Mother's Day 2015.

 And so it was Mother's Day.  My 6th one so far, and the best yet.  Although you'd never know it by my appearance, my day started with a 7:30am trip to the gym.  I came home to happy kids and hubby, home made cards and presents.  For our third year in a row, we went to River Stone Manor for brunch.  We've taken pictures each year in the same spot on the grounds and it is so nice to look back at how much the kids have grown.

It's a fun time to dress up, which the kids love, and to have a "fancy" outing.

 It was a hot, sunny day, and despite the early date, flowers were blooming.

 After a bit out in the sun, posing, Tommy couldn't wait to get back inside and have some dessert!

 Yum!

 I never appreciated how hard my mom worked or what an awesome job she did at parenting me until I had kids of my own.  I had such a creative and enriching childhood, and hope that I can impart some small fraction of the awesomeness that my mom gave me to my children.

 

Christmas time is here!

 Two weeks before Christmas we got SNOW!  Lots of it.  It was light and powdery, and no good for snowman making, but the kids had a blast.  Tommy was too little to really go out in the snow last year, so this was his first time in a snowsuit playing.  The snow was up to his waist, and he really couldn't move around too easily.  Once we convinced him to stop taking off his gloves, he had a pretty good time.

Tori decided that slides and swings are even more fun in winter!

 And then it was Christmas.  This was the first year we stayed home.  I was really kind of bummed about it at first-we have some local family that we always spend Christmas with, and we decided that a 3 hour round trip with the kids wasn't going to work this year.  I told Wes we still needed to dress up and do Christmas dinner right.  So, we did, and it was lovely.  I made a turkey, prime rib, mashed potatoes, rutabagas, sweet potatoes, veggies, bread, stuffing, and a cheesecake.  Needles to say we were eating leftovers for days!

The kids had fun--Tommy's old enough this year to understand the concept of presents, and we watched all the Christmas shows together--Hoops and Yoyo Ruin Christmas being the favorite of everyone (except Wes).

 Wrapping each kid's presents in different wrapping paper makes life a million times easier.

 Tablets for everyone.  Totally cheap Droid tablets ($59 each) that will keep their grubby mitts off my Nexus.

 Santa did not have a goddamn clue  appreciate quite how large the playhouse was going to be--it is two rooms and takes up almost the entire playroom.

 We put on our Christmas dresses and had a lovely dinner.

It was a great day.

As we move into 2014, I'm feeling a bit inspired.

I lost another classmate last week--this time to a heart attack.  And another close friend has cancer.

As Gru would say, "Light bulb."

I'd like to start doing a better job of appreciating what I have--of making better use of my time--paying more attention to Wes and the kids when I'm home and drawing a better line between work and family, and taking better care of myself in the process.

Cheers. 

Of mice and men. Or fairies and superheroes.

And it was Halloween. 

Halloween has always been one of my absolute favorite holidays.  Back in my younger, funner, thinner cuter days, I was always dressed up and at a party or a bar to celebrate Halloween.  Even now, I dress up with the kids (this year, like last, I was a cow which is less and less like a costume for me), because Halloween is just magic.  The girls were fairy princesses.  Tommy, Superman.  If Tommy could choose, he would wear Superman every day.  We have about 4 Superman shirts in his size, and every morning he asks for Superman...so chances are, he's wearing a Superman shirt every time you see him...and the shirt is clean--I can't make the same promise about Tommy...he may or may not be clean, and we aren't so good on baths.  Grandma Deb had a super cool cheetah costume--she and Wes took Dani and Tori trick or treating while Tommy and I handed out treats.

 It was a crappy, rainy night.  Only three houses on our block had lights on, so Dani and Tori weren't gone too long.  Halloween in my city is a vicious cycle.  We literally have about 700 people come to the door--kids, full-on adults and everything in between. When I was a kid, trick or treating meant staying in your neighborhood, or traveling to a friend's house and walking in theirs.  Nowadays it seems to be an all-out candy grab.  In my line of work locally, its fair to say I recognize a fair number of folks who come to my door--and many don't live nearby...but they live in perfectly walkable neighborhoods, but they come to mine to trick or treat.  And I don't say that to suggest my neighborhood is superior in any way, but it's a very wide street, with sidewalks and street lights, and is very popular for trick or treating.   So, it's impossibly expensive to get enough goodies to hand out, and every year fewer and fewer people turn their lights on, so more people drive around to other neighborhoods to find places for their kids to trick or treat, and the cycle continues.

This year, I bought:

4 gross (576) vampire teeth

4 gross (576) spider rings

100 piece toy/candy assortment (but I sent in about 50 pcs to Dani's class)

100 Fortune Teller Miracle Fish.

My amazon.com order was $79.

And, my friend, Jessica, came over with some toys to hand out as well.  This was the first year I ever had enough loot to last the two hours of trick or treating.

In any event, my kiddos were thrilled to get a bit of candy.

