One year ago, just about at this exact hour, I first laid eyes on you in a cold hospital room in the middle of Maryland. I was tired and weary after a whirlwind 16 hour journey through the night to meet you. You were sleepy and exhausted, not even 12 hours old. Through the emotional fog that hovered in that room, your bright blue eyes locked on mine and melted my heart and from that moment on...I was totally, overwhelmingly in love with you.
I'll never forget how sweet it was to hold you for the first time and how much I just wanted to unwrap that blanket, strip off that hat, and stare at every inch of you so that I could memorize your whole being. I was torn between holding you tight to my body so that I could feel your heart beating and laying you across my lap so that I could stare at you for hours. You bonded to be me instantly, and secretly I loved that you desired...demanded...to be held by me for the majority of your first year of life. You see, your mama would do anything for you, baby girl.
Yesterday we celebrated your first birthday. Today is our anniversary of meeting you. What lucky fools we all are to have each other.
Happy Birthday, sweet Ella Rose. God bless you today, tomorrow, and always.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
moms say the darndest things
It's funny what comes out of your mouth when you stay at home all day with two toddlers. Just now as I was on lunch duty with the munchkids I laughed out loud at myself.
Mary's highchair is right next to the place where we drop assorted mail and newspapers (bad choice of location, I think). Feeling distracted and unwilling to eat she was grabbing for yesterday's unread newspaper. The conversation went a little something like this.
"Mommy! Mommy! This is Barack Obama"
"Yes Mary, that is Barack Obama." (thinking I should make this a teachable moment) "He is the new president of our country. We really hope he does a very good job."
"Yes, he needs to do good job. Ella needs to do good job too."
(and the next sentence is where I laughed out loud at myself)
"Okay Mary, that's enough. Put Barack Obama down and eat your macaroni."
Okay...maybe you just had to be here.
Mary's highchair is right next to the place where we drop assorted mail and newspapers (bad choice of location, I think). Feeling distracted and unwilling to eat she was grabbing for yesterday's unread newspaper. The conversation went a little something like this.
"Mommy! Mommy! This is Barack Obama"
"Yes Mary, that is Barack Obama." (thinking I should make this a teachable moment) "He is the new president of our country. We really hope he does a very good job."
"Yes, he needs to do good job. Ella needs to do good job too."
(and the next sentence is where I laughed out loud at myself)
"Okay Mary, that's enough. Put Barack Obama down and eat your macaroni."
Okay...maybe you just had to be here.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
please God...no
Finally Mary is taking a nap.
The past two days she has declined. Not in a crabby way. Not in a crying way. Just in a..."mom...I seriously am not tired. Can we just get over this?" kind of a way.
I am NOT ready for her to be done with naps. She's too young. And I'm too nap-dependent.
Praying that this is just a blip.
The past two days she has declined. Not in a crabby way. Not in a crying way. Just in a..."mom...I seriously am not tired. Can we just get over this?" kind of a way.
I am NOT ready for her to be done with naps. She's too young. And I'm too nap-dependent.
Praying that this is just a blip.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
date update (that sounds funny)
We had to cancel our date on the night it was originally planned (bad roads - sitter backed out).
BUT - we were able to have a pseudo-date the next night. We actually needed to run a bunch of errands and so we made that into a date-ish sort of activity. Mom watched the kiddos and we ran to LaCrosse. No cell phones, no Tammy working on the laptop, just us. Talking. Gabbing. It was great. Then we ran to Sam's Club, Target, Kohls, and Toys R Us (my hubby is good to me) before settling in for dinner at Applebees. It's amazing how NICE it is to just have dinner with my man. No kids - just us for about 45 minutes. It was great!
We so need to make this a priority! Any ideas for our next outing (perhaps something a little less...ordinary)?
BUT - we were able to have a pseudo-date the next night. We actually needed to run a bunch of errands and so we made that into a date-ish sort of activity. Mom watched the kiddos and we ran to LaCrosse. No cell phones, no Tammy working on the laptop, just us. Talking. Gabbing. It was great. Then we ran to Sam's Club, Target, Kohls, and Toys R Us (my hubby is good to me) before settling in for dinner at Applebees. It's amazing how NICE it is to just have dinner with my man. No kids - just us for about 45 minutes. It was great!
We so need to make this a priority! Any ideas for our next outing (perhaps something a little less...ordinary)?
what do you YOU use?
My laptop screen is dirty. I mean FILTHY. Grubby baby hands have been smeared all over it. I'm scared to clean it because I don't want my screen to go wonky or anything like that. Any advice? Anyone? Bueller?
