Not a girl, not yet a woman

My girl is growing. Yes, she is still a "baby," however, she is no longer the stationary, cuddly, fragile girl I brought home 8 1/2 months ago. Last week, I reorganized my house. Some call it "baby proofing," I'm simply trying to make it more "baby friendly" and a little more organized.

She is my only child, the one who made me a mother. I love her, I spoil her, I want to see her happy, not cry, it hurts my heart, but I'm slowly getting over that. I need to get things done during the day and she needs to be independent. There's still a bunch of kinks to work out. It will take more than a week to outsmart a baby, even with a college degree!

Our front room was just that, a room in the front of our house. It was becoming storage for diaper bags, car seat, and large, "containment devices" for the child (i.e. jumper/swing) that were just in the way in our living room. I didn't take any before pictures as I wasn't intending on creating a "how to" post and since I used things we had already purchased to create a play room for Grace. It turned out nice though and since I am far from crafty, I thought sharing would help out other non-crafty moms (it's amazing what a little TLC will do to a room).

These shelves were literally sitting around collecting dust, I dust them off and organized her toys, I will switch them out as she cannot reach the ones on the top shelf...yet.


The end of the shelf begins the "walking wall" it is just as it sounds, things we use on a regular enough basis which she can use to pull herself up and walk around in. Sorry about the blurriness, this girl is on a mission!


She could stop for a quick pose though.


Lastly, a little play area by the window so she can people and animal watch and enjoy the sunshine while getting some learning in.


Our home is still filled with baby stuff, but our living room is not. Gone is the cluttered mess and in place is a functional space for all of us to enjoy.

How I'm the idiot

Mothering is tough, any mother knows and it's not something that you can comprehend until you have children of your own.

Grace is 8 1/2 months old and some days it gets so darn overwhelming. She's walking up on EVERYTHING she can pull herself up on and leaves everything in disarray. No matter how clean I try to keep my house, she'll find a crumb or a fuzz or a piece of grass and pop it in her mouth. She's learned that when she does that to keep her jaw clenched because the big mean mama is coming to dig out whatever she put in there.

I thought I had outsmarted her yesterday, I finally moved the books she kept pulling off the shelf from the 2nd cubby to the 5th (top) cubby and today after throwing in another load of laundry I find this:

Baby 87, Mom O

Family

I was chatting with my fellow Canadian mother, who, like me is also in a relationship with her "baby daddy." We don't want a big wedding, our wedding day will not be the most important day of our life, the day we met our daughters was. A wedding will never ever come thisclose to the moment in my life when I first held and locked eyes with the beautiful child we had created. With that said, I still want to be married dammit.

I went to my boyfriend's office today(dropping off gym clothes for him and bringing him lunch), when I arrived he was finishing up a conversation on the phone and he told the person on the other end, "yeah I gotta go my wife and kid just showed up with lunch." I replied how I always do "I am not you wife." It bothers me, yes I am "like" his wife, but not really. It's not about the ring or the piece of paper(although that's nice to have), it's the vows, the promise to forever and always love...

Silly, I know.