At least they are cute

Because my kids are driving me crazy this week.

We are on day two of Asher and Miriam being ridiculously high maintenance, and I am feeling the need to either run away or hide in the bathroom. These kind of days are usually few and far between, so to have two in a row is pushing me to the edge a bit.

Not only is my house strewn with toys and crumbs, but they are causing me bodily harm too. This morning Asher accidentally head butted me square in the nose. I practically saw stars. And then this afternoon, while sharing my burrito with him, he bit too far and came straight down on my thumb. I actually cried it hurt so bad. And it still hurts.

Miriam is teething and cranky and whiny. For a baby that is usually so happy, this version is getting old fast.

Oh, and we've got Asher down to nursing just once a day, Miriam is eating a lot more solids, and so my breasts are leaking like crazy. I smell like sour milk.

I am so hot right now.

Birth Matters!

'Living in the Body: Milk and Honey' 

By Amanda Greavette

Check out her AMAZING Birth Project at www.amandagreavette.com

From the foreword by Ani DiFranco to Ina May Gaskin's latest masterpiece Birth Matters: A Midwife's Manifesta:

It confuses me that I, an educated, privileged woman in twenty-first century America, am surrounded by women who think they need saving and, because they are denied the opportunity to know otherwise, may believe it forevermore. They look at me with wide eyes and say, "I couldn't have done what you did [birth at home unmedicated]," and my heart breaks as I think quietly, "Yes, you could have! In fact, I bet you could have done better!" How could all these otherwise empowered young women go so unquestioningly into the role of damsel in distress when it comes time to have their children? How were they convinced that they "couldn't do it"? 

I finally started reading this book and I can already tell it is going to be AMAZING. I bought it months ago but just hadn't gotten to it yet. Ina May Gaskin is one of my heroes. Just reading the foreword and first chapter has me all fired about birth issues again. This really is a topic that I am super passionate about. My goal to be a birth educator is burning within me once more.

holy crap.... I have SO freaking much to blog about. I need to get going on that one of these days. For example... we went to London last week! Yeah, London! Me, Jared, and Miriam. My mom stayed with Asher. Both kids did great.

My laptop power cord died while in London. I think this is at least the 5th or 6th one we've had with this computer in 3 years. For some reason, our computer kills power cords. Luckily, we've never had to pay for a  replacement. Thank you, Apple. I quite enjoyed the time offline the past couple weeks though.

This summer has been so busy but will now calm down for while thank goodness, so I might actually be able to start posting here again. We'll see.

And uh, what is going on with blogger? Everything is all different. I feel like I'm in an entirely different program.

Happy Birthday, Miriam!

Almost exactly one year ago, Miriam made her peaceful entrance into the world right here in our living room. One of the best days of my life!

I still need to take her official one year old portraits, but wanted to make sure I put a post up today wishing my sweet baby a happy birthday. She is a delight and joy. I love her to pieces and am so happy that I get to be her mother. Her smile and laugh light up the room. Her hugs and cuddles make me melt. I love being her favorite person in the world. There is not a sweeter baby than my Miriam.

Happy Birthday, my beautiful girl!

summer solstice flowers

Happy Summer Solstice!

My roses are in bloom and I had to snap a few photos of them today to celebrate the official start of summer.

one of the reasons i've been neglecting my blog

I've been planning this event. 

I am SO excited to meet one of my personal heroes Carol Lynn Pearson!

Look for a picture of the two of us on here next week. :-) 

Hopefully next week I'll be able to start catching up on here. I have lots of stuff to post. 

Summer is turning out to be quite busy!

11 months

Time just won't stop! Miriam is now 11 months old and cuter than ever. Seriously. Look at that face!

and this one

and this one

and this one

and this

and this

and this

This past month, Miriam has had a lot of development. She's wants to walk most of the time holding our hands or the furniture, but she also finally started actually crawling. This means that she spends more and more time playing on the floor and exploring. She's also beginning to eat a bit more even though she's still toothless. She is such a cuddly baby. Much more so than Asher ever was at this age. She gives the best little hugs and kisses. She babbles and sings. She says Mama but we haven't distinguished any other words yet. She is definitely a mama's girl but she's starting to go to Jared more and more even when I'm around. And will let a few other people hold her for short amounts of time.

standing

She loves standing against the couch like this, dancing and clapping and watching Caillou with Asher.

Is that not the most adorable little profile?

love

at the table

Miriam is starting to spend more time actually sitting and eating in her high chair. Slowly but surely she's starting to like table food. She's had the drinking water from the sippy cup down for awhile now though. It makes her look so big.