It's been over a year since my last post.  The heartache of letting go of Jolene was painful to say the least.  There have been lots of ups since then, but the struggle of moving, renovating a home, becoming a stay at home mom and the learning curve that came with that along with the ever expanding curiosity and energy of our son was ... A LOT. He learned to walk within a month of living in this not so baby/toddler proofed construction zone home.   So I put some things on hold, like this little corner of mine.  We have, however, finally settled into a groove.  Our baby is now a full fledged toddler that is potty trained, asked tons of questions about what things are called, and requests our Google Home speaker to play his favorite songs (Twinkle, Twinkle; I Got You Babe; You Are My Sunshine; All You Need Is Love).  Our home is still as always a work in progress - adding a fence soon to our front yard, and more details on the changes we made in the last year to come.  Jack finally had no more sleep regressions or struggled with teething.  In fact, he met so many milestones early I had to learn to keep up! We had the places we visited (pre-Covid) and had signed up him for preschool.  And then we found out, we're adding to our brood once again.  And then the pandemic happened. 

Our new baby announcement was made and people have known via social media for several months now.  But the pandemic has made this pregnancy feel very different.  Also chasing a tot while pregnant has also made it very different.  There is always less and less time to devote to ourselves.  We're only a few weeks away of meeting our daughter and who knows how in the world our lives our going to change. We'll have to find our new balance once again!

I’ve been feeling some MAJOR mom guilt lately when it comes to this boy. Before baby girl arrives, he and I have been like PB&J.  I've struggled big-time being away from him in the past and I crave him all the time (umm first time mom syndrome?) I try to remind myself frequently “the only thing consistent about life is that it’s never consistent.” Anyone else have a hard time accepting this? So I’ve been working hard on just cherishing the joyful little moments right now...his hilarious commentary, sweet hugs and coy side glances when he wants a cookie or ice cream, genuine excitement when I come home from running an errand, mispronunciation of words, chase games around the staircase and table, his big belly laughs when his dad picks him up and throws him in the air ... and just remind myself each stage is fleeting, because life will continue to stay constant in one way only— it never stays the same.  ​

For those of you who follow me on instagram, by now you know that Jolene has gone to live with another family. It was a hard pill to swallow, but we keep on going over the reasons as to why that choice was best for her and us.  It's still pretty raw; I expect to see her when I walk into our home, or see her come out of the room from a nap.  She was and is, after all, our first child but talking about it is the only way I can think of helping me deal with the sadness of missing her. 

She made me a mother.  Because of her, I always carried a "diaper bag" with all of the essentials - water, bowls, because she gets hot easily, snacks, toys, cleaning towels (incase we stumbled upon a good but muddy field to run in).  I constantly scheduled her vet appointments, made sure to givce her her monthly medicine for heart worm and fleas/ticks.  If I or her spotted her friends across the street, we'd run out for a playdate and I made friends in the neighborhood with those other dog parents.  Gave her baths and taught her to tolerate them because they're not as scary as she first thought.  We taught her games and tricks and words (sounds) for specific objects.  All of this is not dissimilar to what we're doing and going through now with Jack.  

And so, in honor of our girl, whom we had the privilege of having be a part of our lives from December 7th, 2016 until April 7th, 2019 I'm sharing the most recent photos taken of her just before we gave her a new, better life at a farm with all of the land to play in without children, and a letter I wrote to her.

Hi Folks! We've been MIA for a while...back in January we found a house in a neighborhood we loved and put an offer.  Since then things moved quickly and yet slowly.  You see we gave extra time for the paperwork to go through, and set March 15th as the closing date, but now we can officially say we are home owners!!! Take a look at our 1942 Cape Cod style house!

Prior to actually closing, we did a bit of leg work to get started on some of the renovations we need to get done and they're already underway.  It's all very exciting and we can't wait to move in, but we know that a month and half will go by like a blink and barely have time to actually get all of our things out of our current apartment. 

We'll miss the city and the neighborhood we lived in for three years, but we won't be too far from it - in fact, we're only about 7 miles due north of our DC apartment.  So if we're really hankering for tacos from Bandit or larb tofu from Bangkok Thai we can just hop on over and pick some up. Obviously what we'll miss most is walking to and from anywhere and everywhere as we're now moving to a more suburban area, but we're also pretty excited about the farmers market down the block, Antique Row and camping in our backyard! 

Follow along as we slowly renovate our home by looking up the hashtag #OurKensingtonHouse on instagram! We're starting with the kitchen for now. Stay tuned for before and after photos and details regarding our renovations...

Life, lately, has been exciting, to say the least and also so full, which is why we've been away from our blog for the past couple of months! We'll have some big news to share soon but for now here are a few updates on what's been happening:

1. Starting off in the new year, Jack learned to crawl....fast! And soon he was standing and now cruising. And basically, we have no free time now because he's on the move at all times.
2. Jolene has learned (finally) that not all outings are for going to the Park.  She's getting really into discovering new parts of the neighborhood.
3. Pete got the flu and Jack got sick so that was a major reason to be MIA from the interwebs - just had no time!
4. LittleMIGHTYpress has some new work up on the instagram - check it out!
5. Still deciding how to celebrate Jack's up coming first birthday and the theme...should probably start a pintrest board, like now because we have a month and a half left. How has a full year already almost gone by? Keep you posted on the design deets...
6. We're slightly obsessed with Starz series Outlander. So good! Have you seen it?!?!?!?!

And if you're wondering about the quote above, it just really resonated with me. It's good to have a focus when you're just trying to get by day by day.  Each day counts! And we're sure working on building the future that we're dreaming of. 

It's still the early in January so it's not too late to share our reflection on this past year right? This first week, we slowly got back into our groove, focused on routine, and spent some quality family time thinking about or plans for the year ahead.  But before I get to that, we want to share about what a great year we had that kicked off with two baby showers from our families and friends, my sister's marriage to a wonderful man, and of course the birth of our son! We also celebrated Jack's first Christmas with my family in Michigan. It truly felt like a joyous year and we're excited for the adventures to come!

Jack got to ride the Q line for the first time as we went from Midtown to Downtown Detroit where we watched throws of people ice skating at Campus Martius right next to the giant Christmas tree!
​
As always, the vacation went by fast, but I met some goals for the end of the year including:

• spending some gal pal time in Michigan (see photos below)
• getting the grandpas and uncle Jon more comfortable with holding mini man Jack
• visited the Detroit Institute of Arts (first time for Pete, first time for me since 1995)
• got Jack to visit Santa

We spent NYE relaxing at home after all the travel, celebrations and teething troubles, but below you can see photos of our trip to Michigan this holiday season!