Wake up!

As a mother you never know what is going to be your wake up call in the morning. Around here we seem to go through seasons. For a while it was Annie coming into our room a little too early pulling her pillow and blanket behind her and she would simply lie down on the floor next to our bed for a while. I liked that one. That practice was a quiet slow transition from sleep to the busy day. Then she became impatient and would stand next to my bed and say "Im Hoooouuuunnnggrrryyy" and whine. That got old very fast and I explained to her that it was rude to come in and start the day by complaining. So instead she would come in and stand with her body pressed against the side of our bed which puts her nose level with me and just stand there until my eyes opened and I jumped out of my skin!

Then I had Carly and my hubby graduated school and was no longer leaving the house every morning and Annie was so excited that he was there that she started going to his side of the bed! Since Mama was recovering from surgery and up during the night with Carly he was getting up with them for a few weeks and letting me sleep in and get up and shower and dress and everything before coming downstairs for the day. I will NEVER in all my life forget the feeling of getting to do that. That was a very pampered kind of feeling.

Then Joe started something I don't think would have ever occured to me to do, when Annie came into our room he simply said. Good morning, now go play and let us sleep... and she did!!! What!??! She knows she is allowed to get fruit out of the fridge so she would help herself to an apple for breakfast and so I started leaving her a cup of milk in there too. It was brilliant! We were sleeping or even just leisurly waking up and it was nice!

Until Mia started waking up a little earlier and figured out how to get out of bed so she was no longer content to quietly play in her crib in the morning. Now she is the one at our bedside in the morning and you never know what she will do... or has done :o) She usually comes in stealthly and picks up my glasses off the bedside table and then Jabs me in the face with them saying "come ONNN Mama!" or "I watch Tarzaaan" sometimes jamming the DVD into my hands. Or all of the sudden shes doing a belly flop onto your back which is fun. This morning she was standing in my room stark naked asking for milk like there was nothing amiss. Crazy woman!

From now on Joe will be getting up and leaving the house hopefully before they are awake and I will go back to the more normal routine of getting up with him and being up before they get up which isn't as good as sleeping in, but its a different kind of good. Its the good of enjoying a quiet morning alone before there are demanding little people all around you asking you things like "when will we do school?" "When can we go to Big Uncle Joe's House?" "When will we sleep at vacation again?" "When will PorterBeth be here (x6!)" "if they will be here after nap then when are we going to sleep?" "Can I have a cookie?" "When can we look at pictures of me when I was a baby?" "Can we go for a walk?" "Where are we going today?" and I have only been up for 48minutes :o)

 

Say What?

There have been many statements made by my children that cause Joe and I to look at eachother and shrug our shoulders and ask them to repeat themselves. Between lisps and made up words and words that only a parent can understand (sometimes) its just difficult to follow them quite often. We coined the phrase "thats not english" once Mia started talking because she truly has her own language. And I have convinced myself that some day she will tell me what "sha bah dah bah die" or "sha bah die" means. Because I will die one crazy person if I never figure it out, she STILL says it and she can talk pretty stinkin well for a 2 year old!

So while riding in the car this week we were not surprised to hear Annie in the back seat singing a song that made absolutly NO Sense! I laughed and commented that she was just like her father singing all the wrong words to a song. Well it turns out she was singing all the correct words after she had me laughing so hard at her I got home and immediatly googled the words with a hope that maybe part of them were right and wouldn't you know she was spot on!
The song?

"Brown girl in the ring"
Tra la la la la
She Looks like a sugar in a plum PLUM, PLUM!" (which mia likes to scream)

Now, much to my chagrin my children have been watching "The Wiggles" at Joe's moms house when she keeps them on mondays. And I have 1 rule about Grams house. When I am not there she is allowed to feed them anything and let them watch anything (except sponge bob cause I hate it!) because she is a reasonable christian lady who has standards and knows mine and Joe's and she watches 5 chilren under 4 for 8-12 hours on monday. If watching The Wiggles gets her through the day with sanity then I say go for it!
So it is the weird creepy grown men mock turtleneck wearing childrens song singing group The Wiggles that have taught my children this traditional song originated in the West Indies that I kind of find about as offensive as Ring Around The Rosie. I wondered if it was ok for a couple of white girls to be singing about a brown girl but... whatever Ill call it cultural and check off social studies as accomplished for the day.
 :o)

 

Pink & Stink

It's a pink kind of morning here at our house. Annie gets to celebrate her birthday a day early with Joe's family and for the occasion she requested a pink cake, with pink icing and pink sprinkles of course. So I pulled a recipe out of my brain cookbook for Paula Dean's strawberry cake and looked it
 up. I figured all that pink should taste like something besides red food coloring. So last night the girls and I whipped up the cake and then this morning we iced it. I didn't have any more pink sprinkles as they are the most commonly used around here and the store didn't have any, so she chose pearl white and I have to say it is one beautiful cake! It sits now in the fridge awaiting the party.



As I sit here and type this I have this bundle sleeping in my lap and you can't tell me all that pink is not the best most squishiest pink you have ever seen!

I am big into the nickname thing. I don't mean to, these names just come to me and I feel that they are divinely appointed they are so very appropriate every time! Except for the 2 years in High School when I called Kara "Fletch" that was funny, but not at all divine. However John Patrick is my little chuchy face. If you had known the little cherub faced thing as a 2 year old you would understand. Porter is Mr Bojangles. If you have ever witnessed the child exist you would understand. I have a friend who's baby has the softest jiggliest fat ever and I call her "Flubby" My list is endless. So lately I have been calling Mia "Stinky". The name is so fitting but I don't like it I don't want it to stick, I don't want to be calling her Stinky in front of her friends when she is in high school. I just think its mean :o) However I decided last night that Oxy Clean needs to hire Amelia as their best spokesperson. Every time I think a certain stain will never come out it does!

