I’m listening to Mumford & Sons’ Timshel. It’s a really, really good song.
Our new nanny has started and back to work I have gone. Last week was an interesting one. I felt very pulled with the workshop starting and a baby girl whom I’ve spent just about every minute with for six-months now. I realized very quickly that if I want to be the mom I want to be and the business owner I want to be some things have to go. The first thing I sadly have said goodbye to (or at least see ya later) is my mentoring. This is super hard for me because this is really the only way I connect *face-to-face* with other lovers of photography. And, I’ve gotten to meet and get to know some really incredible people. But, I do believe to not just be good at something you must streamline to be great at others. Great is what I want to be when it comes to this business and my family. (p.s. for any of you who have contacted me recently about setting up a mentoring session I am still planning on following through with those, fyi.)
You know what I’ve discovered is really hard to do? Be a working mom. No way around it.
We’ve had a busy January month. We traveled to Knoxville for New Year’s. It was the first time since we moved to Cincinnati that Corey hasn’t worked on New Year’s. It was just nice to be together.
The day after we got home started a week of getting new carpet put in. The carpet has always been a bit of an afterthought to me until we added a baby who likes to lick it. Ewwww. I became very, very eager to get new carpet down and thought it’d be nice and easy, shiny and new. It did come shiny and new, but it was an incredibly strenuous week (really couple weeks since we moved everything the week prior). It honestly never crossed my mind that getting new flooring means EVERYTHING in your house must be moved. Imagine me, late at night with the hubs at work, putting the daybed back together in C’s room using a stack of books as a 2nd person. Ridiculous right, but telling about how uptight I am living in a house turned upside down. I was a bit over-the-top about getting everything back in order.
(the basement)
Corey’s brother and wife and baby came to visit just days later. I love that Charley and Sam are only a few months different in age. They’re gonna be best buds. I mean they already are – they’re just forced best buds. ; )
Charley has been way uninterested in her bottle which is a little stressful because formula is so important to her growth. We think she just really, really digs eating (something we just started doing weeks ago). Or maybe it’s a growth spurt. An underlying cold. Teething. ……. ???
Charley turned 6-months on Saturday which just blows me away. We enjoyed the morning by having our pictures made by Michael Wilson again. I just love the simplicity of how he does things.
I overslept …errrr … pressed my snooze button five times too many and got out of bed with little time to get ready. I literally left the house with my hair sticking out in the back. I don’t think it will show up in the pictures, but we’ll see. I had bought a new dress for Charley to wear, but it ended up being a bit too busy (I’m not crazy about pictures where babies have so much fancy on them you never really pay attention to just them – know what I mean?) so we decided we’d just decide what she would wear the morning of. Well, since I was hurriedly patting down my hair Corey dressed her. She wore cords and a hand-me-down onesie from her big cousin, Finley, and a chunky cardigan with giant, wooden buttons from H&M. Very cute, but she kind of looked like a dolled up boy. At first I said we should change her, but then liked the idea that her daddy dressed her and pictures aren’t about what we wear anyway. So, out the door we went. As you can imagine I am very eager to see how these pictures are going to look. (Did I mention that we removed her sweater about two pictures in because she was sweating and the onesie had “Baby Gap” on the bottom that we attempted to hide with our hand for the remainder of the shoot? Awesome.)
(from last year)
That night we celebrated Charley’s 1/2 birthday with a very loud birthday song and clementine. (note: this was planned very last minute. The “0″ is from my 30th birthday. I’m not that cool of a mom to think of things like this ahead of time. 2nd note: before you ask if she blew her own candle out I’ll just say she may or may not have pulled the cake stand toward her and the candle may or may not have gone out on her tray. yes, we gasped and the husband may or may not have yelled a cuss word for all the neighbors to hear (and which is caught on video). and, after we knew all was okay we may or may not have watched that video over and over that night with tears rolling down our faces. what can we say? we are parents of the year. go ahead and give us our award. third note: Corey said to not tell any of his fellow pediatricians that he feeds (feeds meaning he’s given her citrus before this event) his daughter clementines. So, since he doesn’t read my blog he will not know I posted this. To those fellow, peds friends of his who do read my blog, please feel free to haggle him on it. I give you full permission.)
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to read the story behind this picture click here.
This Friday is a very big day of celebration for us. Our court date to have Charley’s adoption finalized is scheduled. This means that all legal stuff has finally been taken care of, social worker visits have all been made and Charley will officially be given a birth certificate with our names on it. We are VERY excited. I’ve been quite weepy this week thinking about all that we’ve been through to get to this point. I always believed God was going to bless us greatly one day. I just had no idea what exactly that would feel like. It’s indescribable.
If I blogged more often I wouldn’t have to be so dang wordy. Thanks for stopping by and reading. Oh! I wanted to tell you all that I am a bit of a hoarder when it comes to your comments. I love them so much and so often there have been words spoken to me through this blog that I’ve taken and kept for years (literally). I tested out this week to see if you all are notified when I reply to your comments on the blog and I don’t think you are. So, if you leave a comment I am going to be more diligent this year to not be such a hoarder and instead be more a part of the conversation. You’ll just have to check back here for replies. I’m not sure how to make it so that you are notified. (Any one else know how to do this?)
Love to all of you!
jc
p.s. Where’s Charley? There she is! (a new favorite game.)
p.p.s. Although it’s been a bit of transition going back to work I have a fantastic group of students taking my workshop! It’s been a blessing getting back to something I love so, so much.