Our first Christmas Baking

Pulling out the flour and eggs for some Christmas baking is near the pinnacle of holiday cheer. Doing it for the first time with your 1+ year old daughter... even better. Here's a Olive at the kitchen table taking a turn to mix our emerging cookie dough.

One of my favorite parts was that we were making those peanut butter cookies with the hersheys kisses on top.... which required peeling the kisses. Olive was all over it. She precisely peeled off each wrapper and separated the "yuck" wrapper into one bowl and the "ca-ca" (candy) into another bowl. She didn't even think of eating them because she was so into task of peeling and separating. Haha.

Merry Christmas!

Olive playing tug with Abbey

Just a quick entry here to post a video of Olive:

Monterey Dunes

 

Skipping down to the beach. Olive asking to hold baby Toryn. Yummy what-is-it-called seafood soup. Lounging ... yes luxurious lounging in my oceanview chaise. Beautiful sunsets.

We spent a good weekend at Monterey Dunes to kick off October.

On our way to the beach!! (with bear)

Walking down to the beach for the first time with Gma

Ooh, the "o-sun" (ocean)

Exploring with Daddy

Fun with family

Grandma with Olive and Toryn

Brian and Jason went surfing

Loves putting her hands in pockets

And taking in sunsets... ahhh

Unborne

Unborne? I guess that should say "unborn" but it seems more balanced with the "e" at the end, don't you think? And it adds the connotation of bearing a burden. Maybe I'll borrow it from nonexistence for this posting. 

I have been ruminating on some of MmeBookling's thoughts about the creative journey this morning. It has brought back memories of childhood aspirations and wondering about soul-proximal potential. I have always thought reading and writing to be something very "soul-centric" for me... a stunted creative journey. In the space and luxury of childhood, reading and writing were a mammoth of my days. Their absence in my life now causes me to weigh whether this hiatus is merited... a worthwhile sacrifice? What is the cost to my present, my future, my soul, my family?

As I steal moments with the laptop, Olive is playing with a cup of cotton balls on the floor--moving them one by one from the ottoman to the cup and then dumping them all over the floor. Well, now she has moved on to a ukulele, its dissonant notes almost pleasant. 

In truth, the pace of motherhood is not the primary reason the pen and keyboard have remained distant. It is my aversion to producing drab drivel that has kept me away. I don't want to write if nothing good will come out. And time and distance have made me increasingly hesitant. Still, work doesn't usually appeal until you are elbows deep in it. Writing feels much the same to me--as if there is nothing to write until I really "get in there." 

So here's my first investment in "getting elbows deep" and in bearing... to the end of something being born.

It's wet.

Letting the morning take you in.

Sweet moment with Auntie

I've been yearning for the increased light of the sun and the way it lightens my breath and quickens my step. Still, I am trying to absorb the pensive, pervasive, melancholic peace of the rain and stratus overhead. I don't want to miss out on a breath of moisture-laden air or for my skin to momentarily forget the quiet, willful attitude of the rain here.

Today in the midst of garage sale preparations, Olive wandered out of the covering of the garage and into the rain. The simple rain. She was a bit captivated, a bit perplexed, and totally enthralled with the independence of exploration. I loved seeing her enjoy the same rain that I enjoy. She walked back and forth... well more like scampering... in the rain, letting the gutters drip the extra large drips right onto her head. Can't wait to buy rain boots for her and go out and put them to the test when we can properly stomp in the puddles.

It's wet.

Mommy Days

Saturdays try to be mommy days... a morning when Daddy takes O to morning coffee and Mommy gets to sleep in. Errands where I can jog from the car into the store and back... without buckling someone else up before me, and I can play the music in the car too loud. Today is cloudy but I feel the energy of one of the first sunny mornings of the spring.

Highlights of the week: a walk alone with B last weekend while we were in CA. O pretending to mix some mysterious something with a little yellow plastic knife and a miniature cup and then making me drink it. Clean... well clean-ER house. Belated hair cut checked off the to-do list.

And a few pics from the past weeks:

Spatter of Moments

It was cold in the house one morning and Olive was bundled up, happily munching on cheerios. Don't you wish you were carefree, bundled up and eating cheerios?

 Olive has so many different expressions, some last only a split second and it's hard to capture them. This smile is one of my favorites. My mom says she looks like me as a baby here.

One day in September we took Olive to the beach when we were in California. It was a really special day as a family. Yeay, the ocean!

We finished off the day with a trip to the Tres Amigos...according to tradition!

Mmmmmm