10 Things I Would Rather Be Doing Today, Instead of Sitting Here at Work

1. Doing something, anything really, outside, because it is already beautiful out there, and it's just supposed to get nicer as the day goes on. I really, really love spring.

2. Hanging out with Gabbie, trying to get her to walk some more, like the seven steps she took last night. She'll only do it once and then she gets too excited and falls down if she tries again, but it was pretty amazing. I can't believe my tiny baby is almost big enough to walk!

3. Sitting on my couch, reading the second Sookie Stackhouse novel. I'm addicted. Thoroughly.

4. Sitting on the patio at my favorite pub, eating a rodeo burger (cheese burger with banana pepper rings) and drinking one of their legendary Long Island Iced Teas (2 tea limit, because they're that good and strong).

5. Heading over to Lake Michigan, for a walk on the beach followed up by lunch on a restaurant deck overlooking the lake.

6. Going for a hike with Aaron, making him walk ahead of me to guard me from any snakes that happen to be out also enjoying this nice day.

7. Visiting the local zoo, watching the otters and monkeys with their silly antics.

8. Starting up a new knitting project, even though I have two that I'm in the midst of right now. All while sitting in my apartment with the windows wide open, and watching a season of some show on DVD.

9. Napping.

10. Zumba. Just started a few weeks ago, and I'm addicted.

Appearances

She has Aaron’s hairline and cowlicks, but her hair is the same color as mine.

Her eyes are the beautiful blue I hoped for, the same blue that first attracted me to her dad, but they’re round like mine. She does get the puffy under-eye circles her dad does, though, and I think they’re adorable even though she’ll probably hate them when she’s older.

Her ears are evenly split – one like dad’s (lobed) and one like mom’s (un-lobed, or streamlined as Aaron calls them) – but you can barely tell the difference.

She has Aaron’s long fingers, flat feet, and long toes. Even her finger and toenails are shaped like his. She has his small head (not that mine is really that large). She has my nose and lips, and probably my freckles at some time in the future, based on the paleness of her skin that’s just like mine.

She holds her hands in loose fists with her thumb tucked between her index and middle fingers, just like me, just like my sister.

It amazes me that less than two years ago, she was just a hope and a dream, and now she’s here, growing bigger and smarter every day, turning one year old in just over a month. She looks exactly like I imagined, exactly like I hoped, and yet she’s still more beautiful than I ever could have thought. Even when she keeps us awake for nights on end, even when she screams and cries at every little thing, even when she won’t eat a single darn thing that we try to give her, she’s the biggest blessing I’ve ever received. I’m so grateful that she’s part of our lives now and I can hardly remember what life was like pre-Gabbie (although I have a feeling there was more sleep). We’re both awesomely in love with our Gabbie-girl that we can hardly stand it. She just makes everything better.

An Ode to my Husband

I will be the very first to admit that my husband is quite a catch. Not only is he handsome, smart, and funny, he's quite handy around the house too. He cooks, cleans (no, really, he cleans a lot - he is a neat freak), and is an awesome father. He tells me regularly that I am the best thing that's ever happened to him. He indulges my sense for adventure. He doesn't give me too hard of a time about what a dork I am. I absolutely love him more each day than the day before, and seeing him be a dad to our daughter doubled that love faster than I could believe.

I, on the other hand, am admittedly probably hard to deal with sometimes. I'm messy. I would rather play than clean. I love too cook, but I hate to clean up after myself. I'm also an excellent procrastinator, which probably makes him nuts, the driven, active person that he is. He's practical, I'm a daydreamer. He understands a budget, I always have to be reigned in (although, I am much better at not spending money than I used to be). And really, I can't stress enough how messy I am and how that basically makes me the antithesis to his clean-freak-ness.

However, there's one thing for which I'm a stickler that he can't seem to grasp. It's really so incredibly simple, I don't know why he never does it. His failure to implement this task on a regular basis drives me absolutely batty. It's his fatal flaw, in my opinion.

What could he do that's so horrible, you ask?

HE NEVER REPLACES THE TOILET PAPER ROLL.

He'll use the last square, and even take off the empty roll. He'll put the holder back into its place. However, he never puts toilet paper back on the holder. It's not like we keep the toilet paper far away either. You can reach it in the vanity without even stretching. It's so simple. So why, oh why does it never get done?

(I'm sure you can guess what just happened that inspired this post. GRRRRRRR!)

Happy (Belated) Easter!

Getting ready for church.

Miss Gabbie was so squirmy on Easter morning (maybe she got sugar by proxy (or breastmilk, actually), because I sure as heck loaded up starting at about 7 a.m.) that this is far and away the best Easter picture we got. She looked adorable in her dress and had lots of fans at church because of the adorableness. (As an aside, spell check is totally letting adorableness fly as a real word. Sweet!)

We had a lovely weekend, and I'm glad we have my little sister's graduation next weekend so she gets more than one use out of this dress, because it's completely impractical. She can't crawl in it at all, and that made her pretty mad.

Also, the shoes she's wearing(which you can barely see) were mine when I was a baby. We were looking at my baby pictures this weekend, and she does look a lot like me, just with a smaller head. She gets that from her dad. We saw those shoes in a few pictures as well as the bonnet she wore later on, which was also from my babyhood. (Babyhood is a word according to spell check too!) I'm so glad my mom saved so much of my baby gear. It has been a lot of fun pulling things out to try on Gabbie, and in my opinion, she looks way more cute than I ever did.