Life with The Youngs: January 2010

I would have to say that the absolute hardest adjustment that I've had to make in motherhood is to how SCATTERBRAINED I am! Why didn't anyone warn me about this???? I read parenting books, pregnancy books, attended classes, spoke to lots of experienced mothers. Nowhere did anyone mention that I was going to become brain dead upon giving birth. When I mention it to people now they all respond the same way: "Oh yeah! That's totally normal! I'm the same way!" Well, I'm here to tell any of you who haven't entered parenthood yet, that.... you will probably become brain dead upon giving birth.

Let me give you an example glimpse into my stream of thoughts at any given moment . Please don't skip through this. I want you to truly feel my pain :) haha:

Where is Kiera's binky? Did I leave the keys in the car? Lexi forgot one basketball shoe so I need to take it to her at school, if Kiera doesn't wake up in the next 30 minutes I'll be late for the meeting with the bank, I still can't find the binky! maybe I should bake muffins for tomorrow's playgroup, I wonder how much homework Lexi will have tonight, and when is her next orthodontist appointment? When will Kiera need to be fed again? Will I be in a convenient place? Am I wearing a shirt that I can easily feed her in? Have I remembered to pull my shirt back up from my last feeding? (And yes, I have forgotten more than once.) Where is that damn binky?!?!?!? Jeff asked me to remind him that Friday is trash day, so I need to remember to remind him, what day of the week is it? Did I pay the mortgage, Kiera is awake! Kiera is crying! oh.... I had the binky in my pocket that whole friggen' time!

Although it's annoying, I've been able to find humor in it lately. The other day, we were getting ready to head out the door and Jeff tried to be "helpful" by putting my phone in his pocket so I wouldn't forget it . He then watched me run up and down the stairs repeatedly (desperately looking for it.) I was too embarrassed to admit that I had, AGAIN, lost my phone, so he had no idea why I was running around for 10 minutes. When I finally confessed that I'd lost it again, he casually said, "oh! I put it in my pocket!" Ugh. I had to laugh and inform him that that was the opposite of helpful.

I lose everything and I think about everything and I'm confused about everything. I usually forget to eat more than once a day. I'm embarrassed to say that I typically wear the same make up for 2 days in a row (gross, I know.) The only thing that I seem to do right, without much thought, is paying attention to the relationships in my life - being a mom, a wife, a sister, a daughter, and a friend. It's not like I have superpowers, but it is just where 99.9% of my focus is... which would explain why I'm so scattered in every other aspect of my life.

SO! To help both Kiera and I relax, we attended our first mommy/baby yoga class. I'd say that she found it very relaxing since she was asleep after only 20 minutes of class. It was nice to get some yoga in myself while also interacting with her. We're looking forward for the next chance to go.

Kiera's yoga buddy (Adele)

Kiera took an early Shivasana

It turns out that all of Kiera's toes are the same length... like monkey feet :) I love them!

A new development! She can occasionally pick things up and put them in her mouth :)

This holiday season was one to remember! Not only was it Kiera's 1st, but we also made our family complete by getting married on New Years Eve.

We made an effort to have a more low key Christmas this year. The focus was on family and spending quality time with each other rather than on spending money. It was so nice to just give and get a few quality gifts rather than mounds and mounds of.... well..... crap :) Everything came from the heart including a photo collage that Lexi and I made for Jeff. I think that we liked making it for him just as much as he liked getting it!

My favorite gift this year was that Emily decorated Kiera's nursery as a treehouse. She really has a gift. It was tons of work and I will love it forever. She and Justin did tons of prep work at their house and then, when I wasn't home, they came to the house and assembled everything with Jeff. It really can't be described in words, but I can tell you that portions of REAL tree trunks and branches come up from the ground and sprawl over Kiera's crib with a leaf mobile. One one wall their are family pictures mounted onto wood planks up on the wall. The other wall has a night sky painted onto it with a fiberoptic light system of stars. I will have to upload pictures in the next blog so that you can really see how amazing it is!

Friends and family joined us on New Years Eve at our restaurant as we celebrated our marriage. Our wedding was...absolutely PERFECT. The ceremony was beautiful, meaningful, and memorable. Jeff may have proposed in April, but we literally planned the details of our wedding in less than 1 month. We considered having a huge blow out wedding next Fall, but after Kiera was born in September, we decided that we wanted to have a simple and special night that keeps the focus in all the right places. We were just anxious to make our family official. I couldn't be happier with how it all turned out. We are so fortunate to own a restaurant that offered the perfect setting.

The highlights of our ceremony included Kiera's adorable handmade tutu dress and peacock feather headband, Taylor's live performance of "Bless the Broken Road," Megan's reading of "One Day," lots of sniffles from us and just about everyone there, Jeff reading his vows from his iphone (naturally... he loves that thing!) and my vows to both Jeff and Lexi. Our wedding was about the commitment that Jeff and I have to each other, but I thought that it was important to make a few promises to Lexi as well. She is just as important and deserves to know that I am committed to her too. She got teary eyed, which of course made me teary eyed!

The reception was a blast. It began with good food, conversation, and lots of pictures, and ended with a crazy dance party until 2:00 am. I think that the most hilarious part is that we didn't plan to do any of the "formal" wedding activities, like a 1st dance, but when the dancing began, we ended up having our 1st dance to "Poker Face" by Lady GaGa. How perfect! After about an hour of reception excitement, Kiera went to sleep in the apartment behind the cafe. We hooked up a video monitor up front to be sure that she was safe while we all partied the night away. The power went out all over Bar Harbor for about 2 hours at about 10:30, but the many candles and emergency lights kept us out of the dark. We counted down to midnight with lots of champagne and no power, which was memorable. We rung in the new year surrounded by so many amazing friends.

As always, an event like that couldn't take place without help from so many people. I should give a shout out to Peter and Christina for letting us use Leary's Landing to take group photos AND for doing a million other things (too many to list) - you guys were incredibly helpful, Taylor for performing during our ceremony, Megan for reading, Erica for being an all around amazing friend/helper/toast giver, mom and John for babysitting Kiera when we needed to run around, Julienne and Justin for making our cake topper, Kim for making some yummy food and whoopie pies, Jean for altering dresses and making Kiera's head band, Sharon for performing our ceremony, Emily and Lexi for standing by us, and the Side Street Cafe staff for preparing delicious food and offering such great service, Queen Anne's for transforming the cafe with flowers and decor, and Roberto's Salon for transforming us girls!

I asked Jeff, "If you could change one thing about that night, what would it be?" Without missing a beat he admitted that he wished Serena had been there. She was in Florida with her mom, and was greatly missed. These are the moments that you can't get back, and having her there was really important to both of us. I don't think that he ever imagined that he would get married without both of his daughters standing by him.

We don't have our professional photos yet, but these came from my mom and Peter. They got some great shots.