I'm not a cold weather person. I'm fine with fall and sweatshirt weather, but when that temp drops, I'm not thrilled. With that said, I DO like snow! (well you know, if I don't have to drive in it) So when it snowed the passed weekend my girl and I had to get out into it.
Last year she wasn't such a fan but this year she is all about it. I asked her something like 20 times if her hands were cold and she just kept saying no. They HAD to have been cold... we had gloves on but mine were cold, so I think she was too excited to be cold. We had a blast making a snowman and she woke up yesterday morning wanting to make another one :)
I had the husband take pictures of us from inside while he held Wes, so Norah was slightly confused as to where she should be looking :)
Have you gotten any snow yet this year? Love it? Hate it? Don't care?
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Does every parent spend entirely too much time sad/fearful/amazed at the fact that their kids get older? I know they do, and if you look back through my posts, I talk about it a lot so obviously I'm in that place in life. There are moments every single day that I stop for a second just to soak in that moment, knowing that it is fleeting and evolving. Last night it was when I was cuddling with Norah before bed and she demanded I hold her, "Hold me mimi!" (she calls me Mimi)
It's kind of a strange feeling for me. In those moments that I soak up I'm both sad and incredibly excited. I'm of course sad in the way of thinking how she won't always still be a baby toddler and she won't always ask me to hold her, I expected to feel that way.
What I didn't realize is that even in those moments I'd be incredibly excited for the things to come. I'm SO excited to see her grow up. Every day she does things that amaze me and I love seeing her grow into a fun, excited, creative, drum to her own beat little girl. Sometimes it is little things that others probably would give me a strange look about. You know, tilt their head to the side, scrunch their eye brows and shake their head in confusion (and maybe ask Siri for the number to some sort of helpline). Those little things that unless you are Norah's Mimi you probably won't care about - such as her being able to tell me what she had for snack at preschool, amaze me. Watching her grow mentally is so fun for me. Other times it is the big things, such as when she formulates a complex sentence that I've never heard her say before. Well... at least that is big to me :)
So I think my excitement for the future outweighs the sadness about her baby days fading. So I choose to soak in those fleeting moments and embrace the fun that is happening and the fun to come :)
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If you like my blog please click the image below.
There is nothing to sign up for, just click and you are done. Thanks!
In 2000 my family signed up for the internet for the first time. It was dial up, I was so excited! I think it was called, "local line". I could sign up for an email address (which was used for actual communication and not just store coupons and spam) and AIM. I was allowed to be on the internet for about an hour an evening before bed. Literally I was allowed on from 8-9pm. I first communicated with my now husband of 6 years in 2000 on AIM.
Over the next few years the only thing I used the internet for was AIM, ICQ (random digit user names anyone?!) and Napster.
Back in 2004 I was entering my senior year of high school. I had a super cool Nextel phone. Seriously, it was amazing. Not only could I call people on it (with my 100 minutes or so) but I could use it like a walkie talkie with push to talk (was that what it was called??). Of course I only had so many of those allotted to me as well. The screen was small and in black and white. I MAY have had the snake game on it and it was pre-intalled... there was no "app store".
My online presence consisted mostly of AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) and I had a Geocities website (if you didn't have one you weren't cool). The only profile I had was on my AIM account where I could put quotes and things about myself in whatever colors my heart desired (as long as it was in the drop down menu...). We had dial up still so it was about 45 seconds from the time I wanted to get online until I actually could. Oh and no one could be on our landline phone, which was our primary means of communication.
In 2005ish I moved up in the world and got a sleek new pink razor phone and O.M.G. it had a color screen! It had texting capabilities! I only had to click "2" 3 times to type a "C". Of course it cost about 30 cents to send or receive a text, so it better be gosh darn important if you are sending me a text. I was also entering college and so I purchased my first laptop. It was pretty neat too... It was a dell and I could pick which color I wanted the outer shell to be, you know, for an extra $80 or so. College introduced me to the world of high speed internet. 2005 also brought my Facebook account to me. Back in 2005 you needed to be an approved college student with an .edu email address.
Today in 2013 I'm typing on a MacBook with my iPhone sitting next to me. My phone is in color and can play real music, not just beeps and tones. My phone has internet. My phone is essentially a computer that fits into my pocket. Woah. Oh not impressed by that? I would have been 10 years ago.
10 years ago if I went out for a walk no one knew about it. If you knew about it it was because you were either there or I mentioned it to you when I saw you. If you saw a picture of it I would have had to have taken a picture on my film camera, finished up the roll - possibly 3 weeks later, went to the store put the film into a paper envelope, wait 5-6 days while they mailed it to a lab, picked it back up, looked through them to see if any turned out (no fingers in the way etc) and brought them over to you for you to see my view on the walk. You probably wouldn't have been interested. I wouldn't have cared if you weren't interested because I had enjoyed my walk and that was that.
Today if I go on a walk I can instantly post a picture of something I see on my walk and people can "like" it.
It's not even that we wait until the end of the day to upload our pictures we've taken that day. We upload pictures as the event/happening is still going on. My daughter could be dancing around the living room, I'll snap a picture and it is live on FB or Instagram before she is even done dancing.
Why?
It's almost as if I don't post a picture or talk about it on social media that it didn't happen. Like if I don't share about it, then I didn't enjoy it as much. I mean Heaven forbid I go to an amusement park and no one know!
But WHY?! I don't know. It's been a slow progression. It's a habit. Possibly even an addiction. I tend to feel a bit lost if my phone isn't within reach, almost anxious even. I don't want to get rid of my phone, there are so many benefits, and I DO like social media. I just need to step back. Remind myself that I did experience things before there was a way to instantly share it with the world.
Have I missed moments with my child because I was occupied with my phone or computer? Probably. Most definitely. Have I not heard something my husband said because I was playing Candy Crush? Yep. I have a goal of not retreating from social media, but of it being a minor part of my life instead of a major part.
Social media is certainly not bad. I'm so blessed that I can keep in contact with special people in my life in this way. I would have probably lost touch with some amazing people without Facebook and text messaging. I think I just need to learn better social media management. Back in the early 2000's internet and technology limitations automatically limited my use, I now have to do that for myself - and I've done a pretty bad job at it.
Do you manage social media and technology well? Do you use it too much? Are you one of those that are able to separate phone/internet/computer usage from your every day life?
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Spring! I'm so thankful that spring has finally arrived. I was starting to wonder if it would ever come. Spring is used for many metaphors in life and rightly so. Spring often feels like it will never come at the end of a long grueling winter that doesn't seem to want to let go. When Spring does finally come, at least for me, it makes everything better. I forget those slushy gross days, those long months where we couldn't do much outside (which is hard with an active toddler!) and those chilled to the bone days. My mood is so much more peppy and I just have a better outlook on life in general. Flowers start popping up, there are buds on the trees and oh my, is that GREEN grass?!
Spring is certainly a season of life as well. I know sometimes I feel like I'm in a very long winter. The sky is gray and everything around me feels dead and cold and I want to hid away from it all as I wait for those better sunny days. Then suddenly without warning I can start to see flowers popping up and I know that "spring" is coming in my life. It certainly gives me a new energy!
Everything is better when there are flowers around right?
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Tonight one of the girls in the youth group was talking about Norah and said something along the lines of "When I have a kid I'm going to find you, as long as you are still alive at least"
I had to ask her just how old she thought I was! I certainly hope I'm alive in the next 5-15ish years. I'm only 24 for goodness sakes :)
