the standoff continues...

Remember how excited I was on night two of sleep training? Remember how quickly Lily Ruth went to sleep and stayed that way? Well, that was a fluke. A cruel joke. A one-time-event that is never to be repeated.

Last night, she went to sleep fairly easily, but when she woke at 2 am to nurse, she refused to go back to sleep. Well. let me amend that - she would suck her thumb and pretend to be asleep if one of us was rocking her or standing over her crib with a hand on her back, but as soon as we walked away, she would pop up and cry. That got old FAST, and we also realized that it was completely defeating the purpose. She not only has to sleep in her own bed, but she needs to be able to soothe herself to sleep WITHOUT one of us being there. So we went back to bed, and she stayed in her crib YELLING - not crying, but full-on angry yelling - (aaaahhhhhhhh... ahBAWB... ahdaDAda... aAAaah... DAAAAhd... *sob*... ahbabababa...) for over 2 hours. I'm pretty sure that she has figured out that full-bore crying is truly exhausting, (and she is in it to win it) and that is why she has switched to yelling.

Tonight, she passed out while nursing at around 8:45. It's not optimal for her to fall asleep someplace other than her crib, but you gotta work with what ya got, so I walked her to her room, and laid her down. Her big blue eyes immediately popped open and the yelling commenced. I waited 30 minutes, then went back in to check on her. Secret weapon #2 had been deployed... and by #2, I mean poop. Ya'll, my angel baby can get herself so worked up that she poops. Awesome. I cleaned her up, rocked her for a few short minutes, then put her into the crib again. She actually rolled onto her tummy and started sucking her thumb, but when I walked away instead of 'laying hands' on her, she sat bolt upright and started yelling. We're going on 20 minutes of round two, and she is showing no signs of fatigue. I, on the other hand, am drop-dead tired. Of course, I cannot sleep while she is crying, because I am her mother. I seem to be hard-wired to her noises. I tried laying out a crafting project - I am bound and determined to finish that Sushi Bracelet!!! - but it didn't soothe me. Instead, my crafting stuff seems to be mocking all of the determination that I had last fall. The multiple unfinished projects feel like ankle weights... or a food diary... something you do because you're supposed to, but that you don't really want to do... which is a shame, because there is some fun stuff in there.

Great. In reading over this post, there seems to be a hint of whine, and an element of 'poor me' seems to be trying to creep in. So here is what I will do. I will breathe deeply - repeatedly. I will stand up, stretch, and go check on my daughter. I will then make a cup of tea and grab my new book. I will turn tonight around and I will give myself time. Time to re-teach my daughter (and myself) to sleep. Time to figure out what I want to do in my 'free time' that will replenish my inner well-spring. Time to just BE without judging myself for not accomplishing something every second. Time to watch my baby grow and learn because she's moving so fast that it feels like a blur! Time to honor who we are and where we are because it's a pretty great place to be if we take the time to notice.

Goodnight. Sleep tight.

Grooming, Grass, Eating and Screaming

So, have you seen Being Erica? Well, it's big fun. Fluff, a small message, intriguing concept. I'm enjoying it.

My point? Oh, it's just that the actress that plays Erica has THE BEST eyebrows ever. Seriously.



Um, that's all. I'm just obsessed with her eyebrows.

Also, I took Lily Ruth & Keely back to the diocese. It was cold when we left the house, but by the time we went to Starbucks then parked and got all settled, it was HOT. So I stripped the baby out of her baby k-tan, bear suit and socks then let her play on the grass. Then I realized that it was her first time to play on grass! So I took a picture...



... I spent the rest of our time there finger-sweeping grass, twigs and oak leaves out of her mouth. She HATED that part. I explained that if she would stop putting those things IN her mouth, I would stop taking them OUT of her mouth. It made no difference.

In Baby Feeding News, Lily Ruth continues to be a champ. Here's a recent example of how her dinner looks - keep in mind, that's a tiny dish...



She ate almost all of that! It's not always that tidy. Night before last, we had Taco Garage takeout, so she enjoyed some of the pork out of my Tacos Al Pastor and pinto beans from my borracho beans. She managed to cover herself and her highchair with food to the point that her Daddy put the (empty) highchair in the shower to clean it. To be fair, he is (self-admittedly) lazy, so maybe it wasn't all that bad...

