Ketchup

02/08/2012

er… catch up. It’s amazing how a couple of days without blogging gets me out of the groove and I don’t know where to start again. So how about a little bit or this and that.

Last week was miserably busy at work for me—the worst deadline week I’ve had in as long as I can remember. Long, tiring days in my cubicle, away from my husband and sweet baby girl. Jason was home for the week but we hardly crossed paths. It feels silly to even articulate those complaints because all I have to do is shift my perspective a little bit and I realize how much I have to be thankful for. I have a job. I have an awesome husband. We have a sweet baby girl.

The week was topped off with a weekend full of packing and moving. Mostly packing. We even skipped Super Bowl parties to work. Looking at the calendar with Jason’s tour schedule between now and the closing on March 1st and we realized we better get going on this moving out of our house business. Five years is long enough to forget how much work it is to move. And goodness, how did we end up with so much stuff?! It’s amazing how it multiplies when it starts getting put into boxes.

We have officially moved into my parents’ house and are getting settled in comfortably there. Our belongings will rest in storage until the new house is completed. As I mentioned before, leaving our mid-century ranch has been extremely bittersweet. We really love that place and planned to never move. Funny how dreams and goals can change so drastically in a short period of time. If we hadn’t felt called to become foster parents last spring, and to continue fostering after we complete our adoption of Precious, I really don’t think we’d be moving right now.

But again, a simple shift of perspective and I realize how much we have to be thankful for. We’re building a house—a dream we’ve always had but figured was a long way off. We have a great relationship with my parents and a place to stay right down the street from our new house. And the new house is going to be great—and most importantly have room for our family to grow.

As we were packing on Saturday Jason’s mom, Grandma K, spotted Precious’ first tooth finally poking through. She’s been working on that for a long time. Three days later my mom, Grandma L, spotted her second tooth coming through. I finally got a picture of them yesterday. Speaking of pictures, here are a bunch of random ones from the past few days:

I’m doing the February Photo A Day challenge on Instragram (#febphotoaday … I’m @mahlbrandt if you want to follow me). The one above was “your view today,” my cubicle…ugh! And below was day 2, “words.”

On Thursday night Jason played an industry showcase with Michael Dean Church at The Rutledge. It ended up being a fun double date night out with our friends Jeremy (who played drums) and Leila—without our babies for a change! We had dinner afterwards at a new burger place in East Nashville called The Pharmacy.

My first (unsuccessful) attempt at baby tooth photography.

Kitchen configuration… whatever spare creative juice I have has been going here lately…

Teeth! Caught them on camera with the help of Grandma L who got her smiling.

3 Comments | Art, Art: music, Art: new home build, Family, Family: Jason, Family: Me, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Mother-Daughter Adventure #1

02/01/2012

Precious and I went on a big adventure last week. Jason was in Florida for 12 days on tour so we decided we’d join him for a few days in the Tampa area. I’ve flown alone with a toddler once (Ladybug) so that probably took the edge off my fears, but it was still a little scary flying into an unfamiliar airport, renting a car and driving to meet Jason all on my own. Thankfully, Precious is an AHHHMAZING traveler! I didn’t really expect anything different since she’s super easy-going and happy in general, but wow. Not bothered by the pressure in the airplane. (She was sleepy and yawning through both flights and had a bottle as we started descending.) Not bothered by sitting in the Florida heat watching me wrestle with the rental car seat for 20 minutes. Not bothered by sleeping on hotel beds, cribs at random churches, or on the floor of the green room. Not bothered by all the strangers ooohing and ahhhing at her. Not bothered by getting shown off from stage in front of hundreds of people. (I was nervous as heck, though!) Not bothered by missing a nap here and there. Ok, maybe that did bother her a little bit… She had a few, “Hey, I’m freakin’ tired over here!” melt-downs but considering all we did, she did awesome. Best tiny travel companion ever.

