mothers...

Another Mother's Day has come and gone. It's different for me now that I have my own children. I love my mom more, I appreciate her more, I understand her more. I know what she sacrificed. She is THE most amazing woman. If you've met her, I'm sure you'd agree. When I'm sad, anxious, lonely, excited, happy...she's the friend I want to call. She is funny. Here we are doing "hey, hey we're the monkeys" down the street in Dover. We thought we were so funny...funny and cool. Look at Laura...you know she wants to join in but isn't sure if she's quite cool enough. This picture just makes me happy. I love you Mom.

I love being a mother. It's what I was born to do. It really is. I adore each of my beautiful, unique children so much. Each one is able to make me melt in their own way.

Alex is hilarious. He really is. At 9 years old, he still asks me to
scratch his back. I love that.

This girl loves her mama. She wants to be by me all the time. I
hope that never changes.

Peace. That is Lizzy. She is a giver. She is gentle, dainty. So, so
loving.

Molly is a firecracker. In every way. You meet her, you fall in love. This is her with Dave's mom Beverly. We love her and how influential she was in making Dave the kind person he is. We got to celebrate Grandma Bird's 90th birthday on Saturday! 90th. It was quite a bash. So great to see family and be reminded of just how much you love them and their company.

I need to end a little off topic. I do not like the dentist...in any way. Just writing about it makes my palms sweat. We've got 2 hygenists at our dentist's office. One (Steve) is gentle, apologetic. The other (what's her name)...let's just say- the opposite. She's nice enough, but by the time I am through with my check-up, my gums are bleeding, my shirt is wrinkled and soaked from all the wringing if my hands. I had Steve today...whew. I hate the smells, the sounds. He kept asking me if I was OK or if I wanted some laughing gas. The funny thing is...it doesn't really hurt, it's just the anticipation of something hurting. 45 minutes of anticipation.

do your ears hang low?

Ice-cream trucks (and their drivers) have a thing for our neighborhood...or at least the kids in it. Enough! Don't get me wrong, I used to love the things. I can remember hearing the music coming down the street, my heart starting to race, forking out 25 cents for a popsicle.

I realize that they are an integral part of a healthy childhood. I want my kids to have great memories. I don't want them to think that they got ripped off somehow. I'll get them some $2 popsicles...once or twice this summer. Here's the problem. This ugly gold thing (along with a white one too) comes rolling down our street EVERY day...sometimes twice a day. Sundays are included. It's generally at 7:30 at night...right when we're trying to calm things down in our house and get to bed. We're reading from Mosiah and hear "Do Your Ears Hang Low" or "It's a Small World" coming down the street and playing over and over and over again. My heart starts to race, but not for the same reasons it did all those years ago.

Seriously...every day? C'mon. And who drives these things? I don't even want to know.

uh-huh...

Yeah baby! Dave just told me about this last night. Came out on the 6th. Was that yesterday? I'm off to Wal-mart to make the purchase. BNL is one of my all-time favorite bands. Love all their stuff. Now a kids CD? I'll give you a review later today. I already previewed some of the songs and I'm thinking it's a must have for the little ones, just like this one that we bought a few years back. Yay...right when we were really needing some new tunes!

*UPDATE: We just listened. OK...why do I love these guys so much? Molly just spent the last half hour spinning in circles in the living room, and I spent the last half hour smiling. GREAT CD!

frenchy...

Please humor me while I tell you some funny stuff. Molly seems to be the meat of this blog lately. I don't know what to say other than that we spend an awful lot of time together these days, and her exploding vocabulary is making for some serious belly laughs.

We were on our way to Wal-mart this morning. First of all...she loves the place. It's where fruit snacks come from. Every time I would say Wal-mart, she would correct me. No mommy...la-la-la-ma-mite. La-la-la-ma-mite. Are you french or something little girl? So, so funny. When she says stuff like this, I can't get to my phone fast enough. I can't wait to hear Dave's response. I love laughing with him.

As we were driving home, she started to sing "Jesus wants me for a sunbeam". First of all, I could listen to her sing all day. Her voice, the way she mixes up the words. Sometimes she'll even blend 2 songs together. This from a little girl who wouldn't even talk 6 months ago. Anyway, I started singing along on the "a sunbeam, a sunbeam" part. No mommy...la-la-la sunbeam. What? Man, she makes me laugh.

daddy.

So I'm rocking Molly before her nap this afternoon. She loves me. I know she does. I'm pretty confident in my relationship with her. But today, she took her paci out, looked up at me and said:

I want Daddy. I so love Daddy. I SO love him.

She is so expressive the past few weeks. Words like maybe, sometimes, I think. I love it so much. I may just have to keep a tape recorder going all day to capture how gosh darn cute she is. I SO love her.

strappies...

OK...so I will just come right out and say it...I am obsessive. After seeing this picture of my Elsie girl (my favorite 3 year old niece ever) and her strappy sandals, I had to get my hands on some. Mind you, we just did the sandal shopping thing a few weeks ago. Since it didn't end quite how I wanted, I figured I was justified in getting just ONE more pair for each girl. Laura was willing to let me copy her fabulous style. Emmy and I went to the mall on our date the other night to make the purchase. These cute things came in all sorts of colors.

Now that we've got them home, and on these little feet, I find myself staring. Is that wierd? Yeah, I guess it is...but I love these darn sandals. So girly and feminine and happy. Now it's taking every single ounce of will power not to go back for seconds. HELP.

want to, mommy?

I uh go river trail, see duckies, frow bread in duh water. You want to Mommy?

It's too cold Molly.

Uh-uh, it's warm. It's warm Mommy.

No Molly, it's cold and windy outside.

Nuh-uh Mommy. No isn't. Trees not blowing down outside. It's warm.


Hmmm...maybe another day.