Oh, and we started sleep training again. Last night, Lily Ruth cried from 10:30 pm to 1:50 am. Then she woke up and screamed every 30 to 45 minutes until 6:30 - when I caved and brought her into our bed. After that, she slept until 9 am... and she napped for 3 hours in the afternoon... then she fell asleep while I was making dinner for our guests (a big shout out to Kerri for holding her while I finished the risotto)... and then her Daddy got her to sleep in her crib ALONE at 9:30!!!!!



(baby styling by Robyn & Matt Davies)

I try not to be a a girl who counts her chickens before they hatch, but it's now 10:55, and she (like her Daddy) is sawing logs like a pro in her OWN BED! She hasn't slept in her crib since early January. My night belongs to ME again, and I am blissful! Wait, that was an unhatched chickens moment. What I meant to say is that I am quietly confident that this will go well... If it does, I might even finish my sushi bracelet sometime this year... I might even find a use for the rest of the polymer clay after that's done!

Talk about cart before the horse - I should just shut this down and get some sleep since everybody else is already there. I wish you could see my bed. Two cats, a snoring husband, and me with a glass of wine. Heaven.

Why I do not work

... outside the home...

Here's how the morning went:

8 am - phone rings. Car dealership - 'how is the car doing since it's service?' 'IDK - ask the guy that drives it.' 'Uuuhhh, can I have his phone number... and his e-mail address?' 'um, no.'

8:15 am - Lily Ruth has a 101° teething fever, so she gets a dose of Tylenol. This does not go smoothly.

8:20 - 9 am - we nurse and play in bed.

9 am - I make Oat Bran cereal with cherries and Greek yogurt for our breakfast. After one bite, Lily decides that she doesn't want to eat off of the spoon. After one more bite, Lily decides that she doesn't want to eat off my finger. I glop a big spoonful onto her high chair tray, and let her have at it.

9:20 am - Lily starts yelling at the cereal. I video the hilarity, and send it to my Mama, my e-mail and her Daddy.

9:25 am - Lily Ruth is no longer amused by me, breakfast or anything else. I pull her up and head into the bathroom with a cereal-coated baby. We both get in. The bath itself goes well, but then Lily Ruth breaks down, and wants to nurse - IN THE TUB.

9:35 am - Bath time is over. Time for drying off, diaper, and today's clothes. Tears and screaming accompany the whole ordeal. I get one item of clothing (out of 4) on her (and none on me), then give up and curl up on the bed. No dice - she's still ticked.

9:45 am - Still crying, so we nurse AGAIN, and she cries as I put the rest of her clothing on.

9:50 am - Time for Mama to get ready. Lily Ruth sits in one of the sinks in my vanity and plays with a tiny bottle of Lavender massage oil while I fix my hair, cover the huge zit on my chin and apply a thin veneer of mascara. BTW, I am still nude at this point - she has not seen it necessary to allow clothing for me yet.

10 am - I get dressed. Finally

10:05 am - Lily Ruth takes her massage oil into the dining room. I take the highchair tray and the t-shirt she wore while 'eating' into the bathroom and rinse them in the bathtub.

10:10 am - I think that we are ready, but then I remember that Lily needs stuff to eat while at Parent's Day Out. I assemble a cereal/veggie/yogurt snack, check the volume of dry snacks in her bag, defrost and assemble a bottle, fill her sippy cup, label all of her stuff with a sharpie and cram it all into her diaper bag.

10:25 am - WE FINALLY LEAVE THE HOUSE.

Ya'll - it took us TWO AND A HALF HOURS to get up, get ready and get out of the house. Ridiculous. This needs work.

Adventures in Baby Feeding

Today's Recipe: Diane's Amazing Soup

Well, week one of month eight in The Life of Lily Ruth has brought new adventures, new challenges, and (as always) big fun.

'What HAPPENED!?' you ask? Let me lay it out for ya!

Lily Ruth started Parent's Day Out. Day one went 'o.k' - caregiver code for 'she cried a lot, but there were some good moments in there, too'. Day two was apparently a scream-fest from the minute I handed her over. It was bad, ya'll. To the point that when I got back to pick her up, they asked 'how she was at home' - caregiver code for 'does she ever stop crying, ever?' I rocked her in the rocking chair there until she was calm. She then took a deep breath, climbed off my lap and started playing on the floor. She was laughing and smiling immediately. They were amazed and very surprised... too bad for Lily - I'm dropping her off on Wednesday come hell or high water - I've got things to do! She'll be fine.

