Smiles & Giggles

I took this picture one evening when Jonah was having the time of his life crawling around the living room. He would crawl between the end table and sofa. I would peek around from the other side of the sofa and he would giggle and crawl towards me. I snapped the picture at the perfect time.

Jonah is starting to pull up on his push toys and walk around. He will also hold on to the furniture and move around. He hasn't made the move to walk on his own but I feel is only weeks away. I guess we should get the safety locks on the cabinets soon!

I could go on and on about his daily antics. The basics are - he is a sweet, fun, curious, talkative, social, loving, little boy. His smile wipes away all my worries and I forget about all the things I need to do. In the moment, all I want to do is hang out with my guy - and James too!

Latest art project: Jonah and I made construction paper pumpkins to hang in the playroom. OK - I did the cutting and pasting. Jonah threw the crayons around the playroom and attempted to eat the red crayon. It was a fun mommy & jonah project. Now we have a pumpkin patch in the playroom.

simple moments

I love my family. . . I love the simple moments, hugs, kisses, reading books, crawling on the floor, giggles, smiles, open arms, loving embraces, crayons, curiosity, new adventures, snuggles, singing. . .

Jonah's ONE!

It is unbelievable how quickly time flies... It seemed only yesterday that we were taking Jonah home from the hospital with absolutely no idea on how to take care of a new born! Now it is a year later and he is amazing. He crawls, makes great noises and sounds, and loves his mommy and daddy! Actually today, Jonah has started to feed himself! We have his efforts on video to share with everyone. It took him a while, but he finally figured out it was easier to bring the food to his mouth than to try to slurp it off of the table.

Carrie is another year older

We celebrated my birthday at my mom's house for lunch. My mom got my favorite dessert, carrot cake - yummy. James' made a handmade card for me which was absolutely super sweet! He is definitely wins the "best husband" award. My office prepared a lunch for me today that was fabulous. It got me away from my desk and I got to eat an excellent lunch instead of eating an apple or a couple crackers.

Here are a couple pictures of my 31th birthday. The first picture is Jonah Bear & his big round eyes, the next picture is of my nieces, Ellie & Taylor and the last picture is me & Emily.

Mommy Track'd

I have discovered an excellent website for working mom's, http://www.mommytrackd.com/. I have been reading articles that I can totally relate to. For instance, I have been juggling around the concept of a "balanced" life. And then I read the following paragraph from an article on mommytrackd.com:

Balance Is Bunk
Go for acceptance--expect and accept imbalance. Find your own comfort zone. Work your own plan. Accept that your day to day life simply isn't always going to flow smoothly. You have to cede a certain amount of control in your life--especially if you have kids. Some days you're going to feel like, "Shit! I'm so overextended. That feeling can be extremely frustrating--until you say to yourself, "You know, things are just always going to be kind of out of balance."And once you do that--once you expect at least a little normal life chaos, and stop beating yourself up over it--acceptance takes over. And here's the irony: once we begin expecting and accepting imbalance, that mind-set paradoxically guides us to periods of--guess what?--balance.
Forgetting Balance is Freeing

This article was freeing and exactly what my heart had been saying all along. Love it!

Long day. . .

It was a long, taxing day at work today. It's funny how my exhausting work days get erased by a big, sweet, goofy Jonah grin. Nothing gets that kid down (except bumping his head on the desk leg - ouch) which is so refreshing. I love that little kid's spirit - his chubby cheeks - his dipples - his round brown eyes. I just want to kiss his face all over!

OK - enough baby talk. I've started to paint again in my few spare moments. I have couple projects started. I'm working on them in stages - letting the inspiration hit me. I've been carrying my journal around in my purse and jotting down my ideas. And I'm OK if those ideas never make it out of the journal. Journaling is such a great outlet (kind-of like blogging). I do miss the days when I would stay up all night and work on a painting. I would be so jazzed up - charged with creativity. Now I can barely stay up passed 10pm and I seem to have an internal alarm clock of 6:30am. What's up with that?

I'm really into Matisse right now. The painting I have attached to this blog is called "Polynesie le Ciel". I love the shapes in this painting. They are so fluid and full of motion even though they are cut-outs. I got to see some of Matisse's painting at the High Museum several years ago. James took me during Christmas time as a gift. The High Museum has a "Toddler Thursday". I may have to play hookie from work one Thursday and take Jonah! I'm so excited about sharing my passion for art with him.