Saturday, May 08, 2010

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY 2010


These beauties are the reason I will celebrate Mother's Day tomorrow. My DH has already blessed me with the bold and bubbly. In other words, the new awesome 3G Blackberry Bold 7290 AND the delicious Heidsieck Brut Reserve champagne. One word for both: LOVE! Five words for DH and kiddos: THANK YOU, I LOVE YOU!!!!! But the best gift of all is getting to share my life with you!!!


**A very special thank you to my own Mommy that has been a true inspiration to be the best Mom I can by being such a great example of what a wonderful Mom is! I will be happy if I can even come close to giving my kids the life you have given me. I love you!!!**

Thursday, May 06, 2010

Sibling Rivalry


Notice the below post was one week prior to the volcanic cloud over Europe shutting down many airports and travel. I know I said it, but is my boy a genius or what?! A little eery but we will wait on deciding how eery until it happens again! :-)


Today was filled with love, laughter and playfulness of a two year old and four year old sibling along with screaming, fighting, tears and demands from those same siblings. Yes, our house is filled with both and while I hate the later it is the former that makes the other times easy to forget.



After a much needed energy burning excursion to the duck pond, park and library where the kids got along the majority of the time we came home for lunch. I knew I had stretched out our morning too much and I was going to be lucky to get food into my extremely exhausted 2 year old and my picky 4 year old eater before nap time. As I was heating left over Claro's sausage from the night before and was banging around the kitchen looking for other quick serve foods E started demanding chips with cheese (AKA Nachos - yes, she caught this bad habit from ME!). Since I wasn't sure she would even eat before nap I decided to indulge her while trying to figure out what else I could feed them. I didn't even take the time to grate the cheese. I sliced it straight from the cheddar cheese block, layed it on the chips and heated in the microwave (& as any Nacho connoisseur like myself knows, these are both big NO-NO's). She was delighted and started picking up chips immediately and eating away. I had already set a container of green bean baby food in front of her (both my kids still love baby food vegetables and frankly I see no reason why they can't have pureed veggies when they want) and away she went dipping her nachos in the green beans the way I would dip my nachos in hot salsa (make that the hotter the better). There she sat, cute pony tail & beautiful bow in hair, eating her nachos dipped in green beans all with a big beautiful smile while doing her side to side "happy dance". I couldn't help myself, it was one of those times that it just comes pouring out with out even trying, "E, I love you!". Meanwhile, my extremely picky eater L was pushing grilled hot dog pieces around his plate. He looked at me, waited a few seconds and then said, "why did you say you loved E but not me?". First of all, he only waited three seconds. Secondly, he was NOT even eating ... not even a little. Just doing what he does best ... staring at his food thinking about something else, anything else. I explained to him that E was eating well and it made me really happy. I said I love you as a way to express how thankful I was to her that she was eating so well. Enough said. He picked up his spoon and ate. That day at least. *Sigh* the battles of a picky eater. We mother's celebrate even the smallest victories. And yes, he got an I love you too!
**L and E pictures above on our recent road trip to the Arizona Grand Resort . When I showed him the picture and asked why he was making that face. He told me she was hugging him too long and too tight and he doesn't like that. LOL!

Bittersweet







When raising kids you are often faced with many joys that are also tinged with a bit of sadness. One of those events took place last month. E got her first haircut (Okay, second haircut ... the first was at about at 14 months when L took a pair of scissors to the back of her hair and declared with great excitement that he just "cut his baby sister's hair because it wasn't straight in the back" but since that was nothing more then a little clump in his little bitty 3 year old fingers we will count yesterday's haircut as her first :-)).

I know it looks straighter now, I know it looks cleaner, I know it looks fuller, I know she is 2 years old, I know how proud she is to have her hair cut like her brother, I know I won't even think twice next time she gets it cut, I know her hair still has their cute little curls, I know it is easier to brush it now ... and all that makes me very happy ... BUT her scraggily baby hair at the end is GONE, the hairs that were there when she very first came into our lives and blessed us forever with her energy and that makes me a bit sad. :-(


When I say I am a bit sad when I see my kids pass another milestone some people look at me as if they think I am holding on too strong.

I think ...

you must not be enjoying this current age and stage

you must not see the joy in today


you must think the grass is greener over on the other side


you must think life is all about what is next
\

Because, if not, you would see that these milestones are truly happy occasions they also have a tinge of sadness while saying good-bye to the past.

I will sure miss that baby hair. :-) BTW, did I also mention she moved to a big girl bed?! Yes, she is growing up and that certainly makes me sad and I am not afraid to say it. :-)