Andrew took his first steps!

Just had to share this beautiful photo that Greg took just before Andrew took his first steps.  The joy and pride on his face is so beautiful, and so pure.  Is this the natural state of the human spirit before we accomplish something new, something big, something amazing that we've been working towards?  It's as though he knows he's about to succeed at something incredible.  No fear, no hesitation, no apprehension, no worries of failure - just pure joy and pride and excitement about the possibility of success in those next few moments.

I love it.

My Favorite New Artist

Andrew's elephant

My sister has opened an Etsy shop with her paintings!  It's called "Roots Awakened" and she already has 12 paintings up for sale on the site.  We've been in love with her work ever since she gave us our first set of her paintings.  Her classic animal portraits with solid backgrounds are perfect for our children's rooms.  (They'd look nice in an office, library or grownup bedroom, too.)

I love the simplicity of the backgrounds for our kids' rooms that are visually busy with toys and books.  I love how well the animals stand out and how recognizable they are for our boys.  I love listening to Will talk about the seahorse, crab, and octopus while I'm getting him into his pajamas in his bathroom, and seeing him offer his monkey a drink of water at night.  He loves them, and he likes to tell me that "Aunt E painted them for me!"

The reason Will can say "octopus".  He likes to tell me which painting is his favorite.  It changes.  Mine is always the crab.  He says Daddy's is the seahorse.  I haven't asked Greg for confirmation on that.

The bird that perfectly complements Andrew's jungle curtains

I'm excited that Elizabeth has decided to make her paintings available for more than just family!  She has three sets of paintings up online available individually or in groups of three as a discount, and I suspect she'd be willing to do custom work again as well.

We love the custom paintings she's done for us - we requested Andrew's elephant, and later she surprised us with the wonderfully fun painting of a monkey for Will.  The monkey is painted to mimic the facial features of Will's favorite lovey, Mr. Monkey, and looks like the monkeys and background on his favorite dishes.  The painting will be a keepsake long after Mr. Monkey is tucked safely away in a memory box in our closet.

Will's monkey painting, inspired by Mr. Monkey and Will's monkey dishes

While I'm talking about favorite artists - I also have been meaning to make a note on here about my friend Abby's new book called "Stuffed Animals: From Concept to Construction".  It's available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble and it is AWESOME.  Abby has been designing stuffed animals (or "softies") for years, and she's taken all of that experience in design work and poured it into a comprehensive book that takes you through the steps of designing your very own original stuffed animals.  She helps you understand how to draw patterns and sew all the different shapes that become components of stuffed animals.

The book is brilliantly laid out to include lessons and then projects that incorporate the design / sewing lessons so you can read about a design feature and then have an opportunity to use it (or see how it would be used) in a real pattern.

Everything is explained so you understand the importance of different shaping techniques, which parts of the sewing instructions are responsible for making the legs or arms etc. look a certain way.

The book includes great technical guides so that even a beginning sewer could be successful, and it would be a great reference book for anyone who sews.

For anyone who is interested in sewing and stuffed animals, this book is a must have.  It's incredibly well written, comprehensive, and includes such great ideas.  She shows you how to adapt a pattern to make a puppet instead of a stuffed animal, how to take a child's drawing and turn it into a softie, and includes sixteen adorable patterns that you can make while you work up the experience and courage to design your own.  It's great.

I feel privileged to know such talented people!

I Am Mom

I am your nutritionist, meal planner, chef.  Your activities planner, chauffeur, and concierge.  I am your translator, your literacy coach, your walking coach, your moral compass.  I am your laundress, your personal shopper.  I am things there aren't even names for. 

I am your gardener, who helps you push the seeds in the soil and helps you open the pea pods.  I am your first teacher.

I am the one who puts the toys away where you can find them, fluffs your pillow, washes your sheets, and produces a clean lovey in time for nap or bed.

There are things I do that go unnoticed and unasked for.  I do them anyway, because they make your life better.

I am never really on vacation.

I know your favorite food, your favorite color, your favorite animal, and your favorite book.  I know they might be different as soon as tomorrow.  Ask me tomorrow and I'll still know.

I operate 28 buckles every time I make a grocery trip.  I can get perishable groceries into the fridge, diapers changed, and lunch on the table in less than fifteen minutes.

I am the luckiest, and the happiest, my days are filled with joy.  I am doing the most important thing in the world.  I am the most exhausted, stressed out, and overworked... and I can never quit. 

