Above all else...

I think I learn new lessons quite frequently. It's part of being curious... or nosy. Being in Canada alone for so many weeks has taught me a million life-lessons. I knew it would be a challenge when I took this new job, leaving before Todd's transfer was complete. But I'm a big girl, a strong woman, I can handle this on my own, right? Wrong! Am I strong? Absolutely. Am I confident? Definitely. Did I make the right decision? No doubt about it. Is this easy? Heck no. I am blessed in that it's never been more than five days or so without Savannah... but travelling for an entire week, week in week out, is tiring. Living out of a suitcase is getting old. Eating out has lost its appeal. It's downright exhausting. Physically. Mentally. Emotionally. I'm drained. In fact, I could probably be classified as a trainwreck.

Todd and Savannah came for a visit this weekend. Mind you, I was home two weeks ago for an entire week, so I've only been in Toronto since Sunday. Yet, when I found out Friday morning that they might not make the trip this weekend, I had a breakdown. In my car. In the parking lot at work. Very professional. It snowed in Canada on Friday. There's an ice storm in Michigan today. The weather gods are definitely not on my side. After my breakdown Friday morning, Todd realized just how important it was to get to me this weekend. Of course, that didn't keep me from fighting back the tears all day at work. It's a catch-22... I get to spend 48 precious hours with my family, which is amazing... but then they have to go home and I have to stay here until I get to make the drive home on Friday.

I relished in every moment I had with my little one. I came "home" from work a little early Friday afternoon to cuddle on the couch with Savannah. We eventually made our way over to Dave & Buster's for dinner. Upon our return from dinner, we put on our jammies, turned on a Dora DVD, and crawled into bed... promptly followed by lights out at 8:30. I fell asleep with my 3 year-old baby rubbing my back. Saturday was very low-key but so fun-filled. We went to IKEA. We braved a Super Wal-Mart, 17 days before Christmas. We ate dinner at Burger King, where it took Savannah half an hour to eat three chicken nuggets. We went to Marble Slab Creamery for dessert, apparently identifying ourselves as Americans the minute Todd ordered a malt. We came back to the hotel and cuddled some more. This morning included a trip to Chapters, Canada's version of Borders, with some coffee for mom & dad and drinkable strawberry yogurt for Savannah. Then Todd loaded the car, took Savannah by the hand, and headed back to Michigan.

And I've been a basketcase ever since. I'm a career-woman. A hard-worker. It's not at all unusual for me to spend an hour or two working at home at night, and that's after spending a full 8 hours working at the office. This weekend, I think my priorities were set straight. This weekend I realized, above all else, that I am a Mommy. Savannah's not going to be a toddler forever. She's not always going to want to sit next to me at lunch or hold my hand in the parking lot or rub my back at bedtime. When I say "I love you", she's not always going to put a huge grin on her face and say "I love you too". These are the moments to treasure. Work will be work. There's a time and a place. And it will all get done... eventually. Savannah, however, I can't control. She's going to grow up. She's going to become her own person. She's going to go to college and get married and have her own little babies. And I know that's so far down the road... years and years and years from now. But I also know that those moments will come in what seems like the blink of an eye. I generally get 48 hours a week with my little princess; 48 hours where I'm often pre-occupied with other thoughts. No longer. This is the new me. This is the me that's meant to be a Mommy. This is the me that is going to love and adore and cuddle my little princess.

Memories

"Momma, it's not Kristen and Gilbert's wedding anymore."

Really? I hadn't realized. :) Those are the words that very sincerely came out of Savannah's mouth tonight as we were watching yet another episode of So You Think You Can Dance. She's right, it's not Kristen and Gilbert's wedding anymore. Their wedding was a month ago, but it must've made quite an impact. After all, it's got to be difficult to erase from a toddler's mind the shrill and screams that echoed through the sanctuary at a perfeclty quiet moment in time when all eyes were on an adorable little flower girl that was supposed to steal the show. Steal the show she did, just not in the manner her adoring fans had imagined. I'm also fairly certain that Todd wasn't planning on acting as the honorary ring bearer.

In honor of the sweet little princess's memories, here are a few of our favorite pictures from that way-too-short of a weekend spent at home back in November. And for those of you that are wondering: yes, Georgia will always be "home". Always.

It only took 3 and a half years...

Savannah was bald for so long - literally until her second birthday - that I hesitated to ever give her a haircut. And after she found a pair of scissors in her changing table a year or so ago, giving herself a the best haircut a 2 year-old can manage, I just sat around hoping the mullet would come back in style. Alas, we've given up hope and needed to try to wrangle the scraggly hair.

After some discussions with Savannah about my recent cut / color (i.e. "Mommy, I don't want you to have brown hair - I want it to be light like mine!"), I took Savannah for her first haircut on Saturday. I tried to prep her in the car, telling her she had to sit still while they cut her hair so they wouldn't cut it crooked. But she wanted it crooked - she insisted... must be why she took matters into her own hands last year! With the bribe of a lollypop and balloon, Savannah was perfect! She sat big & tall in the chair, following instructions from the stylist, and never moving her head. It was adorable... absolutely adorable!

A Tattoo at 3?!

