The 5th decade

How on earth did I get to be this old? 40 was ancient when I was a kid. Darn near middle-aged! I remember my parents turning 40, so this is surreal.

I'm relieved about excited about my 40s in all honesty. My 30s were a mixed bag.

A recap of a decade.

At 30, Joe & I got married. At 31, I graduated from library graduate school, moved to Ashland, Wi & later that year to Green Bay. I had 2 different professional library jobs by the time I was 33, both of which gave me valuable lessons about working in library-land.

Gave birth to dear daughter Madeline @ 33. She began my lesson in patience & kindness. I started working again in nonlibrary land @ 34. 35 was realitively boring though we did purchase our first home. 36 was the infamous year of the elbow - 1st broke it then later that year had survey. We spent the next year in relative sanity & I returned to libraryland. 38 was the year of the uterus - I had 2 miscarriages & a total of 4 surgeries, ultimately removing the fibroids which were thought to be responsible for the miscarriages. When I became 39, I became pregnant again & since I was high-risk, life became a bit more complicated. I had almost biweekly doctor appointments, & ended up on bedrest for the 6 weeks before Zoe was born.

And now I'm 40. With a newborn. I'll be 58 when she graduates from high school. Zoe & Maddie are 6 years apart in age & their birthdays are 5 days apart. Life continues to move and bring new challenges, but i'm looking forward to this next chapter.

5 weeks!!!

Such a difference 5 weeks makes! Zoe is starting to show personality & rewards our attention with a huge grin. Truly makes any cranky behavior wotrth riding out. She finds her hands every once in a while. They still startle her, esp. when she accidently whaps herself in the face. My 2nd favorite development she's reached is cooing. Zoe'll look at you intently for a few minutes, and start grinning . Then she'll begin cooing. If you are really lucky & coo back, she'll continue coo-talking.

I will post pics soon, I promise. I've re-started this blog mostly cuz I now have a iPod application that is allowing me to peck out blog entries while nurses. I have to say this out loud @ least once: my iPod has saved my sanity over the past few months, and particularly over the past 5 weeks. So when next I have time/energy and get back to my laptop, I'll post Zoe pics. Oh, and when they say there's an app for a particular thing for the iPod, they mean it. It'd be an interesting analysis of apps people use & why.

So, as I slowly begin blogging again, thanks for coming back, hope you and yours are well & happy, & blessed be...

Milestones

Zoe found her fist & I'm celebrating my 40th birthday on Sunday.

A brand new day

I've recently spent a lot of time on my butt, trying to make sense of my life. Nothing quite like awaiting the arrival of a baby to take stock of one's life.

Now, Zoe is a month old. We've established a sort of routine, in that I'm on call for her 24/7. Maddie is slowly figuring how to be a big sis. Thankfully I don't have to go back to work til mid-February.

I was a bit freaked the first time I realized I'll be turning 40 with a newborn. I've found a lot of silver hairs on my head lately & my poor body has gone thru so much over the past 2 years.

I've resolved to accept my flaws & embrace my strengths. I'm not perfect. & i'll not ever be 100% fit but I can be the best mom I can be to my girls & strive to be happy.

From my iPod

I'm currently rocking my dear baby daughter to sleep, thinking it'd be nice to get back to contributing to my blog. Guess what - there truly is an app for nearly anything!

Evil Maddie

Evil Maddie
Originally uploaded by Karen54301

Yup, the toothless vampiress...

So serious...

DSCF1073
Originally uploaded by Karen54301

Maddie on her first day of Kindergarten

DSCF1074
Originally uploaded by Karen54301

Maddie's locker

Maddie's locker
Originally uploaded by Karen54301