All In A Day's Work

Have I mentioned how much I love my job, lately?

Because I do.



I get to spend my days with Stella...having fun!

It can be tiring, but it's the best!



Stella's First Shiner!

Stella got into a street fight.  No...really...a straight up street fight with our space heater.

This morning started like any other - we got up, came downstairs, played a little in the livingroom.  Right as I was about to go get Stella some juice I saw her feet were kind of wrapped up in some power cords near our space heater.  I told her to get out of the cords or she would trip.  Moments after that she fell head first into the corner of our space heater.  What a noise!  Now our little slugger has her first shiner...and her first trip to the doctor to see about stitches.

Ice Helps.

Stella sang a song to the doctor and she stayed really still while he cleaned out her cut and tried to determine whether it was wise to glue it shut.  She was SUCH a good girl.  In the end, the doctor and I both decided it was fine without the glue and that, once the swelling went down, it should heal nicely by itself.  I was so proud of her and the doctor kept calling her "incredible" which made us both feel great!

This little one hasn't had a pacifier since she was about three months old, but she found one in her room and wanted to play with it...after this morning, she could have anything she wanted in the world as far as I was concerned!

So, we snuggled on the couch, took a walk around the neighborhood, ate lots of her favorite foods, and watched Babar all afternoon.  It turned out to be a great day - just another day in paradise!

Mimi!

Stella has some wonderful grandmothers - Grammy Suze, Grandmom (Tim's mom), and Mimi.  For the past two weeks or so Stella has been saying one thing over and over..."Go...See...MIMI!"  Since we haven't been able to make the trip to the Cape lately, mimi came to us, and we had a great time with her the past two days.  So thankful Stella has such lovely women in her life to look up to.

Now we are happy because daddy came home from youth group camp tonight.  I wish everyone appreciated just how amazing Tim is - as a husband, as a father, and as a pastor.  It's really, really hard to be a leader at a church.  He is a man of integrity and I'm so thankful for the privilege of seeing him work behind the scenes.  If everyone had the opportunity to see him at home, to see things from my perspective, they'd appreciate him a lot more than they do!  I know one little girl who thinks he's her hero...

Tim and Stella coloring in the driveway...he hadn't even unloaded his car yet.

Pretty good artist, too!

Croup Party!

Last night I heard a familiar sound coming from Stella's room as I started getting ready for bed around 11pm.  It sounded like a barking seal interspersed with some crying and labored breathing.  I rushed upstairs to find our little one sitting up in her crib dragging in air.  It's called stridor, that dragging in of breath - and, if you've ever heard it coming from your own child, the sound (and the sight) is terrifying.  Truly, is there anything worse than knowing your child is having genuine trouble breathing?  

Last May we experienced our first bout of croup while visiting my mom over Mother's Day Weekend.  I was thankful, then, that we were with my mom because she knew what was happening when I had only ever heard of croup from watching Anne of Green Gables (any true fan of the films will know what I'm talking about...when, in an interesting twist of fate, Anne "with an 'E'" saves Diana Barry's little sister, Minnie May, from an attack of croup by administering ipecac - and therefore Anne and Diana, bosom friends, are reunited when Mrs. Barry, Diana's mom, forgives Anne for accidentally getting Diana drunk on Marilla's homemade current wine which Anne mistook for raspberry cordial while having Diana over for tea one afternoon...yea, I've seen the movies a few times...).

This time for us was different though because I knew what to do (thank you mom and Anne of Green Gables).  I wrapped Stella in a blanket and rushed her outside into the cold air to open up her airways and then I took her inside and alternated to a steam bath.  These home remedies calmed her down enough for me to realize she definitely needed more than I could give her - she needed medicine.  Thankfully, I had the steroids prescribed to us during last year's hospital stay...and thankfully they weren't yet expired.  I called Tim to tell him he needed to come home in case we were going to the ER like last time; Tim often works really late on Wednesday nights.  When some kids get croup they really get croup, and apparently Stella is one of those kids.  So, down the hatch the predisolone went (along with a snack per the instructions) and for the next hour after the drugs and the snack both kicked in we had a steroid induced party in the Carpenter household.  The medicine works to help her breathe and it also give her a BURST of energy like you've never seen before.  Here are some pics from the insanity:

Stella pointing at Griffin with her "med-sin" in hand.

Stella running after Griffin with her "med-sin" in mouth.

Drinking some juice to re-hydrate amidst the craziness.

Stella showing daddy how to wear her bunny ears.

Stella wearing her bunny ears and repeatedly falling on her knees while laughing over and over...

