52 Weeks of Tatum

Here is my almost-one-year-old baby!

This time last year our family was starting to have to head back to their homes. Tatum was a week past my original due date and 10 days past my ultrasound due date. I was trying every silly thing suggested to get that baby to maker her appearance, and was sick to death of people telling me how huge I was. If you need a reminder, here is a short list of things to never say to a preggo.

Here I was...a whale on stilts.

Tatum came on her own time, and has proven in the past year that that is exactly how she will do things. She's opinionated, funny (she thinks her toots are hilarious), strong-willed, rambunctious, tough, sweet, and a joy to be around.

This month I've been loaded with work and realized yesterday I hadn't taken my camera out of the desk drawer in weeks...normally it lives on the kitchen bar! 

Instead of recapping every mundane detail of this past month, let me just sum it up in the words "should be." 

That's my constant thought. 

I should be working...I should be cleaning the house...I should be making dinner...I should be doing laundry...I should be on the floor with Tatum playing. While thinking I should be doing one of those things, I'm usually in the middle of doing something else on that list. I'm working on not beating myself up for failing to do it all, but those dust bunnies under the bed are pumping their fists with triumph at the moment.

We did celebrate Ammah's 70th birthday by surprising her at a hibatchi place where we all had great fun (including Tatum) watching the chef perform acrobatics with his knife and spatula.

And on Thursday, Tatum's first birthday will be celebrated with family, cake, and probably too many presents. 

I need more book options to read her because we go through all of then 4 or 5 times a day! This kid likes to read...as evidenced by this picture!

Oh the Adventures

Since my last post I've gotten a few questions about the water issue and fyi, it is ALL cleared up and for much less than we anticipated! The night we were without water (why is it I was uber thirsty?) Matt asked me a question that made my stomach drop, "What is our credit limit?"

Yikes.

With a broken pipe and water coming from the AC closet in the garage and looking more and more like a slab leak, things were not looking bright.

Saturday morning my dad called with good news. He had talked to his neighbor who is a plumber, described the problem, and the neighbor said, "No problem...I can fix it for $100. But I don't dig holes and I don't fill holes." Perfect! The hole was dug!

The man came over, fixed the pipe, and then fixed what we thought was a slab leak but turned out to be a clogged pipe from the AC as well! Hallelujah!

With that taken care of, Matt headed to Home Depot to get a shop vac to get the water out of the closet, and I headed to the front yard to water my plants after putting Tatum down for a nap.

Now, normally the door from the garage to the side yard is unlocked. I've personally unlocked it three times. But somehow...I don't know, let's say garden gnomes have infiltrated and they happened to lock it again. I took my watering can and Roy and headed to the back yard, firmly closing the door behind me.

After watering my plants I went to get back in the garage...with no luck.

Sliding back door? Nope, I've locked it to prevent Tatum from opening it.

All windows are dutifully locked.

Side gates are also locked from the outside to prevent Roy's escape. I climb up the side that doesn't have the 5' hole and realize it would be about a 7 foot jump, barefoot, onto hard packed clay. Just jumping down from the inside of the gate gave my feet a shock and I didn't exactly want to add a sprained ankle to this scenario.

It's about 10:00 in the morning, there's no shade in our yard, and it's already close to 100 degrees.

And Tatum is crying. (I have the monitor, of course)

Ohhhh boy.

I called Matt and he was still at Home Depot. So I called Ammah and caught her just before she hopped in the shower. She said she'd hop in the car and be right over.

I paced, and Tatum's crying intensified. Roy is panting hard and I'm baking. 

And I think "If Tatum's pitch goes into frantic mode I'm breaking a window! I wonder how much that will cost..."

Then I decide to assess what I have. I'm looking around the backyard for anything I can use as a tool and find the long handled grill brush. Going back to the non-hole side of the yard, because I didn't want to jump into this

I utilized my rusty rock climbing skills and scaled the gate again. Leaning as far over as I dared (the gate wobbling precariously and Roy jumping up on it to see what I was doing), I used the tip of the grill brush to start knocking the open bolt through the gate latch. After a few minutes of careful tapping, I was finally free!

And ran inside to my crying baby who didn't seem to mind I was completely sweaty.

Nothing like an adventure before noon, I guess. :-)

That evening my best friend Charissa pulled into town, and we spent the following week hanging out, celebrating my birthday, celebrating Independence Day, and laughing at our dogs.

I was lavished with praise and fun gifts on my birthday...

And got what I really wanted--the picture that Matt got me at the Bellevue Arts Festival last year right before Tatum was born finally framed!

And the frame is gorgeous! It's reclaimed wood so each one is unique! I love love LOVE it! He even went all out and got the museum glass!

So as a thank you I let him dance with me.

Either that or I drug him to dance with me...

And then my brother blew my candles out first!

Hence this ninja kick.

So we relit them and I got to make my wish as planned. Unless him blowing them out first negates my wish...or reverses it...I'm not sure exactly how that works.

After we went home we hung my picture in its rightful place over the mantel.

Please ignore the dying ficus. Thank you.

All that to say that we had a great time with Charissa, and Tatum definitely loooves her Auntie Charissa!

And I think the feeling is mutual.

We finished her visit with a trip to Italian Jim's for the Super Pepperoni pizza.

Yeah, there were almost 400 slices on the pie. YIKES. I'll be saying arrivederci to that as I embark with my mom and Ammah on another Weight Watchers journey! I'm ready for this last bit of baby weight to get the heck off!

Till next time!

Many Happy Returns

It's 25 minutes into my 28th birthday and I've just had an insight.

The phrase "Many Happy Returns" could be explained as a return on your investment in life.

Did you risk much? Go all in? Give it everything you've got to see the biggest return on your investment?

While there are places in my life I can certainly do better, I feel overall in my twenty-eight years I have had many happy returns. Much has been ventured, and much has been gained.

Namely in the form of these two people:

And with them, and my family and friends at my side, I feel I can look 28 in the face and say, "It's going to be a good year."