A nomadic pack

We have officialy made the great move. 3 suitcases, 1 dog crate, a stroller, 2 backpacks and a purse hold all our worldly possessions for the next 2-?? months while we patiently wait for our house in Georgia to sell. Being nomadic for a few months isn't so bad... But it isn't easy. Our modest 1 room at the residence inn seems to adequately hold all our things, and at least provides simple cooking accommodations. But is still not home. For a while there is no real home. And for a toddler, a dog, and a pregnant woman, that is sometimes a hard thought. But then I saw this on pintrist:

And felt much better.

Quick Cali Trip

In the midst of the crazy house preparations, we needed to take a quick trip out to California to check out our temporary housing options. But the last two weeks have been hard for Brad, and so we wanted to treat him to some fun mom & dad time.

 This is the air museum by where Brian will work.

 Bradley loves, loves airplanes. Someday I'll post the movie I took of him explaining how they work.

 My two skunks!

And of course we couldn't resist a trip to Disneyland!  There will be many more of these in our future! Disney is just an hour away! I think that means, maybe once a month. We'll have to see.

Brad's fave part was the adventure course in Disney's California Adventure. He got to run around with Daddy on all the bridges, rope courses and slides. He cried every time we left the area no matter how long we stayed to play and no matter how much prep we did to let him know it was time to leave. But he loved it so much we just had to make a few stops to play.

So where are we now?

Well, we have till March 3 here in Georgia. Then we pack our suitcases and fly out to Cali for good. We'll be in some sort of temporary living till our house sells. I really have a lot of faith that our house will sell in a reasonable amount of time. But still keep us in your prayers!

Off the Grid

Sorry for the lack of posts since November. We've been a little busy.

There was that whole Christmas thing where we were gone for two weeks in Oregon.

Then there was that first trimester of 24 hr morning sickness in Dec and January- which sucked me dry of all energy and ambition. We are lucky my sweet toddler survived. We ate a lot of tater tots. Which is my only real craving.

Then we just found out we are moving to California!
So over the last two weeks we have replaced the roof, installed a new back door, repainted the kitchen, and tried our best to de-clutter. (I've spent over $100 on plastic storage boxes from costco. Crazy.)

Busy.

But at least it is all very happy, exciting and new events that are keeping us busy. You can't complain when all the blessings you've been patiently praying for suddenly happen all at the same time.

The latest and greatest of our news is we are moving to California in the beginning of March. We have four weeks to get our house show worthy, and put it on the market.I actually am having fun prepping the house. I've never had a good reason to buy all those accessories a house needs to feel complete, now I do! I've bought generic art (that I love that brian would never choose himself), those generic wicker balls to decorate my living room, a mirror! a lamp! A small table for the entry way! Maybe even curtains next week! Ahh, Heaven is spending money to make your house look more traditional so buyers will like it.

Know anyone moving to Georgia? Send em our way. I really will miss Georgia. I love the people, I love the food, and the landscape. I do not love the bugs though. Plus I've learned lots of my mommy skills from the wonderful southern women here, and I don't think I'll ever be able to say "hun" or "sweetie" with out thinking of some of those ladies. I also don't think I'll ever be able to say certain mom phrases with out a little twang. Even Bradley says "Go" and "no" with a little twang sometimes.

NYC II

We began our second day in NYC in an attempt to conquer the subway. Our goal was simply to go up the island and get off around half way up central park. After our subway train failed to stop at the next three stops we figured out the express train does not stop along central park at all. Rather, it stops a few blocks after the top of central park.

So of course we decided to walk through the top half of the park get to the Natural History museum along the center. Central Park really is a beautiful place and Bradley loved running around all the trails. And it is HUGE! It was not a quick stroll to get to the center.

Then we FINALLY arrived at the Natural History Museum!! Of course we had to eat lunch first. THEN we went to the planetarium show. Bradley was unimpressed and began clapping so the darn thing would end. When that didn't work he buried his head in Daddy's shoulder and fell asleep. But mom and dad were SO excited for Bradley to see the dinosaurs that we didn't really try very hard to keep him asleep for very long.

A mildly grumpy Bradly found the dinosaurs really really cool. And proceeded to "rawr" at each new one.

And Brian was very excited to see the monkey exhibit. We kept trying to pick out which monkey was the "trouble maker monkey" in the "Night at the Museum" movie. (This museum is supposed to be THE ONE in the movie.)

Mom was way more excited about the largest asteroid in the world rather than stinky monkeys. Bradley really really wasn't excited about the largest asteroid in the world. He snuggled his new dinosaur and calmly strolled around with us till...

