Normal day

"Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return.” 
- Mary Jean Irion

Happy Monday.
xo

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there! I hope that it was a happy day for you.  I'm kind of "eh" on Mother's Day. As I told RWF, "Every day is Mother's Day for me."  I really feel this way. I am blessed with 3 amazing little beings. 

Three amazing little beings! Who would have guessed?  I will never forget that sunny Saturday afternoon that I brought up "having babies" with RWF.  I was reading a mag, lounging on the deck outside on a chaise.  RWF was inside, watching a game.  I called in through the screen door, "I want to have a baby...."  I was testing the waters. I was pretty serious about RWF.  And I knew that he was serious about me.  But we had not yet broached the topic of children in our convos about our future.   I was tentative, but bold.  Does that make sense?  I didn't want to be the first to bring it up, afraid that I'd look and sound like the crazy female, whose biological clock was ticking loudly. I was suddenly shy, and could have easily slipped him a note as I left for the airport, something like this:

Do you want to have children?

YES

or 

NO

Instead, I took it up with him through the screen door.  We were occupying the same space, kind of, but I didn't have to look directly at him when I brought it up. I was only nervous because  if he'd had said No, or expressed reservations about it, it would have been a deal breaker. I didn't want to end the relationship. Luckily, RWF was positive about a family (or, one baby!). We had the talk, face to face, conversing over the course of a few days. 

And now here we are. 

As per my annual Mother's Day request, RWF took some snaps of me with my babies.  Here we are, last year (pregnant!).  And this year:

I am incredibly blessed, and I am reminded of this every day when I see my little babies.  Every day is Mother's Day for me.

I'm grateful to RWF, too. I am so glad that we had that conversation!

I'm sure RWF still looks around, house full of babies, like, "What?!"  (just kidding)

Happy Mother's Day.

xo

First...high chair!

Nico graduated to the high chair over the weekend.

I was tired of trying to wedge his chunky thighs into and out of the little seat (the Bumbo).  It was really funny how Nico would just be so wedged into the seat that when I picked him up, the seat stayed on his bum!  But it was time to put him in a real high chair. I am sad to give away the little seat. It is a sign of the end of babies in this household.   He has also outgrown his infant bouncy seat and really, the Tiny Gym, too.  I won't put the Tiny Gym away yet, because that will be a HUGE milestone for me. And I'm not ready for that (yes, it is all about ME). So for now, I still put him down on the Tiny Gym every morning and pretend that he is a tiny infant looking up at the animals. 

We bought this high chair when I was pregnant with Gianna.  Bode used the Chicco high chair until he outgrew it. Then Gianna outgrew her high chair.  She moved into Bode's old Chicco high chair.  Gianna's high chair converts to a toddler seat.  So Bode was using it as a toddler seat. Rather than ask Gianna to move out of the Chicco and into the toddler seat, I asked Bode to move into a big boy chair.  He was resistant at first, but now he's sitting on a chair at meal times.  (Thanks, Bode!)  

These changes! You'd think that I'd start getting used to them.  But this weekend, I was sort of  sad to see Nico sitting in the high chair, and I was sad to see my first baby, Bode, sitting in an actual chair.

xo