Some Mother's Day musings ...

Am I the only mom that ...

doesn't ever get to sit down through an entire dinner? I wish. More juice, please, Mommy!

isn't really bothered by not having "me time" in the bathroom anymore? in fact, I often forget to close the door now ... what's the point?

wonders how many more years I am going to have to referee between my kids? It's going to be until they move out of the house, isn't it? That's exhausting, just thinking about it.

didn't expect my 3-year old to be so SMART?? Before I had children, I thought that 3-year olds were only a step above babies, so I'm constantly amazed at how much Cady knows. It's not that I think my kid is brilliant (well, OK, I do!) but that it's just amazing that a 3-year old could know so much. She knows a lot of stuff, including exactly how to push Mommy's buttons!

is pretty impressed with the "mom ears" that you develop? It's incredible to me that you can hear nearly any sound around the house and know instantly what is was ... a pacifier being thrown out of the crib and hitting the hardwood floor ... a chair being pushed across the floor to assist in reaching the cupboard that the bag of marshmallows is stashed in ... the list goes on. Of course, the scariest noise of all is SILENCE. I heard that from Maddy's direction the other day and found that she had discovered Mommy's make-up. I wish I'd had the camera!

Well, I may add some more musings as the day goes along, but those are just some random thoughts on motherhood from one who is still pretty new at it. I'm so grateful that I have such a wonderful mother and a fantastic mother-in-law to learn from and, of course, Ray is pretty great too. I wouldn't be the mother I am without him.

A day in the life ...

Sometimes I feel like there's nothing "noteworthy" to chronicle here but I guess that, in the life of a young family, it's the little things that are the most noteworthy. Maddy is rapidly expanding her vocabulary from pretty much "Daddy", "ball", and "car", to include "more", "bird", "Cady" (daydee), "teeth" and more. Of course, "car" is any loud motorized vehicle that she hears or sees, like lawnmowers, trucks, helicopters and airplanes. And how could I forget my FAVORITE new word, which she has picked up from her older sister, "NO!"



Cady announced to me during the same car ride today that she wants to be a duck when she grows up, as well as Spiderman. Interesting combo. Her current love is the classic Disney movie, The Jungle Book, which I'm very glad about. It was my all-time favorite when I was a kid (who doesn't love "The Bear Necessities"??) and, as noted in my previous post, I'm not a huge fan of the princess movies, especially if I have to watch it every day! Cady has a love/hate relationship with the apparently British tiger Shear Kahn. She always says she likes him, but when he's about to appear on the TV screen, she summons me for emotional support. I just had to pause my typing because she said, "Mom, take care of me, Mom, Shear Kahn is coming!!" and dragged me off to the sofa to sit with her.


I love my girls!

Life is good.

A Dreaded Day!

Ah, one of those days that I have long been dreading arrived today. I know that most of the dreaded days are probably associated with puberty but I have really been dreading the day when Cady starts wanting to wear character clothing items. Not terrible in the larger scheme of things, I know, but I REALLY HATE all the Strawberry Shortcake and Princess (i.e. Cinderella, Snow White, etc.) CRAP that's out there. It's just so YUCK and I don't think it's cute at all, but I know that little girls LOVE it and that it why companies keep making it!

Anyway, we were shoe shopping today and I picked out a couple pairs of simple and, I thought, cute sandals for Cady to try on. She humored me briefly, complained that they were "too tight" and then spied the shoes pictured above, complete with light-up heels.



"I want THOSE, Mommy," she said, or something to that effect. She slipped them on her feet and looked at them longingly. After a moment passed, I presented another pair of shoes that I liked and asked her to try them on. This fashion struggle continued through several pairs of shoes until she sighed loudly and then muttered, "oh, I don't care."


Had I beaten her down so easily?? Oh, I don't think so. We ended up not buying any shoes for Cady and, after all, she was already wearing her Dora flip-flops.

Visiting the Greenville Zoo

It's been a lovely treat this week to have Grandma Weezie visiting with us. Mostly, we've just enjoyed having someone new to play with and who never gets tired of pushing swings at the park. Yesterday, we trekked 30 minutes down to Greenville to check out their zoo for the first time. What a wonderful little zoo! Way less walking than the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk, but just as many animals.

We saw elephants, giraffes, aligators, lions and lots and lots of different types of monkeys. Cady's favorites were the leopard and the aligators. Maddy's favorite was just riding along in the stroller ... Maddy is so content to ride along in the stroller and watch the world around her. About halfway through the zoo, there was a little preschool playground with comfy Adirondack rocking chairs for the parents, not that I got to sit down for more than a minute at a time! It was a perfect break from animal watching AND we got a few good pics too!

Overall, it was a great day ... we'll definitely be back!

So Close ... the end is near!

I know that I've been saying this for weeks but now I think it may actually be true ... the house will be done soon. The weather hasn't been cooperating with Ray's plans to complete the sanding and painting on the exterior, but the forecast for later this week is looking GOOD: low wind, warm temps and no RAIN!! So, if Ray is up for working for several hours after he gets home from a full day at Powers, then maybe I'll be posting some exterior pics by this time next week. I hope so ... yesterday I was talking to our next-door neighbor, who was saying that she was afraid that her lack of lawn-care is making her look "white trash". After what could only be called a "pregnant pause", she hugged me and said, "I'm so glad you're my neighbor!" Hmmm.

Anyway, here are some pics of projects that are completed, all inside. There's Maddy's cheery lavendar nursery (is she too old to be in the "nursery" now? I hope not) and the downstairs half-bath -- a big improvement from before, which we used to call the "crap shack". It had just been a toilet under the stairs but Ray and his brother Jon raised the ceiling, closed off a storage closet to make space for a sink and laid tile for the floor. It's as beautiful as a half-bath can possibly be!

Cady and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

As some of you may know, this past weekend was our church's General Conference, during which we usually hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir several times. Thanks to BYUTV,we were able to watch the broadcast from Salt Lake in the comfort of our own home. Well, Cady is very into MoTab now. Our new little evening habit is to sit down and eat ice cream while watching the choir, thanks to our handy dandy DVR. She likes to watch the "boys and girls" and gets quite perturbed if one gender is shown more than the other. If "the boys" are singing for a while, Cady wants to know "where the girls??" and vice versa. It is so funny, but not very surprising I suppose. Cady loves to sing, loves to listen to "her" music in the car and loves to dance, so why not love MoTab too??

Spring Break is Over

I always used to be appalled when mothers would say that they couldn't wait until their child(ren) went back to school after spring break or summer vacation. What a horrible thing to say, I thought, or even worse, to feel. How could you not want to be with your children all the time, I wondered. Well, now I know. Cady leaves me to go to preschool for a scant 3 hours each weekday morning and it is precious time. As Maddy is still usually taking a morning nap, I often have at least an hour in the house when I can "do my own thing" (i.e. CLEAN!) with no interference from little ones. It's such a good thing: the house is cleaner when Cady is in school AND that translates into me feeling more like I can focus on the girls later in the day.

So today was the official last day of Spring Break and, as the weather was cool and rainy most of the week, we made the most of a lovely, sunny day and walked down to our neighborhood park. Maddy has never been a big fan of the swings but she humored me a little today and Cady pumped her feet in the right direction ... ahhh, the little milestones that are victories in the life of a 3-year old, and her mommy!!