Birthday Kisses

Betcha 20 years ago, he blew out his candles and wished to be surrounded by girls who adored him.

Be careful what you wish for, eh?

From the Mouth of my Babe

There comes a time when every precious, innocent little toddler grows up, and hurts her mother's heart by saying something not so sweet, such as "No!" or "I don't like you!" or even "You're not the boss!" 

Sadly, I have already heard all of this and more from my sweet littlest one.  Having four older sisters accelerated the rate at which she acquired naughty habits like that.  But tonight she really did break my heart with this conversation:

"Daddy has an owie....(he had a dermatologist appoitment yesterday, and it involved a couple of stitches).  She pulled back her shirt to show me where Daddy's owie is.  Then it reminded her of something.  She said, "I got a shot.  When I was born, I got a shot....  And my mom and dad died."

I smiled and played along with her make-believe game.  "Oh no!  Your mom and dad died?"

And then with a straight face, she looked at me and said, "You killed them."

Ok, this game was not funny anymore.  How could my two-year-old come up with such ideas!   Too many Disney princess movies?!

I smiled at her again and said in my own true voice, "I'm your real mommy, and I love you!"

And she said, "I love you too."

.............

"But where's my other mom?"

Nothing average about the middle

Lauren is pretty even-tempered and mellow.  That might have something to do with being the middle child.  But in other ways, she's a  stand-out in her sea of sisters.

For Christmas, Lauren got a guitar.  She has been wanting music lessons for a couple of years, and I finally decided that the guitar would be a good instrument for her.  She is my child who comes home from school and independently gets right into doing her homework and chores.  Practicing her guitar is also a task that she does willingly.  As I type this, she is in her room, strumming, and hosting an impromptu sing-along with her little sisters and their friends.  I love it!

For her birthday, Lauren asked for a tetherball set.  Doug and I were happy to oblige!  And now that the ground is not constantly (only sometimes) covered in snow and ice, I love looking into the back yard and seeing that tetherball swinging!

Isn't she lovely?

I came home completely frustrated.

Potty training was a disaster.  Back to diapers.  I should never attempt a home-bound project like that when I'm already suffering from cabin fever.

Several household members have colds and coughs.  Blech.  Winter.

And snow.  It snowed again last night--just as I was praising Mother Nature yesterday for finally melting the stale snow off of almost every surface in sight.  She dumped it all over again.

Now, I had just left a meeting with the school counselor, where my two littlest ones had completely humiliated me (and their oldest sister) with embarassing behaviors, despite the fact that I thought ahead and brought snacks an books to pacify them for a few minutes.

So I pulled into the garage and swiftly placed my two littles in their bedroom.  And shut the door.  And walked away.

When they sensed it was safe to venture out, this is what they looked like. 

Hannah: "Aren't we beautiful, Mom?  And now we're going outside to see some more beautiful things, like us."

Resilient little creatures!  Where's my resilience?  I need some.

Potty Training

HATE IT.

Binge & Purge

Confession: I don't tend to gain weight during the holiday season.  I'm too busy with activities.  But after the holidays are over, it's a different story. 

I have plenty of time to stuff myself, while I'm sitting in my house being depressed about how cold and wintery it still is outside.  During our get-away to Maui, we only ate out for one meal most days, but in that one daily meal and the other little snacks I packed in (hello, Haupia Ice Cream!), I managed to consume more calories than I should have in three square meals!

Today was Valentine's Day, and for our family, that means another feast.  Our tradition is a nice family dinner, flowers and gifts from Daddy, and then chocolate fountain.

BBQ babyback ribs; parmesan potatoes; hot breadsticks; spinach salad

Dippers: fresh strawberries, bananas, and mangoes; brownies; pound cake; pink marshmellows 

But don't be too concerned by the title of this post.  I don't purge myfood.

The purge in this post begins tomorrow, when we get rid of any and all diapers in this house!  No more diapers!  Bring on the pink princess panties!

Wish me luck.  I really dread potty training!  So it shouldn't be surprising if (when) I comfort myself with something sweet...  Or savory....  Or both!

It takes a village, and a notebook

You know how they say that kids don't come with instruction manuals?  Well, for one short week, I did my best to create an instruction manual to go with my kids. 

In preparation for leaving our home and children for a week, I put together a 3-ring binder of instructions.  I filled it with one typed page for each day.  It included a schedule of events, dinner menu, and other little reminders for each day.  I also included a page of general guidelines, and a list of people and phone numbers which were crucial to the week.  I tried to make sure that my mom/Doug's brother&sis-in-law/my sister (thank you, family!) could run things as smoothly as possible without having to do too many extra things besides just being here.  For example, the schedule did not include cleaning the bathrooms, grocery shopping, paying bills, preparing a Singing Time for Primary, reconciling bank accounts, Valentine's Day preparations, etc., etc.  And I arranged for other people (my "village") to do as much of the running-kids-here-and-there as possible.

After our return home, the binder sat on the counter for a couple more days before Doug convinced me that it could now be tossed out.  It's silly, but I was hesitant to do it.  For one thing, it took a lot of effort to put that all together, and I was kind of proud of it!  And secondly, I was kind of wishing I would open it up and it would magically have typed pages for me, as I jump back into reality.  Wouldn't that be nice?  Actually, I think some company called Franklin tried to promote such planning several years ago.  But the truth is, thankfully, I'm still young enough, and in my groove, so that I can store all that info handily in my brain.  It just looks so much more impressive on paper!

About that slow, dreary month...

It is over!  But man, it was long.  It could be that one reason January seemed so long was my giddy anticipation for the first week of February, which was spent like this:

Sleeping, socializing, soaking in the sun, shuffling around in sandals, and stuffing my face.  *satisfied sigh*

So don't worry about me anymore.  I'm feeling much, much better!