Author Archives: Hang Up the Heels

times are a changin

I haven’t blogged regularly in a long while.  I’ve been caught up in life and all the busyness that change brings.  Our family has had so many things going on.  And to be totally honest I haven’t had any motivation to write or share.  Sadly, I haven’t even had the motivation to take many photos for the past several months.  Looks like there will be about a 4 month gap in Sadie’s childhood recordings – somehow I doubt she’ll mind.

Speaking of Sadie, she is great, in case you were wondering.  She’s been upgraded into a big kid twin sized bed in the past few months and she’s doing great in it.  She is sleeping much better these days – we’re not 100% sleeping through the night just yet.  But some nights we do, and I love those nights.  She’s still napping 2 hours a day like a champ.  She has a healthy appetite and a palate that is expanding and includes some raw vegetables, which is parent’s dream come true.  She got accepted into a preschool here in town that she starts in September.  And if you’re not from a major metropolitan area you’re probably thinking, “accepted?”  Yes.  Accepted.  Good preschools are hard to get into.  I had to start the process last November to get her in for the following September.  And out of the 45 or so parents applying only a handful get brought in.  So, this was a huge relief for us.  We adore this co-op preschool, and I’ll be working there one day out of Sadie’s 3 days a week which I’m so excited to do.  The biggest (well, not THE biggest) news in Sadie’s life is that we are currently potty training.  Eep!  Honestly though, it hasn’t been bad at all.  We’ve been doing it for 3 days (on and off) and she’s only had one accident.  I realize that at times parenting is only as difficult as you make it to be.  So I’ve taken a really laid back approach to potty training.  When we are home, we are in panties drinking lots of fluids with the potty chair at our side.  But when we leave the house because we need to or become bored, we put a diaper on for the time being.  As she gets more and more used to not going in her pants I’ll start venturing out more and more without a diaper.  And she gets it.  I have a feeling this is going to be much easier than I always imagined it to be.

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But while we are in the transitioning state, we are spending a lot of time at home causing total shenanigans.

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Speaking of home… we moved recently.  As in like 2 weeks ago.  It was gnarly.  I hate moving.  But am very happy to be in our new place.  We stayed in the same town just moved to place a few miles down the road.  Our new place is much cozier and warm.  Our previous home was big, too big for our liking and never really felt like home.  It was cold, literally.  Our next door neighbor was a tree farmer and had a about a dozen redwood trees in his yard that towered over our house and blanketed it in total shade.  Although it was beautiful and totally majestic – it was always cold.  Our new place is situated with the beach to our right side and a park and playground directly behind us.  Pretty ideal.  We’re still settling in around here and trying to empty a few boxes here and there.

Devin has been hard at work.  Many a nights he can be found at 2am still sitting up in the kitchen writing code.  That man works hard.  Sadie and I try our best to distract him on the weekends so he can give his brain a break from the matrix for a few hours. :)

We’ve had some visitors in the past couple of months including our parents, my brother and some friends.  Just last week my parents stopped by on their way through town while they were on a cruise up the coast.  It was a quick visit but so lovely to see them!

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And I suppose our biggest news is that we are having a baby!  Yes, I am pregnant.  Very pregnant.  6 months pregnant.  And seeing that Sadie made her grand appearance at 8 months, we might not have very long until this little dude shows up.  Yes, he is a boy.  Sadie will have a little brother.  She’s really into it.  She is surprisingly aware and involved in the idea of a growing family.  She notices that my belly is getting big and she seems to understand it’s because there is a baby in there.  She is constantly coming up and hugging and kissing the belly and saying “Hi baby brother.”  She loves coming to my doctor appointments and hearing his heartbeat.  It really shocks me how cognitive she seems to be of this whole crazy thing.

The pregnancy is the main reason this blog has suffered from lack of attention.  There have been extreme high moments and extreme low moments.  And extreme morning sickness that I only wish I could classify as moments, but full disclosure, it lasted heavily into my 17th week of pregnancy.  That’s almost half of the pregnancy spent puking day and night.  Oh, what a joy.  But now that I am back to my normal non-puking self and things have been less extreme and more still watered I’m hoping to take more photos and write.

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I’d like to make sure I capture these last remaining months of being only Sadie’s mom and no one else’s.  I hope I can gracefully handle the task of loving and nurturing two babies enough.  And I really hope I can handle those long sleepless nights once again.  It’s scary to start all over from the start, but I am very excited to get to know this little boy growing in my belly.  I can’t imagine ever loving anyone as much as I love Sadie, but I know I will – and the thought of having THAT much love times two is just incredible.

