THE CLINCHES

The Clinches are our good friends that we got to know well over the past few years as a family - over Sunday suppers, working out together, and sharing our struggles and joys - and I am so glad they are in our lives. A few weeks ago on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, we met up with them at a local park to romp, take photos and watch our kids climb trees. Spring really is coming! ...The day seemed to shout and we let that promise wash over us as we bathed in the sunshine.

WHEN SLOANE MET LOGAN

The other day I was watching Sloane and Logan play together and marveling how wonderful their interactions were, when I suddenly remembered that we had recorded their first meeting the day Logan was born. I went back to find it and made this video so that the clips don't get lost in the archives.

I didn't want Sloane to feel pushed out or jealous when she came in and saw us with the baby, so I made sure to have my arms available to greet and hold Sloane when she first came in and tell her how much I had missed her. (It's funny - one of the first things she wanted to do was share the grapes that her and my MIL had packed in her little bag). It was amazing to behold my big girl after having just given birth to another tiny one.

It makes me weepy watching this- remembering how much love I felt for both of them, how lucky I felt and how proud I was of Sloane for being so loving and gentle to her new baby sister.

THESE DAYS

I have to write this down here because it feels monumental each time I come to it:  I really love being a mom. My journey to this conclusion might take detours in "can I get one more hour of sleep" or "I am too tired to put both these girls to bed right now" or "when am I going to have me time" but at the end of the day I am faced with two truths: this is all temporary, and these girls make me a better person. If I were to keep my head buried in the sand I may mistakenly think that I am doing all of the shaping and teaching around here, but I get daily reminders - in the form of challenges and accomplishments - that these little ones are doing just as much shaping and changing of me. 

Being a mom is a bunch of extra work, and a lot of it is behind the scenes work, but being a mom is also incredibly fun. It's hard and fun for different reasons along the way; right now it's hard because it's winter and I'm not getting enough sleep, it's fun because of conversations with Sloane and cuddles with Logan. These days my work days have been long and my nights of slumber short, but after both - at the end of my work day and when I wake up in the morning - I find that I miss my girls terribly and can't wait to see them.

This is what my grocery shopping looks like these days. I realized the other day that Logan was more than ready to sit up in the front of a grocery cart, so in she went (She had usually stayed in the car seat, which we places in the back of the grocery cart). There is this feeling that you have as a mom to little ones, where your whole body tingles with the giddy knowledge that they are taking something in for the first time and having their mind blown. I experienced that tingle at the grocery store last week. She was amazed by everything. 

Every week, my goal is to not be late to church. Even if we start getting ready extra early, it seems to be a rare thing that we are actually at church on time. There is always a reason, but I will never stop trying. When we are early, it is cause for celebration. In this case here, we were extra late, and I took a photo of it. 

Chub report: she's still got it! The cheeks, I mean. And I am happy to report they are getting all the love and smooches they deserve. 

Sleep report: she is still not great at napping during the day, especially at daycare. Which means she often only gets an hour of nap time total during the weekdays, which means she is tired by the time I pick her up, which means she falls asleep on the way home. All of which means that I only get about an hour of time with her at the end of the day during the work weeks and sometimes that makes me really sad. 

These two former blobs made eye contact the other day and it was very exciting.

The CrossFit Open started last week with a bang and after this workout my butt hurt for days. So many days.

I made this amazing one pot French Onion pasta from Half Baked Harvest and I really liked it, partly because it was a one pot cooking situation. We also had leftovers for several days afterwards, and as we all know, leftover pasta in the fridge is a guaranteed win over the winter blues. 

I have been very good about staying in the present moment, but with these spring teasers, I feel as though I am getting blue in the face holding my breath waiting for the cold to break. Last Sunday was beautiful and we spent a couple of hours in the park.

Motherhood right now is snuggling in bed with Sloane to read stories after putting Logan down. If we both had our way we would stay there for hours reading books, but I am trying to be strict with bedtime (both hers and mine), so we just enjoy the heck out of it while it lasts. This is one of those daily motherhood moments where I try to be fully present.

Parenthood these days is exclaiming to each other how amazing our girls are, helping each other out when it has been a rough night, and sitting around the table together as a family as much as we can. Things are super busy these days since there are a lot of logistics to take care of for the upcoming move, and I have thought to myself many times how glad I am to be busy in this season with Ken. I like being excited with him, and I even like being busy and tired with him. 

Every morning this week, I woke up with the thought of, 'Thank goodness it's Friday!' ...which it wasn't...until today! We have plans to get a lot of house things done this weekend, but we are also going to go watch a Peter Pan play! As you can imagine, we are terribly excited about it. 

Hurray for March!

THE AGABAS

On a brisk and sunny Saturday afternoon, I met up with my friends, the Agabas, to roam around Church Hill and snap some photos of them as a family of three before they became four. They are a beautiful family who all possess a great sense of humor and a huge heart for people - little Eden included! - and I always love having an excuse to hang out with them.

I particularly love these series of photos of Laura and Eden, they are so sweet together!

We ended our roam with a stop at the new Whisk bakery for shelter and sweets. I tried one of their macarons and it was amazing, so now I have plans to return as soon as possible to try all their other flavors.

Tots! Friends! Sweets! Sun!... It was a good afternoon. 

HOUSE STUFF

If all things go according to plan, we will be moving in a few weeks! That means we are packing, little bit by little bit whenever we get the chance. That also means, I have major house stuff on the brain. Whatever spare brain space I can spare after the girls, Ken, work, and chores, I've been using it think about moving and so it's jam packed up there. There is going to be quite a bit of work to do in the new place but since we can't get into it until we are out of our current house, I'm trying to plan as much as I can, in hopes that the transition will be smoother than not. Wish us luck! 20 days and counting.