Needless to say, it was a really late night in the Carpenter house, which made for a really tired day today for all of us.  Thank you, Vick's Vapor Rub for stopping the cough last night after Stella finally settled in to bed.  Thank you, God, for my bed which I'm really excited to return to tonight after sleeping (if you can call it sleep when you have one eye open all night long...) on a futon mattress on Stella's floor last night.  And finally thank you, Anne and mom, for teaching me how to handle croup; you are my bosom friends.

Sweatin' to the Oldies!

I try to avoid the word busy because I think it's overused.  I often feel like people make themselves busy to feel more important...as if having more to do = a greater self-worth.  I know my life as a stay-at-home-mom is probably less busy by nature than most people who work outside the home; however, I think of busy-ness as more of a mentality.  That being said I'm going to negate everything previously written and say:  today was busy!

I found myself flustered when I realized I was trying to fit too much in to one 12 hour period:  grocery shopping, laundry, Zumba, dog-walking, cleaning, making dinner for a friend, taking Stella to play, making dinner for us, bath and bedtime routine for Stella, then taking care of bills/finances.  Tim works Wednesday nights, so there's no extra set of hands to help like normal.  By the time I got to the place of making dinner for us I could feel myself getting more and more frazzled by the second.  I was a little too short with Stella, a little too annoyed by the fact that I burned the leeks for our chowder, a little too flustered by the mounting dishes in the sink.  

It wasn't until we sat down to eat that I took a breath from the day's activity and took a real look at my little girl.  She'll turn two in a couple of weeks.  Her hair is growing out and she seems like a toddler now.  She had no socks on her feet because she was sucking on her socks in the car (I know, GROSS!  I stopped it as soon as I realized what she was doing...), she was wearing half her dinner on her dirty shirt and she had blue, fuzzy bunny ears on her head.  And, she was smiling ear to ear and talking non-stop about the fish chowder on her plate.  To top it all off she looked at me when her dinner was done and asked, "Dancin?"

I ignored the dishes and instead turned on the Oldies mix-tape that has become a staple in our house these past few weeks.  We spun around the kitchen together.  She held on to me like I was her best friend and the best dance partner in the world.  I took it all in, for the first time all day.  I told my daughter I love her and how much I love spending time with her.   I hope I'm never too busy for these moments.

P.S.  Per Stella's request, I wore the bunny ears through bathtime.

Beach Baby.

My little beach baby and I went to the ocean today to soak up some sun, play in the sand and walk on the sea wall (Stella's favorite new thing to do...in the world).  I love these pictures of her and I love seeing how much she enjoys my favorite place.

Falling Asleep.

If you are the parent of a small child I highly recommend watching him/her fall asleep every now and again.  Since Stella's naptime has been kind of wacky these days I've been resting with her each afternoon in our bed to help her settle down.  She has gone back to napping for the past three days and it's amazing how angelic she looks when she is sleeping.  Today I watched her slowly fall asleep as I lay next to her.  She sucks her thumb and pushes her four little fingers into her upper lip at the same time in an almost methodical way.  I found myself staring at her beautiful, dark eyelashes as her eyes closed.  She truly looks like a cherub - blond hair that flips at the ends more and more as the day goes on, pretty blue eyes framed by the most darling lashes, rosy cheeks and full, pink lips.  Her beauty literally takes my breath away when I stop to notice these details.  Stella amazes me, and I'm so grateful for this time we have together as I learn to fully appreciate all God has given me!

That's why I recommend watching your child fall asleep - it forces you to stop your own agenda and to rest in the miracle that is your child.

Dancing with Daddy.

Why I Love Washable Markers...

We had our friend, Martin, over for brunch this morning and, toward the end of our time together, Stella decided she wanted to color by herself in the kitchen...on her face:

and on her hand...

She also decided to color inside her ear...and that is why I love washable markers.

Why I Want A Minivan...

Here are three reasons why I want a minivan:

Reason Number One:  We are pretty cramped when all five of us want to go somewhere together (like our trip to the dog park this afternoon):

Reason Number Two:  Caroline is actually sitting on top of Griffin.  They literally have no other option in the back of Tim's '98 Honda Civic:

Reason Number Three:  Caroline is eating Goldfish out of Stella's crotch - need I say more?

What the heck will we do when we someday add another child to this picture?  Mitt Romney already proved that the whole "dog strapped to the roof" idea isn't very popular.

At least we all are having a good time when we're together in such close quarters!  Especially the two best girl friends in the world: