Amazingness Factor

Rosanna.  What would I do without her?  She is by far the biggest and most amazing shift in my life EVER.  So I just have to brag.  I have to get it out of me and into the world, you must be privy to her amazingness.

Amazingness factor #1:
Kisses.  Sometimes randomly.  How cool is that?  The sweetest is when she is falling asleep and she needs one more, so she pushes her face up and I plant one right on her soft squishy face.  I never pass up a chance for Ro kisses because I know that one day she might be less inclined (at which point I will cry, shamelessly).

Amazingness factor #2:
Everything I said about #1, except replace "kisses" with "hugs".  No lie.  This kid can hug.  She'll even walk around the house, hunting down cats saying, "hug!" until she finds one....then they get hugged.

Amazingness factor #3:
Her willingness and excitement about communicating.  Does she wants yogurt?  "YEEEEAH!!"  Does she want strawberries?  "No".   And so it goes.  When there is a toy in the box that she really wants but can't get she looks intently at Ethan or I and says, "Hep!" (help) and will sometimes sign it too.  Lately she copies me when we are looking for something (or someone) and I say, as we look around, "Daddy?  Where are you?".  While she doesn't get all the words right, she gets the sing-song tone just perfect and it is crazy adorable.

Amazingness factor #3:

She says "Hi" to EVERYONE.  Even to you, awkward teenage boy who doesn't know what to do when a one year old says "Hi" to you.

Amazingness factor #5:

There is an unending newness to the world.  She takes on life in ways I had stopped considering.  It's like I get to experience everything all over again for the first time.  That's how mega-cool having a wee-one is.  It's so cool.   

I could go on.   And on and on and on.  Just ask me,  I'm a super dedicated pro in the "Rosanna" department.  I can tell you all about the 30 or so signs she knows and how her dexterity is amazing as a result.  Or what about the fact that she sings songs while we change her diaper, or drive in the car or just whenever?  She even has a growing library of dance moves, the latest is twirling.  The kind of dizziness inducing twirling that results in a collapse to the floor and extreme silliness.  And also she doesn't miss a thing- she'll see cats, birds, lions, you name it no matter how small and she'll point it out.  She could teach me a thing or two about seeing, and I mean really seeing the world around me.

Tangent.  I told you, I can't help myself.  

I'm a tweaker

...of photos that is.  Lately I can't get enough, I'm actually taking photos for the purpose of altering them.  It's sick.  It's also loads of fun!  Ethan might be tired of me asking relentlessly, "So, here is the original....now here's the new one.  Cool, right?!?!"

I think that maybe picnik should pay me, because I'm basically a walking advertisement for them.  I do all of my photo play there.  It's so danged easy.  And fun!  If you're paying any attention to facebook lately you have had a taste of my addiction.  I think I'm getting quite good too (in my amateur eyes).

Here are some of my faves!

Before:

 After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before: (look how much I was able to improve the color!)

After:

 I could go on.  I have at least 50 that I've done and it was hard to choose just a few (I am taking into consideration that not everyone thinks it is as cool as I do- you're welcome).  

I'd love to just get better at taking photos so that the tweaking part becomes less of a necessity, but in the mean time I'll keep having my fun.  Here's to being an amateur photographer!

Daylight come and I wanna stay there

I'm seriously in love with my family.  These are the kinds of people who radiate love and compassion.  Spending time with them is like recharging my soul.  I wish all lived we lived closer to each other- imagine being plugged into free flowing love all the time, what would happen?  Well, one person's description of us implied that we may have been drinking all day prior to being in their presence....we hadn't.  Love it.

These amazing folks gathered from their respective corners of the states and settled into Sedona, Arizona for a week and I was ELATED at the thought of it.

We BBQ'd,

swam, 

hiked, 

awed, 

and basically enjoyed the heck out of ourselves.

I don't remember the last time I was so emotional that a vacation was over.  It took me at least two days to feel stable enough to think about it with out crying.  I miss my family.  It's a cool and rare thing to feel so confident with an entire group of people that I can just leave my child in their care and have not a worry.  It's a cool and rare thing to feel like the people around me all actually care about what is going on with me, they aren't just attempting casual conversation.  Not to mention the intriguing topics of conversation.  

You'll just have to trust me, because I'm keeping them for myself: this family is one for the books and I am blessed to have been born to them.  I'm ready to go back...

Bath time saddness

I am kind of addicted to taking baths. 

Late in the evening, after the toys are put in their box and the flurry of books that covers our living room floor are lined up on their shelf....this is when it happens.  Our tiny little house is so quiet and filling up the bathtub gets the tiniest bathroom dense with steam.  

Readiness goes like this: 

- gather reading material (the latest Sunset magazine is my preference, otherwise a book will do)

- turn the baby monitor toward the bathroom so I can see the munchkin from the tub

- pull my hair up, way up, onto my head to avoid getting it wet

- get my cell phone and place it on the sink in case the hubby calls

Then it's time!!  I like my water just a little bit too hot.  The kind of hot where you have to enter slowly and you end up with half a red body where your skin was under the water.  This is my favorite part.  I love feeling the super warmth and the tingle as my cold skin is shocked into the hotness and for a minute or two I just lay there.  

If I could have just that moment of bath time I would be happy.  The rest is just a slow death of hot bath water.  Everything after that point is my body getting acclimated and, eventually, too hot.  So I pass the time reading and bending my legs in and out of the water (us taller folk don't fit all the way into the tub all at once). In all truthfulness the whole experience lasts about 15 minutes, but I really love it.   

Do you ever sit in the tub as the water drains?  It's a funny feeling.  I imagine being an astronaut, coming back into the earth's atmosphere and losing my 'floatiness'.  As the water sinks lower, my body feels heavier and the weight of my legs presses by into my knees until eventually I am lying like a dead octopus, all collapsed, limp and heavy in the bottom of the tub.

And then I'm sad.  All that water, all that energy to heat it up for such a small bit of happiness.  It does take awhile for the heat to wear off though.  I can usually go a few hours before I am no longer self-heating.  Jazzy Belle likes bath time too.  She gets herself all cozy on the bath mat and glances at me lazily every so often.  She's not a fan of me dripping on her when I get out though.