color me green

happy luck o' the irish day to you!

in honor of st. patrick's day, i am talking about all things green. green in terms of the biggest buzzword of late-greening your home, your body, the environment. last february, i attended the monthly meeting of my mom's group, where we talked about green cleaning and greening your cosmetics. i came home and started to turn out the cupboards and medicine cabinets, looking for all things toxic and vowing to do better for our bodies. here's a brief list of things that have changed in the last year for the 3 of us:

• burt's bees shampoo and body wash for harper
• burt's bees lotion
• california baby sunscreen and bug repellent
• burt's bees face wash and facial scrub
• alba body lotion
• trader joe's cream shave
• tom's of maine sls-free toothpaste
• crystal body deoderant stick
• trader joe's tea tree tingle body wash
• burt's bees daily facial moisturizer
• clean well all-natural hand sanitizer
• vinegar and water cleaning solution
• bon ami scrub
• hydrogen peroxide and water solution
• baking soda
• borax and oxi white for the laundry
• kirkland free and clear laundry detergent
• mrs. meyer's clean day
• dr. bronner's liquid castile soap
• earth friendly products dishwasher gel

some of the items take some getting used to, but i feel a million times better knowing that i am doing what i can to keep us healthier. i can't control what's outside my front door, but i can manage my home. and of course i am nowhere near perfect, but we try to do the best we can. there are definitely things we can improve on, and my motto has been slowly, but surely andone day at a time. i still have yet to update my makeup, which is next on my list.

as far as greening the environment, we try to use glass whenever we can (and of course, this also supports michael's company, so it's positive two-fold). i also recycle everything. michael has been known to take out what cannot be recycled and throw it away on several occasions. it's worth trying, right?

greening our foods is a whole different post, so stay tuned.

***************
harper and i enjoyed some sunshine in today's beautiful weather. for a few brief moments, her crankiness from this weeklong half-illness subsided and it was heaven. i soaked in the warm rays, and the smiling irish (rather polish and german) eyes from my wee little one.

she clearly wanted me to stop with the pictures!

here's to wishing you enjoy your wee little ones, whatever they may be.

~e

3 years in the making

i picked up a new hobby of knitting about 3 years ago. i knitted a whole bunch of nothings. got a lot of projects started and then never quite finished, except for a purse that i made for my sister's birthday that first year of my hobby. one of my projects was a pair of baby booties, for our future child, started soon after i found out i was pregnant. i bought 2 skeins of soft, fuzzy yarn-one in pink and one in blue. i was going to knit 2 pairs, to be prepared for either gender. i decided to start with the pink pair, as i secretly was hoping for a girl. i finished one pink, fluffy bootie, started on the next, and then had a miscarriage. and i abandoned my project. i didn't feel like i could go back to finishing the pair when i had just experienced a huge loss. it was too heart wrenching.

when i found out i was pregnant again, i didn't want to start up on the project for fear of jinxing something, though i wasn't sure what. we waited with breaths held, finally heard the heartbeat, felt the tiny kicks, and in july, our beautiful little girl was born. and of course, with a newborn and a million other things to juggle, the bootie sat and sat, collecting dust under the bed. i had been meaning to get back to finishing that one baby bootie, but the knitting needles had been out of my hands for too long and i thought my project was too much to tackle on my first go round after sitting out of the game for close to 3 years.

but then i was inspired to make a special little something for a special little-to-be who lives far away, and so i chatted up my friend, candice. she is an expert knitter and gave me some great tips to get started. so, i have the skeins and the motivation, but bought the wrong size needle. i'm exchanging it this week, and will begin to tackle this project before the weekend. (details cannot be shared until the secret project has been completed and is in the hands of the receiver. spoiled surprises are just no fun.) but in the meantime, i decided to pick up and start again on the bootie so i could get some practice again before i jumped on my other project. and i actually finished! they are not perfect in the slightest, but they are complete. and they will look yummy on baby feet.

this is the mess of yarn as my last bootie awaits to be finished

and here is the finished product! these are, in fact, booties if you can't tell.

and here is the yarn, just awaiting my needles to get started and those first knits to be cast on. these colors remind me of spring.

more updates on my project to come...

yin and yang

how could it be that 2 weekend days can be so different from each other?? friday night into saturday morning was routine, with the exception of a feverish harper early on. michael and i watched a movie friday night, without interruption. harper woke up saturday morning, seemingly feeling better after a full nights sleep without much of a peep. we enjoyed breakfast, made another mess in the kitchen baking homemade muffins and i went to visit with my 2 kiddos who i see for private speech therapy on saturday mornings, leaving harper and michael with their weekly daddy-daughter time. i came home to a napping little, and was able to get some things done around the house, including starting our homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner. when harper woke from her nap, she ran to the front door, and attempted to put on her boots and hat, signaling her extreme desire to get outside! it was raining slightly, but she wanted to get out and i wasn't about to stop her. she and i enjoyed some puddle splashing and walking up and down the sidewalk in front of our house, something she enjoys on a regular basis now. michael really wanted to run some errands to price out cabinets and countertops for our kitchen renovation this summer (keep your fingers crossed that it's not going to cost an arm and a leg and be canceled), so i decided that harper and i would have a mommy-daughter date. first, we ventured to the library to return some books. she loves it there. she crawls through the tunnels on the way to the kids section, runs over to the puzzle area and climbs up on the bench to name all the pieces she sees. forget the crazy amount of books that surround her. this girl loves puzzles. i could only tempt her to leave them alone by asking if she wanted to go for ice cream (i.e. frozen yogurt). so, we headed to plum market for a few groceries and swirlberry, my new addiction. yum. we made it home just in time for a quick dinner, pjs, some stories and songs in the rocker and bed. michael and i proceeded to couch it for another video, but harper wasn't letting us off so easy...










