Monthly Archives: May 2014

Timing is Everything

by Krystal Wegner May 31, 2014

Hello!!

I didn’t fall off the face of the planet, I swear. I’ve been meaning to check in on the blog for weeks now but somehow the time keeps getting away. Or maybe that’s what life is like now?

The past few weeks have flown by as visitors, family, and grandparents have come and gone. In between, baby Ara and I are getting to know each other better. We are discovering a daily routine (eat, play, sleep, repeat with a stroller walk/moms session/office visit/ some kind of outing in the middle). It was slowgoing in the beginning but I’m growing more confident in taking her out, especially after we survived our first diaper blowout change in the car backseat and public nursing session. Sidenote, they should give out medals or at least free glasses of wine when these mommy milestone are achieved….

Our first Mother’s Day was wonderful and low-key. We spent the day together as a family, took a walk on Alki Beach near our house, and Nick and Ara made me a beautiful journal that will become filled over time. In this year’s entry, there’s a photo of me holding newborn Ara and her handprints at 6 weeks old. I love it.

Ara is 9 weeks this week and has been cooing and smiling for a few weeks now. It warms my heart every time. It’s fun to interact with her at this stage now since she’s so alert and aware of her surroundings. Her personality is coming through. So far we know she’s pretty easygoing and a generally happy kid. I often catch her just taking in the world around her with these BIG eyes. I made her laugh for the first time a couple days ago while doing something incredibly mundane- squats of all things. Her face broke out into a smile while I was breathlessly counting off each squat and she started laughing in her bouncer as she watched me go up and down. It must have looked pretty funny. Forget the last ten pounds I need to lose, making her laugh again was even better motivation for me to continue, but MAN, I realized how out of shape I was after a few minutes.

Life as we know it is changing rapidly. Nick graduates at the end of the month and is busy studying for his boards in July which is 10 days after graduation. (WHAT SICKO SET THAT DATE?) We are also trying to pack our townhouse to list and hopefully sell in a few weeks. In the midst of everything, we leave for Salt Lake City early June to try and find a rental for a year. This short trip will also be Ara’s first travel experience. And her baptism is the same weekend as graduation. I know what you’re thinking: it’s going to be a totally boring month for the Wegners.

Packing with a baby is basically a lesson in patience and efficiency (translation: a futile exercise). Ara is a sweetheart but she’s also the liveliest kid. We are in trouble. She now wants to be held or entertained all the time, so I’m racing around the house when she’s napping to try and get things done. She has become more sensitive to noise and light in her naps and now I almost miss the newborn stage when she was able to sleep through anything. Almost. That newborn stage was a hot mess for everyone involved.

Even now, she’s down for her first morning nap and I’m sitting at my kitchen table silently cursing out my neighbors who are working in their yard with a backhoe. Yardwork on a beautiful sunny weekend morning, what were they thinking..

Sure enough, she’s up again….now’s a good time to sign off. Hope to be back soon with hopefully some good updates about graduation, moving, and a home sale!

Here are a few photos from the past couple months. Sorry if these are redundant for my Instagram followers, but these favorites are on there for a reason! 🙂

Gymboree: 5 weeks old and already sleeping in class

Saturday morning

Bedtime reading-ish

No hair don’t care

Daddy and me

Mommy and me

We call her Bright Eyes

My little joy

Identity Crisis

by missy May 28, 2014

For me becoming a stay at home mom, I emotionally have been on a roller coaster of Identity Crisis. Some days it makes sense to me, who I am, what I am all about, other days I have no clue. I will be the first to admit that I am probably over-thinking this whole issue, but at the same time this is one of many struggles I am dealing with and whatever it is it’s real to me.

When we moved to the Bay Area it made sense for me to stay at home because I wouldn’t have much time to find a new job before Nola was be born. Plus I didn’t feel comfortable with the idea of leaving our baby so young. As time went along we found a church we loved, met wonderful people and also got names of really great daycares. But after doing the numbers, it just didn’t seem to make sense to go back to work with the amount of money I would bring in after daycare expenses, transportation, etc. I know some people do it even if they break even for social and professional reasons, but for me those reasons never won me over.

So here I am, Nola is almost going to be 2 years old and I am still a stay at home mom. Lots of days I love it, but some days are really really hard and on those day to be honest I don’t love it. Before Nola I did architecture. I went to work everyday knowing what I was working on, if I worked hard I would get respect and I could feel good about what I was accomplishing. Now I’m not going to say I always loved my job. In fact there were many times where I thought of about trying something different. But I think there’s something about having an agenda, reporting to someone and getting things accomplished. Staying at home has been the hardest and most rewarding job’s there is, but what you never get is a memo of what I accomplished or any praise or respect for what I am doing. Trust me, that recognition from someone other than your husband or mom is different, something that feels great and you need every once in awhile.

Currently I am questioning the idea of going back to work Architecture. I know most of you would be like, ‘um Missy, that’s where all your education and experience are in.’ And I most likely will go back to that profession in some shape or form, but the hours can really be bad depending on what firm you work at and it can be a really stressful job. I remember feeling sorry for the mom’s in the firms I used to work at because of the guilt they felt when they left on time. I really I don’t want to go there.

