What Happened?!

I was going so strong.  So committed.  So determined to complete the 2014 Resolution.
I think life happened?  Marathon training, family, Hadley's teething, sleep deprivation, anxiety (and if I am honest, a couple really good books read into the late late night)... I am sure I can come up with even more excuses.

But excuses are lame.  I am not going to use them.  Instead I am back on the daily blogging wagon. If only because the now seven hour time difference between Team Honeycutt and North Carolina Honeycutts, the five hour difference between us and Minnesota and the four hour time difference between HI and our Colorado loves has made the Space Between even further  (Oh, that Pacific is SO BIG and Daylight Savings is a jerk.)... In spite of the time chasm, there are milestones happening here people!

Milestones, I want to share with you.
 
Today's example:  Hadley's growing vocabulary.
Current words:
1) Daddy and Dada (depends on her mood or how excited she is to see him)
2) Nigh Nigh (night night)
3) Nana (banana)
4) Shoe
5) Gus
6)  Da (dog)  
7) Was at (what is that?)
8) Taytu (thank you... my favorite)
9) Hadley
...I think there are a couple more... but I can't remember.

After a couple months of the army crawl Hadley started crawling at 12 months and 1.5 weeks.  Just this week she started pulling herself up on the couch to stand.  Walking still seems a ways off.  But she is starting to look interested in the prospect of it.  Which is progress.
Her current favorite thing to do is have neighbor Keira slider her down the slide in the playroom.  She loves to be pushed in the laundry basket.  She LOVES the water (when it is not too cool for her liking) and can hold onto the side of the pool and kick her legs all by herself.  She loves to snuggle with the dogs, climb all over her brothers and now prefers to be pulled in the wagon instead of being pushed in the stroller.  Almost all of her teeth are in.  Hair is finally starting to grow, nothing substantial though.  Her neck got longer, evidenced by the necklace she wears hanging much looser around her neck.  She is becoming a toddler.  Slowly but surely.
I am sad that these are milestones so many loved ones miss out on.  Yet, I feel a peace about being where we are.  So much of this life is about managing disappointment and sadness.  If there is any mark I get to leave on this world, any legacy I could choose... I think it would be that I chose love and joy regardless of the disappointments.
And so, even though she is growing so fast, so far away from many who love her, I am thankful that she has people who love her.  I am thankful that we have friends here to share in the excitement of milestones with.  I am thankful for Skype and cell phones. I am choosing joy, even though lately my heart has been longing for my mom and some dear friends.
It is a funny thing to chose an attitude that seems contrary to ones emotional state.  Yet, sometimes that act of choosing keeps an emotion, what it is, just an emotion.  And allows you to flow through it rather than get stuck in it.  I want to embrace the longing just long enough to feel it and then move beyond it.  I want to be impacted by my emotions, just not defined by them.  A tricky thing to maneuver sometimes.