three years ago.

around this time three incredibly fast years ago, my water broke.  it was only 10 hours or so later that we met our sweet little ek for the first time.

getting to raise this girl has been one of the great joys of my life.  she teaches me something every day about how to greet life with exuberance and wonder.  from her i am learning how to slow down (a little), how to be fascinated, how to pick my battles, how to love with every piece of my heart.  i love watching her concentrate, seeing her figure out something new.  i love her silliness and how she laughs with her whole body, full of ease and abandon.  though we battle (and i fear this will only increase in the coming months and years), i am so so proud of her stubbornness and her fierce independence.

my wish for my first baby, this child who made me a mother, is that she will continue to grow with a heart full of tenderness, a mind full of curiosity, and a spirit full of strength.

happy birthday, emme kay.

ten months old + the last ten days.

wheee.  in the last ten days, we have:
- gone under contract on a new house
- staged/completely re-vamped our current house to get ready to list it
- dealt with a double ear infection for hollis
- dealt with roseola for hollis (simultaneous to ear infection)
- planned emme's birthday party(ies)
- switched to standard time
- dealt with hollis's allergic reaction to penicillin
- got emme her first haircut
- had birthday parties and other random activities
- had halloween

i think that's all the major stuff.  i'm tired.  putting a house on the market with two small kids is its own particular circle of hell, i'm pretty sure.  our kids are like little agents of entropy, tottering through our domicile, dismantling progress.  the photographer came to our house at 9:45 this morning, so i woke the kids up around 6 and hauled them to starbucks for breakfast before an early drop-off at school.  it was actually a super fun morning.  but may i just say that half of what we own is in various closets and/or the garage.  ha.  we'll have to figure some of that out by this weekend once we're live on the market.  oh, and add the family in town and the birthday festivities to the fact that when you're selling your house it can look in NO WAY like actual humans ever live there ever.  especially not small humans.  whee, i say.

also, today, my sweet speckled baby is ten months old!  he is so big and so sweet and such an easy baby.  i am obsessed with him right now - love this age.

physical: at the appointment to check on his ear infections, they weighed him and he was 22 lbs. 1 oz.  looking more and more like a little boy every day.  still just the four teeth, but i'm anticipating the four lateral incisors any minute.  there's certainly enough drool for that.  

likes: dude is all about the crawling and the standing right now.  LOVES bath time (splash time).  drums - he will find our bongos wherever they are and rock out.  he's generally pretty happy about most things.  

dislikes: being pulled away from the dog bowls - he loves to go play with those...

biggest achievement of the month: bits is clapping and waving now.  not all the time, but this morning at drop off, i told him to tell his sister bye and he waved until i put him down.  granted, not at her, but he was definitely feeling the wave.  he claps a lot too - he likes that it makes a sound similar to when he's banging objects together.  

biggest challenge of the month: hollis hates medicine.  this is great news when you have a double ear infection.  it's even better news when the force-fed antibiotics trigger an allergic reaction, so then you have to force-feed benadryl to keep the hives at bay.  i'll be glad when our days don't involve a syringe.  

nicknames: the duder has remained pretty consistent with nicknames.  no new ones come to mind this month. 

sleep: well.  we're still working here.  there's been a lot going on.  

temperament/personality: so independent and fun.  so easy.  sweet and giggly and engaged.  

eating: feeding every baby should be as easy as feeding this one.  he eats whatever i put in front of him, which is mostly whatever we're eating.  it's awesome.  

motor development: every day he's doing something new.  he is on a mission to walk - we'll see when he masters that.  


i'm going to post ten month photos when he's less speckled - hopefully tomorrow.  for now here are some recents.  

**callie anne photography