Annie just informed me that she wont get a blister if she wears her flip flops on a walk because they have princesses on them. Which makes total sense in her head!

Speaking of princesses they are taking over my house. I don't have a big problem with Disney princesses, sure they are super girly, pink and ditsy looking in all their pictures but I have a hard time believing that Annie will still want to be a princess past the age of 8. Joe is super supportive of the princess thing. He keeps buying her princess paraphernalia. She now has a pink disco ball-esq night light, bed sheets and dolls among many other things.

So while typing this post I decided to stop and explain to Annie that I am a princess and she could be one also because my Heavenly Father is the King. I also told her about her castle in heaven that he has for her if she believes that Jesus died for her sins also. She is very receptive when I explain to her that we are to model our behavior after His and I think that is one of the first steps with little children understanding the Gospel. She asked me if this was heaven to which I replied "no, we are here right now to tell everyone about Jesus and our Father the King and that they can live in a castle in Heaven too" and she very excitedly said "ok will you help me tell everyone!" :o)


 

 

BFF

The truth is, halfway through writing this post I seemed to remember writing one similar a while back. But I dont lable my posts so I cant seem to find it. So if this is nothing new to you well then Oh well just stop reading and we will chalk this one up to post partum brain.

A few years ago I was attending ladies bible study at church. I had already attended a fall and spring course with this "facilitator" (as Ann calls herself) and now we were back together for another 12 week study. On the first day we all get our books and are introduced to how an inductive study goes and are encouraged to talk each week and share what you learned through your study homework and be very open and real with eachother. I have been taking Anns class for about 6 courses now and this particular time was the only time she said that she wanted to go around the room and have everyone introduce themselves and share something about yourself that you wish was different, that you wanted to change.
I can remember thinking to myself that there was a lot about myself that I didn't like but it all seemed silly and superficial and I was going to share the silly and superficial things however when it got to be my turn someone elses words were coming out of my mouth. I don't know if it was the process of listening to the women or what but I found myself sharing the fact that I lacked a good friend and I felt it was because I was too selfish to invest in someone elses life enough to be a friend.
I have my sisters and we are all very close, I think I have used that excuse in my adulthood for the reason I don't have a "BFF". But I felted convicted, I felt selfish and prideful in my lonely existence. I shared that I didn't know if I needed a best friend or if I just needed to be a better friend to those I had. I didn't plan on saying these things so I pretty much was just talking out loud. There was an awkward moment a while later as a girl was sharing about being new in town and not knowing anyone and not having any friends yet and Ann suggested the girl and I be best friends. I can remember thinking "no thanks" but to this day I can't tell you who that girl was ;o)
Then God
He worked on my heart through the next year or so of attending that bible study. He deepened our relationship. He made me a better person, a less superficial person, a better wife, mother, sister, and He in his perfection has seen it fit to send me a friend.
I had forgotten about sharing about needing a friend although never lost the feeling that I was lacking that person in my life that I could share things with and wouldn't you know that He provided me with a friend that I got to know in Ann's bible study last fall.
Jess, Oh my sweet friend Jess. I knew who she was because their family attend our church and Joe and I would welcome their boys Troy & Bear into nursery each week. Then week after week as the nursery workers could not console the screaming toddler Joe would take Bear out into the vestibule and play with him every sunday so his parents could stay in the worship service. No one ever asked Joe to do it, he just liked Bear and chose to.
Then Jess started attending womens bible study and she would talk and share deeeeeeep things about her life. And she would answer deeeeeeep questions with amazing loving truth about what Christ has taught her. And I was in awe of her faith and relationship with Christ.
Eventually we swapped numbers and got together for a playdate and that was an amazing opportunity to get to talk with her one on one and be challenged by the way she lived out her daily life. And I loved it, I thrived on it, I was better because of it. And I still am. Jess and I have a saying "its fun to do life with you" because when we get together we attempt to talk and have mommy time, but the truth is we just end up parenting and in between the discipline and refereeing we have a chance to say wonderful words of encouragement and love & understanding with eachother and over the summer I declared her my "BFF".

"Boys"

I saw a little girl last week who had what I considered to be the ultimate haircut when I was about 9 years old. It was SHORT, I can remember talking my Aunt GG into cutting my hair super short that summer so I could shake it out in the pool like the boys and although my dad didn't remember my hair ever being so short I have a picture somewhere to prove it and I LOVED it!

On another somewhat related note when my sisters and I were little I have happy memories of older gentlemen out in public calling us "Boys". Our school bus driver/farmer-neighbor called to us out his window every morning "howdy boys!" as we came running down the front walk. Friends of my Grampas at the corner stop would call me "son" or "sonny" and it always got the toothless grin & laughter they were going for and made me feel special, like I belonged in the corner stop that smelled like motor oil, with all the old men in their overalls, suspenders and Pioneer hats drinking coffee with the weather radar in the background, surrounded by tiny bins of nuts and bolts :o) Sometimes I can remember when feeling particularly boyish (in my jeans and plaid shirt with SUPER short hair) that maybe they really thought I was a boy. When I got my ears pierced I always thought to myself "don't they see the pretty heart earrings in my ears?" :o) I guess you could say I was the perfect amount of tomboy, no dresses, jeans please, short hair & sparkly pink earrings because I am not a boy and I don't want to be a boy, I'm just not "girly" because they are lame :o)

All these thoughts and memories came back to me this morning as I paid over $200 for a plumber and his elderly assistant to snake my sewage line while they called my girls "boy" and it made me smile.