"On This Day in History"

On this very day one year ago, I went into labor.  Yes, my water broke at midnight, right as I was going to bed.  I was unprepared, still planning to teach school the next day.  Instead, I showered at 2 am, wrote emails about my lesson plans to fellow teachers at 3 am, tried to wake Dave up at 4 am, went to breakfast at Denny's at around 5:30 am (I wanted to get in one last meal!) and was admitted into the hospital a little before 7 am!

And then, after a long day of labor, Kate entered our lives at 8:45 pm!

Kate Alison Kimball

6 lbs 8 oz, 8:45 pm, January 15, 2010

The proud parents!

I was proud.

And so excited.

And very overwhelmed.

I experienced awe, amazement, and wonder.

And I was clueless.

One year later, I feel like I've learned a lot.  Maybe more in this year than in any other year of my life.  And I'll be summing up a lot of that soon . . . but in the meantime I just wanted to say,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATE!

I love you!

A Mother's Ingenuity

What's the old saying?  Something like, "necessity is the mother of invention."  Necessity = having a baby who crawls everywhere and climbs everything.

Baby proofing is a daily process in my house, and I'm sure you can relate.  That means that sometimes I have to be creative.  For example, I was sort of hoping that Kate would ignore the garbage can next to our entertainment center.  It's small and white, I thought that maybe it would blend in.  You hardly see it, right? 

Wrong.  Kate was into that faster than I could say, "Don't eat your fingernails!"  So it moved.  Notice the placement.

The garbage has now become an official part of the entertainment center decor.  We used to have pictures there, but hey, those were totally overrated. 

Another issue: the cupboards in the bathroom.  You know, the ones with all of the ultra-dangerous-they-can kill-kids potions like clorox bleach and 409.  I bought this really handy dandy baby proofing safety kit that had safety locks for cupboards.  I asked Dave to install them.  Problem solved.  Not.  Dave tends to have very little patience with those types of things.  He got frustrated after about 5 minutes, and said . . . well I don't remember what he said, but those little safety locks never got installed..  Mom to the rescue.  I came up with my own very complicated method of keeping Kate out of these cupboards.

Yes, those are mascara tubes.  Maybe you're like me - I have no method to my madness, I just buy the brightly colored mascaras that promise that my eyelashes will be as long and thick as a tarantula's legs.  While these mascaras may not always deliver on the eyelash promises they make, they faithfully fulfill their duty of preventing Kate entry.  Check.

I used to worry that when I quit working and stayed at home, I might not have as many opportunities to use my genius and creativity.  Quite the opposite.  I have to sharpen my wits daily to keep up with little Kate.  Unfortunately, Kate doesn't appreciate me using my ingenuity to thwart her exploration.

Anyone else have any great tricks that they're especially proud of as a mother?