Enjoying the Small Things

Enjoying the Small Things

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April 21, 2010 By Kelle

I’m Loving…

The Makings of a Smile (minus the fact that my rapid head movements and obnoxious deet-deet-deet-ling make me appear quite crazy) seen here: Click it. I’ve watched it a trillion times already because the crescendo to her smile and the clouds-parting-and-angels-singing thing that happens when it finally comes…it makes me crazy. Even crazier than whiplashing my head and deet-deet-deetling.

The Itsy Bitsy Spider with Dot (and how she happens to A: find a way to add the word “Beckham” into every song, and B: get stuck on “Come Down and Washed the–“ over and over and can’t move on) seen here: Click it.

Brett, the Cook
Suddenly, out of nowhere, he thinks he’s Bobby Flay, and I’m loving it. He never cooks. But now, I guess he does. I walked into the kitchen to this yesterday:

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And today, after some delicious and suspicious wafting scents, I opened a crock pot lid to find a hot mess of pork tenderloin. And fresh lemon wedges. And tender jalepenos soaking in a glaze of yellowy stuff that smelled amazing. Wow. Brett’s a cook.

Junk Drawer Challenge
I once said something along the lines of kids are entertained by anything and I bet you could find some amazing thing to do with them if you opened your junk drawer and dug through it. This was after reading some article in a Martha Stewart magazine about a great craft to do with your kids and all you need is like some Peruvian wool, a loom, a blow torch, some unkinked Spanish moss, one egg from a black swan, a 1/16 inch drill bit, some hard-to-find natural clay dyed some hard-to-reach color and, um, a spoon.
Anyway, we did the drunk drawer challenge…mainly just to prove myself right.

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(Hmmm…I spy a Marilyn Monroe refrigerator magnet, a Polly Pocket dress, a wooden knob and an outlet cover.)

We found a spool of wire and a handful of loose beads left over from her hospital Big Sister crown. I set her to work stringing beads for a bracelet and she was in heaven. The girl craves hand-eye coordination tasks like McGyver.

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And, Voila:

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Take that, Martha (not that I don’t love you). I see your drill bit and your Peruvian wool and I raise you a spool o’ wire and some plastic beads. Yeah.

The Holy Grail has Arrived.
The Book, The Book, oh The Book. I touched its pages like they were made of gold leaf, caressed its binding like–ew, I just said caressed. Regardless, Lainey loves it. Like loves it, loves it. Laughs at all the pictures of Latte she can find in it.

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And, I’m working on some minor blog make-overs where I’ll answer some F.A.Q.s which will include lots of camera/photo/memory book answers along with some other stuff readers have expressed interest in. So, good stuff to come.

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Happy Wednesday. Can I say it one more time? There is beauty in the world.
Go find some.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized 144 Comments

This is Joy.

April 20, 2010 By Kelle

In doing some writing today, I came across this post I wrote on my birthday last year, just three weeks before our girl entered our hearts:

It’s taken me awhile to grasp it all, but I have finally arrived at the grown-up place of life-is-what-you-make-it and there are lots of things in life we go through that aren’t comfortable or ideal, but they could be so incredibly worse, and a simple life of comfort does nothing to change us, mold us, make us into better, stronger more beautiful versions of ourselves…

I have been reminded so much these past couple weeks of just how wonderfully blessed we are and the older I get, the more I embrace change as opportunity to learn just what I am capable of.

I am capable of so much.

…and I am excited at the opportunity of new challenges, more love… Perhaps I had been planted for too long and this little bit of discomfort will challenge me, in my thirty-first year, to push myself more toward new chapters in the story of our life.

They will be good chapters.

The last few days have been such a snowballing of emotions and contemplations and yes, hormones, to settle me into a contended place of so-be-it. Life flows on, and I want to experience every tide, every wave, every calm with purpose.

And, as I read that today, I couldn’t stop crying.
I can’t believe I wrote that…just weeks before the night that changed our lives for good.

Obviously, this sort of change in one’s life causes months of reflection and, although life has moved on so perfectly and regularly for us, there are those mornings in the shower where I’m deep in thought, those drives along quiet streets where I contemplate it all, those nights where I lie awake and take it all in.

And the conclusion I come to is…

Thank you, Nella.

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You have stolen my heart with your almond eyes and your soul that twists me in two sometimes. Thank you for changing me. For opening my heart to learn more about the world and the beauty that’s out there.

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Thank you for teaching me to love–truly love–not only you but every blessed thing I’ve been given.

Thank you for challenging me–to accept fears and hardships and to use them to make me better.

Thank you for giving me time that night just weeks ago…for loving me through the pain…for waiting for me to come along on this journey with you. Thank you for holding my hand as I walk with you. I know there will be challenges, but I also know you’ll always be my side and that in itself makes any pain seem to fade.

Thank you for setting us straight. A little sieve, you are, straining out the unimportant, the silly things in life that so often distract us from what really matters. You will forever be our filter and with you, what’s left in the end is us…our family and our love.

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Thank you for opening my eyes to a new kind of perfection–that which is good and beautiful and pure.

You bring nothing but joy and hope into our home, and I can’t wait to see where you will take us. Our bunny. Our sweet Nella Wafer. Our Girl.

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I don’t know if it’s birth hormones giving a last hurrah before they settle where they belong or what but today, my heart is seeping with love and gratitude for the change that happened in our lives twelve weeks ago.

Yes, I am capable of so, so very much.

And, in twelve weeks, we’ve managed to show the world that this?
This is beautiful.
This is joy.

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Thank you for joining us on this beautiful, purposeful journey.

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Filed Under: Designer Genes 266 Comments

Guest Blogging Today

April 19, 2010 By Kelle

Guest blogging today over at Life Rearranged. Jeanette has a great blog where she features guest bloggers every couple weeks to raise money for various charities. Our post is raising money for the National Down Syndrome Society which helps fund fantastic opportunities for individuals with that magic chromosome. Please stop over if you get a chance. I share about one of our family’s favorite past times…grocery shopping.

A Grocery Store Vacation

Before I became a mother, my husband and I were no strangers to a good impromptu getaway. It wasn’t uncommon come 5:00 on a Friday afternoon to suddenly pack up the car, skip across Alligator Alley and find ourselves huddled up at the Beacon in Miami’s art deco district, ready for some tan-perfecting and mojito-sipping.

Click here to see the rest.

Filed Under: Uncategorized 32 Comments

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