We're not planning on doing any wallpaper in the new house, but if we did, this mural would be first on my wish list.

ROASTED CARROTS WITH WALNUTS AND FETA CHEESE

As I walked through the house tidying up the other night, I spotted Sloane's papers lying on the dining table. At first glance, it was a mess. But I stopped to examine it: a piece of paper on which she had written all our names, Sloane, Logan, Mama, Papa. Next to that, a drawing of colorful dresses, and a worksheet of the letter "p". On the floor, Marie the stuffed cat was laying sideways, and Logan's rattle was keeping her company. Little items, considered treasures by little hands, overflowed out of a box.

In the quiet and stillness of the evening, I thought ahead to another evening years into the future, where I might find myself doing something similar, but realized that I would probably feel the absence of these 'messes' around the house: evidence of a small life relished, joy displayed on pieces of paper and in the worn fabric of a stuffed animal. Take it all in now when you can, my future self whispered back to my present self. I stood there, paused, appreciating the mess of it all before finishing up. 

After I was done, I took out leftovers of this dish that I had made the previous weekend. It was good cold straight out of the fridge, and I ate while making a mental list in my head of all the things I had to do for the next morning.  

Sloane has been requesting a lot of carrots lately. She wants to eat them like her friend Jack at school (Jack is four, older, wiser, "he can run really fast!").  She wants to eat them "like a bunny!".  That night, I packed her lunch the way she requested earlier that day: a peanut butter jelly sandwich, carrot sticks, and Craisins in her lunchbox.  Then a clemintine for her first snack, and "long, long, carrots" for her second snack. 

I've been eating carrots alongside her too, and when I noticed we had a bunch of carrots leftover from last week, I decided to roast them. I don't roast carrots often because I feel inconvenienced by having to peel each one, but every time I taste a roasted carrot, I'm rapturous, and I'm always resolving to eat more of it.  On this occasion, I resolved to have roasted carrots as my dinner, and added feta cheese and walnuts. It was delicious and very filling:

Preheat oven to 425 degree. Peel and cut carrots and throw them on a greased baking sheet. Toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, celery, dill, paprika and oregano. Bake for 30 minutes, flipping them halfway through. Add toasted walnuts (I toast them in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes) and crumbled up feta cheese.

BOULDEVARD BURGER & BREW

I woke up on Saturday morning exhausted. Specifically, I woke up at 3:30 AM and then again at 5:30 and then at 6:30 AM and by then both girls were awake so that's when my day started. Sometimes when that happens it's fine and I get the surge of energy necessary to function, other times, I don't. Saturday was the latter kind of day and I kept staring down into my coffee wondering why it wasn't working. The week before catching up to me and I wanted to wave my white flag and go back to bed. I had things to do and places to go on my list for that morning, but I made the call to take it slow and spent it instead on the couch with Sloane reading through her books and drinking an extra cup of coffee.  When Ken came back from working out, we forgoed our usual errands and decided to have a lunch out together as a family to regroup. This kind of thing does wonders; it's a little bit of 'ohhh being together like this makes it all worthwhile'. Especially now that we are a family four, there is something so satisfying about eating around a table together, appreciating food, appreciating each other's presence. 

We went to a newish place called Boulevard Burgers and Brewery, which had delicious sweet potato fries, but I wasn't totally sold on their burgers (my burger came out missing two of the ingredients). Next time, I'm going to go for a beer and the loaded tator tots - apparently they are covered with pimento cheese! 

Logan got Sloane's leftover apple to gnaw on, which she heartily enjoyed.

Ken got the Parker field: split chorizo links, VA ham, fried egg, cilantro, lettuce, tomato, chipotle mayo & pickled jalapeno

That face!! Those fingers!

I just can't handle Logan's face when she looks at Ken.

I got the Cali, which is kale, avocado, tomato, julienne Granny Smith apples and apple preserves. 

HAIL THE WEEKEND

I'm thrilled that it's Friday! Every night this week I've been zapped as soon as the girls are down. But we did get a little bit of that sunshine earlier this week (anything but that frigid cold of last weekend), it's been staying light longer in the day (have you noticed??) and I got to work out (my super sore arms are the proof), so I'm happy both for the week's good things and for it coming to an end.

And! An update on operation Two Girls Share a Room: it's going well!! There were several times where I thought about rebooting, but it's been day three now of both girls doing a great job of falling asleep on their own, and Sloane apparently can sleep through Logan's crying, so I'm feeling pretty good about it all right now.

The photo above is Sloane when she was about a year (I think?) and I've had it on my desktop for a while, and then the other day I realized that Logan is closer to the age that Sloane is in this picture than Sloane is right now and that just put me in a tailspin.

In house news, we have started packing so there are boxes everywhere and there is a pocket of my mind preoccupied by how things are going to be boxed up and in what order. My way of not becoming stressed about it is by making lists (so many lists!) and trying to do a little each day. I'll update more on house things as time passes and we get more information and assurances. But for now it looks like March is going to be a very busy month.

Also, I'm thick in the middle of Donna Tartt's Goldfinch and it is so good, I'm enjoying it so much. Plus, I'm going through it via audiobook and the guy who is reading it is great, which can really make or break a book experience I've found. 

Lastly, it's my mom's birthday today; happy birthday mom!! The older I get, I realize that I'm just trying to become more like you everyday.