Dani manned the door all night--we can remove the glass from our storm door, so it is a keep-kids-in barrier, but is perfect to hand out items to trick or treaters.  Dani wanted to talk to each kid that came to the door, telling them about the cuteness of their costumes, and mentioning that she sees them ont the school bus and being completely oblivious to the fact that from a trick or treater's perspective, we are only the handers out of candy--and in the brief moments it slowed down, she was shouting to the street, "We have treats for you!"

 Tori had only a passing interest in handing out candy.  She was far more interested in consuming lollipop after lollipop.  But she was just darling in her dress.  (I bought the girls' dresses at a consignment sale, for about $10 each...Tori's is so exquisite, I am seriously considering it as a Christmas dress.)

And, they had fairy wings, and wands and all that good stuff too. 

And, in other news, elections are over, and I almost have my life back but first I have to catch up at work.  And the chaos continues.

 



One for you, one for me.

Tori is so close to crawling forward, so close!

Last night, I asked Dani if she wanted to feed Tori, and of course she loved the concept. Like most toddlers, the concept worked for about 22 seconds. Here she is feeding Tori:

Seconds later, it was Dani's turn to take the bottle and pretend to feed herself. (She won't really drink from Tori's bottle, and exclaims, "Baby milk, yuk!") As you can see, at this point, I am helping Tori to stay on the chair, as Dani has lost all interest in holding her.
Dani then started to slide off the chair with Tori still on her lap. Needless to say, Dani won't be babysitting anytime soon.

Mommy can't compete.

with the Wiggles, that is.

Yes, me, the woman who made sure to tell Big Man no less than 1,000 times while I was pregnant with Dani that the American Academy of Pediatrics says no television until a baby is 2, and made him promise not to let her watch TV.

I must confess, I know most of their songs. I rather like them, particularly the hunky blue Wiggle. The Wiggles have helped me to manage two babies, so Dani doesn't get too upset when Tori needs to be fed and held, etc.

She's so verbal now, that everything is an attempted sing-a-long, or she is shouting out colors and letters and numbers or counting. It's a blast.

She's also reached a point where her moods change like the wind. It must be her way. Now. Or there will be crying and fussing. Fortunately, she is easily distracted, and never fusses for more than a minute or three or four.

Cutest thing though is that when she's upset, she yells for "Boo Bunny", which is the little plastic ice cube in the freezer that you put inside a bunny for when she gets a boo boo. She apparently equates emotional pain with physical. Similarly, when she's upset, she will say "home" even if she's, well, home. And, if we are out, she will often wave and say "hi" to strangers. But, if someone approaches her and says hello, she will put her hand up and say "bye bye". It's such an interesting thing to watch how that little brain works.

So these are shots of Dani tonight--I needed to feed Tori, but had just gotten home from work, and Dani wanted my attention too. Enter the Wiggles.

She was being so adorable on the couch--but it was hard to get good candid shots because she couldn't decide whether she loved the Wiggles or the camera more. So she kept climbing off the couch and heading toward me when I picked up the camera. But I got a few good ones.

As you can see, there's not a lot of mommy-Dani eye contact going on, because I'm way less interesting than Jeff, Dani's favorite Wiggle. He's the purple one. (If anyone from the religious right is reading this, then clearly have determined that the purple Wiggle is clearly gay like Pat Robertson's purple teletubby, and that my child is a clearly a product of some left wing conspiracy to indocrinate toddlers into tolerance and love.)

I can't complain though. Dani can identify nearly every letter of the alphabet by sight. She even does things like flip a capital E and then tell me "M". She knows all the colors--even pink, and purple, and the hard ones like that. She can count to ten, identify the numbers by sight to ten, and what she knows, says and understands never ceases to amaze me.

And, that other kid, Tori. Superstar slept from 10:45pm last night to 7:00am this morning. When she woke up this morning I told her that she had achieved "most favored baby"status. She just smiled. She's so alert and interactive and darn cute. It's amazing how much more lovable a baby is when she isn't screaming.

But this whole thing is just hard. Being outnumbered. Two to my one. I love that Big Man and I are doing this basically solo--no structured day care or anything. And, I know that it's only going to get easier, but right now, it's downright hard. I miss my husband. Right now he's working 3 weeks of 6 days and then one week off--for the rest of the year. The week off is great--but the 6 days on--to the extent that they overlap with my 5 day week, are hard. We have about 20 minutes together in the morning, and less in the evening....I know it will only get easier. But I miss my loveable, snuggly Big Man. I miss seeing him play with the kids, because we are both playing, just at different times. I love that Dani's so advanced--and he's to thank for that, and she loves him so much. Seriously--she will run across the room to give daddy a kiss and when I practically beg for one she laughs and says no. I love that we are, for the most part (duly acknowledging help from local friends ad family) raising our kids all by ourselves, instead of needing formal care. So, I know we are doing the right thing for our children and our marriage, even if it's hard. And it's harder for Big Man, because on top of it all, he's soooo sleep deprived.

Hard or no, I wouldn't trade it.

I suppose that, if this is the hardest our lives will be (until they are teenagers!), then I have only to be thankful. I've been doing enough matrimonial and family court work to know that I'm extremely lucky.