was Jeez, Nic. You need to take it down a notch; this is not that big of deal.

Nic sent me beautiful flowers to my office with the most awesome of all awesome love notes that have ever been written. You'll have to ask me what it said later. My mom came to our house that evening to play with Norah so Nic and I could enjoy a restaurant dinner without me and Norah fighting over who is going to hold her glass of water.

Also, Norah is adorable. I finally got her to let me put something on her head without yelling at me. It's the little victories.

We took Norah to see The Muppet Movie, which was the first time I've dared take her to a theater. It helped my anxiety level knowing that she was outnumbered by adults three to one. My favorite part was when she took the entire bucket of popcorn on her lap, leaned back, and actually watched a lot of the show.

The end.

So many pictures, not so many words

We spent Thanksgiving week, plus some, in Virginia and the outer banks of North Carolina with all of the Wilcoxes. The top two reasons why it was amazing include that we got to spend time with Josh, Jess, and Ellie, and that this trip has served as a marker for the end of my mom's cancer treatment as we've gone through the past year.

I have an overabundance of things that I'm thankful for; on top of that list is my family. Thanks guys.

It's been a while

Get ready for a lot of catch-up because I've been slacking in the blog department. And now summer is over. How is that even possible?

I can't tell you why I haven't been around here very often. Not because it's some secret, just because I'm not sure. We'll blame it on having a one year old.

So here is an photo-illustrated guide to the past few months:

It's obvious that we've been super busy. Not just anyone is going to feed the dogs ALL of their food. I'm looking at you, Norah.

And those books aren't going to read themselves.

Nic is determined to turn Norah into a fish. So far he is succeeding. She loved swimming at the lake.

She also loves strutting around mostly nakey--another trait she picked up from her father.

Aww. Look at us having so much fun.

If you have a small child and haven't hit up any garage sales, I'm telling you, you are missing out. Got this bike for Norah for $5. Five dollars, people! This is a major benefit of living where people have so many kids...eventually they're not gonna need their kid stuff anymore and then I'm there to buy all their books for a quarter. Don't judge me; it's a special sort of thrill.

And BTW: Norah is a fabulous weirdo. She always trying to look at me in a strange different way.

Also, Nic and I celebrated our sixth anniversary in September. We took the weekend to ourselves in Park City and Norah had her first sleepover with Grandma Wendy. Totally weird to be sans baby. Totally awesome to eat sushi, go to a movie, and sleep until 9:30. I only got one picture. We're riding the tram at Park City resort to go down the zip line.

Other adventures included a Jeep outing. We stayed close to home and discovered that Norah is still an awesome Jeeping baby.

Her dad's hobbies are very exhausting though.

We took Norah to Thanksgiving Point and I managed to get some pictures of her looking like she's enjoying herself. The reality was that most of our time was spent carrying her around trying to convince her that we were having fun.

 

Notice how Nic is on crutches? That's because he had surgery to repair a torn ligament and remove two bone spurs from his ankle in the middle of September. I agree with him in saying it was the worst surgery ever! He's still hobbling around and I may or may not still be a little bitter about being the only person in our home who can be trusted to climb stairs.

He did have a hard cast for a few weeks; it came off when he was alone at the shop after work at 4 a.m. and got water on it in the shower. I say it came off, but what I mean is he removed it himself with who knows what kind of tool was lying around. He's also been working a lot and can't be held totally responsible for his actions.

Remember how Norah is a fantastic weirdo? She totally is. And I can't get enough of it.

Kudos to you if you're not my mom and you managed to make it this far. I can't promise this won't happen again, but I can promise that Norah has an excellent Halloween costume, which will definitely be worthy of an update.