When we think about milestones in our lives, we often focus on big, once in a lifetime experiences like graduation, births, marriages, and walking by ourselves.  But we cannot forget our everyday milestones, as well.  They are a lot smaller and a lot harder to recognize but sometimes they lead to larger outcomes due to the relationship of cause and effect.  Take my daughter for example.  In the last two weeks we have added shoes to her wardrobe.  Now this isn't the first attempt at shoes and socks, before anyone gets angry with me for allowing my one year old to go without these things.  However she has always refused and yanked them off her feet within two seconds.

Last winter we bought her not one but two pairs of boots that she never kept on for longer than an eyeblink.  And the same went for socks.  Despite this, our girl is now walking and always wants to be outside.  So with cooler weather coming socks and shoes are not longer optional!  Our first attempt at shoe shopping was an epic fail with her screaming and both of us utterly frustrated.


Our second attempt was much more successful - we not only found a pair of velcro flats in size 6 (which was two sizes bigger than we were trying the first time!), but also a pair of velcro boots so that she can play in the snow (when it arrives...hopefully not very soon).  And she kept them on!  No kicking and screaming and flying shoes!  It was amazing.  We also picked up quite a few pairs of socks, which she also is keeping on!


The first attempt at wearing the shoes, however, was a bit of a struggle.  Once they were on her feet she absolutely refused to walk - instead she crawled all over the room.  But the shoes stayed on her feet and she soon realized that shoes means outside playtime or byebye.  And she loves to stomp her feet in her shoes.  When she is stomping in her shoes, she has one of the most adorable faces of pure joy that I have ever seen.


Our newest challenge/milestone is the change in sippy cups.  Since transitioning to a sippy cup from a bottle in May, we've made very little progress.  She will drink from small Juice box straws, but no others.  And she will drink out of a cup without a lid, if you hold it...with lots of dribbles.  We haven't really pushed for a whole lot of progression, just letting her experiment and try to problem solve the various cups (she's naturally very good at program solving).


However, her current sippys all leak (from wear) and it is time to push a little harder for the next stage.  So Grandma bought her a new sippy and we tried practicing with it over the weekend.  It requires her to suck on it like a straw and she got a few sips from it and had lots of fun carrying it around trying to figure it out.  But we still haven't made huge progress with it.  Today, she is now chucking it to the ground when she can't figure out how to get a drink.  It will come quickly though, because she is crazy smart and LOVES to problem solve.


These moments make up a huge part of Mamahood.  These are successes to be cherished.  Yet, they are  often missed or overlooked.  Trust me, I've overlooked quite a bit in my struggles on my Mamahood journey.  As much as it drives me crazy that she attaches herself to me the moment I walk into the door, I miss that little girl the whole time I'm at work and just want to cuddle with her.  In my opinion, these moments need be celebrated, because they are so very, very fleeting.  Especially with children, who tend to grow up way too fast (I still can't believe she's a year old!!).  Each of these milestones is a step to Atty growing up into an adult.  I want to remember to cherish it all, because the last year has taught me it will be gone before you know it!

What moments in your everyday life are you overlooking?  What are some things about your life today that you want to remember, because they might change?  What crazy, funny, cute, or random things are your kids/family/friends/pets doing?  I'd love to hear about them!  If your interested in my other Mamahood tales, you can check them out here.

I have discovered in my time as a Momma (this last year plus a bit) that this momma stuff is HARD.  I know that’s obvious (at least if you’re a Momma), but it is so very hard to juggle every day between what I need to do (things around the house) and what I have to do because my daughter needs me to do these things (like sit on the couch and cuddle and watch cartoons).  Don’t get me wrong, there are some fabulously awesome moments that drastically outweigh the bad (and there are a ton more good than bad moments, which helps).  But I really struggle with the balance.  Especially when she needs me and I’m already so far out of balance with myself as it is.

The last several months have been really hard with Jamie being out of commission.  He was in the hospital for the majority of August and we struggled as a family without him being able to watch her during the day while I worked.  Once he was released from the hospital, he was unable to lift her or walk, which meant that he couldn’t watch her during the day still.  A lot of the weight of these last couple of months has fallen on my parents, who have been amazing.  They have helped watch her while I am at work and Jamie is at various appointments. 


