Mother's Day 2010

Yesterday morning around 3 am, Sassy crawled into bed with me. At first I just moved over, too tired to care very much.
(But my bed and my sleeping time are very, very precious and I do not allow my children to just mozy in and out of my bedroom in the middle of the night. If Sassy shows up after 5:30 or so, I let her stay because she will go back to sleep. If I try to put her back to bed that early in the morning, she won't go back to sleep and be a tired disaster the rest of the day. But yesterday she showed up at 3:00 and that just will not do.)
I laid there wishing Honey would remove her from the bed for me, but he was breathing slow and steady and had no idea she was even there. Then I remembered it was Mother's Day and felt a little pang of dread. "Here we go." I thought. The one day I wish I could just not have to worry about it. So I crawled out of bed and carried Sassy back to her room. I managed to get back to sleep and before I knew it, Honey was kissing me good morning. He wished me a Happy Mother's Day and told me to stay in bed. No problem! A little bit later, he came into the room with homemade waffles, orange juice, bacon and sausage. I ate my breakfast in bed alone, and started watching Notting Hill on the iPad. It was lovely.

Finally, Honey told me that the kids were dying for me to come downstairs. The kids all had their homemade cards waiting. Sassy's was the handprints with the cute little poem that always makes me cry.

"Sometimes you get discouraged
Because I am so small
And always leave my fingerprints
On furniture and walls.
But everyday I'm growing up
And soon I'll be so tall
That all those little handprints
Will be so hard to recall.
So here's a special handprint
Just so that you can say
This is how my fingers looked
When I placed them here today."

::Collective 'Awwwwwwwww.'::
I gave Sassy a hug and told her that the first time I saw her, she looked at me and stuck her little bottom lip out and started to cry - and I could immediately see her sweet little dimples.

George gave me a big card that says:

"HAPPY
MOTH-
er's daY!"
from: COlin
to: mom

My Mom is Special because:
S-weet
P-erfect Personality
E-nergetic
C-ool
I-n a sweet home
A- fine temper
L-inked to me
I do not NOT know why he said perfect personality or energetic. I can only guess that he saw someone else write those words and copied.
I half-laughed when I read 'A fine temper.' But 'Linked to me' made me melt a little. SO cute.
Inside there were paper flowers with things listed that he'll do for me.

I'll go to your favorite resturaunt with the family
I'll do the dishes
I'll make the house peace and quiet (except he wrote the peace sign instead of the word)
I'll seprate the dishes.
I hugged George and told him that when he was a baby I couldn't stop kissing his little lips because they were so pudgy and soft.

Link drew me a picture of some flowers and wrote me a poem.

Mom is awsome for my life.
Mom makes my day marvoles.
Mom made my life posebile.
Mom makes me better at reading.
Mom makes me shine on Mothers Day.
Happy mothers DAY!
My favorite was that when I hugged Link, he really hugged me back tight and didn't try to get away. I told him when he was teeny, he had a patch of dark brown hair on top of his head that stuck straight up and that I LOVED it!

Honey gave me two dozen roses and a pretty card. We got ourselves ready for church and I went running in like a crazy person because I was sub-ing on the organ and got there a little later than I should have. Only had to play 2 1/2 hymns for prelude though. The primary kids sang two little Mother's Day songs, which is always adorable. Especially because my kids were all trying to make eye contact with me and grinning. In Relief Society we got cheesecake. Yum! After church, I had a big diet coke with lime and some popcorn. I laid down to read, but fell asleep and woke up to Brian grilling filets and a plate of fresh watermelon.

Honey told me he felt bad that he didn't get me more for Mother's Day this year, but the man just took me on a fab vacation and got me some very nice things on our trip - so I wasn't disappointed or even concerned about that. My kids were sweet. This was the first year I remember them really 'feeling' Mother's Day, instead of just going through motions because someone told them they should. I think that made all the difference in the world for Mother's Day this year. Mother's Day doesn't have to be perfect. Just the fact that everyone made the effort was so great. I love my kids and I love my husband for making me a mom. He says I had something to do with that too. I agreed. (duh)

Had a 'Moment' with Sassy (She's 4)

The Setting: Sassy's just gotten out of the tub, I'm drying her off and combing out her hair.