Mom found the beautiful rock room. And then Brian let Bradley run around for the next 30 minutes while I looked at all the pretty rocks. Best room in the whole museum.

On our walk through the rest of Central Park Bradley finally fell asleep. Too little too late. Brad proved to us that it is very foolish not to let a sleepy baby sleep. My attempt to put him down later that night was a complete failure and he finally ended up falling asleep in his fave place in the world- between mommy and daddy.

Lesson learned. Don't take the express subway train, and let sleepy babies sleep.

Future lessons learned:
*Sigh* the subway still sucks
Pizza is best when you stand in line
Jackson Pollock ROCKS
Never ending candy rooms really do exist.

A little bite out of the Big Apple

We needed another vacation before the end of the year. So we decided to tack on another vacation onto our trip out to PA for Thanksgiving. Where else but New York!

So here are some snipits from our first day.

It is a little chilly here. Bradley has quickly embraced his warm hat, gloves, and puffy jacket.

 After just a few minutes of walking, we found ourselves in Times Square! This place is crazy! Combine all the flashing lights and billboards along the strip in vegas, and put them along one or two blocks of street, and you have Times Square.

 Of course we had to go the air museum. Brian loves this pic of little brad, big SR71.

Just a hop over to Rockefeller center, (every time we walk through here, which is a lot for some reason, the 30 Rock theme-song goes through my head.)

 Then we ended our night at a little, tiny, 8 table Indian restaurant for the BEST Indian food I've ever had. Brad was a good little trooper and ate his rice without too many outbursts or grains of rice flung into the neighboring customers.

Soon to come:
Subway "success"
and Why Brad NEEDS a Nap Before 7pm

What Manner of Mother am I?

I ponder this question often, especially when I have the opportunity to spend time with another mother with young children. I always compare our mothering methods, our temperaments towards our children, our patience, our adorance of our children, our knowledge of the world vs the innate knowledge of being a mother, how the gospel is approached and taught in their home. I know, wow, I sound like an obsessively insecure person. But I can't help it, I learn so much about myself in this process. I learn so much about how many mothers there are, how we are all different, but how we all have unique amazing qualities that make us the perfect mother for our child.

More often than not I'm hard on myself and desire to have better, other, more experienced, mothering qualities. Mostly I struggle with patience, grumpiness, and my natural mother knowledge (which is nonexistent). But this always provides the opportunity to reflect on my own two years of motherhood and see how much I have changed in this short time.

Maybe I am just resistant to change, or don't naturally have the mothering gene, but I found the transition from independent woman to whole giver of self kinda hard. Maybe I'm just more selfish than other mothers, but it is not easy for me to drop what I'm working on and run over to my baby and jiggle a toy above their head to please them. It has taken practice and patience as I work to forget my desires and focus on my child's needs. I value this quality in other mothers. How did they get it!?

In my transition to motherhood I did get one surprise mothering ability! From the first night I  could easily wake up and hop out of bed to calm, feed, rock my lonely little infant. I never had a problem initially leaving my sleep behind for my little guy. I greatly missed my sleep, but I could get over that uggg time to get out of bed feelig. I admit now it is sometimes a little harder to jump out of bed at the littlest sound. But I can still do it, and I always feel a warm surge of gooey love when I hold my cranky toddler and he cuddles into my arms.

Anyways, after all the frustration that I'm not like that other "perfect" mother, I remind myself that after all, I've only been a mother for 2 years. Heavenly Father sent Bradley to me, my family, because he knew we would all grow in love and experience together. And, absolutely no one else has ever mothered Bradley Saponas. SO I can stop worrying about being that ideal mother for him, he already thinks I am.

 Last night Brian was trying out a new recipe (yes my awesome husband cooks a few times a week) and he noticed Brad come in the kitchen and pull up a chair to the counter. Pretty normal. Brad loves to watch us cook. Yes, he loves to watch me too, even though I mostly have no idea what I'm doing.
 As Brian finished different elements he would place them in bowls on the counter. Pretty soon he noticed Bradley playing in the mixer bowl. Still normal for Brad.

Then he noticed he was actually stirring something. Further investigation revealed that Brad had gone over the drawer, pulled out his own mixing spoon, and came back to the counter and helped himself to the green beans. He was pretty sure he could improve on Daddy's preparation.

 I helped out by getting down an empty salt shaker and some plates. He will tell you which ones are for Mommy, Daddy and Bradley. Oh yea, he has this all planned out.

Sadly, even though he created a wonderful bean side dish, he would not actually eat it because of course it was green beans. At least they were good for playing with! There's hope!