Blog a la Cart

Button Cardigan

Today’s DIY is sickeningly easy and garners more compliments than I can track. It’s a great way to spice up a drab cardigan, or breath life into one that you’ve grown tired of. If you don’t have one stashed in your closet, hit up a thrift shop or the Salvation Army and you can find one on the cheap. Then go nuts with all those random, singleton buttons that accumulate from various clothing purchases. I promise, you’ll be amazed by all the “Oooohs” and “Ahhhs” you’ll receive.

Materials:
Cardigan
Random assortment of buttons
Needle
Thread

Directions:
I’m not even going to list out directions, because it is that straight forward. Select the buttons of your liking and sew on up the cardigan, filling in all the open spots between the cardigan’s buttons. Now bask in the showering of compliments.

Photo: Courtesy of Ashley Weeks Cart

20 Months.

Sunny,

You now call yourself that. Sunny. And you call me “mommy” and James “daddy.” And it’s just so grown up, it breaks my heart. What happened to mama and dada? Where did my baby go?

I know, you’re now 20 months old. You are in the home stretch to two and I have no idea where the time went. I started diving into all of the infant clothes, and burp cloths, and drool bibs we have stored away that will resurface with the arrival of your baby sibling, and I was struck by how quickly it all goes. In the moment, you think that that gurgling, drooling, blobby stage will last forever. Sometimes you wonder how you’ll ever survive. And yet, it is a blip. A very short lived moment in the grand scheme of a life. Please, remind me of that when I am crazed with sleep deprivation and don’t think I can make it another day with your baby brother or sister. Infancy is exhausting and overwhelming, but it’s here and gone with the blink of an eye, and I’ve found myself scrolling back to my photo archives in the Spring of 2009, rewatching videos, and getting totally overcome with nostalgia and the weepies.

Stupid pregnancy hormones.

Meanwhile, you keep me on my toes. I can’t wallow in the past with your ever-constant growth. Daddy was away for less than 24 hours and was blown away by what a different child you seemed in just a day’s time. In that period, you’d developed a love of pigs, and demanded constantly to watch Miss Piggy on YouTube (as naturally, she was the first famous pig I introduced you to when you began to enthusiastically tote your two pig stuffed animals around the house). You learned to do a ridiculous impression of a pig’s oink. And you grasped the meaning of the number two, as you have “ONE! TWO PIGS!” Now you strut around the house proudly showing us when there are TWO of something. “Ursa! Hanna! TWO DOGS!”

Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

You can pick out letters in books and on signs, and I totally was not prepared to have you already mastering the alphabet. We’ll be reading “The Napping House” (your current most favorite book) and you’ll stop me mid-sentence to point out an E! or a G! or a N! and clap with excitement. You’ve memorized the easier board books that we’ve been reading to you since you were really little. I’ll flip to a page and you’ll start flapping your arms like a butterfly, or pretending to splash in the tub, or shout “EAT! Nom nom nom!” to imitate whatever is happening on that page. We’ll have you reading Dickens in no time.

Most notably, this month you have mastered the art of manipulation. We totally saw it coming, but it doesn’t make it any less shocking when I find myself caught in your adorable, precious, manipulative web. When Daddy was away, I went to check on you in your crib before I went to bed, and you had totally soaked through your diaper. I couldn’t let you sleep in a pool of your own urine, so I tried to ever-so-quietly pull you from your crib and change your diaper, and dripping pants, without waking you.

Yeah, fat chance.

As soon as your soggy bum hit the breeze, your eyes shot open and your first words were “Mommy? Snuggle?”

I cannot resist the snuggle, no I cannot. I am powerless against it.

I finished cleaning you up, and thought, what’s the harm in her sleeping with me tonight since James is away?

Have I mentioned the stupid pregnancy hormones?

The excitement of being in Mommy and Daddy’s room, and the blinking light of the fire alarm on the ceiling, and the dogs, especially Hanna who throws herself around the bedroom all night, were like a double shot of espresso. You enthusiastically babbled about the light of the alarm. Then would hear Hanna and start shouting “HANNA! URSA! PUPPIES!” I kept encouraging you to close your eyes, and you’d slit them slightly and then say “No” in the most matter-of-fact (IN YOUR DREAMS!) tone. When you started demanding “Sunny cookies. Mommy cookies” I knew this whole Mommy snuggle bit was a giant failure and headed back for your crib. As soon as you hit the mattress you began shouting, “NO! MOMMY SNUGGLE! PWEASE! MOMMY! PWEASE! TATO MOMMY! SNUGGLE PWEASE!”