Oh, and it’s wasn’t JUST a mother-daughter adventure, of course. We had a great time hanging out with Jason and the guys. Precious and I arrived in Tampa on Saturday and flew back to Nashville on Wednesday. The first three days were show days for the guys so us girls just went along with whatever they were doing and tried to stay out of the way. Tuesday and Wednesday were off days, though, so we all headed south to Sarasota and booked a night at Lido Beach Resort. It was gorgeous! The weather was perfect. Highs in the upper 70s to low 80s, sunny, breezy with lower humidity the whole time we were there. Precious had a nasty first experience at the beach. Right after we sat her down and took a picture, she face-planted into the sand. Sand was in her eyes, nose, mouth, ears. Poor baby girl! I took her into the pool to rinse off and she was happy again. It was her first time at the beach and her first time in the pool. I’m determined to get her swimming unassisted by floatation devices next summer (when she’ll be 2). We’ll be in the pool A LOT this summer since we’ll be living at my parents’ house. Knowing how to swim is a life skill and “waterproofing” is not an option in our family—all kids must learn to swim as soon as possible. Anyway, enough about all that. On with the pictures.

Right after we arrived, watching Daddy set up for sound check:

Representin’ Guy Penrod with the onesie my co-worker made for her:

Packed house at this one…lots of Q-tips

Pretty Spanish moss everywhere. It’s so romantic.

And palm trees everywhere too.

We’re happier than we look…the sun was just so bright!

Bare feet!!! I love Precious’ chubby little toes.

Outside the door of our room at Lido Beach Resort:

Lunch poolside:

First time in the sand at the beach…right before “the incident”…

The pool makes it all better

We ate dinner at the nationally reknown Columbia restaurant. It was as fabulous as everyone said it would be. I found it hilarious that all the guys pulled out their cameras to take a picture of our stone crab appetizer before we started eating it.

We stayed out of the sand the second day and everyone was happy

It was a short trip during a very busy season of our lives…but oh so worth it! Thank you, Lord!

1 Comment | Art, Art: God's creation, Art: music, Family, Family: Jason, Family: Me, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

The Best Time to Buy a Winter Coat

01/30/2012

…is probably the end of the winter, right? Much to my mom’s dismay, we’ve managed to get through the winter thus far without a winter coat for Precious. She has a giant snowsuit that my mom bought her but we’re tired of wrestling with it to get her into the car seat, especially since the majority of her van rides are under 10 minutes. Next year, however, Precious will be a toddler, a year a half old, the age/size of Ladybug (hard to believe!)…and she’ll need a proper winter coat. Since she’s growing an inch a week (it seems), I decided to hunt down a unisex, warm, hooded coat that Precious can wear next year and we can reuse for our future kids. It was surprisingly difficult to find a unisex (ie. boys) coat that was all one gender-neutral color…yellow, red, black, green, gray, brown. After a small bit of research, I decided on London Fog. I was pleased to find this artichoke green jacket on sale for just $18 and free shipping. Score! (Extra bonus: It came the NEXT day!)

It’s 2T size so it should be perfect next winter. And, she can even wear it for the last month of winter this year, too. Happy, Mom?

As someone who lives in an artichoke colored house and loves artichokes on pizza and pasta, I do with this “artichoke” was a little more yellowish green like the website images and a little less hunter green. I’ll just have to dress it up with a girly hat and mittens next year.

4 Comments | Art, Art: fashion, Family, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Phone Photo Friday

01/27/2012

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Precious: Monthly Portrait 6

01/26/2012

Little girl, it’s hard to believe you are already half a year old! Happy 6 Months, Choongie. You still seem like a tiny baby until I look back at your pictures from September when you joined our family. You’ve changed so much. And my arms and back can verify that you’re getting heavier. In fact, you’ve already grown out of most of your 6-month size clothes—especially the pants and sleepers. Shortly after Christmas (and your 5 month birthday) you started sitting up on your own. Now your balance has improved so much that you’ve started rolling from your back to belly and back more frequently. The same week you started saying Dada for real. We’re not sure if you know what it means yet, but you get a positive response when you say it, especially from your Daddy. When he kisses your cheeks you still get a speckled red rash from his prickly face and everyone can tell he’s been kissing on you. Now that you’re 6 months old, we have the go-ahead from your doctor to start you on solid foods. We’ve shelved the bland rice cereal and moved on to avocado and carrots. There are sweet potatoes and bananas waiting in the wings. It’s fun to watch your reaction to new tastes. You’re still sleeping like a champ through the night, even though teething pain wakes you up from time to time. You’re great at putting yourself back to sleep sucking your thumb. You’ve been napping less, sometimes just two naps a day now for an hour or two a piece. It’s getting harder to get anything done when you’re awake because you’re so much fun to play with!