My patience is not unlimited.  You think it is.  I do my best to find time to be me, so I can be your everything.

I drink a lot of coffee.

I teach you caution instead of fear, and I keep you safe until you've learned to do it yourself.

I put your sweater on before you shiver.  I get out of bed to give you a drink of water when you call for me. 

I am the embrace that makes your tears subside.  I am the audience for your achievements.

I capture your life in photographs and written memories, and live it with you every day.

Before you were born, I was your world.  Now you are mine.

I will always love you, forever and ever and ever.

I Am Mom.

 

To all Mothers - For all the ways that you are Mom - Happy Mother's Day.

Photos of Earth in Honor of Earth Day

To celebrate Earth Day, here are some of my favorite photos that Greg has taken of our beautiful Earth.

Happy Earth Day!  Throw some bags in your car for your groceries and shopping, drink your tap water and use a water bottle, and plan a picnic or a take a walk outside... it's beautiful out there.

What Should I Do With This Bowl?

I have a bowl.  What should I do with this bowl?

I could hide behind this bowl!

I could hide my food under this bowl!

I could pretend I'm going to DROP this bowl....

 

Haha, where's my food?  This never gets old.

 

No, really, it never gets old.

 

What bowl?  I can't see anything.  Is there still a bowl?

 

All right... I guess... as a last resort.... I could eat out of this bowl.

 

Response to the Boston Marathon Tragedy: "Be the Change You Wish to See in the World"

"Be the change you wish to see in the world," Mahatma Ghandi said.  If everyone who is saddened by the horrible tragedy that occurred yesterday finds even one way to act for positive change in our world, think of the difference we could make. 

This is not what I wanted to be writing about for my 100th blog post.  It seems like only days ago that I was writing about the Newtown school shootings, and now, tragedy so close to home.

I don't have much to say, but I am feeling a great deal.  Gratitude for the safety of my family, especially my husband, who finished the Boston Marathon before the bombings and was only blocks away from the explosions.  Sorrow and horror for the families of those who were not so lucky.  Outrage, frustration, and the fear and sadness that comes whenever we are reminded of our own mortality and that of those we love.

There are families whose lives were forever changed yesterday.  For those of us who are so lucky to have our loved ones safe, I hope that we can be change instead.

I know that people will light candles, and hold vigils, and commit random acts of kindness as a means of healing and moving forward.  I hope we all find sources of healing.

I would actually urge people to consider an alternative to the popular pay it forward, random acts of kindness.  I would rather see purposeful acts towards change.  It is a fine thing to buy someone behind you a cup of coffee, but perhaps a better thing to donate money or time to a homeless shelter and help someone truly in need.  I can light a candle and offer a moment of silence, but I would rather make an appointment to donate blood.  (There's no reason not to do both.)

Events like this can make us feel powerless.  I cannot give Martin Richard or the other victims their lives back.  But I actually do have the power to save a life. 

• I made an appointment to donate blood 
• I am not going to answer my cell phone or text (which is illegal in MA) while I am driving. 
• I have registered at www.bethematch.org to be a bone marrow donor if I'm a match (make sure you understand the level of commitment and talk to your family if you're considering joining)
• I'm a registered organ donor

Yesterday was such a dichotomy - an incredible event, of 27,000 runners running an insane distance of 26.2 miles, cheered on by spectators, accomplishing incredible speeds and feats of athleticism, and many of them overcoming incredible obstacles in order to do so.  All of them had trained hard, and long, and run many, many miles leading up to this wonderful celebration of human spirit.

On the other hand, there was a horrible tragedy that cost lives and injuries and brought this amazing event to a screeching halt.

Watching the event, and the response to the event, I had all these conflicting feelings of whether the world is a wonderful or horrible place, whether people are amazing and incredible or cruel and unthinkably evil.

The good news: tens of thousands more people were there because they were celebrating something beautiful and amazing than because they wished to hurt someone.

I had an outpouring of support and concern in the aftermath of the tragedy as friends texted me, family called me, and three of my neighbors knocked on our door to find out if Greg and our family was o.k.  Our National Guard and our Police Officers and other first responders are hard at work making sure we're safe.   Other cities have offered Boston support, and people all over the country and the world are speaking about this tragedy and offering their assistance.

People are good, people care, people want the world to be a better place, a place where these things don't happen.