Saturday, January 3, 2009
the stuff that marriage is made of
You know that scene in Old School where Will Ferrel's character (Frank) describes his Saturday:
Frank: I told my wife I wouldn't drink tonight. Besides, I got a big day tomorrow. You guys have a great time.
College Student: A big day? Doing what?
Frank: Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time.
Several beer bongs later...
Frank: Do it again. Do it again. It tastes sooo good when it hits your lips.
Well this is totally Kurt and I today. We're laughing at how "ordinary" today has been. We woke up and made some breakfast, hung out with the girls for a bit. Then we did the most dreaded but necessary project ever....we cleaned out the toy closet. This was a MASSIVE undertaking that has left us pretty much spent. We took only one break and that was for lunch at HyVee. After eating we ran to ShopKo to get some totes to organize the primary colored, plastic, noisy mess.
Aside from the beer bongs - we basically had the same day as good ole' Frank!
Looking forward to tonight though - we have a sitter lined up and we're going out for our first date in AGES. Hurrah!
Frank: I told my wife I wouldn't drink tonight. Besides, I got a big day tomorrow. You guys have a great time.
College Student: A big day? Doing what?
Frank: Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time.
Several beer bongs later...
Frank: Do it again. Do it again. It tastes sooo good when it hits your lips.
Well this is totally Kurt and I today. We're laughing at how "ordinary" today has been. We woke up and made some breakfast, hung out with the girls for a bit. Then we did the most dreaded but necessary project ever....we cleaned out the toy closet. This was a MASSIVE undertaking that has left us pretty much spent. We took only one break and that was for lunch at HyVee. After eating we ran to ShopKo to get some totes to organize the primary colored, plastic, noisy mess.
Aside from the beer bongs - we basically had the same day as good ole' Frank!
Looking forward to tonight though - we have a sitter lined up and we're going out for our first date in AGES. Hurrah!
Thursday, January 1, 2009
keeping it alive in 2009
After lots and lots of pursuading (ahem...Rachel) I'm attempting to revive my blog. Attempting is the key word. Who knows if I'll actually get back into the swing of posting regularly after the 7 month hiatus. Time will tell. As for now, it will be my New Years resolution (since I'm already perfect in every other way....ha!). So leave me lots of comments to encourage me, k?
As for now...09 proves to be a rockin' year for the Hoegers. Our New Years Eve was a blast as always. We go to my parents house for a huge family friendly party (complete with a stocked bar for the adults and a pinata for the kiddos). This year Kurt invited his folks and 4 of his nephews and 1 niece to come up and join in the festivities. It was great having them there but I felt bad at the same time. While Kurt got to be 'fun uncle' ("Tonight you can eat as much candy as you want!!") I played the part of bitchy aunt (I came up with this term myself). It was not uncommon for me to say any of the following at any point throughout the night:
"Show me your clean plate and then you can have a cookie."
"Do we stand on the pin ball machine???"
"Take turns...or else nobody gets to play"
Yeah - I'm a serious fun hater. My kids are bound to be boring.
Anyway, New Years Day has been absolutely wonderful. We spent the entire day in jammies (loving that), ate lots of yummy leftovers, played some serious Taboo, napped, and Ella took her first step! I use the term 'first step' loosely. It was probably more like graceful falling, but I think it counts in the baby book!
Over the next week or so I'll try to get some fun holiday pics up (heavens knows I have a ton of them). Until then....Happy New Year (now finish your plate)!
As for now...09 proves to be a rockin' year for the Hoegers. Our New Years Eve was a blast as always. We go to my parents house for a huge family friendly party (complete with a stocked bar for the adults and a pinata for the kiddos). This year Kurt invited his folks and 4 of his nephews and 1 niece to come up and join in the festivities. It was great having them there but I felt bad at the same time. While Kurt got to be 'fun uncle' ("Tonight you can eat as much candy as you want!!") I played the part of bitchy aunt (I came up with this term myself). It was not uncommon for me to say any of the following at any point throughout the night:
"Show me your clean plate and then you can have a cookie."
"Do we stand on the pin ball machine???"
"Take turns...or else nobody gets to play"
Yeah - I'm a serious fun hater. My kids are bound to be boring.
Anyway, New Years Day has been absolutely wonderful. We spent the entire day in jammies (loving that), ate lots of yummy leftovers, played some serious Taboo, napped, and Ella took her first step! I use the term 'first step' loosely. It was probably more like graceful falling, but I think it counts in the baby book!
Over the next week or so I'll try to get some fun holiday pics up (heavens knows I have a ton of them). Until then....Happy New Year (now finish your plate)!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)