Welcome to my World: May 2010

I have another buzz agent review for you! I recently was sent two items from Cover Girl. One was called Smoky Shadow Blast, claiming to give me the smokey look I have always wanted in an easy two step process. Another was ShineBlast lip gloss in a pretty pink color. The eye shadow was in a stick form that rolled out like a lipstick on each end. There were two colors, the grey color I was to smear all over my eye lid and the purplish one was to go in the crease. It went on easy enough and it looked pretty good on. Although I don't know it really looked any better than any other eye shadow I have. It also felt a little sticky. I wore it for the better part of a day and by the end of the day it had started to get a little gunky in the creases of my eyelid. I think if I were just wearing it for a night out it would have been fine, though. The lip gloss is fine. It is a pink shiny lipgloss. It actually tastes really good! Like strawberries or something. It looks good on, just like any lip gloss I have ever had though. I am supposed to give my totally honest opinion as a buzz agent, so that it is. It wasn't bad, but it by no means blew me away. I do have coupons if anyone is interested, post a comment below or email me and I will send some to you!

Apologies, I realize my daughter is now about 14 months old. It took me forever to finish this post!

For my first mother's day last year my mother in law got me a card. I don't remember exactly what the front said, but the punchline inside was 'Holy Crap, it's hard!' talking about motherhood. She was right and I think about that card a lot and chuckle to myself. No one can prepare you for motherhood. The last year has been wonderful, but also the hardest thing I have ever done in my entire life. For those moms who love every dirty diaper filled second of it, I salute you. I also don't believe you exist. =) I have to admit, there are things I don't love about motherhood. Some days I would like to stay in bed past 6:45 am, or not have toys all over my house so that it never really feels clean, or reach in to my purse and not find 10 rogue graham crackers, or maybe have a nice quiet meal at a restaurant with my husband and actually get to talk to him. And sure, those things would be really nice, but then I think of everything I would have missed in the last year. So enough with the negative, it will take me much longer to chronicle all the awesome things that have happened this year.

Isabella Jane is the most wonderful, amazing, smart, beautiful child in the whole entire world. I realize, of course, that every mother would say the same is true of their child. I don't know how to explain this paradox, except for to say that all those parents are simply wrong. =) Only kidding other moms! But seriously, she makes me smile a thousand times a day, any time she does something new - like suddenly she knows where her nose is - it makes my entire day and I can't wait to tell people, she gives the best hugs and kisses, even to our dog =). In short, I love her to pieces. As hard as being a mom is, all of these things make up for it a thousand fold and I wouldn't change a minute of it, even on my worst days. Here are a few of my favorite moments of the last year and things that I want to remember:

- The day she was born. I seriously remember it being wonderful, even going through labor I remember as nothing but exciting. Ok, yes and painful. But I think I was in some sort of manic state afterward and I just remember how wonderful it was to be in the room with my family chowing down on Whataburger.

- Late night nursing. I know that at the time I was seriously miserable being up at 2 am, then 5 am, then 8am, but thinking back on it, I remember it as a quiet, cozy time when it was just me and Bella and I would play the radio in the background.

- When she first started smiling, my in laws and Jason had taken her out to the mall and they got a great picture of her smiling so big. It was probably the first good picture of it and I always think of that picture and now I think about how small she looks in it!

- My first night out with Jason alone. It isn't ALL about Bella right? We went to eat at Bene Bene and went to see Star Trek, which was one of the best movies I saw last year, btw. I just remember being so glad to be out of the house, in real clothes and makeup.

- The day she noticed the parrot. As newborns they don't really pay attention to anything, meaning they don't really focus their eyes on things or seem to be interested. I used to lay her on this activity mat where things hung over her head and it played music and I remember one day seeing her and thinking 'oh my gosh, she is LOOKING at that parrot! And don't even get me started on the day she reached for it! Haha. Thinking about that now seems so funny because she is in everything all the time and notices EVERYthing.

- How she would not eat at first. She hated solid foods and I thought she would just never eat. Then one day she started sucking down everything we gave her and hasn't slowed down since!

- How much I missed her the first time I left her. I was DYING for the time away, looking forward to sleeping in, but at the end of it I was just itching to see her. It is the same every time I have left her since, only I think it gets more intense every time!

- How she waves at everyone and everything. She is a friendly little girl I tell you! She waves at everyone as we walk through the mall or grocery store, she waves at dogs at the park, she just likes to wave. Maybe she is practicing to be Belle in a Disney parade? =)

- Along with the waving, her first word was bye-bye. She still likes to say it all the time, but now she is also saying hot, Tilda (mom and dad's dog), Gretta (our dog), ball, bow, hello and hi. And when I say she says them, I mean she tries to and I know what she means. Ha.

- Her favorite thing to eat is fruit. She would eat nothing else if I let her.

- The sound she makes when she gets excited. She opens her mouth real big and sucks in air like she is just SO excited about whatever. She does this when you ask if she wants a graham cracker, when she sees people she loves, when she sees dogs, when she sees Mickey Mouse (mission accomplished!).

- How much she knows now at 1 year (ok 14 months). She can do patty-cake and the itsy bitsy spider, I can tell her to do almost anything and she knows what I mean, and she also knows when she is not supposed to do something and she looks right at me with this smirk and does it anyway. She also knows where her nose, toes, head and belly button are.

It truly is an amazing thing to see a child grow from something so small, to a little person who can walk and talk and has a personality and knows what they want and how to get it. Amazing can't even describe it, it is a miracle and blows my mind daily. I feel so blessed to have been given this perfect gift from God and I really do try not to take it for granted. I tell myself daily that as long as she is safe and healthy, that I can get by on less sleep, that I don't need a clean house, and that graham cracker crumbs in your purse are not the end of the world.

I will leave you with just a few of my favorite pictures from her first year (this is one reason it took me so long to finish this post - how am I supposed to choose?)

I cannot believe she was ever this small.