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If you actually made it reading all the way to the end of this, thanks for following along.  I guess there was a lot to catch up on.  It’s amazing how fast so many things can change in just a few months.  I hope to take the time to record this life a bit better than I have been.  And thank you for reading along in the past and in our exciting future.  Here’s to change and here’s to growth. Cheers!

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This & That From Here & There

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Mini Monet // Ice Cream Date // Beach Day // Day Date to Muir Beach // Serious Train Playing Stance // Trapped With Balloons // Getting Some Serious Air // Unamused At The Pizza Shop

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Easter

This was not Sadie’s first Easter, nor mine.  Sadie is so old and refined that this was in fact her 3rd Easter holiday.  And it was my…. well, I’ve seen my fair share of Easter baskets, we’ll just leave it at that.  However, it really kind of was our first Easter in a way.  Sadie was only less than 6 months old her first Easter, and to be honest I don’t have the slightest memory of what we did that year, if anything.  And last year she was a year and half old.  She was walking yes, speaking a bit… mostly just words here and there – no real communication.  But trying to get her to understand the concept of looking for hidden eggs and collecting them in a basket??? No way.  Plus, Easter last year fell on the day after Devin’s birthday and he had a heavy weekend with some friends that came up to visit and was in no form to be jolly and painting eggs the next day.

But this year…. this was the year that it all came to life.  I’ll also preface this by saying that we have yet to spend a Christmas in our home, so the act of being able to sneak around the house and prepare for my daughter’s surprise in the morning was a total first for me.  And also it was one of the best feelings I’ve ever had.  It felt so real, like, I’m really doing this thing!  I’m someone’s mom!!  I get to do all those sweet beautiful things that my parents did for me when I was little, and I get to do it for my Sadie.

So Devin and I stayed up late stuffing plastic eggs with jellybeans and M&M’s and cutting tags off of all the little toys and books we got for her basket.  That morning when she woke Devin kept her occupied playing in her room while I snuck out to the backyard and tip-toed through the dewy grass to place neon eggs in semi-conspicuous places.  Devin got her dressed in her most Easter-y dress and we told her that the Easter Bunny had come last night and he hid special treats for her outside and it was time for her to find them.

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The joy I felt watching her get so excited every time she found an egg was so wonderful.  She would run over to it, pause and say “I think I found my egg!” Then swoop it up into her basket.  With every single egg.

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When she came across her last egg I dashed back inside to place her Easter basket on her bed.  Once her and Devin made it back inside she quickly discovered that her eggs were filled with pieces of candy.  And her first ever candy breakfast happened.  We were able to break her away from her jellybeans by telling her that while she had been looking for her eggs the Easter Bunny came inside and left a special gift for her on her bed.

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The toys we got for her were simple knick-knacks from the drug store and a few dollar bin items from Target.  But she flipped.  She loved everything and kept raving on about how the Easter Bunny was her friend and he left her toys and candy.

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As the excitement began to simmer down I stepped away to get ready and start preparing for a post candy binge breakfast and Devin and Sadie sat down to watch Fantastic Mr Fox with all of Sadie’s new toys.  Unexpectedly we got an invite over to Sadie’s best friend Delphine’s Grandparents home for Easter brunch and yet another egg hunt.  Since we don’t have any family up here, we thought why not?!  So we headed on out and not only got a delicious breakfast, we got to watch Sadie enjoy her 1st ever real Easter all over again, and this time with her little partner in crime at her side.

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After our big morning and a nap break we kept the holiday spirit alive by dying eggs.  Sadie is still keeping the spirit alive after dipping her entire hand in the egg dye.  She has had a green hand for two days now :)

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It never ceases to amaze me how much I love this whole mom gig.  I mean, of course we have our bad days just like anyone else… but just like a fine wine it’s getting better with age.

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Napa Afternoon

It’s pretty hard to believe that in my two years of living in the Bay that I haven’t yet made the one hour trek up to Napa.  There are many reasons to go and visit such a beautiful place, but yesterday I had the best reason ever to go.  My very dear friend Danielle was staying in Napa to visit family after moving away to Sweden a year ago.  Danielle and I met many a moon ago while working together in Santa Monica.  We’ve been friends through many big changes in our lives, and have had the privilege of remaining close throughout our transformations from young girls into wives and mothers.

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We actually hadn’t seen each other since I moved to the Bay, so the last time she saw Sadie she was a mere 10 months old, and barely even crawling.  It was a very easy invitation to accept when she asked if I would come up to visit.  So I packed up a bag of snacks and diapers, ignored the cold I had been fighting and accepted the fact that Sadie would not be napping today and headed up to Napa for the day.

The day was more than a reunion with just Danielle – I got to see her entire family again which I hadn’t seen in ages (except for her husband and son who were back in Sweden).  And I got to meet her sister Christianna’s fiance and get a tour of his ah-may-zing vineyard.

