Dirt: Our Baby is 14!

14! We are in denial that our baby is 14, but it has come and gone and we survived.

Ellie is stylish and fashionable. Literally the funniest person in the room, no matter what.  Kind and cool, her current loves are summer camp, Eno hammocks and rocking dad's old sweatshirts. My favorite thing about her is that she is eternally hanging out with "one of my best friends". All of her friends are considered "best". 

Sign from her 7th birthday! Makes an appearance every year! 

She is asked for art supplies and bikinis for her birthday. We obliged.  And they came days later in the mail! (Of course!)

Cooking: Birthday Dinner and More

Baby Girl is back! I felt like I was missing a limb all week while she was enjoying the surf and sun in Florida. She was gone on her birthday, which was really weird. I know I will not be there personally for every single birthday, but 13 seems a little soon.

Today, we are celebrating her birthday with a small family gathering with the "in town" grandparents. I made an ice cream cake and we are having Thai, per the birthday girl's request. Simple and sweet.

The rest of the week is back to normal life. Practices, work and family dinners. Life is good.

Spring Break is OVER at Casa Swann Menu

• Thai Curry Chicken
• Baked chicken/ left over rice casserole/ sesame broccoli
• Grilled chicken pita sandwiches/ veggie sandwiches
• quiche
• Italian venison stew/ tomato soup with white beans and kale
• pizza!

Dirt: Again with the routine?

As I have progressed through the stages of motherhood, I have realized two things. 

#1 A routine will save your life.

#2 Routines do not mean you are boring (at least that is what I tell myself.)

routine does not = these

My first daughter was an easy baby, except she never slept through the night. She nursed through the night. I was exhausted, but happy because she really didn't need a routine. I could go all day long and she would nap here and there and we were cool. We traveled across the country when she was 5 months old, first by plane, then by car. I never wanted to commit to a routine because I felt that as a new person in town and a new mom, I really needed flexibility to just live my life. And, if I am honest, I equated a routine as such a "mom thing" and while I had a child, I did not want to be labeled a mom. By 13 months I was pregnant again and we moved into "Mommy needs a routine...because Mommy  needs a nap" mode.

Dirt: Bittersweet, Baby

Big milestone today.

Baby Girl Swann got her braces off!

Huge deal.

She is my baby and I have always treated her as such.

She was carried well into pre-school. 

She had her food cut almost into middle school.

I still feed her sometimes.

My baby is one of two and yet, she is just that, the baby.

 

Our last baby that needed us to carry her, feed her and keep away the loud noises.

Weird to think another milestone has passed and she is one step further away from needing us.

 

I hate that. 

So, today, I took her to get LOTS of chewy candy and gum. 

Then dropped her off at the orthodontist office.

She went in a baby.

Came out not so much one anymore.

Bittersweet, for sure.