Up, up, and Away

What is it with toddlers and climbing? Layla just started being able to get up on the chairs and couches this week and is already taking it to the extreme. If I don't pay attention for a second, she will be on the top of the couch or standing on one of the end tables. She gets really proud of her efforts too. One of the first times she got to standing on one of the chairs, she stood up really straight and said UP! So sassy. She's also really taking off with repeating words this week and can say almost anything you tell her too. That is, if she feels like doing it. She is so much fun, but its so scary at the same time. What am I going to do when she starts opening the doors?

I've been tagged!

I've been tagged by Umm Omar at Just Another Day...The Juggling act of an American Muslim. For this post I am elaborating about 5 things that I like or don't like about motherhood. Wow, that's something so hard to condense into this form. Becoming a mother is something that you can't really prepare for because each baby comes into this world as an individual with such differering needs and reactions to your care. That said, here are the things I like:

1. Realizing just how much I am capable of loving someone else.
If you think you love your husband, just wait until you see your first baby. Layla reminds me so much of Dave, but so much of myself at the same time, yet she is still completely different from either one of us. Its hard to explain it, but I love her in such a completely different way that I have ever loved anyone else.

2. Growing in my relationship with my own mom.
Since I've been staying with my parents while my husband is deployed, I've really gotten to see generational parenting in action. Now that I am a mother myself, I feel like I really can conceptualize how much my own parents have cared and made sacrifices for us. I also get to see how much joy it brings my mom to be around Layla every day. It also gives me a level of closeness to strive for with my own kids.

3. I'm never bored
Really honestly, I have never been bored for a single day since Layla was born. She was very demanding and high-need from her birth, but also developed her social skills very quickly. The early months were frustrating at times with the nearly constant nursing and lack of sleep at night, but I have really enjoyed every day I have been able to spend with her. Now that she's turning into a feisty toddler, I have thousands of chances to play funny games and laugh at her antics every day. This also means that all the running keeps me in pretty good shape.

Here are two things I would have to say I dislike.

4. How fast kids grow up
I would hear parents complain that kids grew up too fast when I was one myself, but now I'm starting to realize how true that is. It still seems like yesterday that I first found out I was pregnant, and now I have a climbing, running, 17mo old on my hands. Its a little depressing to think that Layla will want to do more things on her own and not need me so much, but its also such a blessing to watch her mind develop and learn new things every day. I just want to make the most of my kids potential during those crucial early years.

5. Lack of consistent sleep
Yes, I am still struggling with this one. First of all, I am an extremely light sleeper, so I am a part of the problem. When Layla was born she was mostly nocturnal for the first few weeks. On top of that, she only slept about 30-45 min at a time during the first few mos and also screamed a lot if something didn't feel quite right. Right now she still wakes up a couple times during the night and is going through a phase where she likes to nurse all morning long, therefore ruining my last couple hours of sleep. Oh well, I shouldn't complain since I have the fortune of staying home with her instead of going to work a 9-5 on very little sleep.

Well that was fun. Next I will tag Bri from Little Green Pastures and Tammy/Amina from Tammy's Somali Home.

Layla the insomnia cure

After wasting lots of time online last night I finally made it to bed around 1 am. That's pretty late when you have a kid who usually wakes you up a couple times during the night and also gets up by 8:30 or so. So after going to bed late I wasn't able to sleep for some reason. I found myself wanting to hold Layla, who had been sleeping nicely in her crib for about 4 hours by this point. I finally decided to go get her and bring her to bed with me, where she just stirred a bit and then went back to sleep. She still woke up a couple times early in the morning though. Somehow I think its gonna be hard to wean her off sleeping with mommy by the time husband gets back next month though. Oh well, she's only little for so long. I'm just going to enjoy it while it lasts.

She is sleeping in the picture with her Twinkle bonding doll that she got from Bri at Little Green Pastures. She talks to her doll sometimes too ;)

The Obama Deception

Everyone needs to watch this ASAP.

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This is just the trailer, but I will also include the link for the full version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaQNACwaLw
Watch and learn how to protect your own freedom before its too late.

Last snow?

We've had a few spring-like days since the 21st, but today reminded me that it is still possible to see snow for the next couple months. Last night it had been raining and getting fairly cold, but finally got below freezing during the night. I woke up this morning and noticed that the entire world was quiet and white. We got the heavy snow with a layer of ice underneath that seems to stick to everything. Layla was so excited to see it. She actually said snow for the first time today. I hope its the last time I have to hear that word for awhile. Most of the snow had melted later in the day, so I was glad to have snapped a few pics on my way out the door this morning.

Portland here we come!

So we have now been back from our whirlwind trip for a couple days. Actually, its taken us most of that time to catch up on sleep. We are also still staying up too late and getting up too late due to the time change. Layla is enjoying being back home and not having to be in the stroller for the entire day.

As soon as we drove into Portland on Thursday, I knew that it was right for us. Portland reminded me of Minneapolis and is similar in size to Minneapolis and St Paul put together. The city was really clean, had lots of stuff to do, and also struck me as being quite family friendly. I think my sis was getting annoyed with all the little kids almost everywhere we went. Being stuck sleeping with Layla for an entire week will do that to almost anyone.

When compared to Seattle, Portland was much more manageable. I realized when we were in Seattle that if we ever wanted to buy a house, we would have to either settle for a condo or be willing to live like an hour outside the city. That's not ideal for either the husband or myself. Portland has plenty of single family houses in the city, and overall prices are manageable. We're planning to get a place that needs minor updates, and do them as money allows. We are also not above buying a house in Vancouver if we find something really great.

I also don't imagine that we'll have too much trouble finding jobs there. Now I am just so excited about moving that I can hardly contain myself. No more 6 mos. of winter for me!

Ethiopian food

Today was our last full day in Seattle. We kept ourselves busy almost the entire day into the evening. The early part of the day was spent on Bainbridge island, just a short ferry ride across the sound. It was beautiful and fun, but also would be an expensive and annoying place to live if you worked in Seattle. We got Teriaki for lunch, and had ice cream at a place called Mora. The ice cream is actually made on the island too. There are a lot of little boutiques selling clothing and such, but we didn't actually buy anything. Later we crossed back over to the city, went to a bookstore on Main, then walked back to Lisa's place. After we rested for awhile, we walked to an Ethiopian restaurant called the Blue Nile and had a nice dinner. Tomorrow we will be renting a car early and heading down to Portland. I'm really looking forward to this part of the trip!