the time has come

Dear Milo,

As I type this you are sleeping snugly in your crib for the night.  You with your new Elmo doll, the monkey as measuring stick, and a blanket.   It's not just another night though. Tomorrow you will wake up and, as usual, I will stumble into your room, change your diaper, open your curtains, give you lots of kisses and good mornings.  But tomorrow we won't have a leisurely breakfast where I give you your Cheerios and oatmeal and banana and juice. And then we share my yogurt/granola/banana mixture.  Where you watch me make coffee and I redirect you off the counter.  You're so quick these days dragging a chair over and climbing up, beaming at me with pride.

We won't parade back upstairs to change clothes and brush teeth and hide under the bed. Our new routine won't include errands, morning playdates, or going to the gym.

Tomorrow morning you'll wake up to a whole new routine.  I'll already be dressed, the car will be warming up, and you will, essentially, go from crib to carseat to daycare.  Your breakfast will be served by someone else as you sit at a table with 5 other kids.  These people will be brand new to you at first.  You may wonder where I am, why I've left you, and even wonder if I'll be back.   Your whole life, everyday, I've been within moments from you.  And, now, your little world, is going to get just a little bit bigger.  I know, right now, none of this makes sense to you. And it may not make sense to you for years to come.  I've cherished these past 19 months of being your mama.  Of being your Stay at Home Mama. I've witnessed and applauded every milestone you've accomplished and I will be eternally grateful that I was given the opportunity and the desire to stay home.

I know you will do fabulous at your daycare!  You love being around other kids.  You have such a big smile and laugh, you easily win people over. You are naturally social and quickly become at ease with your surroundings.  I'm putting you into someone else's care.  Someone that I know you will learn to trust, respect, and love.  Someone that I know who will do more than just meet your needs, but will help you grow, thrive, and be happy.

Yes, tomorrow your world is going to become a little bit bigger. And you may not understand why mama is waving good bye and driving away without you. Why you're napping in a pack and play and why so many things...but know, that Daddy and I LOVE YOU SO MUCH and all the things we do, we do for you and because of you -to make our lives better.

You'll never know all the pleasure I receive in your smile,
hugs and loves,
mama

normal toddler behaviors or I'm blaming G'ma for this one...

Oh, Hi! Can I help you with something?

So this is Sir Milo's new favorite activity:  Drag a chair to the sink, stand on said chair, turn on the faucet, fill and dump cups over and over, fill up the sink with water, squeeze a bunch of soap in the water, watch the sudsy water rise, unplug the sink, watch the water fall, splashing water everywhere, soaking the surrounding floor, his clothes, the countertop, my patience...

There's a lot of safety concerns over this.  And there's a lot of tears and anger when I intervene and carry him kicking and screaming redirect him to a water-less, floor level, safer activity. Hey, kid! You remember all those colorful, shiny, plastic, toys we bought you? Yeah. Have it.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Grandma.  She comes up and reinforces lots of fun games whilst babysitting.

The following are some "normal but bothersome" behaviors that he totally learned from Grandma while we were off getting wasted at some dive bar in downtown DC having a date night where they valet and recommend reservations and proper dress code and have linen napkins:

"Milo! Let's play 'heights and balancing!' See if you can crawl on this narrow space! Yay!"

"Can you show me the Ketchup? Good Boy! Now where is the chocolate syrup...?" 

"Can you reach the burners? No? Well let's try standing on the bottom drawar..Good Boy! What great strength you have!"

 "Now, Milo, you be careful with those eggs.  Hey! I've got an idea! Wanna go outside and egg the neighbors car?!"

I can't wait until Milo can talk.  Oh, the things he'll say after a night with grandma!

Wordless Wednesday

eat your heart out!!

As much as I adore this quaint little town we call home, I do SO miss having at least a dozen diverse and GOOD restaurants at my fingertips.  But, even still, having Milo in our lives, it's not like we'd be sitting in restaurants every day, or even every month...So, in the last couple of years or so, the husband and I have rolled up our sleeves, tossed the taco kit to the side and have attempted to COOK.  Not just bake some chicken's thigh or breast and steam some broccoli heads,  but really get to know some different styles of cooking.  We wanted to use those forgotten spices on the rack -again, push past the good 'ol salt and pepper and garlic and basil -and get to know curry powder, garam masala, cloves, and coriander.  We (mostly the husb) have been pretty successful at our attempts of making dinners we would easily pay $25 per plate for...

But the real challenge still lurked before us:  SUSHI.  We easily gathered up most of the essentials: avocado, cucumber, imitation crab, shrimp, rice, nori...

And after several stores we finally found the bamboo mat (thank you Whole Foods!).  But to find sushi grade salmon?  NO MAS.  That broke my heart.  But we had enough to make some yum-tastic rolls anyhow...

patting out the rice on the nori

adding a crab stick, shrimp, avocado, carrot, cucumber and green onion

roooolll it, paaaat it...

slice it up!

and serve with soy sauce (low sodium, of course!)

Yum-licious!

What have you made lately that you're most proud of?

and in this corner...

TKO!!

Love, with a capital L

Breakfast in times of cuteness

Mornings can be sweet.  And I say that with very little practice because I am NOT, NEVER HAVE BEEN a before noon kind of gal. Even when I've had jobs that were 9a to 5p...where it was my routine to be up early...I just never got the hang of being Chippy McChipperson before high noon. 

My theory is that I was born on a Friday night, 9:07pm.  I came out of that cacoon, sunny side up, screaming, "HEY, it's FRIDAY NIGHT YA'LL. I HAVE ARRIVED.  LET'S GET IT STARTED....WOO-HOOOO..." (cue the music of Black-Eyed peas)

And ever since the whole "me being born thang," I just can't shake the "night person" thang. It's my destiny.  It's my truth. Probably.

And then I had Infant de Milo and it turns out that it didn't matter if I was a night OR a day person.  I suddenly became an ON-CALL kind of person.  And I quickly got reacqainted with caffeine.  Be it coffee, tea, or my personal fave: Energy Drinks!  And I quickly got to know about "napping when the baby naps" and working out and eatting right -all just to keep my head (and mood) right...

Yeah, it's a drag. This whole "taking care of yourself" thing...but it works...

So here are some pictures (surprise!) of one of those mornings where everything is sweet, simple, and slow...a lot like molasses....

I usually give him several options for breakfast.  I'm an indecisive overbearing awesome nutritionally- conscious mom like that. Today it's a buffet of apples and cinnamon oatmeal, yogurt and granola, cheerios, and a banana.

Learning how to peel a banana. His fine motor skills are above average, people.  TRUTH.

I'm not exactly sure why he decided to point at the camera.  But, I'm thinking it either has to do with him realizing how much he loves his mama OR him noticing how gorge I look in the morning...one of those...

When he's done with something he moves it to the table.  I taught him that.  Whereas before he would just throw the bowl on the floor.  Food splattering EVERYWHERE.  And then he would scream.  It  was NOT my favorite.

He might be ready for a haircut.  The "comb over" look doesn't really do much for him.  Still cute , though...

And THIS is his sign for ALL DONE.  He jerks his hands out to the side and waits for me to clear and remove his tray.

...And then what happens?

He washes the dishes....

Mornings can be sweet...;)