We took Lily Ruth to her first birthday party! One of her (two) friends had his first birthday, and we were invited. I'm pretty sure that I managed to horrify the other mothers there (all related to our hostess) by feeding my newly-eight-month-old 'real food' off my own plate. She even had small amounts of ice cream and cake. She was THRILLED.

Which brings me to the next part - baby food... or the lack thereof. A few weeks ago, Lily Ruth lost interest in my lovingly handmade purees :-( She did, however, gain a great deal of interest in anything that I was eating. We had introduced a lot of foods by that point (avocados, peas, bananas, brown rice, apples, Greek yogurt, butternut squash, mango, spinach, blueberries, cherries, egg yolk, peaches, carrots, chicken), and we used the 4-day-rule for all of it. She displayed no reactivity or sensitivity to anything we gave her... so I got brave, and chucked the rules. As of last week, she eats what I eat! Now, I'm still holding off on the 'big no-nos' (honey, peanut butter, cow's milk, etc.) until she's a year old, but the rest of it is pretty much ON! Ya'll, I thought that it was fun to choose which foods to puree for her next, but it is WAY more fun to plan meals for us that she can share all or part of :-D

She started with baked potatoes and turkey meatballs at Nanny's house (we let her cover herself and the table with potato!), and progressed to pork tenderloin tacos on whole wheat tortillas. Since then, she's been a wild woman at the table who tries (and LOVES) things like mac'n'cheese made with spinach noodles, fresh orange & tangerine juice, pretty much everything they are sampling at Central Market. Oh, and yesterday, she flipped for a new soup recipe with sausage, lentils and spinach - as did I.

Said soup deserves it's own paragraph. It's THAT GOOD. The recipe comes from my Mama's good friend Diane. She is a WONDERFUL cook, and an ardent gardener. I love her blog. She captures the wild, rough, individualistic beauty of South Texas in her pictures while making gardening sound like something I might be able to do someday! I've been secretly yearning to start a garden, and may even start small with kitchen herbs this year. I just need to find the time and the energy... At any rate, the soup recipe can be found here. As you may have noticed, my lack of an attention span makes recipe following a tricky business. I managed to buy 1 Lb instead of 1/2 a Lb of Italian sausage. Also, I forgot the celery. I also need to mention that I am so used to putting garlic in literally everything that I cook, that I almost minced some and added it before I realized that the recipe doesn't call for any. A lesson can be learned here, folks - garlic is not mandatory. Even with my unintentional changes, it was beyond fantastic, and it was super easy to make! Now, if you make the soup and like it, let her know! In fact, if you make any of the recipes that I share with you, let ME know!

Happy Eating, Folks!

By the way, there is standing and practice laughing happening over here! You should come over!

Dear So & So... take 3

YAY! I LOVE 'Dear So & So' day!!!!

-------------------------------

Dear Kat,

Happy Birthday! Thanks for writing a fun, audience-participation-welcome blog!

Your Biggest Fan on This Blog,
me

☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺

Dear Lily Ruth,

I am so sorry that you cried through the entire 4 hours that I left you at Parent's Day Out today. Unfortunately (for you), I will be dropping you off again next week as well. I promise that this is a very good thing for both of us. Sobbing in your sleep while you nap is not going to change my mind.

I love you dearly,
Mama

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Dear Dogger-Doo,

I would like to apologize to your digestive tract for changing wet food on you without warning. That being said, I DO feel that your tummy owes ME an apology for the NOXIOUS cloud of dog-gas that has wafted through our home like clockwork every hour for the past few days.

Truce?
Food Lady

☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁

Dear Frank,

Please get well soon. I really hate it when you guys get sick - it makes me feel like a bad Mommy... even when I didn't do anything wrong. Just tell the vet that you are ready to come home.

I miss you already!
meow

☹☹☹☹☹☹☹☹☹☹☹☹☹☹☹

Dear Girl Scout Cookies,

You know what you did. Enough said.

Stay out of my freezer,
Rachel

HAPPY FRIDAY, YA'LL!!!

*sigh*

Yesterday was Lily Ruth's first (1/2) day at Parent's Day Out. They said she did really well... 'for a first day'... that means she cried a lot, but not the whole time :-/ She also ate her whole snack and blew through her super-cute outfit. Go big or go home - that's my baby!

