okay okay

I totally missed posting 7mo photos, so here're some shots of both our time in Abilene last weekend and Magz with Raggedy Ann at the seven month marker:

a couple of princesses on Mo's fourth birthday. unfortunately, the elder princess had the flu and had to postpone her party, but we did our best to celebrate with family at home:

sweet birthday girl:

the baby's been making some great faces lately, most of which I fail to capture.

it was also hubz & LC's birthday weekend... this was taken at Perini Steakhouse:

with Marmee:

we even got to squeeze in a visit with friends! hooking up with the Browns was a total gift.thanks for meeting us, you guys!

and now, may I present the SEVEN MONTH OLD...

who's started pulling up on things in the last couple of days and managed to avoid sickness this week despite Mo's flu and Daddy/Mama's various ailments. she did, however, break out in hives or something mid-week. there were spots that came and went, but didn't itch, cause fever, or change her countenance at all. we decided it was likely a reaction to prunes, but I'm still not really sure.

"If only I had some TOYS to play with... sigh..."

and here's an extra we'll throw in for Mama, who needs to get completely well so she can be awesome this week. amen.

I need a nap, kids. remind me to blog about the goodness of my meeting last night.

-m.y.

showers and baths

I'm so behind it's laughable. oh well! here are some shots of the shower we threw for the mcDs. it was tons of fun and so great to get to honor this family:



















and to trigger your 'awwww!' reflex, here's my 'bitty sitting up in the tub like the big girl she is (7 months already! what the!):



she's big on waving right now to everyone and everything, which is fairly precious. like, we walk into the kitchen in the morning and her face brightens as she waves, 'hi room! you're so awesome!'. since Sunday, she's also peek-a-booing with blankets/her shirt, what-have-you, which completely slays me... I got video of this tonight, which I'll post as soon as I get myself more together than I am right now. we're battling sickness over here, plus we got a new computer that doesn't quite have all of the 'stuff' switched over from the old one. meh. I mean, yay for the new computer! I'm currently plunking on the old one, since I uploaded the pics over here... it's pretty slow and the beach ball of doom pops up every now and again to freak you out and threaten a Big Freeze, but ye old black macbook still works somewhat okay as long as you aren't doing anything important, and aren't trying to access some of the utilities or open itunes, both of which are apparently the kiss of death.

more photos to upload from this past weekend's trip to Abilene, but pleasant dreams for now, all!

-m.y.

of apples and support

one of my renewed resolutions (because they're always the same, really) is to keep learning to make room for space and activities that are purely for my mental and physical health, because I'm a better wife/mother/worker/friend/human being when I'm not wound up and endlessly tasking. a truth made all the more stark by the addition of a baby into our lives. these spaces/activities include, but are not limited to, the following:

making the most of opportunities to sleep/rest

reading

exercise

eating - not skipping meals or getting into ruts of eating things that aren't good for me

seeing friends and engaging with people

keeping up with my appearance

and volunteering my time and skills where I can, when I'm able.

and, of course, all of these fall behind the main one involving God and His desire to be on my schedule. how bad that sounds to me... fitting God into MY schedule. boo. this creation needs renewed perspective of the Creator.

I've already finished my first book of the year - Beautiful Boy, by David Sheff. I bought it almost a year ago, along with a couple of other books I'm hoping to crack into soon. according to the jacket, it was the best nonfiction book of 2008, and I can certainly understand why. it's a tough book about the descent of a young man into meth addiction, as seen through the eyes of his father. as Nic fell further into the black hole of addiction, Sheff tried to take some kind of control and make sense of what was happening to his son by doing a lot of research, which is educational but frankly interested me less than the actual story of what happened to his family. it's heartbreaking and exasperating, and a really good read for anyone wanting a glimpse into what it's like to deal with addicts, the frustrating nature of treatment for many of them, and the necessity of help and support for families of addicts. I DID find one part of his research interesting - in searching the country to get treatment for Nic, you get the strong sense that Sheff found rehabs and such to be, in many ways, a crapshoot - expensive and tough to quantify/qualify in terms of 'success' or actual, lasting help. I really enjoy true stories - real life experiences can be so compelling. that's why I like documentaries so much, too, though I don't see near as many as I'd probably like.