The Conversation:

Sassy: "You know what I want to be for our family?"
Me: "What?"
Sassy: "A sister!"
Me: "You are a sister already."
Sassy: "No! A BIG sister. Like Sophie has? Like Sophie has a big sister."
Me: (grinning and shaking my head. [in the other room, Honey says "Uh oh!"]) "Did you hear that?"
Honey: "Yes" (voice is low and apprehensive)
Sassy: "So I'm gonna grow that. Okay?"
Me: "And how are you going to do that?"
Sassy: "I'm going to sleep everyday. I'm gonna eat food everyday and sleep and that will make her appear."
Me: (grabbing a pencil) "Wait...how are you going to do that?"
Sassy: "I'm going to sleep everyday and eat food everyday and let my tummy get big and that will grow a sister." pause "Cause I want one." pause "In the future."
Me: (laughing a little and writing furiously so I can recap on my blog for you.) "So. Let me tell you something about that."
Sassy: "What?"
Me: "You can't grow a baby in your tummy until your big like mommy and you have a husband."
Sassy: "When I'm big like you? But you'll have to live in a different family."
Me: "Yes. I'll live in a different house. But you can't have a baby in your tummy unless you have a husband who can be the daddy."
Sassy: (shrugs, hands down at her sides and turned outwards, head tilted sideways and with a little eye roll...)

"If I find a husband."

Isn't this the cutiest cute thing you've ever heard in your whole life??

Cottonelle Use #3

When your Polly Pocket is grubby,


When your Snow White is tired,


And your Lemon Meringue is sleepy,


And because Strawberry Shortcake can't do anything without Lemon Meringue.


Ariel isn't used to being on legs for so long,


and Cinderella needs a nap.

And this poor Polly is stuck doing what everyone else has to do.

Cottonelle Wipes. Not just for bums. Not just for for the bathroom.

Weak in the Knees

There are things that can take my breath away. Let's start with the non-edible, shall we? I got a catalog in the mail the other day and here are just a few of the things that left me breathless. First because of their beauty, second because of their cost. It has convinced me that I must learn to sew clothing. Oh, and so they receive their proper credit, the catalog is Chasing Fireflies.










I know. It's just sick. SICK, I tell you! Completely impractical. Entirely ridiculous to spend $168 on a pair of ruffled pink culottes. Worse, $288 on that white Meringue dress. Can't we just try them on and twirl in them for a few minutes, take a picture and then walk away? I would be fine with that. Truly, I would. Then, I'm going to learn how to sew and I'm going to make something romantic and twirly and fabulously impractical for my Sassy. Yes I am. And I'll post some photos when I'm done. Only time will tell whether those photos are for bragging purposes or in order to laugh at myself for a freshly sewn disaster.

Just a Moment, If You Please....

I just want to take a moment to boast on my children's behalf. We had Parent Teacher Conferences last night.

Of all of the things that make me shake my head over George...it feels great to have something I can jump for joy over and that is why I am bragging to you about it.

Reading:

• Students are expected to be reading independently at a level 24 (L) by mid-February. Your child is reading a level 34.
• Students are expected to read approximately 85 words per minute. Your child is reading 143 WPM.
  

His teacher said when she tested him for the level 34 he blew it away. She's expecting at least a level 38 by the end of the year. And, in Math he is taking 3rd grade math facts time tests. Not enough to be considered a genius. But holy cow!

We have been on the other end of the spectrum. At this time last year, Link was struggling a lot in school. He had mostly minuses and a lot of comments regarding his behavior and attention in school. His report card was a lot of 2's (below grade level) and he hated school.

Cut to this year, with a brand new (and fantastic) teacher....his grades have gone WAY up! He had mostly plus-es and he is performing at grade level in nearly every category. He sat us down with a binder to explain to us how he is doing and what he has been working on. He had examples from the beginning of the year and examples from now to compare with. I was amazed at how clearly and confidently he described it all to us. He knew exactly where to go in his binder, could point out specific problems and areas where he'd either made mistakes or made drastic improvements. He seemed like such a big kid to me.

I used to dread Parent Teacher Conferences when I was the kid. I would go with my parents reluctantly and tune out the entire thing because I couldn't bear to hear them talk about how badly I was doing in school. I can easily remember walking into the school and into the classroom, but I have entirely blocked out all of those meetings. In fact, I don't even recall leaving the school to go home. Yikes. Heaven knows I would be sympathetic to my dear boys if they were struggling. Like last year. But heaven also knows how awesome it is to know they are doing just fine.

I'm already crossing my fingers, hoping that we get decent teachers next year. PLEASE!!!!!!

In other bragging news....I have lost 17.5 lbs and Honey and I are going on a cruise in April. After my 2009, this is more than overdue good news.