Today is a 'take a step back' kind of day. I am going to attribute this to teething until I have another solution. We woke up like we like to - slowly with grins and stretching - but it was downhill from there. Ya'll, there was LITERALLY wailing and gnashing of teeth over here! Lily was alternately screaming and grinding her teeth - it was biblical. Well, I got her calmed down, then got us all ready to walk. After we got out the door, it went like this:

- We're half a block away from the house, a door opens, and a 40 Lb Boxer puppy comes tearing out. The owner is halfheartedly yelling for it to come back. The puppy (of course) makes a bee-line for us. I yell 'I REALLY need for you to come get your dog'. The owner (who I can't see yet) replies 'Oh, it's o.k., she's fine' to which I reply 'but we're NOT - seriously, I need you to get your dog NOW'. I get a 'oh, you have a dog' in return. 'Yes, and a baby, and the dog does not do well with puppies'. She WALKS over and pretends to attempt to restrain her dog, but is really just following it at a very slow pace. Not helpful. I am forced to fend off her puppy while trying to keep my 80 Lb dog calm enough that I can control her. Eventually, the puppy heads off running, and we turn around and change our route. Not a big deal, but irritating. Keely will not randomly attack, but if she feels threatened (by, say, maybe a jumping puppy), she will protect herself. This never works out well for the other dog, yet most dog owners assume that 'dogs will be dogs', and as long as THEIR dog 'is sweet', they can let them roam the block. I, on the other hand, have my dog properly leashed, and yet I am the one dealing with a potential dog fight while WEARING MY INFANT.

- The Dog Whisperer says not to let dogs walk in front of you. Up until Lily was born, I let the Princess Dog walk however she chose. After I had a baby, I realized how important it was that Keely recognize me as alpha dog. I have been working on this with her for eight months now. Keely chose today for a power struggle. I almost gave in, but I held firm... and my arm is paying the price. My right arm feels like it may fall off, and at this point, I kind of wish that it would.

- We walked a looong way. After a good loop, we had come around so that we were only about 20 minutes from the house. I was sooooo tired. That's when I realized that I HAD DROPPED MY KEYS. I had to turn around and backtrack until I found them. Luckily, they had fallen close to the curb, and had not been run over. We were only 30 minutes from home, so let's call it 'extra exercise' and speak of it never again.

- My incredible, amazing daughter has (since we got home) alternated between 'laughing, smiling angel girl who crawls and play with toys' and 'demon baby who can only shriek and beat herself against mom's collarbone whilst smearing mom with drool, snot and tears'.



I took that one for those who have mentioned that they believe Lily Ruth to be happy and perfect all of the time...

After the last round of Mama bashing, she passed out.



Check out her hair!

I think I'm in shock. I'm definitely traumatized. Would you please come over and mix up a very dirty martini for me? Extra icy. NO vermouth. Three, no, make that FOUR giant olives. Thanks.



p.s. In looking for a dirty martini picture, I discovered a (large) burlesque performer (who I believe to be a male) who goes by the moniker Dirty Martini. Um, ew.

Frozen Day Randomness

Since we are 'stuck inside' - what with the likelihood of crazy drivers who assume that the possibility of ice = kamikaze behavior and all - and Lily Ruth's plans do not really include me so much as they include her toys and my slippers... I have to show you something, and then (in order to apologize for my shameless child photo posting) I'll tell you a story...



It's only about 4" tall, and I can't stop gazing adoringly at it... and, um, Lily Ruth thinks it's nose is a nipple... :-/ Have you ever seen anything so cute? Well, except (of course) for this:





And now, for the story! This is one of my favorite stories of my time in San Diego, and thinking about it made me smile, so YAY!

Kittyn & I were working in managerial & supervisory positions at a restaurant on Harbor Island in San Diego. To clarify, I was the opening manager 5 f-ing days each week in addition to my 2 other full-time positions for that joint... A nice enough place, but both of us were SEVERELY overworked, ridiculously under-appreciated, and under-compensated for said workload. The only thing that kept us going was our growing bond of friendship, flavored coffees, and the need for income in a very expensive town.