I've also been to the gym twice in the last week, which is a major step up from 'nothing'. it's also on the list for today! woo-hoo! I'll happily share this little piece of support equipment - yes, equipment - that has made my gym experience fully 80% better:

I never had to really worry about such things before, but we're living in a post-baby world and all things are new. I now have the gray sports bra (Victoria's Secret VSX Sexy Sport) pictured above, and I can't tell you the difference it makes. normally I avoid things with underwires, but this bra is awesome and provides really good support. my attempts at running on the treadmill are no longer painful, plus I just feel generally less sloppy. they're not cheap, but in my opinion it's worth every cent and I'd enthusiastically recommend everyone get one.

here's something guaranteed to make you chuckle. this was our first experience with applesauce. funny, we've given her a bit of banana and the applesauce, and her reactions to both were to make these faces, like they're bitter. I suppose anything tastes crazy after rice cereal, oatmeal, and multigrain/barley cereal (the latter of which is our fave). please note, she's trying to be nice and giving me smiles and things in this video, but a few bites later she was all, 'um, I hate to be rude but really don't want it. AT ALL. stop it. I'm going to clamp my mouth shut against that gross stuff.' this morning's effort was a little more successful, as I mixed just a little of the applesauce into her cereal that she wolfed down. I only tried a little more of straight applesauce at the end, a couple of small bites of which she stoically choked down. we may switch to peas after the three day apple introduction and see how she feels about veggies.

babies, pick up your mallets.

magz & daddy lending MORE musicality to the arcade fire (the band playing in the background). our Christmas gifts to her were the xylophone, some fun maracas, and the pink radio/iphone dock up in the corner of the screen.

surfacing

it's mid-holiday, and I'm fluctuating between wanting to rest and do nothing, working, and wanting to do EVERYTHING that needs to be done in my little world. I feel tired in my bones a little, as B2 would say. I'm normally not much of a resolution-maker, but am definitely considering how to enact some changes in the new year. woo-hoo, we get a new year! 2010 was a wonderful year in so many ways; it also brought it's share of challenges. was that the correct use of a semi-colon? anyway, I definitely feel older after having lived through this year, and stretched both physically and emotionally. I'm looking forward to a new year to do some things better, the most important being to give God more space in my day, my week, my year. more space, more heed, more reliance. more Effort.

here are some photos from this month, starting with the 6 month ones with little Raggedy Ann:

a few shots of christmas at the ranch!

and christmas at Grammy & Opa's:

she's growing so much. we're sitting up (she still needs a bit of help and tends to eventually lean too far and topple over) and can get up on all fours and rock back and forth (video to come!). crawling is in our near future. she's been on rice cereal, and now that we're back from holiday travel we'll be jumping into our introduction to other foods with both feet. Magz got a couple of sippy cups for Christmas and immediately knew what to do with it. I haven't put anything in it yet, but it's fun that she knows what it's for. she's also doing a little waving thing with her hand - mostly her left hand at this point - and she'll talk and shriek and babble to us a lot (she's gotten some consonants... mostly M and B). she's such a sweet, mostly good-natured girl and I feel so thankful and blessed to be her mama.

happy tuesday afternoon, everybody.

-m.y.

half a year

margaret ann is officially six months old today! un... real.

and it's been forever since I blogged! so much to say. so little energy to say it. it seems like we've been going full throttle since Thanksgiving, and my dance card is still pretty full up until we leave for our Christmas trip to Hico next week. hurray for the blessing of work, and quiet prayers for the energy and grace to handle it all.

we'll try to take some good photos tomorrow after our six month trip to the doctor and try to chronicle some of the cool things baby girl is up to these days, but here are a few choice digital nuggets of late... she's currently so flipping squeezable, and we're all about the oral fixation (especially when it comes to mr. elephant's trunk, though anything will do, really):

behold my homemade christmas craft, the felt wreath. :)

more blogging will happen, I promise. for now, I'll take 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep in my stocking, Santa. Santa? Santa! It's not polite to laugh like that, you jerk!

-m.y.

p.s. I heard this from a friend Saturday night and thought it was so good... I'm paraphrasing, but it went something like this; 'regarding willpower, I think it's about getting grounded in Another Way enough that the utter lack of willpower doesn't matter.' I really identify with that, and wish to even more.