life has finally slowed down this week, and i am pouring myself into taking delicious bites of our home life.
which never fails to include stopping to watch her every move and drinking her laineyloveness in.
her (late) eighteen month appointment today has her…perfect & healthy. i am always nostalgic and thankful and this big ball of emotions after her appointments. one being that this is the same office i’ve walked into so many times with a newborn, a baby, a toddler…and it’s like walking into the hallways of your old elementary school every time. i love her doctor, i love mary who works the desk, i love the nurse…and i love that these people were with us during some very scary days. and then, every time, as i leave her check-ups, i think about every baby in this world without the good fortune of health…and how different their lives are…and how scared their parents must feel. and how deeply grateful i am for everything about her life and the fact that we live, we love, we climb, we play, we hear and see and feel everything there is to feel in this world without limitations. big thankful sigh.
and speaking of big ball of emotions, that’s what i am right now, and it’s this giant conglomerate of about a million things. leaving my family after an incredible weekend…the excitement of christmas and traditions we will share in our home next week…and this overwhelming flood of gratitude. because it’s the end of the year in the middle of economic travesty, and we are all okay. we are healthy and happy, and i can’t imagine facing hard times with the added struggles of fear and anxiety towards life itself. and then there’s this giant milestone just weeks away. i will enter a new decade in two weeks, and i’ve just been thinking about how things have played out these last thirty years and how there’s nowhere i’d rather be than right here, right now. all the lemons along the way…old, moldy, sour, rotting lemons…have turned into this ginormous pool of lemonade…shining, sweet lemonade with lemon garnishes and a sugared rim. i want to grab Thirty, slow dance (and/or tango/rhumba/salsa/dirty dance) with it, make out with it and give it the time of its life. and i’m gunna. but that’ll be another post. stay tuned.
so, amid the emotions…we bake. we craft. we crank up the christmas music and make up new dance moves…ones babies can do too (and she can! you should see!). we make memories.
today, we traded an afternoon nap for an apron, a big spoon of peanut butter and a great recipe for muddy buddies.
…enjoying the deliciously grateful things. ~k
absolutely LOVE the look of the blog now. i love the new header pic! everything is so white and so crisp and so clean! love all the pictures you take. i enjoy waking up every morning and coming out to my computer and checking to see what new and wonderful pictures you will have for that day. i am sad when a day or two passes and there is not a new blog to get lost in.
love that new header!
and the dr. visit!
and how funny that our girls birthdays are super close … as are ours!
but i’ve already jumped the 30 mark. 32! this year. argh. i think i just spotted my first grey hair. gotta go and find some hair dye …
the blog looks great!! and the christmas “package” was amazing!! so glad your trip went so well! anxious to see how you welcome “30!” it’s only as bad as you allow it to be!!!
Long, past-due comment:
1. that version of auld lang syne will forever remind me of the scene in the SATC movie, which holds special sentiment for me, as I liken myself to Miranda minus the cheating husband and bad wardrobe in the earlier seasons. Lovesit!
2. Should I even comment that I love the photos and look of the blog or is that like so many drops in the bucket to you, oh increasingly-famed photographer you! Ok, but I will anyway. Lovesit, lovesit, LOVESIT!
3. This is really a comment for your previous post. Do you think that in addition to being a photographer, you can have a second career in hat-wardrobe consultations? I live in the armpit of all bad weather, and somehow I haven’t managed to do any better than the free burglar-looking cap I got in the Bucktown 5K, adorned with community advertising. LOVESIT THE HATS!
4. In response to the jowls comments below, one time I tried to photoshop out some jowls on myself and the result looked like a neckless fluke monster. So I agree, embrace the jowls.
5. This is SHAMELESS propaganda, but: I’M ON WINTER BREAK WOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
6. If 50 is the new 40, then you aren’t even old enough to drink! I am weird, though, I always want to be older than I am. The thought of being 20-something reminds me of banal MTV shows and girls who can’t spell. So, enjoy! And adopt some new signature scents, colors, etc. There’s never a bad reason to add signatures to your collection.