Yet, every moment that I am not at work, I am with her.  Trying to take care of her and help Jamie get around and do what he needs to do.  And as much as I love that little bug, it is really wearing on my self care.  I have lists upon lists of things that I want to do that I just can’t because she’s changed her sleeping schedule (again), or she’s teething something horrible (again), or she’s literally attached to hip (this has become the norm lately).  And I feel like I’m drowning. 


Namely, teething sucks.  Not only does it drain my poor girl, it drains me!  I feel like we’ve been teething almost since birth.  Obviously, we’ve had small breaks between, but nonetheless, the last year has felt like a constant battle with teeth.  We have all the “stuff” from Orajel to teething rings and biscuits, but during teething it seems like it never ends (or helps, though it does).  Teething changes my normal, independent, playful one year old into a fussy, crying brat that royally frustrates Momma.  And no matter what may be going on - teething means that naps and bedtime will be difficult, routines will get messed up, and Momma will spend hours on the couch, cuddling - no matter what I may have planned or need to do.  It will fail during teething.  Every SINGLE time.  Which is fine, because I don’t get enough of that throughout the week while I’m working.  But man does this teething thing suck!  This time we are working on back teeth.  On the top, she has two poking through, and the bottom gums are really swollen.  She’s been running a fever and my poor girl is really hurting.  So we cuddle and when she feels better we play.  We play tag and chase and “you can’t catch me”, we have tickle fests, we watch a lot of Sophia and Jack and anything else on Disney.  And we have wonderful golden moments that I wouldn’t miss for the world.


Jamie is getting better and can walk short distances now, as well as being able to maneuver her as long as she’s not struggling.  But the attachment to Momma is still going strong.  I feel awful that I want time away from her.  My balance is simply out of whack.  I no longer work on my stuff and take my time when she goes to bed (around 7pm), because now she’s waking up at 4 am.  This Momma is exhausted and needs some sleep too.  So gone are the days of staying up until 10 pm to try and get some work done (or blogging or scrapbooking or art making in general).  And I’m struggling because there are simply so many things I want to do!


Jamie tells me I’m over-planning.  This is one of my downfalls and always has been.  But I have so many ideas flowing around my brain that its hard not to try to take some kind of action towards them.  BINGO this month was a fail.  I half participated in Stash Bash towards the end of the month, and managed to use 3 paper clips from my BINGO stash (woot?).  And all of this leaves me feeling like a failure.  Honestly, it’s not just my creative life that is suffering, this feeling follows me to my full-time job as well.  In  my attempt to work on my balance, I’m cutting projects and plans.  One of my problems with the blog is the amount of time that I have to spend creating projects so that I can share them.  My creation process is no longer organic to the way I work.  Instead, when I want to create I go through this process of dread beginning with - I should film this...but my filming area is trashed...okay well I’ll just do it in the other room and photograph it....I need to write down all of the products that I’m using....oh wait, I haven’t made a Counterfeit Kit yet this month....I need to start with the kit....oh...I haven’t ordered any photos since April, and I don’t want to scrap Easter.....and then I go to bed, FRUSTRATED!  The sad part is, no one made these rules for me.  I did!  Without even realizing it!


I spent a lot of time today reading Elise Blaha’s blog.  I mean... A L O T of time!  I’m so focused on wanting to build up the blog that I feel like I have to jump right into posting regularly 4-5 times a week.  And I plan for it and then get bogged down by being a Momma and a wife and and and!  And then I don’t bother to move forward, because I’m burnt out before I begin with what I think I HAVE to do in order to succeed!  I need to refocus and just do my thing.  I’m taking Elise’s advice and I’m going to just make things that I’m making anyway and take lots of pictures, and then I’ll have things to share and ideas that actually make sense with my life.  Plus, I’m working on managing my time, forming habits, and other behind the scenes stuff.


So with all of that in mind, I’m participating in Layout a Day (LOAD) for October.  And I’m leaving it at that.  From my last experience with LOAD, I know it takes every ounce of my energy and doesn’t leave time for other projects.  In November, I plan to take part in NaNoWriMo.  Finally, in December, I will be creating my December Daily Album and taking part in that project.  These are my 3 goals for the end of the year.  I am heading into the busiest time of the year for my full-time job and these three projects will be how I try to nurture my creative side that is getting crushed between work and family.  And now I’m off to bed!