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Homemade Baby Food

01/24/2012

It sounds really complicated but really Homemade Baby Food is just fancy words for softened (steamed, baked, mashed), blended food frozen into small portions. It’s easy and it’s inexpensive. For Christmas, Precious got this wonderful Baby Bjorn bib that my friend recommended. It’s made from a stiff silicon-ish material so the food catching lip doesn’t collapse. Also, the neck is adjustable so it will fit for a while. Perfect for Precious’ reintroduction to solid foods. (We started on rice cereal at 4 months old but neither of us was really ready yet. Now, at 6 months she’s ready. And I am, too.)

She also got some great Oxo Tot baby food freezing containers for Christmas. Oxo is my all-time favorite kitchen gadget brand. This Oxo Tot freezer tray pretty much just looks like any old ice cube tray but it has a lid—a pretty green lid—with a special function. It’s curved at the ends so you can dump just one ice cube out at a time. Smart, huh? It makes 1 oz. portions. Perfect for introducing new foods. Once the cubes are all frozen, I’ve been popping them into freezer bags so I can label and date them.

The Oxo Tot baby blocks six pack tray and 2 oz. containers are handy for taking larger portions on the go. I haven’t seen these in action yet but the first batch of pureed carrots is freezing right now. So far I have made avocado, carrots and bananas for Precious. Next on my list are sweet potatoes, green beans, broccoli, apples and pears. I’m curious to hear from you: What were the first foods you fed your kids? What foods were their favorites? Did you make baby food at home, blend up whatever you were eating or buy baby food pre-made?

7 Comments | Art, Art: Cooking, Family, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Smorgasbord

01/16/2012

I have been struggling to keep up with blogging the past week or so. I think this happens to every blogger from time to time. Real life takes priority, but I also aspire to keep up with documenting and sharing. Here’s a little bit of what’s been going on lately:

• Jason finished recording his lullabies album last week. I’ve been working on the album design. We had a little photo session yesterday with Precious, Jason and his guitar. Hopefully I captured something that will work with what’s in my head.

• After being home for a solid month, Jason’s tour schedule starts back up this week. It’s been so great to have him home. But I’m also incredibly thankful that he’ll be back to work soon because he loves it and it’s how he makes a living. That makes us both very happy.

• This month the guys are going on a Florida Snowbird Tour and Precious and I are going to join them in the Tampa area for a few days. I am  SO EXCITED about this mini-vacation that I’m willing to fly with a 6 month old, pick up bags and rent a car all by myself. I’m a little nervous but it’ll be oh-so-worth-it. I flew alone with Ladybug once and it was OK. The first flight was great and the second flight was mix of bad and torture. (It started out with her smacking me in the face when I tried to contain her on my lap after the last passenger to board the plane took the last available seat next to the lady flying alone with a toddler—me—and said “Oh no, this is going to be a long flight!” I wanted to spit back, “You have no idea what this child has been through! We’ve only known each other for 2 weeks!” But I kept my mouth shut. The flight ended with a screaming tantrum. Thanks for the curse, mean old lady sitting next to us…ANYWAY…I’m sure these flights are going to be great because Precious is the most easy-going baby in the world.)

• Our house has been on the market about 6 weeks and we’ve had around 20 showings. Nuts! Showing a house when you have a baby and a dog is not easy and I’m not a fan of the one-hour-notice showings. What the heck, people?! It’s all good though. We pull it off with smiles on our faces and we’re praying for an offer soon. It’s nice to not have any rush, we’re just excited to move forward on our new construction. We’re hoping for breaking ground in March and moving in by the end of summer or early fall but it’s impossible to say at this point.

