remember the heart piñata?

March is here (hiya!) and all the hearts and glitter and Valentine things have slowly trickled out...heart balloons have long stopped floating, the chair envelopes put away 'till next year. Our heart  piñata graced us with place of pride on our mantel this past month. I didn't put anything else up there, just that giant gold-fringed heart. I know it seems like just a silly little (big) heart, and sure it's a piñata they're made to be broken. To me it symbolizes so much more. I made it during a time when I was being stretched continuously, it seemed--Dani was just a few months old, I was racked with guilt over not being able to give either of the girls enough attention and energy, we had just moved across the country, spent a good 5 weeks at my parents' waiting for our furniture to arrive and now we were in yet another apartment, semi-settled in. Not wanting to get too comfortable because we had high hopes of finding a home soon, but craving desperately some sort of normalcy. Somewhere to set down roots and spend at least the next decade in. I don't know what it was about that piñata but when I saw the picture of it on Studio DIY I had to make it. Back then Dani would sleep a good portion of the evening in her swing before waking up--so there I was, cutting giant heart out of a moving box and fringing gold mylar with my rotary cutter on the kitchen linoleum. Making something beautiful. Bringing a quiet, settled feeling into my heart and oh, how I needed that just then. 

So yeah. Not ready to turn it into a true piñata by breaking it just yet. Right now it's just fine where it's at, dazzling us from its perch all February long. See you again next February*, Goldie.

*and hopefully there will be actual paint on those walls and not just stripped wallpaper by then :)

And she's off.

Steve took these photos of Dani Lu (and my arms) last month and now looking back I'm so grateful for them. I mean, I'm grateful for each and every photo I get of our family (I read somewhere recently that it makes the past less bittersweet, to have captured it in time for a split second. beautiful sentiment, no?). This little snippet, though, is particularly meaningful because Dani is finally walking as of February 7th. She had been teasing us with 3-4 steps unassisted here and there ever since New Year's, but sporadically. Friday morning after breakfast she grabbed her little stick duck toy and started walking with it--that's when I knew it was a matter of hours. Sure enough by that afternoon she was toddling around, 10 plus feet. Even turning! It's as though a lightbulb went off for her. Mila was not even 11 months when she took her first steps; Dani was 15 months, but it's been no less thrilling this time around. Watching her go from baby to toddler before my eyes. And of course, always bittersweet as they pass onto the next phase. The world is hers for the taking now. I'm grateful I get to be part of it, every day.

8/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014." 

More about the 52 project here.

Mila: at the table. I really love this photo of her, to me it captures both her mischievous and sweet sides. 

Dani: also at the breakfast table. ma petite Lu is also turning out to be quite the ham. 

7/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014." 

More about the 52 project here.

Mila: The tiny high ponytail. The green dress she wears every other day because "it looks like Elsa's dress" (from Frozen). Reading, one of her favorite things in the world to do. I love all of it. 

Dani: My littlest Valentine in mid-walk. This stage is awesome. 

bits of Valentine's 2014

oops, I pressed publish waaaay too soon!
Ours was really nice. I realize that for a lot of people it can be a real downer of a day, very overhyped, very isolating...I get it. I really do. I remember how that felt. But for me it's become such a sweet, fun little day to show the people around us how much we love and appreciate them being..them. I don't like going out for dinner that night--restaurants are usually overwhelmed and overloaded with other Valentiners. I'm not looking for grand gestures, my husband gets up every morning and works hard for us. He misses out on a lot of our adventures, even the mundane day-to-day that I sometimes find myself taking for granted--he doesn't see the way Dani has started flirting with us by way of clacking her teeth (it's adorable) or know which baby of Mila's is celebrating a birthday that day (even she loses track). And he mostly never complains (mostly ;) Aaaaand every so often he says thank you to me for the stuff that goes down over here while he's gone. Truly a 'thank you' is all the gesture I need.

sad little cake. oh well.

cupid's bow for the teepee.