Tato being your word for Thank You. You were thanking me in advance for pulling you from your crib and snuggling. We battled for 3 hours because my mommy heart could not listen to you shrieking for me with such pleading and manners! (please and thank you, y’all!) But every time we’d snuggle, it undoubtedly turned into a wide-awake party fest. Eventually, your toddler body’s need for sleep wore you down, but yikes. I need to grow some cajones to resist your pleadings, or just hope that Daddy is around to manage the situation.

When Daddy came home, he and I lay in bed talking about all of your new developments, just how dang cute you are, how we are totally and completely and stupidly in love with you and we cannot imagine a world without you.

I paused.

Do you think it’s possible she needs us as much as we need her? Because, I do not know how to exist in this world without her. She’s my lifeline.

It’s crazy to think that despite all of my independence, and all of your dependence, I am the one who needs you in every possible way. Sure, you need me to change your diaper. And feed you. And clothe you. And bathe you.

But I need you to breath. Not to inhale and exhale, but to breath and experience the world around me. When you were born, you took control of all the things that were once involuntary and gave them new meaning.

I have said it in so many different ways in each of these 20 monthly letters, but Sunny, thank you for changing my life.

143 Mama

Photo: Courtesy of Kate Miller Photography

I’m not going to get all, “I have a dream” on you. Much.

It’s tempting on MLK day to reference snippets from the “I have a dream” speech, to grab sound bytes from King’s most inspirational moments and plaster them in our Twitter streams and Facebook walls.

But today I went to a lecture about Dr. King. A lecture that focused on a man who was not a glorified figure of hope and inspiration, but a man who pushed boundaries, scared the leaders of our society by challenging the status quo, and a man who shook the core of this country so much that he was assassinated for his beliefs.

A man who was considered dangerous. An enemy of the state.

And so today, I want to pull words from Dr. King that are less inspirational and more grounded in action:

Let us be dissatisfied.

As today’s lecture reminded me, the most powerful learning comes when we step outside our comfort zones. The best piece of advice I received from a teacher when I graduated from high school was this:

“Make yourself uncomfortable. That’s where the learning really happens.”

And I’ve treasured that advice ever since I first saw it make a concrete impact on my life and the person I am today.

And so, remember that change does not come from the content. Conflict and tension and dissatisfaction invoke change. We live in a society that wants to fix discomfort instead of allowing it to fuel actions. We want to be safe.

But instead, let’s be uncomfortable.

Let us be dissatisfied.

Obsession.

Some of Addison’s latest antics are making me melt with the cute.

Example #1:

James had to wake Addison from her slumber to take her to daycare last week. She only goes twice a week, and is always very disgruntled when she has to be out of bed prior to 8 am (much like her mama). She cried and cried when James pulled her from her cozy crib, and as she gasped for breath between sobs, she looked at him and pathetically whimpered, “Sunny. Bed. Pwease.”

HEARTBREAKING! What parent forces his child to be awake when she is ASKING, nay BEGGING, for sleep?

James Cart, ladies and gentlemen.

Example #2:

Sunny loves to point out her anatomy and James has been teaching her where to find her clavicle, and femur, and scapula, and cranium. Very important things for a one and a half year old to know.

She now also delights is pointing to other people’s body parts, like mama’s BOOB! for example. (I take full responsibility for this display. Oof!) Or to her stuffed animals’ anatomy. The other day I heard her mumbling, “Elmo, clavicle! Elmo, eyes!” Since she was engaging in this way, James turned to her and said, “Where are Elmo’s ears?” She looked around to where one would expect to find ears and then gasped in shock, “OH NO! ELMO NO EARS!”

I. Died.

The same thing happens now if you ask her where Elmo’s bellybutton is, “Oh no! Elmo no bellybutt!”

Example #3:

Since introducing the potty, Sunny has taken to forcing her stuffed animals to use the potty regularly throughout the day. She herself is terrified to put her bare bummie on it, but she is more than happy to sit on it with a diaper on, and say “Pee! Pee! Pee!” or “Sunny, poopie!” I think, sadly, she’s missing the point, but we’re working on it.

This imaginative play with the potty has now slipped into other parts of our life, as just the other day at dinner, Elmo was sitting at the table with us, as he always does per Sunny’s request, and out of no where, Addison put down her fork and shrieked, “OH NO! ELMO POOPIE! ELMO POTTY!”

I think that she was just using it as an excuse to get out of her high chair and rush Elmo to the potty.

Perhaps she’s more with it than we think.

Sunshine.

We went to a Colonial Carriage Fest this weekend. Obviously. Didn’t everyone?

I know, we are so country.

Sunny fell in love with “horsies!” and we froze our butts off.