To help me digest and just understand things more clearly I made a list in of the roles I truly know I am. I am a child of God, I am a wife, I am a mom, I am a daughter, I am a sister and I am a friend. Just looking at this list I am not burdened by those things and actually feeling pretty excited and blessed I have the honor to be that person. I hope that I can figure out a healthy balance on being the best version to all of those things. Most of the time we talk about things after the struggle and you can share how you figured things out, I can say I am in the midst of it all right now. But I can assure you that though this is hard, life’s really good. This wouldn’t be real life if I didn’t have some issues, right? Trust me this is not even close to all my problems.

When it all comes down to it I know all moms have it hard. From having a job that requires too much of there time, not being able to find a job, dealing with difficult kiddos, the list goes on. I know that’s life in general, but I hope all of us can take the time to still do things that bring them joy and that allow us, for even a brief moment, to forget about trying to figure out life and what’s best. For me those wonderful distractions involve eating yummy food, our nightly family dances, watching the Mindy Project (why does there have to be a break for summer?!), our adventures we take…there’s a lot of joy in those things and I plan to keep on doing them because I don’t foresee ever figuring things out completely and because they are so much fun! That being said, that doesn’t mean I’m not going to try! And I really hope I get some of it figured out, I really really do!

My Little Best Friend

by missy May 7, 2014

Last night before going to bed I told CJ, “I think Nola’s my best friends.” Once it came out of my mouth we both gave each other that look, me: ‘did I just say that?!’ cj: ‘you are crazy’.

But the more I thought about it I realized in a way it’s kind of true. I don’t even know if I should admit this or if this makes me look pathetic, probably both, but what I realized is that we are at this precious age where I can have these crazy adorable conversations with her, we can play and have loads of fun and when I discipline her (or try to) she doesn’t hold grudges. Plus lets not forget we do hang out everyday all day. Of course she doesn’t replace the greatest friend I have which is my guy or that our conversations could even come close to a good talk with a girlfriend. And trust me we have moments everyday where we don’t feel like the best of friends. Moments before I just about lost it, or did lose it, when I had to deal with spilt milk and a stubborn kid refusing to eat AGAIN. But those frustrations are quickly forgotten.

CJ and I are determined to be parent’s before friends when those scary teenager years come and I don’t plan on being BFF’s with my kids in all phases. My number one goal is to discipline and guide her in life to be this crazy great person I know she’s meant to be. I know as she gets older she won’t feel like I’m her friend, and I’m ok with that. Around college is when I started to appreciate and respect my mom and eventually became friends with her, and I hope that just like now, our relationship will evolve into her being my good friend.

Nola thanks for being my little best friend right now! I treasure this time and I am so blessed I’m your mama!

girl talk while laying out 🙂

blurry selfies

Ara Newborn Session

by Krystal Wegner May 2, 2014

If you know me or my family, you know we love photos. Growing up, I remember countless family photo sessions and it’s fun to go back and look through them to see how we’ve changed over the years.

Enter the digital age and smart phones! The photo taking is now out of control, especially now that we have a baby and I was not letting go of the opportunity to schedule a newborn session with one of my favorite photographers out there, Dorothée of Belathée Photography, a team based out of New York and Seattle. I first met Dorothée and Annabel when I was a wedding events assistant with True Colors Events. TC only worked with the best, and the ladies of Belathée are the best! Not only are they supremely talented, they are warm and wonderful to work with and the images they take are always stunning and intimate in feel.

We scheduled a newborn session with Dorothée as soon as Ara arrived and I’m so pleased with these beautiful images. They were taken mostly in our home, when Ara was one week old. It was a lovely spring day in Seattle and the cherry trees in our neighborhood happened to be in full bloom, so we also ventured outside to take a few photos with the flowering blossoms. I’m so thankful to Dorothée for capturing this sweet time in our lives with our little girl. And we actually look (kind of) awake in these!

All photos by Belathée Photography

Day Trip to Big Sur

by missy May 1, 2014

A couple weekends ago we decided to hop in the car and drive over to Big Sur. Actually that sounds a little too carefree than how it really went down, that’s because we have a toddler and she can be tricky. But I like saying we hopped in the car and drove, doesn’t that sound spontaneous? I love this stage in life, in fact I have moments where I tear up because this little girl of mine is growing up so fast!! But that spontaneity is something I look forward to when we retire, and I’m pretty pumped I get to do that with my favorite person.

While in Big Sur went to see McWay Falls which I highly recommend seeing. I mean a waterfall that falls into the sand, can that be more magical!? We ate at Nepenthe which has amazing views and it was great weather to eat outside. Nola is known to spill water while out to eat so eating outside is our preference these days. On the way home we saw some condors and a eagle. Being naive to bird knowledge I thought an eagle sighting was neater than a condor, however that’s not the case at all. Condors are endangered and in the 80’s there were only 20 in the world! Learning new something everyday.

You could spend days at Big Sur camping and hiking, but if you plan just a couple of things to do it also can be a great day trip. I should mention a lot of the lookout’s are from a cliff so it’s not necessarily a relaxed activity with a toddler. But we usually had her in the ergo or having a death grip on her (she likes to wonder on her own these days testing her independence).

Here’s some photos of the day if you care to see: