Exciting!! *UPDATED*

I have a bit of news to report! I have begun blogging for milwaukeemoms.com, which is an online resource and a networking community for Milwaukee parents who have kids from ages 0-6, and I am very excited about this new opportunity. My new blog, One of Each, will contain stories about my many adventures in parenting, but I am also planning some entries on living as a vegetarian and possibly on what I have learned while managing a single-income household. (Ah, my financial wisdom--my mother can hardly believe her eyes.)

Please visit and read my new blog often...it can be found here:

http://www.milwaukeemoms.com/blogs/kitchentable/one_of_each.html

And, if you feel so inclined, please feel free to comment on any of my blog posts...you need to register with the site in order to comment, but registration is easy and free!! Also, feel free to browse the entire site, especially if you're in the Milwaukee area. There are tons of great things to be found!

Don't worry...I won't stop posting here. I need a place to blog about bodily fluids and post endless pics of my kids.

Pics That DIDN'T Make Our Christmas Card

Oh, you have NO idea how much work it took to get that perfect Christmas picture.

We Need a Gate Around Our Christmas Tree

Check it out:



Harrison has been "sorta crawling" for quite a while now--he would crawl a few paces then roll back onto his bottom--but over the past few weeks he has really started to take off. He really took notice of our Christmas tree yesterday, and ever since, it has been a struggle to keep him away from it. I've decided to relax, put the unbreakable ornaments at the bottom of the tree, and let him explore a little.

Yesterday

Yesterday was one of those days when I had to dig really, really deep to find the patience I needed to deal with...well...everything.

Ever have one of those days? I have to work hard to be patient on a regular day...I'm not a patient person at all, and yesterday was particularly challenging for me for some reason.

After I put Grace to bed last night, I thought to myself, "It must be hard being my daughter sometimes." Because as much as I tried to be patient with her yesterday, I just couldn't do it. I told her to hurry up when she was putting on her new boots in the morning. I huffed and sighed as she took her sweet time putting her jacket on when I picked her up at school. And when she wanted to take a nice, long shower after swimming lessons, I shut the water off after she had rinsed and told her to just get dried off and dressed already. When we got home from swimming, before I put Grace to bed, she asked me, "Mama, why are you so mad today?"

Ugh. Why indeed?

Some days I think it's probably hard to be my anything...my spouse, my child, my parent, my friend. I'll just have to try harder to do better today.

9 Months

Check out the cute:


You can see his wispy blonde hair in the sun and his two little bottom teeth. I keep thinking he can't get any cuter, but he does.