• On Saturday Jason and I stopped by a new string of shops in East Nashville called the Idea Hatchery. It’s a bunch of small studios for start-up and small businesses with more affordable leases, funded by the art gallery next door called Garage Majal. Cute little area. (Pictures above and below.)

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Hush Little Baby

01/11/2012

Image

Yesterday Jason finished recording his first solo instrumental album, Acoustic Lullabies. It sounds amazing! I know it will be enjoyed by all ages as the guitar playing is just beautiful—a combination of his classical guitar training, finger-style influences of Phil Keaggy and Tommy Emmanuel and probably a hundred other things. He’s sending the files off to the mix engineer today while I’m working away on the CD package design. We’re expecting an early February release.

If you read my post on Thanksgiving, you know that we’re selling one song as a pre-release off the album, “Hush Little Baby,” for a minimum donation of $1 as our one and only adoption fundraiser. A bunch of you—near and far, friends and strangers—helped us out by buying the song with a donation. Thank you so much!

And I hate to bring it up again, but…we’re short. So far we’ve used generous donations to pay for our attorney, filing fees for Termination of Parental Rights/Petition for Adoption, a new birth certificate, publication for TPR of the biological father, fingerprinting (as part of our background checks) and a private home study but we’re about $500 short for all of that.

I may have mentioned before how much I dislike asking for money for an adoption. And now here we are, paying out of pocket for an unexpected private adoption and realizing we can’t do it alone. So, in case you missed it the first time around, here is another opportunity:

Click here to purchase “Hush Little Baby” from Jason Ahlbrandt’s forthcoming instrumental guitar album, Acoustic Lullabies, for a minimum donation of $1. Include your email address when you purchase and I’ll send you the mp3 within 3 business days. 100% of the money donated goes to paying for the adoption of our Precious baby girl.

2 Comments | Family, Family: Foster Parenting, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

The Land

01/04/2012

We’ve been referring to the chunk of dirt, grass and trees we own as “the land.” We stopped by there one day last week to finally get a picture of the three of us. My mom walked down (a looooong walk, 6 house down!) to snap these photos for us. Standing on this ground makes us so excited about our new house. We’re really looking forward to the planning and building process next year.

1 Comment | Art, Art: new home build, Family, Family: Jason, Family: Me, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Her Testimony

01/03/2012

I debated about whether or not to share this because I know not everyone will get it. If you’re not a Christ-follower, it might sound totally random. I still wanted to share. The word testimony is thrown around a lot in Christian circles. Basically, it’s my story—who I was and how I got to who I am today. But when God gets ahold of a life, it’s really His story. Sharing my testimony brings glory to who God is and how He has turned my life around. It reflects His character, His power, His goodness and faithfulness.

Jump to the surrender day. Right before we were called back to the judge’s quarters I took Precious to the restroom for a diaper change. On the way there, someone stopped me.

“Excuse me! Excuse me, ma’am?” I turned towards a heavy black woman with a kind face, expecting her to say Precious was about to lose her sock or something along those lines.

“Oh! Look at her!” she said. “I’m just here with my sister,” she patted the woman next to her, “but we saw her from across the room and I said, ‘I have got to touch that baby!'”

And that point, I had turned toward her and I was thinking, wait—touch?

She reached out and put her right and on Precious’ right thigh. “Oh, she is a blessing!” she squealed.

I smiled. “She sure is. She’s like this all the time; she’s the happiest, most content baby we’ve ever seen.”

“That’s going to be her testimony!” the woman declared back.

And that was that. I went on with the diaper change and the rest of the court process but what she said kept resonating. She didn’t know who we were or anything about our situation. For a stranger to call my daughter a blessing would not be terribly uncommon but to use the word testimony. Her joy is going to be her testimony. We’ve seen it already. I’ve been telling people, even at just a few months old Precious already has a great testimony. She has been through so much yet she has been protected, she’s right on track developmentally, she’s beautiful and healthy, and she’s truly joyful and content. We believe God has great plans for her and none of what she has come through has been random or by accident.

Her joy is going to be her testimony.

 

6 Comments | Faith, Family, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

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