Bright and early one morning, I happened to mention to my new BFF that the owners of the restaurant had recently acquired several top-shelf vodkas for a new promotion. This was news to her, and seeing as how she would be working with me for the next few mornings, she would be unable to participate in the training / tasting sessions that would take place for the evening shifts. Then it occurs to us that we need to be able to describe said vodkas to the morning staff should they become interested in selling them to the lunch crowd... I may have also mentioned that we used to have pre-shift wine tastings at the Time Machine, and this was very helpful to me as a waitstaff member... I probably failed to mention that the Machine was a dinner-only restaurant, so pre-shift was 4pm...

Well, before you can say 'Bob's your uncle', we're at the bar shaking up 4 or 5 chilled shots of high-end vodka for each of us. I am unclear on who had what job, but Kittyn maintains that I was the shaker, and she was the 'lookout'. Well, regardless, whichever one of us was supposed to be watching for the restaurant owners (a.k.a. 'CatDog'), became so enthralled by these icy glasses of magic, that she FORGOT to be the lookout. And so it came to pass that the owners wander in to find their a.m. managerial staff pouring up a goodly amount of pricey, icy vodka into shot glasses at 7 in the morning. We start talking circles around our predicament, and managed to irritate them into retreating into their office to 'do paperwork' - whatever.

The vodka was consumed, but the magic was gone. We were left with the dirty feeling of a sneaky early morning drink without a Vegas soundtrack to justify it. At least we got to keep our jobs... ahhhhhhhh, good times!

You know, the CatDog was at lot better tempered than we gave it credit for... they even let us keep our jobs after the incident where we were sitting at their desks wearing their glasses & doing impressions of them... where do we get these damn ideas?

a couple of things... take 2

While nothing worthy of it's own post has happened, a few small things could be lumped together to give you this...

1 - My Mama took me up to Boerne this past weekend to spend my birthday money! I stepped out of town, away from the chain stores (I'm looking at YOU, Old Navy), and just far enough out of my comfort zone to make it completely worthwhile. No more boring t-shirts here! If you make it to Boerne, stop by Ella Blue :-)



2 - I don't think I've introduced you to Frank. He's my middle child - I mean pet. He's my renegade, my rouge, and my snuggle bunny. Frank joined our family when my first cat died, and Bing was left lonely. He's a shelter kitty. Don picked him out. In the way of all great cats, he's an unpredictable goofball. Last night, I went into the bedroom to change into pajama pants. I opened my CLOSED sliding closet doors to drop my jeans into my hamper, and found this:



He's hysterical :-) I'm just glad that he's moved inside for the winter and rejoined the family. He moved into the yard last spring while I was pregnant, and acted like we were just food dispensers. My assumption is that he was displaced for a baby at some point in his life before us, and this time he wanted to pre-empt our impending rejection of him by leaving first. It hurt my feelings, but he would not be dissuaded. Well, now that it's cold, he has agreed that our love (and central heat) is better than sleeping in the bushes and battling creepy ginger cats all night.

3 -Lily Ruth is obsessed with the dog's dishes. I know that she is not unique in this, but that knowledge does not make it any less annoying and hilarious in turns...



4 - Lily Ruth ALMOST has enough hair for clips! It currently takes me approximately 90 years to get a clip into her bangs, and it stays in place for less than 5 minutes, but DANG is it cute while it's there!



5 - This will not make any friends for me among those forced to drive on the freeway today, but I thought our tiny sleet was BEAUTIFUL. Miniscule, perfectly round, individual drops of ice. Since this so very rarely happens here, I was able to be full of joy and wonder instead of angst and stress. It was fun. Lily Ruth and I watched it go from sprinkling rain to larger drops mixed with tiny 'splats' of slush to giant drops of slush to teeny-tiny ice balls



to more rain to dry, fluffy fat, huge flakes - before you start to worry, I took that picture at a stop light, NOT while I was in motion! Now it's cold and gray, but precipitation-free. Such a strange weather pattern. Oh well, it's South Texas - the one thing I can count on is that tomorrow will almost certainly be completely different... and I ain't just talkin' about the weather :-)

Sunday Silliness

Darling Daughter and I had a LOT of 'quality time' this week - Daddy was out of town from Thursday afternoon until late last night. Here's why that's such a big deal - Lily Ruth currently will only nap and sleep ON one of us. This is a situation we are working on remedying, but since she is (as her daddy put it) 'half me and half you', there is quite a bit of stubborn determination in that tiny body. She is also experiencing a slight case of (very age-appropriate) separation anxiety (so she's clingy even when not sleepy) AND she's teething. This has translated into a 24-hour-a-day demand for 'ONLY Mama Or Daddy Will Do Time'. Since Daddy was gone, the only option was 'Mama Time'. Mama is now dead tired, sore (from excessive baby holding), and brain fried.

