joy. brightness. geniune meaning.

Anne-Kelly turned 10 months old this week. I cannot believe it. What a blessing she is. I cannot express in words the joy and brightness and genuine meaning she brings to my life. I wanted to celebrate her little life.

So I was in Target today and I saw the cutest little pink swimsuit with a TUTU around it. Who knows if it's actually a swim suit and the tulle can get wet and all that, but for ten bucks it was worth it and perfect for celebrating Anne-Kelly. Look how adorable she was running around in it today:




















My mom is here visiting all week, which is really fun and nice as well. We're hoping to get some serious cleaning and rearranging done tomorrow. We have promised each other that we're not taking showers tomorrow until we get all our cleaning done. It's going to be a pretty monumental task.

Which reminds me: to all my friends who are pre-baby and possibly thinking about buying a house...be sure to look at all angles before purchasing one. We have zero storage space, especially in the kitchen area, and that is why I'm having to completely regroup when it comes to storage. We were fine until Anne-Kelly arrived! But unfortunately, having another person in the house brings more stuff. Not too much, as I'm trying to be a minimalist when it comes to raising my child...but still stuff nonetheless.

And speaking of stuff, I am starting to plan for Anne-Kelly's first birthday party, at which I'm sure she will receive a great pile of presents. And on the one hand I find it wonderful that our friends and family love her enough to buy her something, but on the other hand, I don't want her to grow up attached to things and as a spoiled-rotten American kid. Part of our deal is that I really don't want a lot of plastic. It seems like every toy out there is made of plastic. Not that we don't have a few plastic ones that we're fond of; we do. However, for the most part, we are shunning the idea of plastic. So I'm hoping to encourage the people who feel obligated to buy presents (which you are most certainly not...your presence is our present!) to buy more classic, wooden toys or books. Those are lasting things that we will keep for a long long time. :) And that is lovely for everyone, including us and the wonderful Earth that we live on.

Which leads me to my final point: it's Earth Day this Thursday, and our family is trying to do our part to live more sustainably. Composting bins and rain water bins are on sale this weekend at Whole Foods, and we're excited to purchase our very first composting bin, yay! Also, we have cut down MAJORLY on the amount of trash we put out this year by cloth diapering, recycling and reusing, and my favorite, of course, breastfeeding. I encourage you to try and live more mindfully toward this sweet world that we live in. It's a gift from God, and it is ours to take care of, is it not?

Prayers your way for a beautiful week.