Mother's Day

First off, a big Thank You to our moms. They're such a blessing. And as we are now raising our own kids, we wonder how they ever survived our antics. xoxoxo

I've had a good weekend, and have felt peaceful and blessed. Many laughs too. My kids are deliciously cute when they're in good moods (and when I'm in a good mood).

I already posted on Sophie's biggest achievement of the week. She is also growing to be so thoughtful. We went to the $1 jewelry shop this week, and on her own, she decided to find her own money and buy a necklace for me in secret. She hid it from me until today. Jossie also did this, but it wasn't as secret. I wore both of them together today, and an earring from both...a little mismatched, but they loved it. And I loved that they're starting to think of others. Sophie hugged me so many times today and said "I love you" and "Happy Mother's Day." She's also getting really good at drawing. She drew a picture of the tooth-fairy last night, and made us take a picture of it, since it would be disappearing with the tooth. :-)

Jossie has the funniest way of saying things. She likes to use a lot of adverbs right now, like actually, perfectly, especially, etc. We had a tea party with Nana and Aunt Rosemary today. Jossie has hit this very conversational age. She loves girlie things like tea parties. She loves to ask, "So Nana, how's your day been?" And she loves to talk, and talk, and talk.

Some of the funny words she says:

Ard (as in playing in the back ard)

o-o (as in yo-yo)

ogurt (as in yogurt)

ell (as in "Sophie elled at me")

awn (as in "I dust had a big awn, I'm tidered" as in "I just had a big yawn, I'm tired.")

She tip-toes everywhere, does a spin across every floor she's walking upon, falls off her chair during dinner or lunch every day from wiggling so much, and runs into every door frame or door knob in the house at least once a day. In fact, a couple of weeks ago we were at a water-park hotel, and Sophie clocked herself between the eyes on one of the water spouts. She got a huge knot and slight black eyes from it. Jossie did the same thing a few minutes later, and her hard head sustained no damage. I'm thankful for her head of steel. She fell off of the top bunk and landed her head first on the wooden toy box a couple of months ago, and again, not even a bump. Angels surround that sweet girl.

She has funny ways of doing things, like she walks through our hardwood floored house, which inevitably always has crumbs on it, and wipes her feet off on the furniture as she's headed back to her room, though she doesn't complain about the mess, because it's mostly caused by her. She drops whatever she doesn't want, wherever she is at. She will roll around on the floor and pretend she can't hear you for an hour at a time, singing songs, and doing make-believe, if you're trying to force her to pick up one single toy.

And Man, is she sweet. She loves to tell me what a good Mommy I am, and she loves alone time with Daddy. She snuggles, and kisses, and giggles, and makes me smile whether I'm looking at her or not. She also learned to write her name this week, and is sooo proud of herself. She likes to avoid homeschool, which I don't mind, because she's so young. But, this week when she accomplished that she looked at me with the biggest smile and squealed, "I like learning!!" Aww, she deserves a bit of time on the blog.

Norah has been just adorable to watch lately. She loves it if she's had a long nap and outlasts her sissies at bedtime. She gets all of the attention for another hour, which involves coloring, snuggling, "chatting," playing babies, or doing projects like putting socks on her hands to make puppets. She loves to kiss and stroke your arm or Joe's back of his head. She's even said, "I yuv jou Daddy." Yes, I'm jealous.

She has a great vocabulary...most of it needs parental interpretation, but we are at that stage where we get a lot of what she's saying. Like "ba-pa gink" is Back Pack Drink, which means she wants her Dora drink cup (she calls her Back Pack, because of the song on the show so frequently sung). She usually wants "I" in it (ice), and she loves to eat "gragoos" (cookies, crackers, general snacks).

She's funny too. When she's overly tired she gets goofy and we say she has bubbles in her. So, the other night she was trying to get wound up, and we mentioned her having bubbles. Then she tried to get us sucked into a silly game of running around the coffee table. After a few tries, I said, "Daddy said it's time to get quiet and go to bed." She looks at him and rolls her eyes practically, sighs, and starts walking to the bedroom, and says, "Nigh-nigh Bubbles." Then she giggles in her exasperation.

Ahh...sweet babies.

So, in reflecting on Mothering, I have so many thoughts...though you'll only be privvy to a few.

Some of my unhappy surprises:

Whining and screaming are too often occurrences and wow they're annoying.

That it hurts so bad when your child is hurting.

It is maddening that you can't completely control your child's health, nor determine their future, nor totally protect them from harm.

Some of my happy surprises:

That I can cry when I stare at any of my children, just because I'm so in love.

The sound of giggles is the most beautiful sound to my ears (well, unless it's accompanied by naughty/sneaky behavior of course).

The smell of their skin, and the feel of their cheeks on mine, is like Heaven.

That I have big dreams for their future, but I love the tiniest sweet moments right now.