Totally worth it.

be present.

Last week I received lots of happy news. It was just one of those weeks where everything was coming up Ashley.

I’ve learned to appreciate those moments, those times where things seems to fall into place and I either receive kind words or affirmations that give me that jumpy, happy, twitchy feeling and paint a stupid grin across my face.

It’s so easy to brush aside those moments, or forget about them when we need them most. But life really is far more pleasant when we focus on the positive rather than the negative. Easier said than done, I know. Given the tragedy that struck the whole nation this week, we all know that there is so much ugly bubbling around us that it can be hard to even appreciate it when good news does come a’knockin’.

But I will treasure the kind words I received in an email last week from a fellow Eph and New York Times best-selling author praising my writing on this blog. I am horribly insecure about my writing, and for her to have taken the time to sit down and right those encouraging words means more than she’ll ever know. To be told that my writing could be inspiring to an already successful author is more praise than I could have hoped to achieve with this little niche of the Internet.

And then I received an email from be present, a company that makes active and casual wear clothing based on the yoga lifestyle, offering to sponsor the clothing I will wear in my 9 Month Maternity Photo Series. I could not be more thrilled to partner with a company that promotes overall wellness and comfort as I move through my pregnancy. Their name alone, be present, is a constant reminder of one of my New Year’s Goals:

Breathe. It doesn’t get any better than being in the moment. Stop worrying so much about tomorrow. What you have here and now is more than enough, and then some.

I am especially excited to be sporting clothing that will accommodate my ever-growing waistline and allow me to maintain an active lifestyle without having to wear a mumu. A stylish, and most importantly, comfortable, pregnant mama I’ll be! And as all pregnant women know, maintaining both of those qualities is an impressive feat indeed.

Next week, I plan to share Month 2 and the first shoot in the be present line. Also, look out for special be present giveaways over at Green Eyed Monster. Yes, that’s right, you all can reap the benefits of this lovely partnership too! They have organic and eco-friendly lines of clothing, making the brand a perfect fit for expecting mamas and mama earth lovers alike. And of course, everyone in between and beyond.

Please, head on over to Facebook and ‘like’ the heck out of this awesome company. And if you’re on Twitter, why don’t you give ’em a follow? And you can check out their whole line and subscribe to their newsletter by heading over to www.bepresent.com.

I can’t wait to share this project with you! Enjoy your weekend, and remember to be present in whatever you do.

Drunken Sailor

I am home. Finally.

12 hours to travel from Louisiana to Massachusetts my fat, preggo ASS!

I spent the past four days in New Orleans, and I wish I had glorious tales of rowdy nights out on Bourbon Street and flashing-boobies-for-beads to tell, but alas! A pregnant woman in the Big Easy ain’t the most interesting of stories.

I listened to live jazz and suffered through the STILL legal smoking-in-bars-situation. Apologies, Sesame Seed. The tunes were totally worth it, no?

I ate. A lot.

So much fried goodness. And blackened goodies. And Muffaletta goodness. And beignets covered in powdered sugar high enough to rival the state of my back yard in Williamstown.

It was actually heaven for an expecting lass. Every possible flavor imaginable at the ready.

I was in the city for a conference, and it was nice to squeeze in some touristy time with the extra day. I had to extend the trip due to all the freaking snow pounding the country. Thankfully, flying privately with sky aviation lets you customize your experience. You can choose the drinks, snacks, and meals served aboard the plane, because you own it.

Do you know, that right now, 49 of 50 states has snow somewhere on its ground? Florida is the odd man out. GET WITH THE PROGRAM, FLORIDA! Even Hawaii’s got this.

ANYWAY, I clearly have nothing righteous to share. The city was sadder than the last time I was there, pre-Katrina. I expected it. But it did make my heart heavy as I wandered the various neighborhoods. It’s still teeming with culture and energy, but there’s the weight and aftermath of disaster in the air.

While away, James sent a myriad of outrageously adorable videos and pictures of Sunny to ease my aching mommy heart. Snuggling with her this evening before bed was the most relaxing moment of the past week. Amazing that such a bubbling force of energy and movement can have that effect.

This particular video had me in stitches all week. I know I shouldn’t laugh, but falling is just funny. Period.

James, were you allowing our daughter to imbibe in my absence? Looks like Billsville was more ruckus than NOLA!

Thought.

Why I’m not currently en route to the airport.

Yesterday:

Today:

Obsession.

That is one happy Ursa Bear. And I realize that name is redundant, thank you very much!

Sunshine.

While I’m stuck in New Orleans (I know, poor me), Sunny is embracing the inclement weather keeping her mommy away.