Tu(tu) months.

To quote Nate: "We have a girl."

Sweet Audie Lou is two months old. We celebrated with a trip to the pediatrician for measurements and shots and another picture in the baby legs on the big red chair (complete with drool spot).


Weight: 11lbs 8oz (66th percentile)
Height: 23 inches (72nd percentile)
Head: 15.75 inches (60-somethingth percentile)
Shots: Awful. Poor baby. That sure doesn't get any easier to witness.

So thankful for our happy, healthy baby girl. She really is the sweetest thing. Like, ever.

Inevitable.

Well, I knew it was coming. At some point. Seems no parent can escape it.

I just can't believe all it took was one time, one silly lapse in judgement while my hands were full with Audra.

Friends warned me about its addictive nature, but I didn't listen. And given the number of requests I've been fielding since then, I have a feeling I will come to regret that deeply.


At least it's not Barney.

I guess.

Random tidbits from the homefront.

Hi there. Remember me? The one who likes to pop in occasionally with photos and a list of crazy and nothing of real substance?

More of the same to follow. Get excited.

1. I love being home. There, I said it. It goes against everything I've ever thought/said about myself and I'm putting it out there anyway. If I could stay home indefinitely, I would. I would wear yoga pants and sweatshirts and go without makeup and load and unload the dishwasher and washing machine thirty times a day and drive my son to and from school and snuggle my daughter all day long every day if I could.

But, I cannot. So that's depressing. Three and a half weeks to go...I am going to cry. A lot.

2. I have a feeling once I get back to work I will be totally fine, though. Especially if I'm able to implement my Yoga Pants in the Workplace Wednesday idea.

Shouldn't be a problem.

3. So far during my maternity leave I have finished Mad Men (I can't wait for March 25. Can't. Wait.), gotten hooked on The Voice (Adam Levine, you are so fine), found myself simultaneously amused and annoyed by Portlandia, and caught up on a number of girly movies I wanted to see (The Help, I Don't Know How She Does It, Life as We Know It).

4. I also read two books. Yes, two. I really thought I'd do more reading because I spent many a sleepless night plowing through a long list of books while I was home with Calvin, but Audra? She sleeps all night. At eight weeks.

Best. Baby. Ever.

Also, I spend what little time I am up with her at night on Pinterest. Which is probably just as enriching as reading, if you really think about it.

(Please don't.)

5. While on the subject of Pinterest, I'm already thinking ahead to Calvin's third birthday party. Which is either going to be a Toy Story 3 party or an Up party. I am not-so-secretly hoping for Up, as that seems far simpler than Toy Story 3 (i.e. lots of balloons vs. some sort of space ranger/cowboy/daycare center/landfill scenario). I mean, it's Calvin's birthday so he can pick whichever one he prefers, but don't be surprised to find me slipping Up into the DVD player a little more frequently in the months to come.

6. Are movie and tv show titles supposed to be italicized? I've been looking at that the entire time I've been writing this and I still have no idea.

7. Yep, I have a degree in journalism and should know that.

8. Nope, I don't plan to look it up.

9. Do you think it would be worth buying a plane ticket to somewhere cheap so I can eat at the Chick-fil-A going into the Minneapolis St. Paul airport? Cause I kind of do.

10. Two weeks from Saturday Nate and I are going out to celebrate our birthdays. And not just anywhere, but to our favorite restaurant of all time: the 112 Eatery. Heaven on a plate, folks. Or multiple plates, I guess, since we have no self control when we're there. Anyway, we were discussing our mutual excitement last night and I said "Remember how they used to know us because we went there so often?" and Nate said "Well, that will never happen again" and I said "Sure it will...at Panera." And then we both cried a little for all we've lost in having kids.

11. Just kidding.

12. Kind of.

Ugh. See what happens when I'm cooped up in my house all winter long? I start talking crazy about loving food more than my kids. It's probably a good thing I'm going back to work soon.

But no. It's not. Because then I have to leave these sweet faces...and how terrible will that be?






Very, very terrible.

Turns out I love them way more than the 112's stringozzi with lamb sugo. Or steak tartar. Or scallops with oyster mushrooms.

But maybe about the same as the tres leche cake. It's really good.

Sweet dreams.

She really is as sweet as she looks.

Evolution of a valentine.

10 years ago, Nate and I celebrated our first Valentine's Day. It was kind of fancy.

I mean, he hung flowers from the dining room ceiling. Really, he did. It was like walking into an enchanted...well, an enchanted apartment dining room.

And I bought a new outfit. To wear over to his house.

(Oh, 22-year-old Abby. I wish I could slap you sometimes.)

He made me a fancy dinner, and I'm sure got me a fancy gift — to be honest, I don't remember. More than likely I made him something crafty, because I was poor from all the new outfit buying.

It was all very sweet and romantic, and I love the memory of that first Valentine's Day.

And this year?

Well, this year we got up and sat around our embarrassingly messy house in a comatose state after yet another sleepless night. I spent most of the day in yoga pants, which I eventually traded in for jeans and a slightly nicer than average sweatshirt. We had a pizza lunch date. With our baby. Dinner consisted of porkchops and broccoli and boxed mashed potatoes with our two year old. Our daughter stayed up until 11:30pm, and when I finally made it to bed Nate was passed out with the light on. I passed out next to him about 3.5 seconds later.

But I still got flowers (in a vase). And lots of kisses (some of them stickier than others). And sweet snuggles (from my babies and my husband).

The grand gestures, the elaborate meals, the big gifts of our early relationship were lovely and so much fun. But I much prefer the easy, comfortable love — and life — we have now. Buy one get one free Caribou coffee, a kiss from my husband in the middle of our kitchen full of dirty dishes, a fridge covered in heart shaped preschool crafts, a sippy cup full of pink milk on the dinner table, and a baby dressed in pink and red polka dots — these are the things that make my heart skip a beat, the valentines I cherish most.

Though it's never a bad thing when the guy you're dating takes time to hang flowers from the ceiling.

In fact, I'd say it's a sign of even better things to come.