The theme in our home this month: mess-making.

I’ve realized 60 seconds with the vacuum is always worth her satisfaction, her joy…not to mention my own in seeing her do something so grown-up. I still can’t believe my girl…my tiny little baby…is big enough to do what she does with me now. I dreamed of these days and didn’t realize they’d creep up on me this fast.

Today, we made pumpkin bread, her in her little apron and me in mine.
I started by letting her stir and drop in pre-measured teaspoons but realized her independence was craving more. So, I let her have her own bowl filled with a little flour and some spices. For the next half hour, she was in heaven, stirring, sprinkling, shoveling heaps of flour onto the floor.

…and I couldn’t stop smiling.

This kid thing? This having a daughter thing? So. Much. Fun. She’s my friend…my little buddy, and hanging out with her all day is so incredibly fulfilling.

love her.

for cute baby aprons, check out this.

…enjoying the tasty baby things. ~k

last year at this time:

this year, baby took artistic talent into her own hands and painted her first pumpkin masterpiece…sure to become a halloween tradition until her coordination grants her the ability to hold a pumpkin cutter…

…and under the table, latte kept watch.

can’t believe she stayed still enough for me to paint this on her cheek.

enjoyed a wonderfully loungey weekend where we did loungey things like sit in the driveway, watching lainey play outside and stay in our jammies too long.

p.s. our little sugar-and-spice likes to play in the dirt now.

…enjoying the family things. ~k

in the midst of another cozy (i’m-pretending-it’s) fall day down here the other day, i perused through comcast’s free movies for a little background noise while i cleaned…and turned positively giddy when i found a jewel hidden between kindergarten cop and the mighty ducks.
little women, my dears. a delicious movie chocked full of petticoats, quill pens and yes…bonnets.

there’s this part in the movie i just love…and always have. jo, who travels alone to new york to foster her independence and persue her writing dreams, is having a discussion with a group of lawyers. after debating a subject quite impressively, one of the lawyers turns to her and says, “you should have been a lawyer.” she humbly smiles and replies….”i should have been a great many things.”

…and that line just gets me every time.

i should have been a great many things.

i’ve felt that feeling so many times as my interests have pulled me in different directions over the years. i wanted to be a writer. i wanted to go into advertising. i wanted to design things. create things. be a teacher. be a mom. be artistic. speak at events. take pictures. help little chidren. volunteer. be a homemaker. heck, i was pre-med for two years.

i wanted to be a great many things.

but, here i am, almost thirty, and you know what? i have no regrets. no discontent. i’m purely happy and right where i want to be.

i am a great many things.

i am a mother to the most amazing thing that walked the planet and i am showing her that women can have it all. all those other things? i’ve crossed off some, and the others i’m getting to…slowly but surely. with her right by my side.

but, for now….my little great-many-things is fulfilling everything i ever wanted just beautifully.

and her trillion expressions are like watching the northern lights to me… i am humbly awed by her beauty.

she danced today…like, literally picked her feet off the ground and threw them around.

yeah. she’s gunna be a bootie shaker.

and this may get redundant, but all i can say at the end of the day is….

i love her. i love her so very much and feel so honored to belong to her.

seriously.

…enjoying the my-heart-is-full things. ~k

p.s. kudos to my sister who today took being a great-many-things to new levels.