Safe to say, it might have been the best day of Sadie’s life.  Running free through a spanning vineyard, throwing twigs into a lake, playing with dogs, getting to see farm animals that weren’t at an attraction and of course getting attention (and cupcakes) from the entire family.

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I don’t know when the next time Danielle and I will get to see each other again, and I so treasured my time with her.  But I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a bit more of Napa in our near future.

Thanks to the entire Lopreore Family for your hospitality!

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babe

I really can’t believe it, but Sadie is one month shy of being two and half.  In my opinion it seemed as if the first year of her life took so long.  During the newborn and infant stage there is a lot of monotony going on and progress such as sitting, crawling, walking and talking seem to take a long time to get to.  But since her first birthday time is moving at warp speed, and since her second birthday that warp speed got a turbo booster strapped to it.

I call her my baby, but she is so far from a baby.  I especially realize this when we are at the play ground with REAL babies.  Or toddlers just learning to toddle.  I watch my “baby” climb ladders by herself, go up and down stairs with ease and call to me from the top of the highest tower, “Mommy, watch me go down the big twisty slide!”  This kid is no baby.

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Her speech as far as I am concerned is at a 100%.  There is nothing this kid can’t say.  And she has repeatedly reminded me of that when she recites things that I say that could be viewed as a little less than appropriate.. oops.    She has also really developed a love of singing.  She sings constantly and immediately remembers the lyrics and melody of any song I sing to her more than once.  Dare I say, she might even grow up to be a pretty good singer.  And speaking of her voice… oh that sweet little voice.  How I treasure it so.  It is so sweet and little.

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One of her favorite new expressions is calling me babe after every question or request.  She obviously has picked that up from Devin and I who use ‘babe’ as our pet name for each other.  But, I can’t tell you how funny it is to hear your toddler say, “Can we paint now babe?”  or “Is the mac and cheese ready babe?”  Kills me every single time.

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I understand that the “two’s” are supposed to be terrible.  And it’s a very common practice to have a tantrum here and there and there and there.  God knows how I escaped it, but I did.  Somehow.  I have an angel for a child.  She never tantrums.  She has no problem with disappointment… if I tell her she can’t have a lollipop now or she needs to put that toy back on the shelf because we’re not buying it, she obliges and just says, “maybe later.”

She also loves to share.  And will happily give toys away to any wandering nearby children.  She’ll go with the flow if I have to wake her up from a nap early, or if I forgot her favorite toy at home.  Honestly the only thing she gets pretty opinionated about is which pj’s she gets to wear at night.  She’s pretty specific about that.  Who knows why.  And it’s not that I have done some amazing training process on making her an agreeable little person.  She just is who she is.  And that happens to be a kind, caring, gentle, patient and smart little person.

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We are by no way perfect over here.  We are still dealing with sleep issues that I really hope will be resolved soon.  We’re still in diapers and are still very much attached to our pacifier.  These are all things that are on my major to do list before we hit three.  But at this rate her third birthday will be here in a blink so I know I have to get on it.  I’m just so scared of the fallout from those things.  Especially the pacifiers!!  If anyone has any helpful tips for that, I’m all ears.

Here’s to you Sadie.  Thank you for making life so easy and so very magical.  xo.

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Adventures & Auntie

The one and only Auntie Jam Jam came for a visit over the weekend.  Sadie loves her Aunt and I love having my sister around so it was a win win for all of us.  We went on a few mini adventures during Jamie’s time here.  And we all seemed to have really enjoyed our afternoons out, especially Baby Reindeer who you will probably spot in more than a few photos.  He has become my second child and we are to never ever ever leave the house without Sadie’s very special friend.  Nor are we to go to bed without, or eat a meal without.

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The very last photo of Sadie and Jamie was taken during a very heart-felt 35 minute monologue into which Sadie was explaining to her Aunt that there was a bumble bee and it was nice and it likes to eat grass and has a mommy and daddy.  And somehow it went on like that for 35 minutes.  Sorry Jamie!

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hello.

Been a while.  Here’s some brief moments over the past 2 months or so.

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brushing off the dust

It’s been a minute since I sat down to post something.  I figured it was about time I actually make an effort to keep up with this blog.  So, I’m putting in a very pathetic amount of effort into it today.  At least it’s something.

Life has been upside down lately.  I haven’t even taken any photographs of Sadie in weeks.  So today I’ll share some photos from about 3 weeks ago that I never got around to sharing…

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I’m working on pulling myself together and getting some real photos of Sadie.  I know I’ll end up really regretting it if I let too much time slip by.  So that is my priority #1 for next week.  Take her somewhere special, show her a good time, and get some damned photos of her!

