Friday, June 29, 2012

Like Mother, Like Daughter

I am finding more and more that Miriam, my 'spirited' child is just like me.



She is smart, observant, and extremely stubborn.

On occasion I have found myself arguing with Seth, (who is 10, and often times, right). I argue and argue and argue and then he explains his point and I am left with my mouth hanging open wondering how I am going to tell him that he was right, and I was wrong without actually having to say those words.

A couple weeks ago Seth told me that his friend's clock is set 5 minutes later than ours. He felt enlightened by this fact as his friend is usually 5 to 10 minutes late every time he comes over.
 I, on the other hand was... umm... confused!?!  and I argued that if his friend's clock was later than ours, that would mean he would always be here early! I must have fought with him for 5 minutes before he finally explained it in 'laymen's' terms for me, and then I felt incredibly stupid.

So today, Miriam walks up to me and says "Summer is fall!"

"No, Miriam.  Summer comes before fall. They are different seasons."

"Sometimes they are the same though, right mom?"

"No, Miriam." I reply, wondering where she got this idea from, "Summer is hot, the flowers are here, the trees are green.  In fall the leaves turn brown, the flowers and the trees go to sleep for the winter."

"No, mom." Miriam speaks with the same tone I was using and finished the conversation with, "Summer is fall. It always is."

No point in arguing. If she is like me, which I believe she is, this could go on for years before she finally understands the difference.

Maybe I should get Seth to explain it to her!!


Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Wedding Wednesday

I am sorry I missed Wordless Wednesday.  I feel like a bit of a fraud, blogging as I please, when I have time and it is convenient for me.  I rarely miss Wednesday because it requires no thought and almost no time! But I chose to skip it because today, I have words, and I have photos, but also a lot of words!

I should have wrote everything sooner, but I didn't... I have no excuse, only that I didn't.

On our way to Brockville, we were able to stop in on a good friend of mine.  I hadn't seen her in quite a while, and although we keep in touch almost daily, it was nice to actually see her face, her children's faces and her husband's face.
my girls and Erin's boys


We headed from Trenton to Brockville, met up with my brothers, went out for dinner and then headed back to the hotel. The boys (which means my brothers and my husband) went out for a couple drinks while the women were trapped in their hotel rooms by sleeping children. That was ok, because it gave me time to paint my daughter's, my mother's and my own fingernails!

We went for a tour around the Brockville area the next morning.  We saw the new house my brother and his wife just bought, and we went to a neat little garden that has tons of biblical statues and quotes.




There was a nice little ceremony in a gazebo, down by the water's edge. My brother's daughter was the flower girl, wearing a beautiful white gown just like her mommy

My other brother's son was the ringbarer and wore a cute little tux just like HIS daddy, who was a groomsman.


All in all, a beautiful little wedding with lots of close family and friends.




Whoo hoo!  Ben opened the champagne!


I grew up with 3 brothers, and no sisters.  My mom and I were the "girls" and I always liked being an only girl in a family of boys, mostly because I didn't have to share the bathroom with a sister (although my one brother takes an awful long time to get his hair 'right') and I got boyish hand-me-downs which I thought were WAY cooler than girly things.

Now, between spouses and grandchildren, the girls are out numbering the boys 9-7. Weird how things change over time!  I am happy for my brother and his wife (my sister in-law)!

Now I just have one brother who isn't married, but is engaged!  Can't wait til he is married next fall!


Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Wordless Wednesday: Newborn Shoot

I was racking my brain all week wondering what I would put up for wordless Wednesday.
Yesterday I found out I was going to do a Newborn Photo session.
It has been a while, I guess since I had Lucy and I did her photos!  I was so excited.

It went wonderfully!  The humid weather made it nice and easy to get little baby Sydney naked and sleeping!  Sydney was a gorgeous, content little model (as you can see from 2 smiling photos, ya, ya, ya, gas, I know) She is 5 days old!

Before I start writing too much for something that is meant to be "wordless"  I will just add the photos, but you will see, my affinity for baby feet is evident in these photos!








I have to mention - this is SOC (straight out of camera) not a tad of alteration!



May I also add, and it is kind of embarrassing, and I hope I am not the only person who has done this, I shoved the SD card RIGHT into the CD slot of the side of my computer.  I had a panic attack!  But, once I was finished panicking, I was able to act rationally, turned the computer on its side and was able to retrieve the card with some tweezers.  I honestly was so close to tears!

I hope you liked my baby session as much as I did!

A morning after little sleep.

No one in this house got much sleep last night.  It was too hot!  Lucy woke everyone up at 3am, with an unseen amount of curls in her hair, screaming and screaming. (BTW, I have never had a baby with curls before, so I am enjoying this SO much!)

