the truth of it all

A few weeks ago, a friend said to me, "You make motherhood look so easy."

Ummmm... what?

All I know is that from my perspective, motherhood is WAY harder than I ever thought it would be. The first 6 months were a complete blur of sleep deprivation, newborn crying, and nursing around-the-clock. It's gotten significantly easier since then now that Isabelle is way past the difficult newborn days, but even now, if you stop by to visit unannounced on any given day, you will likely find the sink halfway-full with dirty dishes, toys all over the living room floor, me with no makeup and with my hair up in a haphazard ponytail and wearing a shirt and pajamas pants that probably don't match, all the while probably chasing Isabelle around with food that she'll likely just chew up and then spit out all over the floor. The picture of motherhood ease? I think not!

But apparently I have some people fooled.

The truth of it all, though, is that being a mom of small children (who doesn't have a nanny or cleaning service or extra help) is straight up hard. Like, really hard. So when you think of that supermom in your kid's playgroup who you are in awe of because she seems to have it all together perfectly? Simply put: she doesn't.

The truth is you just prioritize and figure out what's important and what isn't. And you do the best you can. And you love your kids the best you can.

None of that other stuff matters. It really doesn't.

and then you become a mother.

A line from an episode of Grey's Anatomy a few weeks ago that really resonated with me:

"You think true love is the only thing that can crush your heart, the thing that will take your life and light it up, or destroy it. Then… you become a mother."

WORD.

When you're single, you go through so much crap in hopes of one day finding "the one." Then, unbelievably, it actually happens. All that crap you went through in the past makes sense now. It all led you to this point, and this person. Everything is wonderful and perfect and you love this person so much, which is amazing. You don't think anyone else in the whole wide world could possibly ever have this same power over you, this same effect over your heart. But amazingly, when you have a child, that's precisely what happens. As tiny and helpless as that little child is, you find yourself completely vulnerable to her. All of a sudden, this little person has the power to cause you both immense joy and potential agony. It's why mothers constantly worry. And it's why a mother's love is seriously no joke.

I'll admit it: when I watched that scene in Grey's Anatomy with the aforementioned line, my eyes welled up.

OK, fine. It was more like bawling.

Shut up.

2 versus 3

For the most part, it seems that most people want as many kids as they grew up with. This holds true in our case. I came from a family of 2 kids, and I want 2 kids. My husband came from a family of 3 kids, and he wants 3 kids. I feel like I should have an itty-bitty more say in this topic, though, since I'm the one who has to be pregnant for 9 months (per child), nurse for 1+ year (per child), not to mention go through the pain of childbirth (per child!), and then chase all of them around all day long since I'm currently a SAHM.

So this is my two cents on the issue: if the next kid is a girl, then I'd be willing to consider having a third child. If the next kid is a boy, though, then we're done. I think that is a fair compromise, no?

priorities

I came across THIS on my Zite, and loved it. Kudos to that guy!

I know it's tough and that a lot of people probably don't have employers as understanding as that guy's or the freedom to quickly find another job with comparable pay if the need were to arise (especially with the way the econony has been for some time now), but it was uplifting to read how this guy was able to make it happen as well as his thought-process and convictions behind it.

princess party

It's difficult enough planning any party, but planning a party from the other side of the country and then flying in a mere one day before the day of the party sure made things interesting! You see, my husband had a 3 month work trip on the west coast, and we went with him. Naturally, since we're from the east coast, all of our friends and family are there, so it made the most sense to celebrate her 1st birthday back east. It was tough (not only did we have party logistics to worry about, but we also had to make sure our jet-lagged baby who had just spent the previous day traveling was well-rested and not cranky for her party), but we somehow pulled it off. The decor and setup came out even better than I envisioned, the food and guests were plentiful, and most importantly, the birthday girl was happy.

Invitations were ordered from Wedding Paper Divas.

I found this dress at a flower girl dress shop.

Sleeveless satin bodice and organza skirt with flower sash.

Her "throne" was from Pottery Barn Kids. The tiara on top was from Amazon.

I really love the way the dessert table came out. The pomanders were by Martha Stewart, which I ordered from Amazon. The table sign and rectangular tags were hand-constructed and handwritten by me with cardstock and bling from Michaels. The circular tags on the cupcakes were by Scrap Bits on Etsy.

The guestbook was made on a Mac using iPhoto, and ordered from Apple.

Favor tags were by Scrap Bits on Etsy,
and the cookies were homemade by my husband's mother.

And here's the birthday girl :)

Shoes were by Stride Rite, ordered from Zappos.

Balloons were from Party City.

The 2-tiered main cake and the smash cake were both made by a talented friend of my husband's who bakes cakes for fun. The tiara cake toppers were custom made by her and are edible. Vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream frosting and marshmallow fondant... all homemade by her from scratch.

We changed her into her tutu outfit for the cake festivities and the presents-opening. Tutu is from Danbury Lane on Etsy.

So very true.

Thank you cards were ordered from Flickr via Snapfish.

Happy first birthday, my little girl.

You are so very, very loved. :)

one year old

My little girl is one year old! We had a princess-themed party to celebrate, and I'll post photos from that soon enough. For now, though, I'll post her 1st birthday portraits that I took a few weeks ago. Instead of taking her to a studio, I decided to try taking these portraits myself. Not too bad, I think! These photos were used in the guestbook for her birthday party :)