Bird turned Bulldog

The Bird crawls!

Food Face

Sienna is an excellent eater. It probably won't last, so I'm going to enjoy it as long as I can. So far, her repertoire includes: green beans, peas, cauliflower, red pepper, yellow squash, zucchini, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, spaghetti squash, broccoli, asparagus, corn, carrots, apples, pears, prunes, apricots, blueberries, chicken, turkey, rice cereal, oatmeal cereal, wheat cereal, mixed grain cereal and tomorrow I'm pureeing spinach. Mmmmmm, spinach!

Mom Notes, 8 Months

Sienna is 8 months old today and about to crawl any minute. Here are my latest thoughts on this mom journey as of late.

*Vacations are small scale nightmares. I don't regret taking them when all is said and done (The Bird has already been on 3 plane trips and one painfully long road trip), but you better believe that when I'm in the hellfire of them, I swear them off permanently. Vacations are exactly opposite of what they used to be. They used to be restful. Now they are not restful. But I will keep taking them. Because life in general is not restful anymore, so what's the diff?

*My new sleep philosophy is called Whatever Works (also a funny movie by Woody Allen). If you would have told me many months ago that Sienna would still be waking me up once or twice per night at 8 months, I would have died on the spot. She has taught me something valuable, though. "Mom, I can't be trained. Not yet. So don't bother. Let's just enjoy our time together, even if it's sometimes at 3 a.m. If you want to continue training, I will cry." And she has. I regret letting her cry a lot in the past. No more crying it out; much more answering her cries and listening to her. I'm much happier this way, and so is she.

*I've been trying to come up with a good analogy that sums up what being a stay at home mom is like. This is all I've got: Have you ever done service for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year? Neither have I. But on May 6, 2010, her first birthday, I will have come really close. Because nearly all the hours you're awake and she's awake, you're serving. You are forced to forget yourself and make sure someone else is happy. It's kind of like a boot camp for learning how to be selfless. Your kid force feeds you selflessness everyday. She's like, "Do you want a spoonful of selflessness, or a mouthful of crying? Because you KNOW I can cry!" Also, being a mom is only one part of it. Being a homemaker is another job entirely. Cooking, cleaning, generally making a happy home. That's a whole different animal. I just wanted to use that "animal" phrase. I'm taming animals over here! Keeping dirt at bay, feeding hungry lions. I like homemaking. It's a lost art. Let's bring it back. Forget sexy, I'm bringing homemaking back. Can you imagine the music video? I envision me in an apron over sweats, raising the roof with a rolling pin. Oh yeah!

*When Sienna rolled over at five months, I knew the "grow up suh fast" was here. Since then, she has shown serious signs of independence and there's just no stopping it. She is just growing up suh fast, and there's nothing I can do about it.

*I've read five sleep books. I know more about sleep than I ever wanted to. And it's still nowhere to be found. And THAT'S the true lesson of parenthood for me so far: trust your instincts. Really! Just trust them! It's hard to do that. I want to live by books. But it just doesn't work that way for me as of yet. (Yes that was another paragraph about sleep. BAH.)

*I'm less easily embarrassed. I remember the first grocery shopping trip that had me in a panic. Sienna started crying halfway through, and I was sweating bullets. No more of that. Now if she cries, I'm easy breezy. Of course, I hurry up, but I no longer worry about what other people are thinking. As a bonus, being less easily embarrassed has led to a new kind of confidence. Like a more "I'm in charge" kind of thing. I don't know how to explain it. Being a mom is empowering. It makes me proud.

*I'm more compassionate. I have a bigger heart and a deeper sadness for people in bad circumstances. Because I know everyone is somebody's child. And I don't want my child to ever be in a bad circumstance.

Bum's away!

Happy New Yeh

Martha's resolutions:

*Read the scriptures every morning

*Pray morning and night

(This year's motto: Aim low.)

Adam's resolutions:

*Get into a good business school and start going fall 2010

*Upgrade to Category 4 bike racer

*Spend more time doing quality things in the evening with family and watching less TV

(There's room in this family for only one high achiever.)

Family resolutions:

*Go to the temple once a month

*Have FHE every Monday night

*No chain restaurants

(So far we've already got a new favorite, a place called "Chinese Food.")

Sienna's resolutions:

*Sleep through the night

(Unimpressed so far.)

Sienna's First Christmas

We made it to Denver, saw snow, and my life was complete.

The Bird also met her blond, blue-eyed cousins and realized she really wasn't adopted.

Regrets First, Resolutions Later

Regrets re: Christmastime…

*I regret listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving. It made me sick of it by December 18.

*I regret getting my Christmas shopping done early because I was really twiddling my thumbs that last week.

