6 months

I am writing this evening's entry with a renewed sense of energy, clarity, perspective, faith, beauty, wonder, love. The gamut. The title of this post is 6 months. Because in 2 days our baby girl will be 6 months old. God has been incredibly good to us. We've made it through the first 6 months without an ER visit, a sickness or even a diaper rash. I say this humbly. Believe me. Joel & I sit & stare at this baby girl with wonder & awe like you can't even imagine. New developments? Isla LOVES to stroll. Thank-you Granna. I try to appease her daily by strolling a 45 minute loop in our neighborhood. Sometimes we even do it twice per day. Stop traffic.

We've made friends! YES! I've met 2 wonderful ladies through friends & childbirth class that have babies very close to Isla's age. Neither of these gals are from Missoula or Montana for that matter. We've bonded over sharing stories of sleepless nights, clueless (yet absolutely wonderful) husbands, hormones, parents that are VERY far away & the frustrations that go along with that, ups & downs of cloth diapering, wanting to be a "crunchy" mom yet not wanting to exclusively breastfeed our kids until they're 3, being indoors with a newborn (all the time) during a Montana winter & mostly the crazy amount of love we're experiencing for these little people that have popped into our lives. I think Anne Lamott said it best in her book Operating Instructions when she said, "There's places in the heart you never knew existed until you come to know the love of your own child."

Its becoming crazy gorgeous in Missoula...I actually hear birds! The sun is starting to shine more than once a month...you know I read Bozeman gets around 320 days of sunshine per year...more than Houston, Texas!! Missoula? Around 75 days...you know I'm reading these statistics & thinking we're 3 hours northwest of Bozeman...how the heck did we get the shaft??? A little thing we Missoulians call inversion. I'm just thankful for the vitamin D at this point. The good news is we're heading into a season that make most folks in other parts of the country drool, literally. Our summers are spectacular & the reason why many people want to move here. Too bad they last only a little over 3 months. Reality check people. It ain't a River Runs Through It 12 months a year.

We're getting geared up for an epic family trip in a couple of weeks. We're taking our baby girl to Kauai in celebration of our 2 year wedding anniversary & mostly because we made it through 6 months & we all still have a pulse. We start mommy/baby swim lessons next week. Isla & I will get in one lesson before we experience Kauai. I was hoping to squeeze in a few more pool experiences before we took on Hawaii but I'll take what I can get. Granna sent lots of love & adorable outfits from the south in preparation for our trip. That means smocking & monogramming aplenty.

I better end here or else I'll wait another 6 months before I conquer another entry.

Lots of love across the miles,

The "why are we trying on swimwear when its 30 degrees outside" look.