saturday night was torture. back to the first-few-days-with-her-at-home-newborn-torture. she rolled and cried and sat up and stood up and yelled for mommy for 2 hours before finally falling asleep. our 2 hour movie took 3 hours to watch, due to all the pausing so we could comfort harper. we went to bed right after the movie only to be awoken another 4 (or 5?) times that night. and lucky for me, she didn't want anything to do with daddy (can you hear the sarcasm?). michael would try his darndest to lull her back to sleep, but she wanted nothing to do with it. sweet dreams were not coming to any of us that night. after a restless night, a 5:40 am wakeup call of "mommy? daddy?" finally had us up and brewing the coffee, with an extra shot of caffeine. but lo and behold, it wasn't really 5:40. daylight savings was upon us and we lost an hour- another hour of precious sleep slipped through our hands.

we tried laying her down for a nap way earlier than usual, but she wouldn't sleep, so we decided to go along with our original plans to meet uncle jeff for breakfast at my favorite breakfast spot, cafe zola, and then head over to the garden shop for some inquiries and purchases for our vegetable garden. and what luck do we have but to "run" into the shamrocks and shenanigans 5k- a barrier to us parking anywhere close to our breakfast spot. we tried to enjoy the short breakfast and the hurried lesson on starting your own vegetable garden before we were back in our car headed for home. 10 minutes from there and harper's eyes were shut tight. i carried her in the house, layed her in her bed and tiptoed out the door. 10 minutes later she was up, and that was it for napping for the day.

still not to be deterred, we again went along with our plans to attend our nephew's hockey game. we took turns (michael did most of the turn-taking) following her up and down the stairs and along the bleachers until the game ended. we packed up and headed back home for a quick dinner, bath, pjs, stories, songs and shut eye. 7:00 pm- lights out- crankiness ended for the day.





how could it be that 2 days so close to each other are so different? it took all i had not to lose every ounce of my patience on sunday that i had saved up on saturday. she's taught me a lot of patience and a lot of acceptance and a lot of calmness. i guess it's all in the life of a toddler. and despite all the yuckies that might come along with the blossoming of an independent little girl, i wouldn't change a single thing about her.

sick sick sick?

does this girl look sick to you??


you wouldn't know that 16 hours ago she was in the doctor's office with a 102 degree fever and an enterovirus. she was listless, quiet and cuddly. she actually fell asleep on my chest for a quick nap on the couch, something she hasn't done since she was weeks old. (and i loved it, and soaked in that moment.) the pediatrician told us the fever and intestinal issues could last up to 10 days, so i was prepared for a weekend of couch snuggling with my little. she went to bed last night and slept almost 12 hours straight without a peep. and then she was up at 6:30 am asking for oatmeal, and her temp was way down. after breakfast, she's done something she hasn't done in a few months (and something i have not indulged in frequently at all)- she climbed up onto the chair in the family room and said i watch tv?! . ugh, this is starting already? we put on a show that she has enjoyed before and i think is slightly educational and fun (jack's big music show) and she danced around in her seat and followed all the moves. are we experiencing the calm before the storm returns?

awards & late nights

last night, i won an academy award.

well, ok, not even close. but, i was pretty proud of myself. i've been taking a photography class at a local college since the beginning of february. i've always been interested in photography and fascinated by the amazing photos that photographers have taken of harper during her first year, and decided that now was a great time to learn more about it. michael gave me a nikon d60 digital slr camera for my birthday in october, and i've been itching to explore all the options this camera has, hoping to unleash its potential. i'd love to take not only better photos of harper, but possibly of other families as well. i am loving this hobby so far, and hope that i am inspiring harper to follow her dreams and to do whatever her beautiful little heart desires.

so, last night, our teacher starts class off by showing us a few of his favorite photos from those that have been posted on our class's flickr sight. he did this the previous week as well, and i was bound and determined that i was going to have at least one photo chosen as a favorite of his during one class. last night, he added five (five!) of my photos to his favorites list. i was proud that i was learning something and that it was paying off. i felt like i was back in school as the teacher's pet. (me? no. what can i say? i like to impress and show i can do good things.) i felt even better knowing that i am setting an example for harper that you're never too old to learn or to follow your passions. or to impress your teacher (or boss).

here are the nominees. and the winner is...






