Closing in on one year

Sorry no pictures today. I tried to snap one this morning before zooming off to the babysitter's, but the dang camera was out of batteries. Roan was so cute. In a great mood, as usual. Tromping around the house babbling at the top of her lungs, whacking things with a drumstick, saying "up up" to be picked up and "duh duh" to be put down.

Coming up on one whole year, this week I have felt overwhelming feelings of gratitude and joy wash over me. When I think back to where I was a year ago - I was in utter misery at the tail end of pregnancy, full of anxiety about what this baby would be like and what I would be like as a mom, living in a construction zone, and wondering how my body would ever go back to anything resembling its former shape. We survived her birth and those first few crazy months. I never would have dared to hope that I could be as happy as I am today with our little family.

I feel so grateful and so lucky to have been blessed with this sweet child. When she smiles and laughs at nothing much I wonder how on earth one little person can be so happy. As she toddles around all over the house I marvel at her phsyical dexterity. When I see her interacting in playgroups confidently and sweetly - marching right over to new kids and sharing her toys - I can't help but feel like she has a healthy start on the interpersonal skills she'll need to succeed in life.

Being a mom has been a humbling experience so far. Some days you feel like you're getting it all right and others you don't have a clue. One thing is very clear to me though. These little people come to us with personalities and temperments all their own. We can do our best to help shepherd them through life. But they ultimately determine what lens they see the world through. When Roan wakes up radiating joy, I know that didn't come from me. It comes from what I can only describe as the thermonuclear happiness reactor deep inside her.

Happy Easter

Hope you had a nice Easter weekend. We spent it with some friends at their earthship in Taos. (More about what earthships are later.) Roan got a silly little easter basket with some plain old empty plastic eggs inside. It felt like a stroke of Mommy Genius - it kept her occupied endlessly! Take the eggs out of the basket... put the eggs in the basket... repeat 463 times. Oh the happiness that can be bought for $2.89 at this tender age. Hope you enjoy the photos.

Videos

Your wish is my command. Here are some videos. First, Roan sledding:

And then here enjoying a cracker. She just can't quite say the word:

Fun in the snow

This past weekend we met my boss and his family in Winter Park at the YMCA's Snow Mountain Ranch for some fun in the snow. We stayed the weekend in one of their reunion cabins and enjoyed food, wine, beer, ice cream and pictionary!

Roan went sledding for the first time ever and she LOVED it. They had these posh inner tubes you could take down their sledding hill. Arwen took her down once and she couldn't get enough. It seemed a little steep for such a little person, but she thought it was great. She kept pointing and grunting at it until we'd take her down again and again. And she looked really really cute in her snowsuit!

She had so much fun we went out twice in one day. Here she is sledding with me. Notice the mittens. They're not my finest work ever, but I did whip them up in the car on the drive up to Winter Park. No one is carrying baby mittens anywhere in town! I had no choice! Ok, maybe I need help...

There were so many folks on hand eager to help out with Roan we got a nice break. Saturday afternoon Arwen and I went out for a 2 or 3 mile snowshoe. Here is Arwen with a goofy smile, because I made the mistake of saying "You didn't smile in that last picture!"

And here he is a few steps ahead of me, making tracks in the snow in the beautiful fading afternoon light.

Here's me on snowshoes looking like a crazy person.

So that was Saturday. Then on Sunday we put Roan in the daycare on the mountain and enjoyed a full day of snowboarding. Arwen worked on doing a 360, while I worked on making turns and not falling down. (I still have some work ahead of me on this front!) It was an incredibly beautiful day on the mountain. Lots of fresh snow, sunshine and blue skies. It was a lot of fun, even though we're both still sore.

I have to say Roan was a perfect angel all weekend. She laughed a lot, had a ton of fun being in different surroundings, and really seemed to enjoy making friends with Kelly and his family. Here she is reveling in a big bird cracker, apres ski.

A few photos

I thought I'd post some recent photos for you guys. Here is Miss Roan, drinking from her sippy cup and looking like a toddler.

Here she is playing fetch with Sasha. Not sure if I've mentioned but Sasha has been less than enthused about the new creature living in her house. She's never been aggressive towards Roan and always been reserved, but you could tell she just did not like the child. Until recently, since Roan has learned to throw Sasha her ball. Which just happens to be Sasha's *favorite* game in the world. So now when Sasha looks at Roan she seems to be thinking something along the lines of "Maybe the little turd isn't so bad after all."

Here's Roan playing with her friend Camilla at one of our Baby Happy Hour nights.

We've been doing a bunch of home repair and fix-up stuff lately. One thing we did this past weekend (and of course by "we" I mean "Arwen") was install a new pedestal sink in the guest bathroom, where the old sink was falling off the wall. Arwen did a great job and it turned out fantastic.

But as you can see from this photo here, he still has not graduated to become a "real" plumber yet.

A video

Sorry for the lack of updates here lately. I've tried several times to upload some videos, without any luck. This last week we were all three relatively healthy (although the sniffles seem to have become a constant fixture for all of us). Arwen and I have made the most of our evening time when Roan goes to bed, by getting some fix-up projects done around the house. We're going to throw Roan a birthday party at the end of March (a little early) and we need to get the downstairs in shape to have guests.

It amazes me that Roan is just weeks shy of her first birthday. This year has really blown by. The first few months seemed to get off to a slow and overwhelming start, but I feel like we have gradually picked up steam as a family and for the longest time it seems like things get more and more fun around here all the time.

Roan shows so much character all the time; it's wonderful watching the clues to her personality gradually unfold. She is an amazing walker now. She can walk down the sidewalk with us, walk over grass or mulch or sand. She struts around as if she's in charge, sometimes making what I call "baby godzilla" sounds, sort of a harmless exhuberant roar. She seems full of confidence and joy all the time. The other morning she woke us up at 2 am with a dirty diaper. I am not usually in the best mood at these wee hours, but the same can't be said for her, at least on that night. She giggled all through the diaper change, any time I touched her tummy or if my hair fell in her face. It was infectious. She surprises me with her ability to help me see the sunny side.

Speaking of joy and laughter, here's a video of her and her daddy goofing around.

I have three more videos I was hoping to upload, showcasing some of Roan's new skills: putting blocks into a container instead of taking them out, playing ball with Sasha, and steering her walking toy rather than just mindlessly ramming things. I've been having trouble with the video uploader though, but hopefully I'll be able to post them eventually.