Fun things!

For posterity, proof I am capable of having fun and my life is actually pretty freaking awesome. I spend a lot of time living in my head, worrying and thinking about things I can't control or making up scenarios which have a .009% chance of happening. I've come to terms with the fact that I'm a deviation or two above the norm on the intensity spectrum. Thank God my family, especially my husband, is really patient with me. "I know it's 6 a.m. on a Saturday, the baby is smearing a banana on the comforter, and we haven't had coffee yet, but can we talk about what's happening in Syria?"( I wake up with a lot of thoughts and ideas, and by the end of the night I'm nonverbal, scrolling through pictures of food on instagram. My intensity does have a limit.)

Life is really good! Fall is my favorite time of the year. I missed out on all the fun stuff last year because I was busy trying to keep myself and a newborn alive. This time, we've had a lot of fun and it's not even Thanksgiving yet!

 

Mille's first Grandparents' Day at daycare! Obviously she didn't know it was going to happen, but she was pretty psyched to see her Lola and Lolo alongside her favorite teacher, Miss Fatima.

I think my mom was more excited than anybody about Grandparents' Day. She'll be the one in the front row of all the piano recitals, school performances, spelling bees, and pretty much anything else. Mom is the archiver. Archivist? I'll let her handle all the media and I can just watch and know it will be recorded. Plus she has better cameras than me, and a selfie stick.

We are very grateful for Miss Fatima. She even told us Millie is her favorite. I'm so happy Millie has bonded with one of her caretakers. Apparently she sometimes pushes other kids if they get too close  to Miss Fatima. This is obviously inappropriate, but it does make me feel better knowing she will be grabbed first in case of a fire (one of my paranoid scenarios). We will work on the pushing thing, as being a school counselor with a bully daughter is not acceptable.

The Keeping It Real Christmas Photo Shoot 2015. Even with her grandmother as a photographer, Millie wouldn't cooperate. It might be a photoshopped Christmas card this year. Last year I had every intention of sending her birth announcement as a holiday card, but I dropped the ball. I'm not 100% sold on these pictures because there's something off in every single one of them (i.e., we look weird, or Millie looks weird, or she's not looking at the camera--and really, people only care about the baby anyway).

Real life.

We tried to go camping! In our dating years Zach and I went camping a lot. It's been a while since we've gone, but we attempted to go during the weekend Ole Miss played at Memphis. Our house is within walking distance to the stadium. If there is a huge game, you'll either be stuck inside your house for hours, stuck in traffic trying to get back to your house, or dealing with cars blocking your driveway. And Memphis is actually good this year in football, so now EVERYONE is suddenly a fan.

Living room camping, no doubt will happen soon because she loved the tent.

Our plan didn't work because we didn't reserve a campsite in time and all the spots were taken when we got to the park. We mistakenly believed everyone would be watching the game--they hyped it up big time for weeks! There was also a burn ban that weekend, meaning we wouldn't have been able to start a fire anyway. No smores? No way. We went to my parents' house and slept in a real bed.

We did get to go hiking, which was pretty nice. Zach in his camo shirt which he purchased "to fit in" Millington.

I ran a 5k and placed 3rd overall female! The course was in a cemetery (the beneficiary was a children's grief counseling program) and the weather was nice and chilly, i.e., perfect race weather.

So it turns out racing a 5k really, really hurts. But it's also quite nice because IT'S OVER SO QUICKLY. When I got to the 2nd mile marker I thought, "What?! This is almost done!" Was the pain worth it? Yes, because there were tacos at the finish line. Did I mention how awesome it is to be finished after 3 miles?

Of course, I had to give my water to the baby or else she would've had a meltdown. She also ate the bananas and had some chips and salsa. Already knows the importance of the food at the finish line. My kid.

My parents came to cheer me on! Really they came to see Millie but I can pretend they were there to see me.

Mills' first Halloween! She dressed up like a watermelon (or a strawberry--I didn't realize this might've been a strawberry costume until someone else pointed it out) for her daycare party. Miss Nicole as gumball machine, an idea I'll probably steal in the future.

She never stops moving. Approximately 1/2 the pictures I take of her look like this.

Millie was born into a Star Wars obsessed family, so she's looking at an existence filled with Star Wars references. For the record, this is Princess Leia A New Hope hair with an Empire Strikes Back inspired outfit. Poor girl has no idea what's in store for her future. I'm a little nervous about next month, when Zach will undoubtedly go into a full Star Wars trance.

We went to a Fall Festival at our church. It rained the entire weekend, so it took place in the gym and was crowded and hot. Basically I ate a hot dog, fed Mills the cole slaw, we took some photo booth pictures, and went home.

She broke the little paper glasses. Little does she know about her genetics. The infamous Austria vision genes will not be denied!

Our friends the Alanos sent her this little coupe for her birthday. She loves to use it as a lounge. Here she is eating crackers and watching Sesame Street. Life is pretty sweet when you're a toddler.

Her first photograph! Not really sure what's happening here, but it looks cool!