I have a tattoo. It's no secret. Kristen and I got them when I was home for a visit / conference last November. As though we weren't forever connected by simply being cousins, we now have a special new bond as we endured great pain together. Since I got my tattoo, Savannah has been fascinated by them... stickers as tattoos, temporary tattoos, whatever. Savannah and I went to a new Borders bookstore this morning. It just opened in the past week or two, so they're still having their Grand Opening celebration. After spending a little over an hour reading books, we noticed that they were giving away free airbrushed tattoos... and Savannah wouldn't let me get out of the store without her getting one. She sat there perfectly still, but incredibly excited about finally getting a tattoo. It was cute.

If you look closely, you'll realize that this isn't all airbrush... only Nemo was airbrushed, and it was a very basic Nemo at that. However, along with the airbrush lady was a man doing body paint. Savannah was so darn irresistable that he decided to embellish Nemo... enter added color, seaweed, facial expression. And Savannah still wasn't satisfied! She wanted a ladybug on her cheek. I am amazed at how still she sat while the man painted her leg and then her face... and she's so proud of her "tattoos"! Borders was followed by a visit to David's Bridal to pick up her flowergirl dress for Kristen's wedding. She was the star of the show in that place, never mind all of the beautiful brides! After David's, we hit up Target... again, all the little old ladies came to ogle her. And she loved it all!

Hockey...

Savannah has decided that she wants to play hockey. No questions asked. We can't sway her. We tried soccer. We tried tennis. We tried any other sport we could think of. No. She wants to play hockey. Good thing we're moving to Canada....



Since Georgia is severely lacking in ice skating opportunities, meaning I've set foot on a skating rink about three times in my entire life, I decided to start Savannah off on a little more solid ground. We went to Target last night and bought Savannah a pair of the old-school roller skates that strap to your shoes. When choosing between Disney princesses and Dora, she picked Dora hands-down. Savannah is now the proud owner of Dora skates, Dora kneepads, and Dora elbowpads... and she's adorable. We spent nearly an hour skating in the basement last night. Wait, maybe "skating" isn't the right word to use. There was a lot of falling down. There was a lot of picking up her feet and walking. There was a lot of being dragged around by me. There was a lot of foot-shuffling. I don't think she actually managed to skate. But she tried. She focused hard. And she had a blast.



Watch out, here's our future Kanuck!!

Pictures!

I almost forgot... I created this website for pictures. I haven't uploaded anything in a bit because I haven't been around to take pictures, but this is where they'll all be. Check it out!

http://aleeshavalentine.shutterfly.com

It's been a minute!

I will again start this blog by apologizing for going so long without posting. The summer kept us busy, with lots of travelling and lots of visitors, so I haven't always felt like we had the time to update the blog. That being said, there are some big changes coming for the Valentine family in the very near future, so we'll try to do a better job!

Let's recap the summer...
(1) My dad came to visit the first week in June for a few days. Savannah loved spending some quality time with her Grampa - they went to the park, the petting zoo, and (of course!) McDonald's. Saturday morning even found dad and I gardening. I have the world's blackest thumb, but I now have a yard I need to maintain. We gardened all day Saturday and Sunday, pulling out old bushes, planting flowers, and filling the vegetable gardens. It's now been nearly four months and most of the things we planted are still alive. Amazing, I know!
(2) The week after my dad was in town, my mom came for a 10-day visit. Her trip was cut short due to a death in the family, but it was good to have Gramma around for a few days. I was out of town one of the nights mom was here, so I know Todd was happy to have an extra set of hands.
(3) Our little princess turned THREE on June 20th... three already!! We decided to forego the big birthday party because we'd had so many houseguests, but Savannah did have three of her friends over for dinner and fun after school on her birthday. I have a picture somewhere... I'll have to find it.
(4) The week after my mom was in town, I spent four days in Toronto.
(5) The week of July 4th, Todd's mom arrived for a two-week visit. Todd was off the week of the 4th... I was not nearly so lucky. Savannah definitely got some quality time with Grandmere and daddy while mommy was busy working.

After six weeks of constant houseguests or travelling, life was finally back to normal! August was a fairly quiet month for us. Though I spent four nights at a local hotel because of a conference I was hosting, I managed to escape the month without any work-related travel. As a birthday present to myself, we traded in the mommy van for a fiesty little red Mazda 3... it's so much fun! I also threw a joint birthday party for myself and Todd, as I was out of town for Todd's actual birthday. He's 30... old man! Labor Day weekend marked a visit from Aleesha's cousin, Kristen, and a much-needed Girls Weekend in Chicago. Kristen, Christie, and I headed to Chicago for a fun-filled weekend. And travel season has once again started. Poor Savannah was passed around between a few people last week as I was in Korea and Todd was in North Carolina. Korea was amazing... busy and tiring, but such an interesting culture. I left on Sept 9th and returned on the 14th... just to leave again on the 16th for a conference in Texas. As I type this post, I'm sitting in a hotel room in Plano, TX, anxiously awaiting my 9:00am flight tomorrow morning... just to sit in the airport for three hours, meet up with Todd and some friends, and fly down to Georgia for the weekend for a wedding. When I return home on Sunday, I'm fairly confident I will have never been so excited to be in my own house and my own bed.

Like I said, big changes are on the way for the Valentine family... Stay tuned!