if you haven't already heard

my little terror

Dear Miss K,

You my dear have recently taken up tantrums. Yelling, head-flinging, crying like you lost a limb, almost ten month old tantrums. It's kind of hard to take you seriously when you have those two little vampire teeth up top, and when the legs that you're so adamantly kicking have the cutest little rolls on them. Please know that I understand how inviting the...stairs, trash can, recycling bin, toilet and dishwasher are. They are new and amazing...I get that. I also know that you really don't understand me when I say "NO," is that why you smile? Do you secretly understand what I'm saying?

You're strong-willed like your parents. You have your dad's sense of adventure and your mom's enthusiasm for mocking people. We get to see it all on a daily basis. However, there is something I want you to know: every once in awhile there is a tantrum that is so epic or a day that is so tiring that I just have to take a breath and close my eyes. When I do this I'm not cursing you under my breath, I'm not wishing I was on a beach somewhere in Tahiti (well, maybe), and I am never ever ever angry at you. When I close my eyes I think of those little chubby legs, those sweet little vampire teeth, how your daddy makes you crack up by flying you around the living room, how thankful I am that, tantrums and all, I'm your momma.

When I open my eyes and you're looking at me like "how dare you zone out in the middle of this epic display of tantrumdom," I have to laugh.

We're in this together little one, rain or shine.

Love,

Momma

lazy days are here again

and by lazy of course i mean incredibly hectic, amazingly crazy days are here!! that is at least for the next few months. We have a lot of business to cross off our increasingly long list of things to do, including, but not limited to chopping my hair off on thursday!! I have been contemplating this for awhile and have actually backed out of a couple of appointments due to cold feet but in a couple days there will be no running. I gave my hair stylist permission to hunt me down and drag me in kicking and screaming.

Also ushering in this season of change was some beautiful weather this weekend. Now if only all of May could look like the first day with its perfect cornsilk blue skies and the smell of barbecue wafting through the streets. Unfortunately, the sun likes to play hard to get here in the northwest and after a wonderful weekend it won't be calling again til Wednesday. Luckily we were able to take advantage...

Happy Monday Friends!!

there's alot of this going on

Poor baby...four teeth at once is no fun. Don't worry she's not self-medicating.

i am the biggest dork in the land

Up until this past weekend the longest amount of time I spent away from Miss K was to go to a football game up in Seattle. However, this weekend I was gone twelve hours on both Saturday and Sunday and I have to say...It was awesome. Although I missed my munchkin terribly I had an amazing time at The Society of Childrens Book Writers and Illustrators Annual Conference. The weekend was filled with good food, great feedback, and amazing speakers. The conference also afforded me the opportunity to geek-out when meeting Holly Black (for those not hip to YA or children's lit, she wrote The Spiderwick Chronicles). Here's me looking like a tool...

I don't know why I always squint like that!! Anyway, she gave a wonderful keynote address along with Dan Santat and E. Lockhart.

I also had the opportunity to get some great feedback regarding Swept, come away with a lot of new ideas for other projects and most importantly I was able to meet, in person, several of the agents I plan to submit to early this summer.

Whew!! I was exhausted by the time it was all over but so incredibly excited.

i'm off to start revisions:)

portlandia and the fam

So as previously mentioned birthday week was capped off by a little trip down to Portland where we arrived bearing gifts...

The Mr. and I are notorious for showing up with junk food, a habit that my family both loves and hates equally. This dozen contained doughnuts (obviously) covered in everything from crushed up Butterfingers, purple Koolaid and my personal favorite Captain Crunch. They're just lucky that I didn't bring a box full of maple bars with bacon (a specialty at Voodoo Doughnut).

We had such a good time visiting the family and I was super excited to see my nieces who are getting so big, FAST! We got a chance to go to dinner with the whole posse and Miss K got loved on the whole time.

We generally don't get to go and visit as much as we'd like considering they're only a couple hours a way but it's always a blast when we do. The funny thing is we typically don't do very much when we do head down, more often than not we all end up in my parents room piled onto their California king-sized bed talking about the weird t.v. shows my dad watches and stealing gummy bears. Maybe that's why I enjoy myself so much, there's never an agenda. We sit and talk about everything from what our hopes and plans are to how M. Night Shyamalan butchered The Last Airbender and whether or not that is forgivable. My sister's and I migrate in and out of the room, now chasing after babies of our own and Mr. Awesome leans against the dresser and throws his two-cents in too. The dogs even congregate in the room. It's one of my favorite things about going to visit.

On Friday my sister, her boyfriend, Mr. Awesome and I all headed out to the movies sans babies and when we returned both our little girls were passed out, having worn themselves out, in between their NaNa and Grandpa on that bed that I love so much:) I think that's just awesome.

birthday extravaganza pt.2

Tuesday (otherwise known as the day of reckoning) Miss K was the first to give me birthday kisses and also sleep in until 8 which is incredibly rare, Yay for birthday sleep!!! and yay for birthday breakfast with my two favorite peeps..

a late breakfast was just a short walk away at Shakabrah where I went for a classic combo that hit the spot:)

Later that night we headed to Ravenous to meet with our friends Jamille and Steve for a little dinner. One neat thing about this place (besides the GroupOn from my brother and sister-in-law) is that the walls are lined with corks signed by customers.

The Mr. and I split a delicious pizza and Jamille and Steve got me an awesome bottle of wine and a book of zombie love songs respectively:) The zombie thing is another post for another time but suffice to say that I have a very irrational fear.

Also while down in that part of town I took this funky picture of Mr. Awesome that I love...

all in all my birthday was absolutely lovely and I'm looking forward to a crazy 30th year. Stay tuned for my 30@30 reveal.

Hope everyone's having a great week!