Our New Addition to the Family

No, I'm not pregnant!  When we were house hunting Berdaddy and I each had our list of must have's for our new forever home.

My list:

A dish washer

A separate kitchen from the dinning room... (I like to eat without looking at the mess of the dinner prep.)

Something with character

3 bedrooms

Walkable neighborhood

A place for my Grandmother's China Hutch

Berdaddy's List:

A garage

A place to put a TV that isn't in our main living space

Not too much fix-it type work

A place for his ping-pong table

Happily we were able to find a home we both adore and met all of our needs.  After 5 years of having our ping-pong table in storage we have logged many hours playing together in the months we've settled in.  Berdaddy likes to play so much that he recently purchased a ping-pong robot when he can't get me to join in...  Thank you Craigslist!

He plays so much I feel like we should be setting an additional space at the table for our new little robot.

Probably the second best purchase we've made all year!

He plays all hours of the night... 

Taking a few breaks for a drink thankfully! 

This time last year...

This time last year was filled with wishing, with sleepless nights, with swollen ankles, with anticipation, with fear and with thankfulness... this time last year I was preparing for the birth of my beautiful baby.  I didn't know then she was a she.  I didn't know then that my heart would grow and expand around my sweet angel and my life would never be what I imagined.

Yesterday we were lucky enough to attend our birth center's annual picnic and lucky for us the weather made it so we were able to go to the center itself... almost a year to the day of giving birth to my beautiful little girl.  I was so filled with emotion and so grateful to walk the halls of our beautiful birth center along with other gentle and like minded families.

We got to reconnect with our midwife who gave me so much strength and spirit during the hours and hours I spent urging my girl to breath.

Then the three of us quietly snuck into the room where our story changed from two to three.  Our girl was born in the late night in the darkness and warm glow of the bedroom light.  It was soft and peaceful all around.  And yet, I struggled and pushed with all my might in that room.  I had to draw strength from within I didn't ever imagine I had in me.  Me, my partner, my midwife and our birth assistants did it together...  on this bed...

...we welcomed her.

And that night we snuggled in that bed as a family and when she woke up and cried, I crept out of bed and rocked her.  Honestly, I was petrified... looking down at her I felt helpless and had no idea what I was going to do... but in those quiet moments that the two of us rocked in the darkness of the night I knew we were going to figure it out.  Me and my girl...

And we are.

Last year we took a photo that I'd been dreaming of for 40 weeks...

And this year we went back

Wordless Wednesday

Finding my rhythm - The notes from week 1

After a week of trying to navigate our daily lives I've compiled a good bit of notes.  Going into this, I didn't think we had much of a rhythm at all but I surprised even myself with the natural processes we have already established.  One big thing that wasn't surprising is that Button has a very wacky sleep schedule... much of it being my fault as we are have different plans and are bopping from here to there without regard for nap times.  I'm going to take a closer look at this in the coming week as I gather more information.  Anyway, I wanted to get these initial thoughts out of my head and into the land of blogs!

The big stuff
*Monday
-10:00 always go to Mom Group(topic of the week discussed)
-Sometimes head to lunch with other Mom's run errand's in town.
-Home around 3

*Tuesday
-Story time at 10:00

*Wednesday
-Story time at 10:00 (if I don't go on Tuesday)

*Thursday
-Day to stay home and clean

*Friday
-Visiting Day with family and friends

Morning routine:
-She wakes anywhere from 7am - 9:30am...   but mostly is up around 8am
-Change nappy
-Come downstairs... pour myself a cup of coffee... pop Button down by her toys and check work email for 10-15 mins.
-Button and I nibble on a bit of breakfast... (bagel and cream cheese, some Cheerios, or a zucchini muffin)
-Go outside with the pup, visit the tree, and welcome the new day
-Upstairs get new clothes and freshen up for the day

Evening routine:
-Berdaddy & I make dinner anywhere from 5:00 - 6:30
-Most evenings we take a family walk around town for at least 30 mins
-about 3 nights week Button gets a bath around 7:30pm
-stories in Button's room around 8
-nurse to sleep beginning at 8:30 - 9 depending on her level of sleepiness (takes about 20-30 mins for her to fall asleep)
-go downstairs and watch a show we DVR'ed, edit photo's or read
-If Button wakes up  I nurse her back to sleep each time until I'm ready to bring her to family bed around 10:30 or 11

This week I want to play with times that will work best for me to try to work, get general tasks down around the house and set up time for things that I want to do but never can... like craft, paint, organize...