Now She Is One

Today my sweet baby girl Willow is turning one. It has been a challenging few years to get here. Nothing went as we planned. But we would not give up the past year getting to know this adorable little person for anything.

Born 9lb 12oz, she is now a petite little thing still under 19lbs, in spite of nursing and eating solids almost all the time. She has been walking for over a month now and gets very insistent to get down and walk when we are out and about unless she is actually tied to someone's back.
She is saying a few words, mostly "Dada", "Hi", "Dis" (when pointing), "NighNigh" (when signing "Sleep"), and "Nanas" (which started meaning milk but now means milk, water, food, or anything edible she can put in her mouth), and is finally starting to say "Mama" but mostly just to practice the sound.

Willow is also using a lot of ASL signs, or her versions. She regularly signs "Daddy", "Griffin" (her favorite), "Milk", "Cat","Sleep", "Tired", "All Done", and "No". Sometimes she signs "Play", "Food", "More", "Dog", "Hat", and even "Diaper" when she needs a change. Then there is all the other hand waving where she is clearly trying to tell us something but we have yet to decipher what she is saying.

With a mouth full of teeth, she eats pretty much everything, as long as it is cut small. Tooth #12, her fourth molar, is just working it's way through this week. She has never eaten a jar of baby food and had no interest in baby cereal, preferring foods she can feed herself and plenty of mommy's milk.

Willow's toothy grin is her "default expression", smiling unless she has a reason not to (much like her mom), and charming all who meet her. She is so full of personality that shines through her bright blue eyes. It is amazing to watch as she explores the world around her and to see how she interacts with her big brother Griffin who adores her, if sometimes a bit too much. You can read everything she is thinking on her sweet little face.
Of course there are always the wistful moments, when she reminds us of the little girl we never got the chance to know and will never get to watch grow up. Those moments are fewer now than they were in the early days when rocking her to sleep in the wee hours of the night often brought tears to my eyes. I still struggle to release my dreams of what might have been as I (quite literally) embrace what IS.

I am excited to see who she grows into but wish life would slow down just a little so I can enjoy and remember every minute. My baby is barely one year old and already charging ahead, ready to run into toddlerhood. Happy Birthday my sweet Willow!

Pruning Berries...

...With A Five Year Old.

We have been enjoying a couple of dryer days here in the northwest, yesterday was even quite sunny! With all the rain it is important to take advantage of the few warmer days to get outside and in the garden. Since most of the garden is still sleeping, it is time to prepare for Spring, pruning and weeding.

With my one year old on my back, Griffin and I headed out to prune the overgrown raspberries and blueberries. This time of year it is farely easy to determine which branches produced last year and which ones are already growing buds ready to bring us fruit this summer. Even a five year old can do it.

Yesterday I was busy with the clippers removing dead branches while Griffin helped by collecting the pruned sticks in his little garden cart and dragging them off to the compost pile. Raspberry canes bear fruit at the top the first year and all the way down the cane during the second year. So I prune the tops off of last year's canes, and remove completely the two year old canes. Griffin also helps by pulling off the dead little sticks running along the newer canes.

Today we worked on our little patch of blueberries. Griffin asked if he could help. Together we looked at the difference between the dead brown branches from last year and the new red branches with buds for this year. I explained the clippers were too sharp but he could help by snapping off all the little brown sticks as long as he was careful not to snap off the buds.

All gardening with kids (like most things with kids) takes a certain amount of letting go of control and not getting too upset if things do not turn out quite as you planned. When Griffin inevitably said, "Oops, I snapped off a bud.." I used it as a teaching opportunity, to explain that it was okay to take off some because then the rest of the berries would grow bigger. I mentioned his favorite giant apples from his Grampa Kit's garden, then explained how his Grampa prunes some of the buds on his apple tree so that more energy from the tree can go into the rest of the buds and they can grow into giant apples.

Getting Organized in the New Year

My Mom picked up an interesting book called 4 Weeks to a Organized Life with AD/HD which I borrowed before she headed back to Canada, and will just have to mail her in about a month. My "homework" for Day One was to create a Calm Relaxed Space where I can go to practice using my "visual brain" to help me Visualize the steps to accomplish what I need to get done, without getting sidetracked by my typical distractions.

I finally finished moving into our New Bedroom, emptying Bins of prepregnancy clothes, and getting rid of the Changing Pad on my Dresser... all things I should have done about ten months ago when we moved in. I even put a Curtain (free hand-me-down from a friend) over my Closet to hide the remaining cluter. Since I spend at least an hour a day in my rocking chair getting baby down for naps, this is the perfect spot to practice the new skills I am learning as I work my way through this book.

Then yesterday I discovered A Bowl Full Of Lemons' 21 Day Challenge and jumped right in. I decided to count the top of my Dresser as my Desk for Challenge #2. Today's Tupperware Cabinets challenge was already on my to do list, and my cabinets look great now (though my husband reminds me I still have to finish recycling the mismatched lids, etc.).

Tomorrow's Challenge is the Linen Closet, which I don't have. I am already down to only two sets of sheets per bed, and finally got rid of the last of the Full sized Sheets last year. Have not had a full size bed in our house in several years! But I am sure I can purge a few more old Towels and organize all those towel cabinets.

It's not too late to join the 21 Day Challenge! I am loving having someone else tell me what to focus on each day. I have already tackled two of the areas I have been looking at for months, but never know where to start. It's all the stuff we keep meaning to do, but never get to. Check it out!

New Years Resolutions

Every January we begin with the best of intentions, filled with aspirations for change in the new year. This year I am simply going to list the things I hoped to do last year, and hope I will manage to accomplish a few of them in 2011. So far I have already made progress on each of these goals in just the first three days of the year. Here goes...

1. Blog an average of one time per week. My previous goal was once every two weeks, but I really enjoyed writing more often this fall, until my laptop ended up in the shop for weeks at a time. With my cute new netbook for Christmas (thanks Honey!), should be much easier to juggle with a wiggly baby.

2. Get Organized! I just discovered A Bowl Full Of Lemons Blog, and signed up for her 21 Day Challenge. I have a couple challenges to catch up on, but more on that soon. I see what I want to get done every day around my house, but never know where to start. I just get overwhelmed.

3. Learn more about ADD and how to not get too overwhelmed to get anything done. I have always known I have tendencies toward ADD. But between sleep deprivation with a new baby, and the grief that never quite goes away from losing one, I do not think they are just "tendencies" anymore. I just cannot seem to focus.

4. Lose weight. I have gone back on Weight Watchers this month, which has worked well for me in the past. With my husband joining me in tracking points this month, we are filling the kitchen with yummy, healthy foods to help me stay on track. Maybe I will finally get back to my pre-Griffin weight, or lower, or at least out of my early/post pregnancy clothes.

5. Submit my craftroom to Studios Magazine. Every time I get a new issue of this magazine I am inspired to finish organizing and decorating my craftroom, and try to get it featured in a future issue. This past week I have spent a little time almost every day working on it during Willow's afternoon nap. I am so lucky to have the space I do to create arts and crafts with my friends and our kids.