I've turned into a Mom.

I've been a little out-of-pocket lately. To make amends for my out-of-pocketness, I thought I'd share a few day-in-the-life gems with y'all.

Recently, I've had a few moments that really hit home that I'm a mom. You'd think I'd have realized this fact long before now... but it was just last week that I had a "huh...it's real" moment. Claire had a gross cold that involved a lot of runny nose and snargle sounds and crankiness. It was just not the most fun ever. It did, however, make for some sweet snuggle time. She would snuggle her head down on my shoulder, and it was so precious. 

Until I found large sections of dried snot all over the shoulders of my t-shirt. 

And the chewed up, dried, and cemented Cheerio that got stuck in a wrinkle of my t-shirt. 

Wow. So glamorous.

It was one of those moments that I've read about from other bloggers or heard about from other moms. I hoped I'd never experience those particular moments. But I now have. Does that mean I'm initiated now?

Also, I'm a stay-at-home, semi-working mom, which means that I'm home with Claire all day. I love it and am so grateful for the opportunity. However, it also means that I spend my day talking to a baby. We talk about colors and animals and actions. We work on pulling up and clapping and waving. I am always and forever giving positive reinforcement and affirmation.

I didn't realize how much a part of my being this had become until the other night when Brad handed me something I'd asked for, and I said...

"Good girl!"

Yeah. I did. To my fully-grown, male spouse. <hangs head in shame>

Merry Christmas Eve, friends.

Bearsy goes to Hogwarts.

It's no secret that I love Harry Potter.  I wrote my senior thesis about Narnia and Harry Potter. I have so much respect for the message of HP, the literary genius of J. K. Rowling, and the cleverness of the plot. Goodness, my bff, Kat, and I talk about the books regularly. Like, we still debate parts of the stories and analyze characters (we are so cool and we know it, y'all). That's why we're friends. 

It's also no secret that my family loves The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios (Islands of Adventure). It's wonderful. It's magical. It's such a happy place.

As this is Amiee's senior year, my mom masterminded a Brassart/Boston Boswell trip to visit Hogwarts for Amiee's Fall Break. Mom scored some major awesome deals, and we had the best of trips! We had fast passes, fantastic meals, and great family time. Claire was SUCH a good bear. She rolled right along with everything and charmed the crowds. We took turns carrying her in the Baby Bjorn, and she would actually take naps in it while we wandered around the park. We would just pull her little sun hat down over her eyes, and she would drop right off. And, little sidenote: Universal has some really nice nursing mothers rooms available. We were grateful for that.

One of our favorite things we did was eat breakfast at the Three Broomsticks restaurant in Hogsmeade. We've eaten at the restaurant several times, but we'd never had breakfast there. It was amazing! One of the best breakfasts. If you ever get the chance, you should definitely do breakfast at the Three Broomsticks. Mmm yummy.

We have several favorite rides around the parks (outside of the Harry Potter section), notably the Hulk, the Cat in the Hat, and Spiderman. This year, we rode the Revenge of the Mummy for the first time and thought it was a fun little ride. We also rode the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit...and Daddy's lanyard with all of his passes/meal cards flew out of his pocket, from underneath the harness, snapped apart, and was lost. Seriously? Yes. It took a little bit [read: lots] of work and encounters with some less competent followed by very helpful and kind customer support folks to get it all worked out, but we eventually got everything back.

On our last day, Amiee had a bit of excitement at lunch. However, you'll need to ask her about it. :)

We had just the best time. I'm so thankful that we had the chance to all go together! Thanks, Mom and Dad! BEST VACATION EVER!

We are such adventurers.

Seuss Landing is one of our favorite parts of the park!

Amiee, posing with the Lorax.

Bear, pre-carousel ride.

Carousel! (she was happy...I promise)

Post-carousel happy faces!

Rawr! Hulk.

Welcome to Hogsmeade. Oh, Hogsmeade...we love you.

Yay!

Hogwarts

Group shot. Please ignore my awkward shorts. I was Post-Pregnancy Awkward Clothes Girl.

Photo shoot! Please check out Bearsy's face.

"I'm tired of this hat."

All smiles.

Such a ham, isn't she? She's rockin' her "Katy's Krew" shirt in support of our friend, Katy Z, who battled a brain tumor this fall.

We all love Katy and are so thankful for her good recovery!

  

Sweet baby face, captured by Nana.

Hanging out in her stroller...this was shot through the leg hole of her high chair cover that we draped over her stroller. You do whatcha gotta do.

My favorite shot from the trip. Great job, Mom!

Letter to my Little Bear

Bear.

Stop growing up. Remember how I gave birth to you? With great difficulty, I might add. I think that entitles me to insist that you stop growing up. Actually, I demand it.

