Success

We did this for about an hour last night. Pick up a block, stack a block, stack another block, knock it down. Clap clap, yay Brooklyn!

At one point she was concentrating so intently on stacking that she started breathing harder. Adorable.

After a long day there is nothing more peaceful than this to come home to. I often tell myself, and you, how it's important to keep things in perspective but we move at such a fast pace it's so easy for our minds to clutter with life. After my cousin passed away I thought FOR SURE I'd have a handle on it, but only two weeks later I am wrapped up with work, with being healthy, having mental arguements about working out, planning schedules, cleaning house, updating my blog!, blah blah blah. None of which is bad, but time consuming.

Then as I'm laying on our living room rug last night playing with Brooklyn it suddenly dawns on me that I'm having a moment with her. She has never been able to stack these blocks on her own, but now she can. One of her little obstacles overcome. It was awesome for both me, and Dom, to just sit back, stop thinking, and watch her grow. A memory made, a very big success.

Winds of change...

Ever feel like things are just in sync, moving, working, rhythm is good, satisfying my control freak needs, feeling the flow, then BAM!!! Change of pace.

That has been our lives the last three weeks and on into [insert big black hole.]

House stuff, family stuff, friends stuff, general stuff, etc...stuff. We’ve had a lot of after work commitments to fulfill, lots of them social so definitely not a bad thing but before you know it it’s Thursday and you have yet to sit for half an hour on your couch that you love so much and you quickly reflect on the days gone by where all you did was suck couch. Sigh. Weekend is right around the corner and the stuff picks right back up.

Dom and I have both have had pretty intense work schedules right now too, Chicago, Detroit, me – Dallas. Oh, yes, let’s pause on that one.

I was scheduled to leave for Dallas Thursday morning for work meetings, coming home Friday morning. It wasn’t required to stay overnight but my brother lives there right now while doing an internship. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to visit the liquor bottle decorated, office chair for furniture, bachelor pad, home sweet dump that he has. I’m actually SUPER proud of him, but I do love what straight guys do to the place. Rewind again to Thursday at about 1:35 a.m., Brooklyn is stirring, baby monitor is LOUD AND CLEAR GET THE F*** UP screaming at you. My turn, I went upstairs to check on her and she’s sitting in her crib, stares at me, and pukes. I alluded to this puke in my previous post. Yeah....let me know if there are any tricks out there to direct a 10 month old on how to puke in ‘appropriate’ places. 5 hours later and I’m in the shower trying to figure out how in the hell I could do this drive to Dallas on 3 hours sleep. Easy – caffeine.

Fast forward to Friday night, I puke. Saturday, Dom pukes.

Awesome.

All good now, everyone is back to normal.

I just have that sense of change, not sure what it is, but it’s there. It’s progress at it’s best, life in motion. Dom is heading back to New York in August, going to the beach this weekend, various opportunities on the horizon. Just change. All of that, though, suddenly went into perspective for me though the other day when my baby girl demonstrated change to me more than anything. In the midst of craziness she pulls her attempt to walk. Jaws drop, freeze in place, “BABE!!! OMG!!! LOOK!!!!.” Four steps, crash. Couldn’t believe it and literally paused life to just watch HER. Such adorable innocence and determination. Her winds of change, blowing wild and free.

In that moment, all mine stood still.

(If anyone knows of video rotating software that is trustworthy, please let me know.)

10 months

In the midst of being reminded about what I was reminded (last post) about I forgot to REMIND myself that my baby girl turned 10 months old yesterday!

OMG

For the millionth time I am going to state again, time flies. I don't remember days EVER going this quickly when I was a kid, or even in college - determining what pool we were going to lay out at after we got our Sonic drinks seemed to drag out forever. That never flew by. WTF, life? Why do you seem to go so much faster now!

A 10 month old no longer sits still for my camera. I had to chase her little ass around to get a photo that included her in it...
Happy 10 months baby girl! Every month that passes you show me how I can love you even more.

That's mine.

When Brooklyn was born I got to stay home for 4 months. I loved being home with her, and after the freak out phase in the beginning we grew into a routine that was fantastic. Yeah I was up at least once or twice throughout the night, but it didn't matter because I had the day to figure out what we wanted to do. We'd go shopping, meet friends for lunch, take care of our house, grocery shop, laundry, and cook dinner before Daddy got home. She'd sit in her swing, or Bumbo chair and it was our girl time. I loved it.

After Christmas it was time to go back to work. I was okay with that though because as much as I loved being a stay at home mom for those few months I was ready to get back. Well, as ready as one can be I guess. I love her school, the staff is awesome and they make you feel very comfortable. They have web cams too so I can see her whenever I want to. The first day I logged in I literally got nothing done because I kept watching her. It was so strange to watch her interact with other babies, her teachers, and I'm watching from my office - miles away...

Just recently they sent home a CD with pictures and video of Brooklyn. While very thoughtful and sweet, it was so strange to look at these pictures I didn't take, these moments I didn't see, and these "firsts". This video is from when Brooklyn first started standing in her crib. Watching her made me so sad, because I didn't get to be there one that saw it the FIRST time.

Yeah, yeah, woe is me huh? NO one else could possibly be going through this same thing. ;) Suck it up, right? And I can, and will, and as we go throughout our days everything is just as it's supposed to be. But it does tug at my heart every once in awhile knowing that my baby is growing up so fast and someone else besides me is seeing it too.