Katie and her cousin Conner enjoying the carrot cake she made for his birthday.

30 Weeks . . . I think we’re finally getting somewhere with the whole name thing!

Photo Credit: Joel Bez

This morning I am sipping tea and flipping through baby name books while Gigi and Katie make a carrot cake for my nephew Conner’s birthday party.

Katie: “Mmmm, I ate this”

Gigi: “You ate the ginger?”

Katie: “Yes, it’s spiiiiicy. I need water.”

As each ingredient goes in, she asks if it is spicy and tries to taste it. Baking soda, nutmeg, salt . . . she’s declared them all “just right”. Ironically, just last night I was assessing the “ingredients” of my life with Daniel. I put far too many of them in the “bitter” and “unsavory” categories.

Truth be told, there are many sweet elements in my life: Answered prayers, for one. Simpler things, too, like the way Katie spontaneously began requesting Cream & Sugar instead of “mommy’s milk.”

There is some bitterness as well, but as I sit here watching Gigi fold the batter into her baking pans I wonder if maybe they are necessary to make sure this cake turns out just right. I’ve never heard of a Baking Soda Cake (ewww), and yet how else would you get a cake fluffy if not for baking soda (aluminum free, of course)? Perhaps this would be the time to point out that it’s not up to the cake batter question the Baker. “Why did you add that? I don’t need it and I don’t like it!”

And yet I have been judging the end result by the pleasantness/discomfort of the process. This morning I am asking a new question:

What kind of cake am I going to be?

Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m slacking. Truth be told, all I want to do lately is go to the pool with Katie. The sun and music, not to mention the way Katie gets cuddly after playing hard in the water for two hours, are just too tempting resist.

So I’m not. At least not today ; – )

If you are headed to NRH2O today please know that I am seven months pregnant and wearing a bikini. Consider this your warning ; – ) Ironically, I am pretty self conscious about wearing a bikini around here when I am NOT pregnant because nursing women are, ahem, endowed. Strange men staring at me gives me the heebie jeebies. But slap an extra 15 or so pounds on me and I’ll wear one no problem! No pictures, though, as you can see.

Today I am picking Linda’s question from the suggestion box because, well, it’s the easiest. And because I get to talk about my family.

Hi Heather! I am kind of interested in the fact that you live with your Mom as an adult. Why do you choose to? How do you keep your relationship with Daniel spicy? How do you keep your relationship with Daniel between you 2 and not letting it spill over & airing out dirty laundry, etc. In light of recent events, we have had to move back in with my Mom (my husband and our 2 kids), and I find it much harder to live here now that I am older.

Thanks for asking, Linda! When Daniel and I first got married, he made it clear that he was a “leave and cleave” kind of guy. It was hard for me at first. When something I didn’t feel prepared to handle would come up I often found myself halfway through dialing my mom’s number before I realized she wasn’t the one I was supposed to talk things over with anymore.

Fortunately, both of our parents had the wisdom to give us time to unify as a couple. They let us fight (sometimes during holiday gatherings) without interfering or taking sides. They stood by quietly and watched us make bad decisions without offering unsolicited advice. On the flip side, they celebrated our milestones with gusto and let us know we always had their support.

Eventually, Daniel and I began to believe we could “let our parents in” our lives without the boundaries getting all murky. They had proven they could treat us like grown-ups, even when we weren’t acting like it.

My mom semi-retired right around the time Katie was born. Because I was still doing part-time PR work from my home office she graciously offered to watch Katie a few hours a day. I’ll never forget her bringing Katie to nurse during big conference calls. Thank God for the mute button! Having my mom there with me in those early months, supporting me and just being downright proud of me, was one of the best experiences of my life. I grew up in a multi-generational home, so the idea was nothing new to me. But having her around seemed to clench the idea. My mom was single. She had tons of friends but lived alone. Daniel and I decided she should be with us.

Regarding how it’s worked out, there have been some rough spots but Gigi tells it best. The only things I will add is that it’s hard to hide when we are arguing, but Gigi is a smart lady and finds somewhere else to be when we need to work things out. On our side, learning to restrain ourselves is good practice for not arguing too much in front of our children.