Daddy is no dummy, so he suggested that Mama leave the house for a few hours today. Done and done. I called up Kyla to make sure that she was not dead from the stomach flu. She was not, and she was feeling better, so I headed over to her house. We decided a field trip was in order, and motored over to the Legacy Shopping Center (I'm not sure all of those capital letters are needed, but I feel certain that the Legacy people think that they are...). Coffee was procured, and Gabby B's was raided. I came up empty (but those damn shoes haunt me like a siren's song). Kyla found a top and a dress. Neither was 'needed', both were obtained :-)

... I just realized that a lot of my posts have been shopping-oriented lately. Please understand that this is not the norm. I am shopping and fashion impaired, but since I am also currently clothing impaired, shopping has been a necessity... a necessity that I am surprised to realize that I have (temporarily) enjoyed! I am looking forward to feeling less dowdy, less frumpy, less blah. The shopping updates should cease very soon - I'm out of birthday money, and Lily Ruth's college fund wasn't that big :-O

BACK TO THE STORY! We decided that pedicures were necessary, and wandered into Ann's Nails. We requested full pedicures and just polish for fingers. In the way that this usually happens, I was finished WAY before Ky, and was banished to the drying station for my sins. An eternity (several stories, a harrowing phone call/story from Kittyn - oh, and then Ky called me Minnie Driver!?) later, Kyla was done and was sent over to join me.

Now, for those not 'in the know', when you finish a pedicure, they put your flip flops back on for you, and pull your pant legs down from knee level (where they resided during your treatment) to their intended position. It just so happened that Kyla was wearing a pair of 'skinny' khakis. Also, these particular pants have a cute, large cuff and are worn rolled slightly above the ankle - adorable. This translated into hilarity when her nail technician attempted to pull them back down over her calf. Apparently, they were stuck. A tussle ensued. Kyla protests 'just leave them - I'll be fine'. But the technician is adamant. Reinforcements are called in. Kyla is asked to stand - no, sit - no, stand - no, sit. Two ladies are laboring to return these pants to the ankle. It went a little bit like this:



then it went a bit like this:



and then it went on FOREVER! Kyla and I were (once again) laughing, snorting and sputtering (I wish I could have gotten a closer picture of her face. Ky's always pretty, but when she laughs, she's GORGEOUS, and we were laughing a LOT) in the middle of a public place. She kept insisting that she was capable of fixing her own pant legs, but she did have wet fingernails, and these ladies now considered it their sworn duty to see this through. Seriously, ya'll It took all day, but the pant legs were subdued. In the end, their stylish cuff was unrolled, and their fabric was a bit more wrinkled than usual, but there they were - NOT at Kyla's knee. Maybe the nail techs will tell the story of 'the crazy white girls with their stupid trendy pants who laughed like hyenas' over dinner tonight. Maybe their version will crack them up as much as our version did us! Also, this story is funnier with the physical re-enactment, so get one of us to tell it to you in person ;-)

Good times. Oh, and then, when I got home, this was waiting for me:



tooooooooooooooo cute, Ya'll! Hope your weekend had some silliness!

Dear So & So...

ahhhh.... it's 'Dear So and So...' day over at Three Bedroom Bungalow again! I had so much fun last time! Let's join in again - shall we?

Dear Jeans:

What's with the muffin top? Seriously. I thought we were in love... I guess you had other plans... Maybe a 'heads up' next time?

Confusedly Yours,
Bitter in Bootcut

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Dear LUSH,

I love you. Please marry me. I'll cook, and you can keep me looking and smelling my (softest) best. I know we're different, but we can make it work.

Yours in Bath Time Joy,
Lily Ruth's Mama



❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁

Dear Baby Daughter,

Your new teeth are cracking me up. I also find the majority of your antics to be hilarious. Keep up the good work.

Adoringly yours,
Mama



♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Dear Central Market Organic Truffles,

Knock it off. You are waaaaaaay too delicious. This is ridiculously unfair to my jeans.

harumpfh,
Rachel