*I regret trying to fly to Denver on Christmas Eve because it meant a cancelled flight; calling three friends to get us to the airport, home from the airport, and back to the airport all in one day; a McDonald’s cheeseburger for dinner; and worst of all, seeing all the people stranded in the airport for the night as I was deplaning to go enjoy the remaining 30 minutes of the Eve in a warm home with family.

*I regret not putting Jesus in my Christmas newsletter. It haunts me. Who doesn't at least add one sentence about how happy they are to have Christ in their life? Huh? WHO? Must be symbolic or something…

*I regret using the word "crap" in my holiday newsletter. No refined person does such things. No refined person also makes a reference to “nog” when they don’t really much care for the stuff.

*I regret not making holiday treats to deliver to local friends. I really wanted to but the budget was far spent by the time I got around to it. It didn’t stop me from loitering in the baking aisle of the store on about ten different occasions to pine for ingredients to make truffles.

*I regret not really decorating for Christmas even one time in my life. We have about five moves left before we settle down, and I keep thinking that’s when I’ll let loose. But I should just do it. December in California is already depressing enough, which is a good reason to decorate. And yet, that’s also my reason not to decorate. It’d be like covering a gaping wound with a princess band-aid. Pine trees and sunshine just don’t go together.

*I regret not sending out Christmas cards sooner in my life! Just take a look at my blog header, plus more came after that photo! Which leads me to believe two things. If you send people a Christmas card, they'll send you one, too. But more than anything, if you have a baby, it makes you a legitimate family and therefore the Christmas card receiving type (judging from the fact that we got way more cards from people we didn't send anything to ... oops).

ACK!

Are you wasting time like I am today? It's that blasted week between holidays, and I don't feel like doing a thing. These videos are a good way to waste some time. I call this the "ACK Game." You ACK, she ACKS, we all ACK.

Here's Adam and The Bird ACKing. Enjoy his soul patch and her burp at the end.



Here's The Bird and me having an afternoon ACK a couple weeks ago. Enjoy my deep, rumbling man voice ACK.

A Song, From Our Home to Yours

Our 6:45 a.m. flight to Denver was cancelled this morning so we will be getting there instead at 11:30 p.m. tonight.

Don't worry, we're home spreading some holiday cheer with our voices. As a consolation prize for those we are seeing later or not at all this Christmas, enjoy this little tune from us to you and yorn.

Two Teef

Thienna wanths to with you a Mewwy Chwithmath.

If only I can get her to show those two teeth ...

I got the "fat kid" face in this one (a new favorite, her neck really disappears and her face squishes out):

Chewing on her shirt in this one:

Grabbing for the camera in this one:

Kissable red little lips in this one (just remember she will stick her tongue out if you try to kiss them):

Come on, show them already! I know they're in there:

Ta da! Look close. They are there....

Mewwy Chwithmath.

Going Private

While pondering the pros and cons to taking our blog private at 3 a.m. this morning during a Bird feed, Sienna snapped out of her slurpified stupor, looked at me and with four coughs emitted an ocean's-worth of milk. I took it as a sign, like, "Yeah, Mom, I think it's time." Whatever you take away from a giant sized baby barf is your business; what I took away is that it's time to cut loose any chance of creepiness surrounding the family blog. I know this means we will no longer have the same readership as People magazine, but I promise it will remain just as juicy.

If you want in, email me at martha dot h dot ware at gmail dot com (does anyone know if writing an email address out like that really keeps the spammers away? Like I said, just trying to do my part in keeping the creeps on the outs). If you don't see this post in time, you may get an invite anyway because I like to keep my hopes high that all the friends I've ever had check this thing at least once yearly.

See you on the inside!

Creeping Bird

This video is a lot of nothing and a little of something.

I mostly just like the bum-bobbing.

The Dorkiness That Was Thanksgiving

Things to watch for:

Sienna. I'm not sure you'll see her, but keep your eyes peeled.

Floam. The hottest thing to hit my brother's mustache kit yet (inside joke).

A rare appearance by the Snuggie!

Double gimpin'. Dad and Mark both just had knee surgery and guess who were their slaves? To them I said, "Who was your slave yesterday!?" (Did you ever say that to your sibling growing up? Shoot, I actually wish I HAD remembered to say it to them.)

Mine and Adam's best bass fish faces. Heather does the best, and of course I only had one hand to do the gills, but the important thing is we tried.

As I mentioned earlier, The Bird got a haircut. She cried the whole time but I was determined to shave that mullet off. Goodbye mullet-teeny. Goodbye.

Rain Day

It's raining BUCKETS here! This is the first time in my 3.5 years of living in Southern California that I've seen it rain like this.

We are spending much of the day in snowflake bathrobe and snowman jammies wishing the rain was snow. But, no complaints - we'll take what we can get!