Pumpkins, Ponies, & Kids Who Are Too Big Already

What a difference one year makes!

Day in the Life--Fall 2012

I wanted to document a day in our life this fall...at least once, before baby #2 arrives and everything changes! This was Wednesday October 17th, and it was a busier day than usual! That said, we typically have really busy days at least once a week, so it's probably not that far off base. I loved Kristal's idea of documenting one busy day and one slower day, because the slower days are filled with stuff (like school time, painting our nails, and lots of reading books) that I don't want to forget either!

5:00am- I'm awake. Last time I remember seeing the clock was when I got up at 4am. Get up, go to the bathroom, and come to lay back down. Justin is now laying sideways across the bed, and after some effort, I get him to move back to his side. I can't fall asleep because I know Justin's alarm is going to go off soon.

5:40am (ish)- Justin's alarm goes off. As usual, he does not actually intend to get up at this time, and after several minutes, I finally get him to hit snooze.

5:55am (ish)- Justin's alarm goes off again. After several minutes, I finally get him to turn off his alarm. I try to get him to get out of bed, but he won't, and I'm starting to feel like I'm acting like a parent, so I give up and get up.

6:00am- I head to the living room, take some heartburn meds, and get started on homework from Bible Study. I'm so far behind!


6:15am- I hear Lizzy's door open, and she says, "It's okay for me to come out now!". I tell her yes, even though I'm not sure it's really a question, and she comes out and snuggles on the couch with me.

6:30am- Lizzy asks to watch Dora, so I turn it on for her and we snuggle ad watch. Justin calls out, "It's okay for you to make me a sandwich?!" from down the hallway, which makes me smile. I make him a PB&J.

6:45am- Justin is heading out the door, and pops his head back in to tell me that we left the dome light on in my car light night, but that he'll see if it starts or jumps it. Apparently, it starts! Whew.

7:00-7:45am- Make Lizzy breakfast, and then we dink around a little bit. I really should take a shower, but I'm too tired right now. I realize that I forgot to toss the laundry into the dryer before I went to bed last night, so Lizzy has no clean underwear, and I'll have to put her in a pull-up. Sigh. Go toss the load into the dryer for later today, and it is COLD out in the garage!

7:45am- Lizzy asks to watch Imagination Movers, and I let her so that I can get ready for Bible Study. I toss on some leggings, boots, and a blanket cardigan. Toss my hair up in a sock bun, add some pearls, and hope I look more Pinterest-chic than homeless-chic. Unfortunately, I think I'm skewing toward the latter, but I'm too tired and too cozy to change.

8:00-8:30am- I start getting Lizzy ready for the day. She freaks out that her white shirt "doesn't match" her brown polka-dot leggings. I try to explain that white matches with everything, but she's still not happy about it. She adds her pink cowgirl boots because apparently, they do match. I toss together some breakfast for me to take with and eat at Bible Study. I also remember to go warm up the car, which I consider a major win for the day.

8:45 am- We are actually in the car and on our way to Bible Study. Lizzy requests the same song over and over on the way there, and I oblige to hopefully avoid a toddler meltdown. Plus, she's awfully cute singing it! Baby #2 is active as can be in the car, and man...those kicks HURT! I really want to stop and get a latte, but convince myself not to because they'll have coffee and creamer at the church.

9am-11am- Bible Study. I felt uncomfortable the whole time--baby was in a weird position, and it hurt. Usually, I stay around and chat afterwards, but today I've got quite a bit to do, so I duck out quickly.

11:10am- We arrive at Wal-Mart to pick up some produce, and do a quick pit stop for Lizzy to use the bathroom. We get just outside the bathroom, when Lizzy says, "I have to go potty!". Back inside we go. It's cool. We'll spend 20 minutes in the Wal-Mart bathroom.

11:30am-12:00pm- Whew! In and out of Wal-Mart. On the way out, Lizzy sees a poster for Madagascar 3, and asks if we can get it. We swing by Redbox, and they've got it in stock, so we rent it. She's thrilled, and we talk about waiting until Justin gets home to watch it all together.

12:00pm- Back in the car, heading home. Lizzy says "Mom! Mom! Mom!" the whole way home, and when I ask her what she needs, she just giggles. The "Mom! Mom! Mom!" thing is a frequent occurrence right now, and it drives me nuts. If I ignore her, she cries and says, "Why won't you talk to me?!", but if I answer her, 90% of the time she has nothing to say...other than "Mom! Mom! Mom!" again two minutes later.

12:15pm- Home. Lunch. I eat while looking for articles for the Mom's Group newsletter that I have to send over to have printed for tomorrow.

