The Big Two Nine: a house log

Now that all the birthday bid-ness is over I can tell you folks all about it. It was sweet. Turning 29 did not truly feel any distinct than the past few b-days and it involved everything from a foot massage with shaving cream (John mistook it for the lotion bottle) to Clara taking her “first crawls.” Holy cow it was remarkable. Everyone, including the doc, thought she’d simply go straight to walking since she has been scooting around on her butt for a while – and even lately began pulling up. But lo and behold she chose it might be lively to give crawling a go (you know, simply for kicks) and we even caught it on video:

So yeah. Baby, baby, baby. Sorry if that is all I talk about but Clara is kind of excellent. Haha. It was the best present ever.

The weather on Saturday was around 70 degrees and sunny (which is funny because it used to consistently snow on my birthday when I lived up north) so we went on a pleasant long walk in one of our go-to neighborhoods (look at that vivid house behind me) with Clara and the dog.

We even saw turtles in the river (Clara enjoyed it, Burger seemed ambivalent).

And the whole time I was sporting my new bun/thigh toning Reebok Easytone b-day sneaks that the hubby got me. Oh yeah, I am styling.

I begged for them and he humored me. They in fact did not kill me at all during or after the first three mile walk that I did in them. But the next day I did the same thing and I needed a serious break afterwards. So yes, they do in fact burn the buns and legs after a while (although my first trek with them made me think they were all hype, my Reeboks had the last laugh).

What else. We went out to a pleasant little sushi dinner (we have a thing for it)…

… and I got some fairly lively stuff from J and the fam. Beyond my tush toning Reeboks John also got me an excellent book called Enjoy Life (from a local gift store named Mongrel) with a ideal greeny-yellow cover.

Not that you should judge a book by its cover, but it never hurts if it looks as good on the outside as it in fact is on the inside. We mentioned a while back that sometimes we struggle with balance (since the internet is a 24/7 thing, sometimes it is hard to draw the line and unplug) so the book is chock full of could not-be-more-true reminders, like:

• “The work will wait while you show the child the rainbow, but the rainbow will not wait while you finish the work.” – Pat Clifford
• “If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live” – Lin Yutang
• “I think the most significant work we ever do, in the whole world, in our whole life, is done within the four walls of our own home.” – Stephen R. Covey
• “It is a strong art to saunter.” – Henry David Thoreau
• “I have not a clue how my story will end, but that is all right. When you set out on a journey and night covers the road, that is when you discover the stars.” -Nancy Willard

But sufficient philosophical stuff. What is it about birthdays that make you evaluate where you’ve been and where you are going? Oh yeah, the whole “I am aging” thing. We were simply joking that we will have to change our journal name to Middle Aged House Enjoy. Haha. Somehow it does not have the same ring. Anyway, now for the lively stuff. Look at the home-related booty I got from John’s excellent sisters. We consistently do “wish lists” when it comes to gifting each other (which makes it easier on the buyer and fairly sweet for the receiver) so I moseyed around the world wide web in search of a few prints that I’d enjoy to add to our soon-to-be-expanding frame gallery in the hallway, and found these beauties:

That one’s from here (we enjoy a good road trip) from John’s sister Katie. And John went for extra credit. I begged for those Reeboks and thought they’d be the extent of my gift, but he also surprised me with this adorable bee print (we have a thing for bees too).

So I cannot wait to hang all of my new prints among family pictures and keepsakes in the hallway. Pics when we knock more holes into the other side of the wall and hang that pile of Ikea frames that is still sitting in the corner of the kitchen. Someday. Oh and my sweet friend Heather sent me these lilies out of the blue:

I enjoy them so much and especially adore that she specifically picked out the lime green vase because she knew I’d flip for it. Affirmative Heather. I went crazy oohing and aaahing and still find myself walking in from the other room simply to “visit” my bouquet every hour or so.

So overall, birthday number 29 was excellent and life is good. Who the heck knows where I will be when I turn 35, or even 30. I am simply trying to make it count, without going so crazy that I forget to enjoy the little things like baby snorts and puppy sniffs. Man am I still hormonal from birthing Clara 10+ months ago? Sorry if this post is all sorts of personal and corny. I guess that is simply me these days.

Pssssst- For anyone who has asked how we organize Clara’s toys or inquired about the big brown basket next to our sectional, click here to check out our BabyCenter post for the mind-numbingly plain “dump & cover” toy storage system that is rocking our world.