As for keeping things spicy: We have no complaints ; – ) My mom has an active social life and is gone a lot in the evenings. And those loooong excursions to the duck park she takes with Katie don’t hurt, either.

I breastfeed in public.

. . . without a cover. Not to make any political statement but because it is too too hot for both of us. We live in Texas, ya’ll!

I wear a shade of lipstick that doesn’t look good on me because it is the least toxic inexpensive one that I know of. I use coconut oil as a moisturizer for the same reason and apparently it tastes goooood.

Even though I want all the pics of me to look good, I sometimes gasp in childlike wonder, causing small animals run for cover… because I look like I’m going to… attack.

And apparently I feel like goofing off today ; – )

Do your kids love pony rides? Farm animals? Tractor rides?

More importantly, do you love homemade ice cream? Want to learn to milk a goat? I DO!!! Then bring your kids for some old-fashioned fun at Nash Farm in historic Grapevine tomorrow.

• Play heritage Games
• Pony rides
• Meet Farm Animals
• Milk a Goat
• Weaving
• Tractor Rides
• Plant the Kitchen Garden
• Horseshoe
• Sack Races
• Wood Orchard
• Home made Ice Cream
• Treadle Lathe
• Milk a Cow
• Pin wheel making
• Leather Stamping
• Rope Making

The address is 626 Ball Street Grapevine, TX 76051
Additional parking is across the street at Cannon Elementary and at the Botanic Garden.
View Larger Map

Daniel was kind enough to stand behind the camera today just in case Katie claims I was never around at some point in the future, so there is an actual photo of ME in this collage ; – )

This is one of my favorites from the day:

And here we are showing off our masterpiece!!!

Dear husband,

We both know all-too-well how quickly our little girl is growing up. Photos taken just a month apart document rapid transformation. The changes I’ve seen in you are more subtle but no less significant. The pleasure you take from nurturing and directing, providing and correcting seems to be doing you just as much good as it is Katie.

Happy Father’s Day. We adore you.

Because you’re amazing.

xoxo,

Wife

Note: I tried, I really did, for the official post at MckMama’s blog. But in lieu of waiting any longer I have decided to post now and link later. Enjoy!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday . . . a time where we confess our faults MckMama style by denying them outright. If you have no idea what I am talking about visit MckMama’s blog for a laugh that will keep you smiling all week.

This week, I did not pretend to try on clothes just so I could go into a dressing room and breastfeed Katie. No way, I am a proudly breastfeeding my 18 month old and I don’t ever just want a little privacy.

Also, I did not borrow a lawnmower and mow our lawn for the first time in years because we were expecting company and I was embarrassed by our messy yard. We got rid of our lawn mower when we hired our wonderful yard crew that just happened to miss the one week it was really important to me that our yard look good. So after mowing the lawn I MOST CERTAINLY DID NOT use scissors to hand-trim because we also got rid of our edger! What kind of insane neat-freak would do that?

Katie is not the baby that cried “poop!” In fact, she does not often alert us to the facts of biology by saying “tee-tee” or “poopy” in her sweet little voice. We did not teach her that (we really didn’t), and we are not hoping that this means she will be easy to potty-train (a parent can dream!)

And for the record, I am not totally excited to meet baby Hammond sometime this month. I do not have baby fever and I can totally handle being around a newborn without asking Daniel a million times if he wants another one. Happy Not Me Monday! I hope you enjoyed this first attempt at total semi-transparency : – )

Such a simple word, yet so mysterious to me for over 25 years. I remember shuddering when Valentine’s Day came around and those “Daddy-Daughter” dances popped up everywhere. Not only did I not get what it was all about, I thought it was downright creepy. All that intimacy gave me the heebie jeebies.

Crazy, I know, but all I had ever known was a very formal, somewhat distant father that died when I was eleven. Imagine reading the Bible with that kind of working definition of Father God. Doesn’t get you very far.

This is much better:

Thanks to moments like this I get the whole “catch me when I fall” thing a lot better. It starts when someone catches you before you fall : – )

Basically, one year of watching these two has made me feel closer to God as my Father than anything ever before.

They say having a baby changes everything, and boy were they right!