Alright, that should last me for a bit, although now that I’m on break, I may be on here more often! Ta-ta for now!
white! oh you know I like the white. and LOVE the new header. Always adore how you are changing it up.
Pictures are amazing, of course. Amazing. The doctor photos are always a blast…bug’s one is next Monday. I especially love the photo of Lainey looking at the doc like sister, you think that thing looks like atoy to me and I don’t know you are going to stick it in my ear? Cause I know that’s what you are going to do.
Just you enjoy that stuff nearly 30 year old.
Love’s eyes in that top pic are unreal. Old soul for shiz.
I love Dig’s comment about the Old Soul in Lainey’s eyes…I have always believed, while these precious baby souls were standing in line by the sky chute that would bring them to our hearts and hugs, some were chosen to carry back to the world some Old Soul dust and in carrying it, there would always be a remnant on them. You can see it in their eyes, their pensive gaze, there strength and resilience that somehow suggests…they have been here before. Maybe its her Grandma Great who must have held her tight in heaven, rocked her with the same lullabies like “Lost in the Woods” she lulled other generations with and finally whispered to her, “It’s time to go” and sent her to our hearts. Yes, I think that’s just how it happened…Auld Lang Syne.
Poppa’s comment has me tearing up . . .
Love the new look!! Not that the previous look wasn’t fab . . . this is just so so fresh, crisp, and has a new sheets feel to it!
I so wish I could download your creativity to my brain!!!
Enjoy your lemonade while we work on ours a little more . . .
Holy Crap, these comments are great today! Emma…girl, winter break does somethin’ to ya. And it was all I could do not to change my lemondade to the new phrase you’ve coined…cupcakes out of shitcakes.
Kelle, I’m so happy that your weekend with your family was fabulous – but I knew it would be.
And I have to agree with Emma on your hats, you wear them so well, I need hat help too!
And this post, and Poppa’s comment had my crying too. Thanks for doing what you do!
Forgot to mention, love your new header too!
HAHA! So funny because just this morning I thought, had I a blog, it would be named, “Making cupcakes out of sh*tcakes.” =)
P.S. I have just ONE more comment for the previous post, that only maybe you, Carin, and Molly can appreciate.
“Not now. Not in 22D.”
Judy Blume? Is that you? Remember when we used to write “Judy Blume novels?”
Yes, winter break (any break for that matter) does something to me!
hey kelle!
quick question (s) …
what size do you use for your header? i cannot figure it out … thanks!
also…did you ever get the email i sent?? just wanted to make sure!
…and I love it when the comment column becomes a chat room! Now I have to get some work done…or it will be sh*tcakes for me!
oh, please, pretty please, emma. if you love me, you’ll write me a chapter from judy blume today. that’s what i want for christmas. and i will write you one back…and maybe even throw in a louisa may alcott chapter. come on. do it. you’re on break now.
and jen…i did get your e-mail and wrote you back…your info was INVALUABLE!! i loved every bit of time you spent on that! and the header is 990 pixels wide and 400 tall. or maybe 430.
I see your Judy Blume. And I raise you a sh*tcake: I may MAYBE just PERHAPS MAYBE am going to reinstate a limited edition winter break blog, for the sole reason that I will actually have “everyday” things about which to write. MAYBE. =)
Until then, I am working on the first chapter, and will have it delivered to you shortly… here’s a teaser:
Emma stared out the dusty blinds of her window and shrugged. “Another slushy day,” she thought with a wry smile. “Slushy, mushy, MUSHY day.” Dragging her feet, she couldn’t help but wonder what Vivian was doing on a day like today. Vivian was probably wearing the wide-brimmed best-friends hat they had purchased last year in Atlantic City. Emma glanced at her hat, crumpled in her closet. “No need for that, there’s not even any sunshine here,” she moaned. And then something caught her eye… a flash of sequins towards the back of the closet… “Hmm, I wonder…”
TO BE CONTINUED.
okay…rolling on the floor.
“More, more,” she begged.
okay…here goes…
Meanwhile, in another town, Vivian looked in the mirror at the pimple that was two times the size it was the night before.