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I actually had all the intentions in the world of doing a ‘year in review’ post all about our year together in 2012.  Seeing as to how it’s already scraping end of January, I think it’s safe to say that that is not going to happen.  At least the thought was there.  I swear I will start giving this blog more attention again.  Soon enough I’ll have stories to tell and days to share.  I’m just taking my time getting there.

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Conversations With A Toddler

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Sadie – Mommy, you give me a idea!

Me – Oh yeah?  What’s your idea?

Sadie – You a good mommy!

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Guns: A Close Call Or Two Pt. 2

I was involved in a school shooting.  I was involved in all the right ways, and because of that… it was a school shooting that never happened.

The town I grew up in was a small one horse town in San Diego County.  I lived on several acres of land that was surrounded by even more land completely untouched.  Our “neighbors” were barely even visible.  In most small towns with lots of open space kids get into riding dirt bikes.  I was one of them.  I had my own 4 wheeler quad that I spent much of my free time on.  There was a boy named Ben (name changed) that was somewhat of a neighbor and would often come by on his dirt bike wanting to go riding with me.  Ben wasn’t really popular at school.  I have no clue of what his home life was, but he always wore black and most of his clothes were tattered and frayed.  He was awkward, but not in a nerdy kind of way.  He was awkward in a much darker way.

I didn’t really hang with him in school, except for the occasional quick convo when we passed each other in the halls.  But we did go off road biking together a lot outside of school.  But I can’t say we even really ever talked during that.  We just rode.

We were in 8th grade.  The school day was just beginning.  All the students would get dropped off and we’d gather in the outdoor lunch area until class started.  I had just been dropped off and I was walking down the ramp to gather with my friends when Ben stopped me.  He was already talking to one other kid, a guy who I didn’t really know.  Ben was acting weird and cocky, unlike I had seen him before.  He pulled his jean pant pocket open and told me to look.  (This was the 90′s, jeans were very baggy back then)  I looked down into his deep front pocket and couldn’t believe what I was looking at.  It was a gun.

I immediately felt shocked, scared, threatened, confused… guns have a very powerful way of melting away innocence and even at a young age making you reflect on your life on the ones you love.  That one tool, in a blink of an eye can take away everything you love and change your whole life.

Being the eloquent 12 year old that I was on this specific day I just blurted out, “Is that a gun!?”  Of course he told me to shhh, and be quiet about it.  I had so many other questions.  Why do you have a gun on you? Is it loaded? What if it goes off in your pocket and shoots your foot? Where did you get it?  Where is your backpack? WHY DO YOU HAVE A GUN AT SCHOOL?!

He told me that it was loaded, but the safety was on so it wouldn’t shoot him in the leg.  He didn’t bring his backpack today because he didn’t need it.  He had P.E. first period and then he was going to shoot Mr. Jones (name changed).  And he wanted to see if I would hold the gun for him while he was in P.E.

Wait, what?! You are going to shoot Mr. Jones?? 

Yes.  I hate that guy.

I don’t like the vice principal either but, do you mean you’re going to kill him?!

Yeah.

Whoa, that’s crazy dude.  No, I’m not gonna hold the gun.  It freaks me out.

And I exited the scene.

I don’t know if I acted cool to Ben about it because I was in shock, or maybe I was terrified or maybe I was 12 and just too immature to understand the reality of what was happening.  But either way, I couldn’t relax.  I was so nervous.  As soon as that bell rang I went straight to class, checked in with my teacher and asked to be excused to go to the office for some excuse or another.

I scurried across campus hoping to not run into Ben.  I made it into the office and asked to see Mr. Jones.  Mr. Jones was busy and didn’t usually just take sit downs with students on a whim, so I asked to talk to the school counselor with whom I already had a relationship with.  She saw me right away.  And I immediately blurted out… ummm, Ben has a gun on him, it’s in his pocket, he showed it to me, he said he was going to kill Mr. Jones after first period.

Things happened pretty quickly after that.  Police were there.  There was a security guard on every corner of the school, but it was all very hush hush.  No one knew what was going on.  But I did.  We didn’t go on “lock-down” this was before school-shootings had really became a thing and I guess there wasn’t a protocol put in place.  I was even sent back to class after telling the news.  Once Ben had been taken into custody and was off campus I was taken in for questioning about how I knew what I knew.

But that was it.  Ben was arrested and never returned to school.  And everything continued on like nothing had ever happened.  Mr. Jones never mentioned it to me, even though I’m sure he must have known it was me who informed the school of his intended assassination.

I don’t really know what could have happened that day if I didn’t tell on Ben.  Maybe he was bluffing and just trying to impress me in some warped way.  Or maybe he would have killed Mr. Jones and possibly a few more than just him.  I’m grateful that no one was hurt.  And I’m grateful that my 12 year old self had the sense to tell an adult.

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