It's been two weeks?

Really? Wow. Lazy blogger.
Life is just flying by. I cannot believe that April will be here in 2 days.
At this time last year I was beginning my descent into the latter part of my pregnancy. You know, those miserable last few weeks in which you suddenly realize that what you are carrying inside of you is the size of a WATERMELON, only it happens to be a human who's head is sitting on your pubic bone and who's sudden movements can stop you dead in your tracks because you have a foot in your rib cage. I could go into what the definition of "lightening crotch" is, but I'll spare you.

Was it worth it? You bet your ass it was.

I'm not going to lie..the first couple of months that Lily was here, I really couldn't see exactly what all of the fuss was about. Let me explain before you call Child Services. YES, of course I fell immediately in love with Lily and YES, the minute I saw her I knew I would die for her...and all of that extra loving stuff...but the first few months were just an introduction to the meaning of parenting: the sleepless nights, the worrying, the muffin top...all that is joyous, but it was..well, a little boring? Monotonous? Tedious? All of the above. It's a trying time, I don't care what anyone says about it. It's hard. However hard you think it's going to be before you have kids, times that by a million and you'd still be a little off.

It wasn't until Lily was about 4-5 months old that I REALLY got it. "It" being the most magical feeling of realizing this little human actually responds to you, relies on you, loves you unconditionally (for now). I got it. It wasn't until that age that Lily didn't do much but eat, shit, sleep, pee and make involuntary noises. YES, all of that is cute and sweet and fun in it's own right, but I guess my point is that I couldn't actually measure the fruits of my labor (no pun intended) for a couple months to come. Obviously, some will disagree with all of this, but this just so happens to be the way that I experienced it. Hopefully, I just normalized the way some new moms are feeling. Either that or I caused everyone on the interwebs to think I'm crazy flakes. Either way, it's ok with me.

Now, at 10.5 months...it's so much more than I ever thought it would be. SO much more. She knows how to give me hugs and kisses, she mimics me, she laughs at me, she wants to know where I am at all times, she looks for me to comfort her and sometimes no one else will do...I am her mom and this is what my purpose is in life. Everything suddenly makes sense when I look at her.

I can't believe I didn't even know her a year ago. It suddenly feels like I've always known her. I suppose it's more that I was always destined to know her... and be lucky enough to be her mom.

Double Digits.

My princess is 10 months old today...TEN! How is that even possible?

I could not get a smile out of her to save my life so this is as good as it gets.

Things she's into:

~~Scaling the furniture and her crib.
~~Waving. A lot.
~~Mimicking our conversations.
~~Saying "uh oh" when she drops something.
~~Singing Beyonce with me (All The Single Ladies. She loves the "Uh, uh, oh" part.)
~~Mommy. Mommy. Mommy.
~~Grandpa. Grandpa. Grandpa.
~~Finger foods, like chicken, cut up green beans, CHEESE.
~~Sleeping 11-12 hours at night. Amen. (This one took a lot of work and patience on our part though.)
~~The mulch at the park. Don't ask.
~~Sippy cups.
~~Books, because they're delicious, not interesting to read.
~~Anything that is not a toy.
~~Bouncing balls.
~~Making "bitter beer" faces, like this one:

(and yes, that is a gigantic gap in between her teeth and yes, I do realize this is a horrible picture of my otherwise beautiful daughter.)

She is such an amazing little girl. I fall more in love every.single.day.

Trendy.

It seems to me that everyone is a photographer these days. All of my friends have these fancy cameras and are taking AMAZING pictures with very little training.

Well, let me jump on that train.

Dustin and I have wanted a DSLR for quite awhile but never wanted to spend the money. Ok, that isn't true. Those cameras scared the shit out of me because there is so much to learn about them.

After a lot of research and comparison, we ended up with the Canon Rebel XS. It came with a 18-55 lens, which I know is just a starter lens, but we plan on getting the 55/1.8 and then a telescopic for surfing pictures.

I read the entire manual this morning. Ok, that isn't true either, but I did read most of it. It's still so confusing to me: aperture, ISO, shutter speeds, blah, blah. There are quite a few settings, some manual, some automatic...but all confusing.

So, I sucked up my pride and sought out the photography advice of The Pioneer Woman. This is a trendy train I have never jumped on to, this Pioneer Woman. Probably because I don't cook and could not give two shits how she met her husband....but now I have a reason.

I digress.

Anyway, here are some samples, most taken in the Automatic setting without any photo editing at all...

Not bad for my first shot at it, if I do say so myself. I know we have a lot to learn but this is fun. 

Any tips would be appreciated!

Fun.

Fun with Uncle Drew, sounding like a bird of some sort...

Taking a breath.

We've been way too busy and way too sleep deprived to think much, so I'm finally getting around to posting!

Thought I would do some randomness...

• I went to Milwaukee a couple weekends ago for my friend Jessie's baby shower. There were about 20 of us girls, all FIFs, and it was a lot of fun.

There was a lot of pictures being taken with fancy cameras.

There were goodie bags with cookies, Milwaukee brewed soda, cheese curds and blinking snowflake necklaces....because it's cold there.

Guest of honor.

All of us.

• Lily is getting so big and she is so much fun right now. She is a happy baby. Still doesn't love to sleep, but happy all the same. She thinks she can walk. She'll pull herself up to something and then turn around, forgetting that she isn't quite stable enough to walk yet, then promptly fall on her butt. I can't believe she'll be 10 months old in 2 weeks. It seems impossible. I've been working on getting her passport for Costa Rica. I'm so excited to take her there, I wish it was next week!
• Speaking of Costa Rica, there are now about 16 of us going in September. It will be a wedding reunion, plus some new friends. It will be so much fun.
• I have a lot going on professionally. I'm in the process of changing jobs, going into management. I'll update about that later but I'm pretty excited about it.
• Dustin has been working more on his art work and trying to build a name for himself. He's advertising some and trying to get to get a business up and running. We know this will take some time but he's working towards making it happen. 
• Our friends Derek and Tiffany got engaged on their trip to Breckenridge a couple weeks ago! We're so excited for them. I guess we had a pretty kick ass wedding in Costa Rica because they're planning on getting married there too!

• I help host a baby shower this past weekend for my friend Susie who is due on Lily's birthday! We had a wonderful time.

That's about all my brain can produce right now.