12:50pm- Lizzy's done eating now, and comes over to talk to me. We talk for a little while, and then she asks if she can go read books in her room. I ask if she wants me to come with her, and she says she wants "quiet time by herself". I head back to help her turn on her music and such, and then head back to the living room to work on the newsletter some more.

1pm- Lizzy comes out of her room and says she's done with quiet time. I tell her that she needs to stay in her room for now. She throws a temper tantrum. Awesome.

1:45pm- We've been battling for the last 45 minutes about her staying in her bedroom. She'll come out, and I'll carry her back in kicking and screaming and yelling at me. I am quickly losing patience for this. I'm still trying to work on the newsletter, but it is really slow progress since I'm going in like 2 minute increments.

2:00pm- Newsletter is finally done and emailed off. Lizzy is still screaming and freaking out hysterically, so I call her into the living room for a talk about what's okay when we're angry and what's not. I ask her if she wants to do school time, and she says no. I tell Lizzy that it's time to lay down with me on the couch for a rest. She starts screaming and yelling again. I turn on the TV to the Property Brothers, and eventually she settles down, but in the mean time she reminds me of the main character from a book that we read a lot, The Pout-Pout Fish.

2:45pm- I look down, and Lizzy's asleep. Normally, I'd move her back to her room for the rest of her nap, but we don't have a ton of time before my photo shoot later, so I slide off the couch and leave her there.

3:00pm-3:30pm- I text back and forth with today's photo client--we're up to 15 people for her family shoot today! We decide that we actually need to do a session and a half, and make plans to meet a little earlier. I'm nervous--I don't do big groups that often and feel less confident about them than other types of sessions, especially now that I'm not moving as fast as I once was! Plus, since we're starting earlier, I'm bringing Lizzy for a few minutes until Justin gets off work. The client knew up front that I'd have to bring Lizzy if we booked today, and is a friend from Mom's Group who I'm sure will be fine with Lizzy no matter what, but I'm still nervous about how Lizzy will behave.

3:30pm-4:15pm- Tie up some loose ends...change into different clothes since Oregon weather is so finnicky in the fall, and now it's hot.

4:15pm- Lizzy's still asleep, and I need to leave. Crud. I try to move her into the car, but she wakes up when I'm buckling her in, and freaks out. I swing by a coffee stand to grab a chocolate milk for her to drink in the stroller while I'm shooting. I hate to reward behavior like this, but at this point, I'm totally in survival mode and will do whatever it takes to make it through the next bit of time until Justin gets off work!

4:30pm- We arrive, and I start shooting. Lizzy alternates between being great and being a pain in the butt. I'm starting to get a little stressed.

4:45pm- Justin was working down the street from where we're shooting, and swings by to pick up Lizzy. Normally, she'd be thrilled to ride in his work truck, but this time she's not. They head off, and I keep shooting.

6:15pm- Done! I head home. Justin's got tacos/burritos started for dinner--thank you babe!

6:30pm- We all sit down to eat. Lizzy's in a super lovey mood, and wants to hug my arm the whole time we're eating. Today's been busier than usual, and I feel like she hasn't gotten a lot of quality attention today and I feel bad. I ask her if she wants to do her letters after dinner, and she says, "No, I want to watch Move It Move It! (Madagascar)" I'm looking forward to us all having some quality time to snuggle and watch the movie together once we finish.

7:00pm- Justin and I are done eating, Lizzy's still going. Justin heads outside to replace a part in his truck, I clean up dinner and talk to Lizzy some more.

7:15 pm- My parents call and ask to talk to Lizzy. We sit on the couch and they talk for a little while--Lizzy LOVES talking on the phone!

7:30ish- They hang up, and I'm explaining to Lizzy that we need to get ready for bed quickly if we're going to watch the movie tonight. It's like this flips a mischievous switch in her, and she is dragging her feet more slowly than ever. I'm redirecting her literally every other minute. Out of nowhere, she hits the cat. Twice. I send her to her room for a timeout. She starts screaming at the top of her lungs and kicking her walls. I tell her that her two minute timeout will start when she's finished screaming. She spends about five minutes screaming, "YOU DON'T GIVE TIMEOUTS TO CHILDREN! NEVER! AGAIN! I AM THE PARENT! YOU LISTEN FIRST TIME I ASK!"

7:45pm- I head back to her room to get her out of timeout and discover that she has TRASHED her room. Pillows and blankets off the bed, books thrown EVERYWHERE, clothes pulled out of her drawers. I have to remind myself to take very deep breaths. I ask what happened, and she says, "I was mad." I tell her that I'm sad she made that choice, and that I don't know if we'll have time to watch the movie tonight after she finishes cleaning up her room, and I leave the room to see how she does cleaning on her own for a few minutes.