photography is a good thing, especially when you are able to catch the unexpected moments. michael has been working crazy hours recently, and i've really been trying to hold off harper's bedtime just by a few minutes when he's running really late so that he can at least see her awake once during the day. so tonight, we were waiting for daddy and skyping with family and friends. while i was finishing up my skype conversation with my sister, harper walked to the cupboard and exclaimed open; i want cheerios. typically, i don't allow her snacks right before bedtime, but she hasn't been feeling well the last few days and really hasn't eaten much dinner, so i figured she might actually be hungry and didn't think a few multigrain cheerios would be harmful. i opened the cupboard and went back to my computer. harper pulled out the cheerios box, and in all her independence, proceeded to pull the bag from the box, reach in for a few, and then dump the rest all over the floor. right at that moment, the front door opened and daddy walked in. lovely. yes, michael, this is typically how our day ends. with food all over the kitchen floor and our beautiful little daughter sitting right in the middle of it, exclaiming something at the top of her lungs. tonight it was, hi daddy!






on another note, we received some new bows today from my friend, kellie's, stepmom. harper was so excited to open the box and see all the new hair barrettes, she just had to put on in. isn't it adorable?? thank you anna's mo!

curly q

i love harper's hair...sometimes. last night we washed it, which we only do a few times a week. michael washed and combed it and we put her to bed. and she woke up with the most amazing hair this morning. i was truly envious. her hair has been getting longer and curlier (which she gets from michael), but only in the middle of the back. the pieces on the side just hang down poker straight (thanks to my genes), and it drives me nuts. and then it hangs in her face, and as a girlfriend of mine recently said about her daughter's hair "i just don't want to commit her to bangs yet" because if you're committed to them without being in agreement, it could be disastrous in terms of growing up girl. but this morning, all i wanted to do was play with her hair, and kiss her head and inhale that delicious smell of burt's bees baby bee shampoo (which is amazingly yummy, and non-toxic to boot!) and take pictures of the sunshine streaming through her golden locks. her hair made me desire to get down on the ground and play dolls and princess and dress-up and have a pillow fight on our bed. it's amazing how a good hair day can make you feel, even though it's not mine.








i have to capture and hold onto these moments while i have them. soon enough, she'll be asking to do her hair herself. standing in front of the mirror with her brush, spray bottle of water, hairspray and slew of ponytail holders and barrettes, struggling to put each hair in the right place and crying in frustration when she can't get it right and there's a bump on the top of her head that just won't go away (a precious memory from my own childhood).


among many other wonderful things, i wish for harper a lifetime of good hair days. and if not, there are always hats.

hit the ground running

i turned 30 last october, and decided it was time to start tackling my accomplist. it's essentially a "bucket list," but i am not a fan of that term. rather than a list of things i want to do before i kick the bucket, i call it my list of things i'd like to accomplish, hence, my accomplist. i had at one time in my 20s written down and printed off the list, and hidden it in a file folder somewhere in our office. but i think it was thrown out upon cleaning and organizing one day. i must have read it and assumed i could commit all those items to memory, because how could i ever forget what i wanted to accomplish in my life! well, then i got older and had a child, and amazingly, i think i have forgotten some of those items. go figure. but, i do remember a few important ones, and i think i'm going to continue adding to it every now and then. here's my list, as i can remember.

run a marathon michael and i ran in a thanksgiving 5k in november. it was my first official race and his second. it's no marathon, but it's a small step in that direction. as much as i enjoy running, after that race, i'm not certain i could do a marathon, or want to. (maybe i'll change that lofty goal to a 10k or half-marathon.) after the race, i ran maybe 3 times total, until yesterday. in terms of michigan weather, yesterday was an almost spring day. it was a teaser. and i looked outside all day, thinking, i'm going running today. we were out of milk, so i figured it would be a good distance to run to the store and back, pushing harper in the jogger. i had high hopes that michael would join me, but work kept him longer than usual. so, i put dinner in the oven and out we went. i ran way more than i thought i would, mostly because harper's crying and repetitive cold motivated me to get her home as fast as i could. we were out a bit too late, a bit too long, but it felt good to be back. the cold in my lungs, my feet pounding the pavement, observing all the new sights with harper. sights i've ran by before but didn't always notice. we've signed up for another 5k in may. it's going to be a long 8 weeks of training, but worth it. we trained for 5 weeks for the last race, and trained the entire time with the jogging stroller. but in the end, it was too cold on thanksgiving day to take harper. this time, she will be joining us.

donate blood more on this one to come- check for a posting in april.

write a book

get my doctorate we'll see...

open my own clinic i keep talking about it with various people, so perhaps someday.

plant a vegetable garden to be accomplished this summer during my first school summer vacation. pictures and plans to come.

be a photographer/take a photography class i'm currently taking a photography class, so we're half-way there.

not a bad start. maybe i'll accomplish all these in my 30s? lofty goal, but then, as michael has so often said lately, if you don't set goals, you have nothing to strive for. so sensical, that husband of mine.

and because i just have to include some photos of harper, here she is sitting with us after dinner, shoveling her puffs in her mouth as if she can't get enough of them in or get them in fast enough. we just stare at her in awe and wonderment sometimes. she's by far my biggest accomplishment.