Updates Soon Come!

Alright everyone. I must come clean and 'fess that I did just what I promised NOT to do and fell off the blog. Completely. In any case, I'm back in business now (yay!) and have volumes of stories and photos to share. Excited to update, I'm planning to "cheat" and back date entries so that you have one continuous, chronological experience! Haha! Well, I will get to it as soon as I can, check back in a few days.

The most love! MamaT

Dust Tracks on a Road

This past week we embarked on an amazing camping adventure! Initially, I balked at the idea of taking a two year old on a three day backpacking excursion, what with potty training, sleeping outdoors, hiking, poison oak and stinging nettle, wild animals... but it was the best thing we did all summer! I am even stronger than I imagined, and Nana truly exceeded my expectations. She managed herself very well with minimal whining, actually appreciated the beautiful surroundings, and walked over three miles along a flat trail our last day. And we avoided calamity of any sort, which was phenomenal considering all that we did. She often asks me to recount stories of our trip and I do, in my animated way. I recall our run-in with a feisty raccoon, watching what looked like a million little crabs scuttle about on the pristine beach, the awesome parade of stars across the clear night sky, and the joy of dancing and playing in the wild! I can't wait to go again.

Merry Christmas Baby!

TONS of fun with the fam this Christmas. Lots of gifts, Nana and I really had a blast. Hope you enjoy the holidays as well with family and friends. Realizing I don't care so much for the materialism of the season, but its great to reconnect with our loved ones so I'll get over it. Much love from us to you!

Welcome All:)

The holiday season for me marks a period of reflection as the year draws to a close, I reconnect with family and friends, and celebrate the days my daughter and I were born. Instead of making the ever-popular list of 'resolutions', I prefer to step back and consider the experiences that have shaped me and the deeper lessons I've learned that will hopefully better serve me in the year to come.

Coming up on my daughter's second year of life, I realized, for what feels like the thousandth time, how precious these fleeting moments really are. The time goes so quickly with these small people that you truly must enjoy each moment with all of its joys and frustrations.

It always seemed a bit cliche to me when other moms would say, "You'd better enjoy these times now, she'll be grown before you know it." And yet I sat on the sofa yesterday, marveling at the fact that the toddler sitting beside me, eating sweet potato fries and chatting away, had just begun walking this time last year. She possessed very little coherent speech, yet now she totally entertains me with stories about her day, asks tons of questions, "reads" me books at night... wow. The year before that found her tucked away inside me, awaiting her introduction into our world. How wild is that?

I regretted not having chronicled our journey together thus far, as there's obviously no way to relive all the cute, funny, bizarre, even annoying little moments she's had. I'm not getting any younger to my knowledge, so I figured the time has come to commit all of this to something other than memory! It was then that I decided to start a blog dedicated to her, which gives me a really cool, easily accessible and durable (key!) format to journal her progress. I will really do my best to keep this focused on HER, and to save my grand perspectives on parenting or rant sessions for another blog- or not:0) Since you are reading this, I'm sure you'll keep me on track when necessary, but please be nice and permit me the occasional vent/ rambling every now and again.

I hope someday to share these reflections with her, especially as she gains more language, and as babyhood dissolves into girlhood gives way to womanhood. Whoa. Imagine that!

For all who know and love the dynamic little being known affectionately as Nana, this also fulfills my endless promises to post photos and keep you updated on the haps. I'll do my best to post regularly and when I don't, feel free to harass me about it which you are already sure to do! Lol. To those of you who don't know our family but have somehow stumbled across this blog, I hope you enjoy getting a glimpse of one of the most brilliant, charismatic, outgoing, energetic, loving, and intelligent little kids on the planet. Really.