<takes a deep, calming breath>

Knowing that you won't heed my demands at all, I'll just grit my teeth and acknowledge that you are, in fact, growing very fast.

Well, maybe that's not entirely accurate. Your weight, according to the doctor, puts you in the petite sector of the world. The circumference of your head, though, just recently went from 94% to 86%...you still have a rather large noggin, girlfriend. Your length has regulated a little bit, which is probably good, seeing as your were getting longer and longer with no end in sight...and yet your weight wasn't keeping up. This didn't actually bother us, but the doctor kept giving me questioning looks, as if to insinuate that you weren't eating enough.

Now, that assumption is so so SO not true. You eat really well. You still have no teeth (at 9 months...), so you have become really adept at gumming up your food. I've started making your food less pureed and more coarse, and you've handled it like a champ. In fact, when I got lazy the other day and opted to give you jarred baby food from the store, you were very anti the liquid-y texture. You looked at me and said, "Mom, this stuff is for babies." Or, at least, that's what it sound like to me. Speaking of sounds, you babble all the time. It's awesome. Your best sound is "dadadadada."

We love that you are really into your toes. It's adorable. You're also laughing a lot and starting to be really involved in playing. You do this thing where you lower your head (like, with your chin almost touching your chest) and cut your eyes up at us like you're up to something. Hilarious. You like peek-a-boo (usually we throw a burp cloth or something onto your head and you yank it off). You also like playing with empty plastic containers, and you LOVE playing with remotes. That's weird, Bear.

You still aren't crawling and become REALLY offended if we try to position you so that you might. The doctor told us just to stop attempting it and to help you work on pulling up instead. You much prefer that. I mean, who really wants to damage the knees of her pants by crawling everywhere?

Also, you are a CHAMP at sleeping. 12 hours, baby. All night long. We LOVE LOVE LOVE this about you.

(I should point out that this is not at our house; her crib is not this big, and we do not have that much natural sunlight anywhere in our home.)


It should also be noted that you were thrilled about the results of the Iron Bowl. I'm really sorry for scaring you with my shrieks and howls of delight. But, seriously...WAR EAGLE!

I just want to squeeze your cheeks all the time! Oh wait...I do. You love it. (not all the time, but sometimes I pretend that you do.)

Note the remote in her left hand.

We think you're just the best and get prettier everyday (although, beauty is not a necessary quality in life. It's much better to be kind. And smart. Keep that in mind. #lifelessonsfrommom).

XOXOXO (<---two from me, one from daddy)

Week 35

Week 36


"I have no idea how Matroshka ended up like that."

"Someone must have knocked her over. I bet they went thataway."

Week 37

"Here's my silly face!"

Week 38

Week 39/ 9 months


"Huh...Mom makes you wear things on your head, too?"

Advent

We traveled over Thanksgiving, heading South to celebrate with my in-laws. It was a great visit with family and friends. Claire was able to meet so many people who have prayed for her and followed her picture updates over the past 9 months (yes, I have a 9 month old...and yes, I am working on a Letter to Her Bearsy Self). We had such smooth travels and so much fabulous food. There is so much for us to give thanks for. Our cups are overflowing.

This past Sunday was December first, which is both the beginning of December, as well as the beginning of Advent. As we are members of a liturgical church, Advent is a HUGE part of the church calendar (much like Lent) and, therefore, our lives. Growing up, my family always made a point to participate in the season of Advent, doing readings, using an Advent wreath some years, and ensuring that Christmas Day started with the climax of the season: reading the passage from Luke about the Advent of our Savior.

 I'm really grateful for that, especially as I now see the concept of Advent taking a mainstream, non-faith-related turn in many sectors of society. There are a bazillion of "Advent" calendar ideas on Pinterest. However, so many of them have absolutely nothing to do with this season of waiting and preparation for Jesus but are actually countdowns to presents. Not that there's anything wrong with such a countdown. I'm most certainly not anti-gifts or counting down until we give and receive. I think I just take issue with the semantics of calling those countdowns "Advent" calendars when they have little to nothing to do with Advent. Advent is so much bigger than that.

This week, one of our readings in neighborhood group (our mid-week church gathering) was from Matthew 24:36-51, a passage I have read countless times in my life. However, meditating on those words of Jesus during the season of Advent, when we are thinking about waiting and preparing, introduced new meaning for me and really challenged me in my thinking. How actively am I waiting and preparing for Jesus? It was very convicting. And exciting. And motivating.

Just like during Lent, our church is posting daily Advent reflections on the church blog. They're all written by church members and offer such interesting and diverse perspectives. If you're interested in following along with us this season, here's the link to CotC's blog. I actually teared up a little while reading today's post. Probably because I had a baby this year and can connect so vividly with her thoughts. If you have a minute or two (seriously, they're really short), give it a read. 

Happy Advent, friends.

Such a good little helper.