8:00pm- I hear Lizzy happily reading books (not cleaning) in her room. Justin walks inside and tells me that in addition to the part he's fixing, there's also a problem with the radiator hose. Awesome.My dad texts me a photo of doughknots, one of my favorite splurge meals from my hometown. Now I'm craving doughknots--that's just not kind to do to a pregnant lady! I head back to supervise the cleaning effort.

8:18pm-8:55pm- Lizzy is still cleaning, Justin is still working. The movie is *so* not happening tonight. I'm trying to teach Lizzy natural consequences--that if she pulls off every book on her bookshelf, she'll have to put every book on her bookshelf back. But it's hard to follow through at times like this...because she is going SO SLOWLY, and I'm constantly having to redirect her. It would be so much easier and faster for me just to do it myself. Justin comes in about 8:30am, and we both have to continue to redirect every 5 seconds. Also? Holy Braxton-Hicks, batman!

9:00-9:20pm- We're just now leaving Lizzy's room after saying goodnight. I have grand dreams of Justin and I cuddling on the couch watching TV, but there apparently wasn't a new episode of Bones on Monday after all, and Justin is reading The Lightning Thief again, which pretty much means he's dead to the world. We are both total book nerds and have a hard time focusing on anything else when we're deep into a book we love. I feel like he and I were passing ships today, but some days are just like that. I jot down a few notes about today for this blog post.

9:20pm- I have a ton of photo editing to do, so I grab the laptop, lay down on the couch, and get to it.

9:30pm-10:15pm- Photos are uploaded to Lightroom, and I begin to cull them a bit. Justin heads to bed right as I find a cute candid moment that I love from the session. I give it a quick edit, and toss it up on Facebook as a sneak peek. Have I mentioned that I HATE Facebook for photos?! I can edit and size things exactly the same way every time, and sometimes they look great and sometimes they look crappy.  There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to things, and it drives me nuts. Anyone out there have any fail-safe magical photos on Facebook tricks? 

10:19pm- I'm so tired...time to hit the sack. I force down a half a glass of milk and hope that this heartburn subsides enough to let me sleep!

{for the record, I was up by midnight, then two, then three, then five--ahhhh, pregnancy}

Ponies & Pumpkins

I don't know when this happened exactly, but over the last couple of days, my kiddo has seemed so gosh darn grown up. I know that us moms say that sort of thing all the time, but it really is a strange thing being a mom sometimes because it literally seems to be that one day they're asking to be lifted up to reach the bathroom sink, and then the next day you're cleaning the kitchen and think 'what is that sound?!' only to realize they've gone and turned it on all by themselves.

Anyway, this weekend was like that for me. At church on Sunday, the type of service was one that happens once a month where the same words are said and basically the exact same songs are sung each time. I heard this sweet little child singing along to all the songs, and then a few seconds later, I realized it was Lizzy. She knew every single word, and was singing along at the top of her lungs. I just hadn't heard her sing them like that before.

Then after church, Kaitlin & Jesse invited us to go to the pumpkin patch with them. PS- I have loved seeing everyone's fallish pumpkin patch pictures, but it's not fall here yet. It was like 85 degrees yesterday at the pumpkin patch and I was totally dying. But anyway, I'm getting off track. At the pumpkin patch, again I was hit with how stinking BIG Lizzy is...especially while riding the pony, she didn't look like a baby or even a toddler. She looked like a kid! Holy cow, I can only imagine how grow up she'll seem with a newborn around!

For Steve

This past weekend, on the hottest day of the summer so far, my family piled into the middle school gymnasium to celebrate the life of my basketball coach of 8ish years, Steve. The gym was packed, which probably isn't that far out of the norm for anyone who coached for as long as Steve did. But Steve...he was anything but the norm.

Steve worked as a recruiter and basketball coach for years at colleges like Cal Poly and Cornell. In 1982, when his youngest daughter was a baby, he was told that he had a brain tumor and needed surgery immediately. During that surgery, he was apparently left too long without oxygen by the anesthesiologist, and remained in a coma for several weeks after the surgery. When he woke up, he had to re-learn how to speak, and basically re-learn how to do everything. Although he made amazing strides, he only regained use of his left arm, and still struggled with speech. His wife, Joyce, was told to put him in a nursing home and move on with life. She said no. And instead, they moved on with a new sort of life, together. To make a long story short, sometime in the 90's Steve began coaching his daughters in basketball and softball. Shortly thereafter, he established an AAU Girl's Basketball Club in our city.

