the art of the thank you

I got this thank you in the mail from my 5 year old niece, Mara: And this one from 3 year old, Sonna:

And they came in this envelope from my sister, Annika. It says, "I love you, Sis! Great to 'see you' on Skype lately. Sonna: "Mom, you are good at flushing!" Always the encourager!

A few thoughts. The envelope note made me laugh. First because the content is hysterical. Sonna complimented Annika's ability to flush the toilet. That is funny stuff. I can't wait until Ivar can boost my ego with such complementary words... And second because our dad is the King of Envelope Notes. This is how he operates. Most weeks at college dad would send me the church bulletin in an envelope with an envelope note. Short, to the point, and consistent. I loved it.

Annika is amazing at thank yous. She always gets hers out on time and writes something thoughtful and considerate. I got this thank you in the mail and it snapped me out of my thank you note denial. I have another 70 to write since Ivar was born and so far I've been playing the New Baby card very well. But I believe it is time to write five a day until they are done. After all, I am so grateful and its time I thank the proper people for their generosity. It's just so daunting.

But something about Mara taking the time to write all of those words and to draw a picture of Twister, and Sonna working so hard on every one of those letters made me think it's time for me to work hard too and get them done.

Until then, for all of you still waiting for a thank you for a gift you sent: THANK YOU for your patience and generosity. A thank you should be coming shortly to a mailbox near you.

Ivar's little laugh

first laughs from Becca Groves on Vimeo.

wonders never cease

My sister-in-law Lisa gave me this amazing gift for Christmas. It was in my stocking that was filled with all sorts of other great things, but this gadget here might be my favorite new ease-of-life-innovation. Behold the Peanut Butter and Jelly Spreader. Never again will one find jelly in the peanut butter or peanut butter in the jelly.

It's so perfect because since the moment Ivar was born, I cannot get enough peanut butter and jelly toast. I craved nothing while I was pregnant with him, but now that he is here and I have no real excuse for crummy eating, this insatiable need for pbj toast will not go away.

Literally, I never had pbj toast while pregnant, but it was the very first thing I ate after delivery (probably five hours after Ivar was born) and ever since it has become this crazy comfort food. And now I have a device to help me with my craving. Merry Christmas to me. Thank you, Lisa!

tummy time

This weekend I remembered about tummy time. I guess it just slipped my mind until I read on babycenter.com that "your baby may be able to prop himself up with his arms by now..." and I realized my neglect. So this morning Ivar had some time on his belly. He was a bit concerned, kept looking at me with a confussed look like surely I had made a mistake and gave little grunts and sighs as if to say, "I don't enjoy this, so whenever you'd like to flip me over, that would be great." And when I flipped him, he was much happier.

Today I put him in his new jeans! I had a gift card to gap kids and found these jeans on the clearance rack. They're still too big for him, but I couldn't help myself this morning (plus, he had nothing clean to wear...) I thought the John Deer blanket from my Uncle Carl was a good selection to go with his work pants.
I was with my Grandma last week and told her I got Ivar his first pair of jeans and she gave me a look of disgust like I have never seen. She even made an audible disapproving sound! This is unheard of from my agreeable Grandma. But she has always had a thing about babies wearing adult clothes. She believes baby clothes should be soft and cuddly. And I would say I absolutely agree Grandma!...until I found these jeans. Then I made my exception. Ivar will just be sure not to wear them in her presence.

He's so cute, isn't he?!! :)

Christmas and a baby

My friend Beth wrote a great blog post yesterday that I think you'll enjoy. It made me laugh hard as not only am I trying to right my habits after Christmas cookie season, but I'm also trying to get some sort of plan together in order to 1) work off this extra baby-love on my body, 2) get a shower in each day and 3) to change out of my pajama pants by suppertime.

Click here to read Beth's post entitled: Breaking Up is Hard to Do