“Dang pimple. Now Bobby McGee will never like me.”
She kicked the triple A size bra on the floor beneath her.
“Hmmmppphhh.” (because what’s a Judy blume novel without a “hmmmppph.”?)
She wondered what Emma was doing or if she still had the other half to the best friends charm they bought together just a year before at the local Claire’s store.
And then, it happened.
A lone salty tear puddled in her eye and fell silently along her cheek.
Would Bobby McGee ever notice the beauty she had inside?
Would Emma ever move back home and back to the treehouse fort in the backyard?
Or, would her life be this constant state of sh@*tcakes she was starting to get used to?
She sadly wondered.
Oh, for the love of God. Somebody, stop me. Please.
Comment chatrooms rock.
LOVE the new look! LOVE the last pic of lainey and her pediatrician!
I’m at the library…catching up on blogs and the like.
have a good day!
love you!
oh yeah…HI EMMA! love and miss you!
i’m sorry to have asked! i never received the reply email … damn work email … sometimes i get it weeks later.
argh.
but so glad i checked back … you guys are too funny with your comment novel writing activity.
did you ever see the blog between two friends that were some thousand miles away … a year of mornings – (i remember 3s and 9s and maybe a one?) miles apart (?)
there apparently is a book out now depicting their pictures that they took each morning. but … your comment novel sparked the idea that you guys should start a co-blog writing novel. i would read! glad to hear it helped! sorry this comment is so long!
i promise i will go away now.
http://3191.visualblogging.com/
hahaha – loving the judy blume special edition. Can’t wait to read the next few ‘pages’.
I have to say it too – great header. 🙂
Okay, call me crazy . . . BUT I’m determined that somehow we are all connected with Blogs . . . follow me here . . . Dooce.com just yesterday blooged about this book (http://www.dooce.com/daily-style/2008/12/16/year-mornings) . . . Dooce.com is a very funny blogger, by the way, she is also a regular on momversation.com (another very funny site) . . . but what I’m trying to say here . . . is that there is some weird juju going on in the blog world where I see the same thing talked about on completely different blogs all the time . . . sorry for the ramble . . carry on
thanks a lot, people. i thought all i wanted for christmas was love and peace. now i want that book.
So am I like the only person who isn’t apart of this fabulous dialog? Just look at my lonely comment languishing out there. Is it because I have a typo? (shit) I meant ” a toy” and I promise to proof my comments from now on.
Judy Bloom! Love her. Love those books and your essays a la Bloom. Do you think that is her real name? nah.
okay, dig…that made me laugh hard. or what is it…laughing quietly to myself? i’m scared to write a new post because i’m having too much fun with the comments on this one. we could just keep it going forever, couldn’t we? meanwhile, i’m on the floor laughing getting e-mails with judy bloom’s next chapters. seriously. i’m just going to collect them.
and p.s. nicole typo’d blogged as “blooged.” didn’t want you to feel left out, dig. in bloogland that is.
OK, I just looked back at the pics again and the one of Lainey at her table looks like the girl with one leg. But then, it is late and we had margaritas with friends tonight. Goodnight one legged sweetheart!
in the third pic, did you put false eyelashes on her? no ones lashes should be allowed to be that lush without physical assistance.
oh lainey love you are blessed in the lash department! actually you are blessed in all departments, i’m just picking one.
bottom pic – what sort of mischief are you contemplating? perhaps, dumping the huge tub of chex to the floor?
oh no … i said i wasn’t going to come back … but i did … ’cause i was hoping for another installment of the judy bloom book. and i hadn’t seen a new post … and i was worried that google reader was lying to me.
can you say … addiction?
and now i’m commenting. again. and laughing because of your dad’s comment about the one-legged girl.
dear god … i’m sorry that i laughed at that.
karma is gonna kick my ass someday.
dear god … sorry that i swore.
i promise i will not come back to comment again. promise. well … at least on this post.
and i swear … i am not a stalker.
the last picture actually looks like a 5th leg to the table; a decorative one. Must be a stable table!