I remember playing 4th grade YMCA basketball. I was 5'9" in 4th grade, so I was only inches away from the lowered hoop we played on, but also had no athletic ability whatsoever. I was super uncoordinated, and often fell for no reason at all (years later, Steve would joke that I was tripping over the lines on the floor). So, I think we were all surprised when my dad got this phone call from a man with extremely slurred speech who said, "Mike. I want your daughter." Once he explained that he wanted me on his tournament basketball team, between that and hearing Steve speak for the first time, I'm pretty sure that my dad thought it was a practical joke...but it wasn't, with Steve saying that he figured he could teach everything about basketball, except for being tall. And I was tall.

And he did teach me everything. He literally brought in a track to teach me how to run (sort of). He taught me the fun-DA-mentals (as he would say) of pass, dribble, shoot. He bought me my first pair of basketball shoes. He couldn't physically show us the game, but he brought in people who could, and the older girls showed the younger ones what to do and helped translate what he was saying until we could understand 'Steve-speak' for ourselves. From 4th grade on, basketball became my life, six days a week, year-round.

We played a lot, often with tournaments every weekend. Steve coached from his wheelchair parked at the corner of the court, using a headset and speaker box to call out plays, subs, and to often tell me to "USE! YOUR! LEGS! MEREDITH!" He taught us to give back by encouraging us to coach YMCA teams of younger kids or acting as referee when the younger girls had scrimmages.

My dad used to help fix things for Steve when they broke down--his wheelchair van, his speaker box, his motorized wheelchair, etc. So, I probably saw more often than most how often things went wrong for Steve, and I can only imagine how frustrating it must have been...but I never heard him complain. What I saw instead was his hilariously wicked sense of humor. For example, after a bout with Bell's Palsy once, he used to like to scare the bejeezus out of everyone by randomly pretending that he had it again. His daughter Meagan (who I have been thrilled to reconnect with via Mom's Group) told a story at his memorial service about him managing to escape from the van once while she quickly ran into Costco (after she'd asked him to wait in the van because she'd be right back), and wheeling behind her begging for sweets that he wasn't supposed to eat as a diabetic, and then loudly exclaiming, "I don't understand why you have to be so mean to a cripple!" and "Why won't you wait for me?!" to the horror of everyone else in Costco at the time, and to his delight. That was Steve. To say he had a bit of a mischievous streak may be the understatement of the century!

Faith, family, and school were important to Steve, and they always came first--no one was ever penalized for missing a game or practice for church or any other family reason. If you were doing badly in school, you didn't play. Steve knew everyone's parents, always, and had all their phone numbers memorized.

Looking back at newspaper articles about Steve, they are peppered with quotes like, "I'm probably a better teacher now... the chair will give you patience. And, of course, the Lord gives you what you need," and "I'd rather be in this chair, knowing Jesus and going to Heaven than bip bopping around like I used to and going straight to Hell." But unlike other coaches I've had throughout the years, I don't think he made any of the girls who weren't Christian feel uncomfortable either--he never demanded that we pray before games like others did. I remember knowing that his faith was important to him, but I also remember that his faith was separate from the game. In retrospect, he lived his life of faith as a lighthouse--making a sound only occasionally, but shining through his actions daily.

Shortly before Steve died, a Facebook page was created to keep everyone updated as he was in hospice. And literally hundreds of girls--many of whom I knew and many of whom I didn't--began to chime in about Steve. How he saw something in them when no one else did. How he believed in them. Taught them. Cared for them. How they knew that the AAU team in their city wouldn't have ever started if Steve hadn't been so instrumental in bringing girl's basketball to our city, and then the valley. All of these things that he was to me...he was that to literally hundreds of other girls as well.

I don't think I ever told Steve what an amazing influence he was in my life, or how much the opportunity of basketball meant to me...so thank you Steve, for everything. You are missed by so many who knew you, and I can only hope that even those who didn't know you are inspired by your amazing life.

{Steve, and his wife Joyce}

Carnivals + Bumps

I've had a fun month photo-shoot wise! First, we kicked things off with Madison's 3rd Birthday party-Hollie did such an amazing job with the carnival theme, and the little details just blew me away!

 

Then, I got to try my hand at a maternity session for the first time with my SIL Renee. We had a heck of a time getting our schedules together, and then when they DID converge, the weather just wasn't cooperating. Oh, and also, the city totally mowed down the field of flowers we were planning to shoot at...so we improvised again, and stole away from an end-of-the-year BBQ at church for a super fast maternity session.

Love these summer sessions!