on motherhood: week 20-something (who has time to count??)

I'm not sure where the last month has gone... lost in the abyss! Life is great, just extremely busy.

Ellie started daycare this week, which was relatively uneventful with the exception of her catching her first cold. Welcome to the petri dish, baby girl. She's been a bit feverish and snuffly, poor thing, but seems to be on the upswing. We're only a teensy bit sleep-deprived, so I consider myself lucky!

Speaking of the little bean, I'm told tomorrow is Mother's Day, and oh hey, I'm a mom now, right? I guess I am, although most days I feel like this is just a warm-up for the years to come and the "real" parenting has yet to begin. This is the honeymoon phase, which serves the purpose of ensuring we bond appropriately so that when she's 13 and a terror I won't leave her on the side of the road somewhere. I may be tempted, but thanks to the memory of her baby gummy grins, I won't actually do it. :)

All in all, after four and a half months of Ellie in our lives, I think I can speak for both Tim and myself when I say we are just so in love with her. She's perfect, from her adorably wrinkly little toes to the slightly bald spot on the back of her head where she rubs against her crib mattress at night. Yes, you read that right--even her bald spot is adorable. I want to capture every little nuance of her behavior and tuck it away in memory, because every day she's a little more attentive, a little more coordinated, a little more her own being and less the squirmy, wailing creature we met in December (who was cute in the way newborn babies are cute, but is no match for this strikingly blue-eyed baby girl).

In other news, I've been working on some new ideas soon to be released at Calobee Doodles... in fact, I need to take photos for some new products tomorrow.  Very exciting! And today I spent some time at a local greenhouse, buying new starter plants to decorate our porch over the summer (a "congratulations, you've survived four months of mommyhood" present to myself). It seems the new floors have inspired me to prettify the rest of the house, which includes our often-neglected back porch and yard area... I can't wait to see all the colorful flowers peeking in at us through the kitchen windows.

Now I'm going to go relax, maybe read a book, and enjoy the first thunderstorm of the season. Good night!