Cravings

Because what time I have lately is spent doing what I truly love - preparing for hosting, executing hosting, cleaning up from hosting, writing thank yous and letters and cards to mail, hanging out with other moms and their children, and most importantly spending time with Karis and Trevor (yes my life is crazy wonderful)- I thought I'd cop out on a very thoughtful post and instead copy an interesting thing I read a couple days ago:

Avocados, Eggplant and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today's research shows that when a woman eats one avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight, and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? It takes exactly nine (9) months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them).

Is THIS why I craved avocados like a crazy woman for most of my pregnancy? FASCINATING! I've read that they are also some of babies' first foods (which is a topic on my mind lately, I'm excited by some new perspectives I've been learning about babies and introducing them to food - perhaps another post later, I'm very excited at my recent discoveries).

Quick bullet points of happenings around here:

We were blessed beautifully to have all our families here this weekend to celebrate Karis's baptism (for SURE its own post hopefully sometime soon, such a memorable and miraculous event).

I pumped enough milk for a couple bottles of milk but have been too much of a wuss to actually give it to Karis, and so the milk sits in our freezer. Maybe this weekend when I host a baby shower Trev can try. Again, I never thought I would be "this" way!

Karis started really talking to us, it's a delight to hear her "ooohs and cooos". Her smiles are more brilliant every day. She's also sucking on her hand whenever she can find it, and drooling like crazy (the two usually go hand in hand, and it's so funny to see her face smeared with all her spit). We are pretty messy these days, I fear that I'm becoming immune to the smell of sour milk and might leave the house one day without changing my spit-up sopped clothes.

Other things going through my head:

I NEED to meet my friend N's daughter, Viv. It's been torture to be this far away, and yet I am so thankful for a dear friend who is just so precious that I could miss her and her family this much!

How can I relax into motherhood? I have a cloud of something - guilt perhaps, but that doesn't seem like the right descriptor - that keeps me from fully reveling in this stage of life. I LOVE being Karis's mom, I LOVE spending every day with her, I LOVE how our weeks flow. However, when Trevor comes home and asks what I did that day, I feel funny saying, "Well, we had tea with other moms and daughters, ran errands, did house stuff, wrote some e-mails and cards, and . . . " It all just feels incredibly indulgent. And yet I firmly believe I'm where I'm supposed to be. So really, I guess it's a matter of discontent, perhaps a lack of confidence in that perpetual game of comparisons. But then I look at Karis and spend even a minute with her and these thoughts are all but gone. Life sometimes seems too good, and I thank God for the blessing of where we are right now, with our little girl in our arms.

Karis did not dress up for Halloween, I wonder if I'll regret that someday?