I think this is one of my all-time favorite pictures of the girls together. Just look at Dani and her baby! And FYI that's Mila's holding-in-pee pose.

we always have pink (raspberry) milk on Valentine's.

glitter EVERYWHERE

I think this was round 3 of Valentine card making. Mila and glitter. Oh man.

this year's Valentine's which I failed at and only gave them out to like 4 people :( 2 of which were late. If I see you soon and thrust popcorn into your hand--I'm sorry!

Dani Lu and paint. Oh man.

heart cinnamon rolls. don't worry all this sugar was spread out over a few days. it was a long, drawn-out sugarfest.

just my Scrubby Lu loving up on her heart balloons. nbd.

 So for Valentine's Day this year he wasn't scheduled to work...but then overtime was offered...and you see where this is headed. Valentine's shmalentines. Steve missing Mila's or Dani's birthday: not okay. Missing Valentine's: okay. The girls and I had a sweet, low-key Valentine breakfast complete with heart balloons (balloons! always a win!), crepe paper roses I made, a couple little gifts for them tucked into their chair envelopes. Then we spent the day with Marmousch. It was beautiful out, we went picnicking, saw a manatee, had some park time,  I told Wugs one thousand times to get off the rocks, I told Dani 750 times to get off the rocks, there were donut holes, there was my sad little cake which was supposed to mimic a conversation heart, which I will not be reattempting. Mila went off on a sleepover to Nonna's (thank you thank you Nonna!) and it was just us Dani and mama chickens at home for a couple nice hours. Put her to (sidecar) crib, lit some candles, Steve came home with takeout from Outback and it was 2003 again. Minus the baby(s) and Sochi on tv that's a lot like how our first Valentine's day together went. Coconut shrimp, candles and all. See, even back then we stayed in like all the cool kids do.

and, it was all worth it to hear Mila say, "Thank you for making everything so nice, Mama" that morning when she walked into the dining room.
and then, just this morning, she told me, "I LOVE Valentine's!" Which dissipated any thoughts I might have had that I didn't make our love day a big enough deal. It was enough and will always be enough, as long as we have each other.

6/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014." 

More about the 52 project here.

Mila: Stained dress, in mid-monologue, talking more than eating...typical Sunday afternoon these days. 

Dani: Just hanging out in our very 80's fabulous bathtub (frosted window cubes and all) and being her generally adorable self. Last week was a big one for Dani Lu. She finally started walking! I'm so very proud of her.

OLYMPICS!

Tomorrow officially kicks off the Winter Olympics and I am not even kidding, thus kicks off my favorite two week period that happens every other year. Seriously it's my favorite. More than Christmas, more than birthday season in summer, more than Easter (Easter! it'll be here in a blink.). I I LOVE the Olympics in a crazy stupid way...for those two weeks our TV is on all the time, evenings are spent glued to it all and it's just the best. The human interest stories, Bob Costa's voice, the familiar duuuuuuum-duuuuuuuuum-da-dum-dum-dum music, the medal ceremonies. ALL OF IT. If push came to shove I'd probably pick summer over winter Olympics but there was a legit time when I was younger that I deluded myself into thinking I should've been a figure skater. In Florida! Only my mom and sister will remember that phase I'm sure. It was an awkward one. 

I tried to get all my sewing projects out of the way by tonight so that I could just relax with a good garland knitting book computer whatever I'm doing at the moment but that didn't happen. Oh well, nothing that can't wait for a few weeks! OLYMPICS! Let's watch some amazing stuff happen!!

future Olympian perchance?

5/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014." 

More about the 52 project here.

 Mila: Ever the ham. Also I'm just a little (very) excited to teach her some basic sewing in the near future. She's interested. I think she's ready.

Dani: She just started this thing where she'll adorably stop whatever she's doing to give a bottle to our many babies. Funny thing is, she's never taken a bottle herself. The first of many things, I'm sure, she's picked up from watching her big sister.