Hello, Summer

The weather was so perfect last Sunday that we had to take a little trip to the river, which is only 15-20 minutes from our house. 

We went for a little hike (more like a walk than a hike)...

And then found a shady place upstream to let Eli explore. 

He had a reeeeeaaaallly hard time walking on the uneven ground. It was so funny to see him staggering around like a drunken sailor. 

Such a sweet little face. I love kissing those cheeks all day long. 

Dallin showed him how to throw rocks in the water, and Eli thought it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen. He laughed so hysterically that Dallin and I were cracking up too. He's so much fun!

Here is Eli launching a rock. He's got a pretty good arm for such a little kid... something he certainly didn't get from me. ;) 

I'm so glad we get to live in such a beautiful place. My goal this summer is to take advantage of that as often as possible. So far, so good!

Busy, busy, busy

It's funny how each stage of life brings new meaning to what it means to be "busy." I've been using this word for... I don't even know how long. My go-to response to, "How have you been?" is, more often than not, something along the lines of: "Good! But busy."

When I got to college, I laughed at my high-school-aged self for ever thinking I was busy.

Then I got married and had a baby, and I laugh at my college-aged self for the same reason.

And in five, ten, twenty years, when I have eleventy-seven ginger babies wreaking havoc upon my house and turning my hair gray, I'm sure I'll be laughing at my current self for thinking my plate is full.

The problem with having so much to do is that I start thinking I have to do it all. Something I've realized lately is that I have overbooked myself. I've got way too much going on in my life, including things that are unnecessarily stressing me out. There is so much I really want to do, but what really needs to be done? This morning, I started making a list in my head of all the things I've been spending energy and time on, and putting them into categories of good, better, and best. I came to the conclusion that it's time to reprioritize what I'm spending my time on. That's kind of hard. It's not easy to let go of "good" things.  But when good things start crowding out better things, then there is a problem.

This means I'm going to spend less time on things like blogging, both reading and writing (although I obviously haven't done much writing here lately anyway). It means putting my Etsy shop on vacation mode for a little while. It means limiting the free photo shoots I've been doing. It means reading Eli the same book five times in a row and spending more time soaking up his sweet baby-ness before he's all grown up. It means spending more quality time with my handsome husband.   It means taking time for myself too, because long showers and solo grocery store trips are so good for the soul.

In short, it means making this my motto for everything is doesn't fill my metaphorical bucket:

Wise woman. 

Eli Thursday

57 weeks

One of his favorite things to do lately is stand on the bed in the nursery and look out the window. It's not quite as good as actually being outside, but when there's a cold spring wind blowing it's about as close as you can get. 

Eli Thursday

Week 56

He's been a little sick the last couple of days, but I think his berry + yogurt popsicle helped cheer him up a bit. And if not, that messy face helped cheer me up a bit. It's a win either way.

Eli Thursday

Week 55

He's so snuggly and sweet after bath time. I love it.

Eli Thursday

Week 54

Eli's current favorite activities: messing up the rugs and swiping the kitchen towels from the oven handle so he can put them on his head. (The best is when he covers up his whole face and then crawls as fast as he can. It's hilarious to everyone involved, especially himself.)

Mom's current favorite activity: leaving the big open bag of rice on the kitchen floor instead of pouring it into buckets where it belongs. It's hard to do chores like that when I could be playing peek-a-boo with a shirtless baby on the kitchen floor though, you know? 

Little foodie

This boy loves food. 

Clearly, the apple does not fall from from the tree. 

Current favorite things to eat:

Grapes

Pears (he can eat a whole pear at a time if we let him!)

Veggie straws

Homemade bread + butter

Frozen greek yogurt bites

Homemade fruit popsicles (as seen in these pictures, popsicle mold found here)

Granola

Fruit snacks (the only way I can clip his nails nowadays)

Pizza

I'm really grateful to have a good eater. He's really good at feeding himself which means I can sit him in his highchair and have a solid 20 minutes (at the very least) to get stuff done without interruptions. It's pretty great.

We're still nursing, but he's almost lost interest completely and my supply is drying up. We're down to just morning and night already and I'm so sad about that. I really loved nursing and was hoping to do it for a little while longer, but at least we made it a year, right?