Last week, the three of us went to the grocery store together. Usually, it's just Claire and me, but for this particular outing, we went on a Saturday, allowing Brad to join us. I always love when Brad can come: 1) for the company (obviously) and 2) because things go soooooo much faster.

Brad wore Claire in the Baby Bjorn carrier, which she loves, by the way. She likes that she can see everything whilst swinging her legs about. She is very joyful in the BB. 

Anyway. We started in the produce section, and I asked Brad to grab a bag of Romaine while I picked through tomatoes. When I turned back to him, this is what I saw: 

She proceeded to carry the lettuce through the entire store. Apparently, when Brad reached for it, she did, too. Brad offered it to her, and she happily attached herself to it. The cashier had to wrench it from her chubby little hands to scan it. Don't worry- he handed it right back to her. 

We are training her to be a joyful helper...she just doesn't realize it yet.

Then, we came home and did some research.

A friend of ours who is a Massachusetts native came over to our apartment to watch game 6 of the World Series (Yay, Red Sox!) a couple weeks ago. We always love hanging out with Tim (our Mass friend, not my brother-in-law...although, we love hanging out with that Tim, too), and he's very witty and funny. During a commercial break, we had this conversation:

Tim: So, I've thought of a good slogan for the Massachusetts license plate.

Erin: What does it say now? The Bay State? Spirit of America? (please note: we have two of these plates on our car...and I obviously pay lots of attention)

Tim: Uh, no. It's "The Constitution State." But, I think it should be "Massachusetts: We invented the United States of America. You're welcome."

<insert lots of laughter>

It's funny to me in an ironic way, because I think that Massachusetts is the silliest state in the Union. They charge gobs of money for everything, they don't attach garages to houses (hello- if you attach the garage, you don't have to walk into the house in the cold), they make you parallel park everywhere...I have a long list. Actually, the more I think about it, the more I realize that most of my reasons have to do with cars, traffic, parking, or getting tickets. Hmph. Anyway. The idea of Massachusetts inventing the country makes me nod in agreement (because, there's some truth to the idea, historically speaking) and also makes me shake my head, thanking the Lord that other states have improved upon all of the silly things that just aren't taken care of here...like making use of central air conditioning and massive parking lots.

Tim's license plate idea is also funny because, on the whole, I think it sums up the Massachusetts mindset nicely. If we're being honest, they did kind of invent the US. Mass folks are pretty proud of their state. And their history. And their values. 

Speaking of values, the Boswell family values tend to diverge quite a bit from the generally liberal views of the majority around here. I'm sure you know this. Being from Alabama, a very very Red state, it's quite a transition to live in the bluest of Blue states.

Now that I've rambled almost incoherently about these thoughts for a while, let me show you some pictures of our family outing to the Boston Public Garden.

One man band. Just like Dick Van Dyke.

The Swan Boats.

The Ducks. Claire has an adorable little board book about Boston, and the ducks are in it. We thought it would be so cute to get a picture of her with the ducks...

This was the best we could do. She had just woken up from her nap.

Then, we tried to get a good Mom-Bear shot. This was the first face she made.

Then she was so excited!

Then, she got coy. And I look crazy.

Definitely an outtake, this one.

I really like this one.

And, although this looks like I'm kissing my adorable baby, I was actually checking to see if the wet, slimy something I touched on her face was slobber or something else.

Now, to tie all of the things I just wrote about together:

When we pulled up and parked next to the Garden to go in and have a nice family outing, we noticed that a big festival of some kind was going on across the street. It looked like a lot of fun...music, funnel cakes, balloons. It looked super exciting. The longer we were around the Garden, though, the more I thought I heard the folks using the microphone saying "weed." Brad was pretty sure I was wrong. I hoped I was wrong. Because that would be weird and wildly inappropriate for our baby.

After a little while longer of walking around, I could have sworn I heard them say "marijuana." I mentioned it to Brad, and he hesitated, thinking that, perhaps, he had heard it, too. It was when we were taking the pictures of Bear and me on the bench that I spotted a gal walking into the Garden, wearing a lei. Made of marijuana leaves. Yeah...no way I was mishearing things. 

As we were walking back to the car, someone started reading a poem about marijuana over the massive speakers, and we finally saw the giant "Cannabis" banner. I don't know how we missed that honking sign when we were debating whether or not I was hearing them talk about weed. It was only gigantic and in bold letters. We felt silly.

Then, we realized that we had unwittingly taken our little baby so close to a pro-marijuana rally that we might as well have been part of the crowd. We were that close. Oi. Then, when we got home and researched it, we learned that it was actually the second largest pro-marijuana legalization rally in the world. In the world, y'all. 

Because Massachusetts invented the United States and upholds liberal values in this free country they invented.

And, we took our baby down there to see it in action.

Oh man.