I don't know how we can prevent future tragedies, but I do have a lot of ideas for how we can make the world a better place.  We can all, in our own way, find something that we can do in remembrance and in commemoration of this tragedy, that will change the world for the better.

Find your way to make this world better.  What are your resources?  What causes speak to you most?  I am young and healthy, but don't have much time to volunteer because I'm a stay at home mom of two young children.  I can donate blood, I can be patient when I'm driving.  I can donate to the Heifer project and help a mother trying to feed her children.  I can join the bone marrow registry and maybe save a cancer patient.  I can recycle, I can be more careful to buy only what I need, I can drive safely, I can treat waitstaff and people in the service industry with respect, I can talk to my children about being kind to everyone.

What can you do?



I snapped this photo of Greg to send to worried family members just after he'd gotten off the commuter rail from Boston.  It was only after I viewed it on the computer that I realized you could still see my tears of relief on his shirt.  He finished before the explosions and was blocks away - I wish everyone had been so lucky.

Marathon Monday! (Ode to the 5k)

4/15/13: My thoughts are with all Boston runners, spectators and families.  Greg finished before the explosions, and he is o.k.  I will leave my original blog post for marathon Monday below, in hopes that all of us keep on running.

It's Boston Marathon Day!  Greg's running this year and I'm excited, nervous, excited, nervous, excited!  There's a lot of work that leads up into one incredible run, and I want the experience to be worth the preparation for him.  He's a great runner, the weather is promising, and all I hope is that he has a great time and is happy with his time at the end of this crazy, epic race.

The boys and I went with him to pick up his race packet in Boston on Saturday, and I have never been so overwhelmed by crazy crowds and the number of intense runners there are out there.  When I think about running just over 26 miles, it sounds so ludicrous, so ridiculous, that I can't imagine ANYONE could do that.  Or would do that.  Let alone 30,000 people, and my husband among them.

Sometimes I feel like there are only two groups of people out there, non-runners who are impressed even by how much I am running, and "real" runners, who are out there running the Boston Marathon today.

Where are all the people like me who are in between?!  Sometimes, when I have a few minutes, I like to pop over to coolrunning.com and check out the community message boards where I can remind myself that there ARE a lot of people like me.  People who run because they like how it makes them feel, who want to get faster and run longer but who aren't preparing for a marathon... ever.  People who enjoy road races even though they're never planning to win one, and they're not going to try.

You marathon runners out there... you are awesome.

I love running.  Running is great.  And one of the tricks of sticking with running, is being honest with yourself about your own purpose for running.  Why do you run?  What parts of running make you happiest?  How can you get the most satisfaction from running and feel great about your accomplishments?  For most of us, that means being inspired by all these amazing marathon runners out there today, rather than demoralized or down upon our own accomplishments.  And I don't mean inspired to start training for our own marathon, I mean inspired because these are people who have found something they love so much that they've trained to do it for 26.2 miles.

As a beginning runner who lives with one of these crazy people, I have to remember that his path might be longer than my path, but that doesn't mean I should stick to the couch.

So if you're also standing on the sidelines, thinking to yourself "oh my gosh, I could never do that", here's what I'd say:

If you think you could never do that because you never WANT to run 3-5 hours without stopping, then I think you are a very rational person and you can come hang out next to me and cheer.  We can secretly laugh about how insane these people are and make fun of how they look in their compression socks.

If you think you could never do that because you just don't think you could even though you secretly really want to... well, I think you should look at some of the runners who are doing it against some pretty impressive odds and consider being inspired.  Because there will be people over the age of 70 finishing, and people who weigh over 200 pounds finishing, and even some people with no legs finishing.  So if you want it, and you're willing to work for it and be patient enough to train for the months and maybe years that it takes, you probably can do it.

But I recommend you grab yourself a cup of coffee, clap like crazy while people run by, and stick to the shorter races with me.

And in that light, I would like to present my Ode to the 5k, in the form of t-shirt slogans.

3.1 - Long Enough to Feel Good, Often Enough to Look Good

3.1 - Why Give Up Your Saturday Mornings?

3.1 - I'm Efficient.

3.1 - If It's Not A "Challenge", Run Faster

3.1 - Not Everyone's Crazy

3.1 - Run Fun :)

3.1 - You Could Be Doing This Eight Weeks From Now

:)

Happy Running!