When Miriam wakes at 6am, I had just fallen back to sleep.

I managed to get out of bed, brewed myself a coffee (which is something I am not supposed to do anymore according to my amazing gastro MD).  I poured it over ice, because who drinks hot coffee in the summer anyways!?! (or drinks hot coffee when they have children, because realistically, my iced coffee is barely even 'iced' anymore and I have yet to finish it)

Allow me to explain this first - I do NOT allow food or drinks in the basement.  They get forgotten, or the cats knock them all over the place, and I don't like bringing dirty dishes up from downstairs.

This morning Miriam and I went downstairs, she hands me one of her little princess cups (which I assumed was from yesterday that she snuck downstairs).

"Miriam, who brought milk down here?" I ask, knowing the answer.

"I brought milk down here but that's not milk mommy!  That's YOGURT!" Miriam replies with her usual surly tone, "Seth must have brought yogurt down here, and he used MY princess cup!"

I couldn't help but laugh.  She is pretty good at laying the blame on her older brother, but in this instance, I think she actually believed it!

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Wordless Wednesday: Racoons in the Pool



Found neat little racoon prints in the bottom of our blow-up kiddie pool.  I think we were lucky it didn't get popped!

Cutest little bathing suit bum.

Seth competing in the area Long Jump.  He placed 6th, pretty cool, I think!


The Poppies came out this week too!  Miriam was amazed by their size!

Sunday, June 10, 2012

The many hats of Motherhood

I've been a mother for over 10 years.  I often feel like it still isn't quite real, like I am still playing house with my friends in grade school.  3 children look up to me, and depend on me, and I feel like I am playing pretend. Don't get me wrong, I don't really think this is a bad thing, I think this means that I am still enjoying it most days and loving my children a ridiculous amount.  Yet the many things I have become for my children over the past 10 years is astounding.

And I know I'm not the only mother who becomes these things.  In fact, EVERY mother becomes these things.  

If you nurse your children when they are infants you are a buffet.  If you are bottle feeding, you become robotic with routine... scoop formula, add water, shake it like a mad woman, heat, and feed.

You are a nurse, and a doctor.  You are your own emergency response team.  

Most mothers become professional mouth sweepers, shoving your finger in your babies mouth to remove the items that do not belong.

You are a cook, a baker, a maid, and a taste tester.  

You are a hairdresser, a body washer, a bum wiper and an aesthetician.




Depending on your children, you have become a pirate, a train conductor and a hockey player.  You have become a queen, a princess, a dancer and a fairy.  You have become a story teller, a singer and a musician.


You are a confidant, a psychologist, a prosecutor and a judge. 

You are a teacher, a student, an assistant and a supervisor.



You are the creative queen, an actor, a photographer and an artist.



You are a decorator, an organizer, a counsellor and a schedueler.

You are a comforter, a cuddler and the best smell in the world. (even when you haven't showered)



You are the good guy. You are the bad guy. 

You make your kids laugh, smile, cry and scream.

You are loved.

I was never much for routine.  So this is nice for me, never the same thing twice.

I'm still growing up too, maybe all of these different hats will inspire me to one day change my 'real' profession.  Until then, I enjoy what every day brings.

Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Wordless Wednesday: More birthday!


Lucy turned one yesterday.  A few photos to enjoy from her birthday.  If you care to read about her party, you can find that here.

Lucy 6 days old

Lucy on her first birthday!

Birthday pancakes

My 3 beautiful kids.

She has been practicing blowing out her candle!

Birthday frozen yogurt in a mini cone, with a tiny bit of brownie

How many people does it take to open a baby's birthday present?  Well, if you ask Miriam, Lucy could NOT do it by herself!

Tuesday, June 05, 2012

It was her 1st birthday party!

I can't believe a whole year has passed since we welcomed little Lucy into our world.  She is such a little blessing.  She is goofy, smiley, laughs a lot, loves her brother and sister and most of all, she chases the cat around the house non-stop. Actually, as I write this, Lucy is trying to brush her big sisters hair, with the wrong end of the brush, but it is sweet none the less.

This weekend we celebrated several birthdays but most important to me was Lucy's first birthday.  Here a a few photos to share what the little celebration was like for everyone who couldn't make it, and anyone else who just wants to know!

Elmo

Cookie Monster

Oscar

If you don't know who this is, I'm not going to tell you. ;)
Outside decor

Lucy hiding under the table as guests arrive.


Singing happy birthday... cameras all around!

Her first bite of icing.
Her and her cousin looking surprisingly similar in the icing on face department.

Lucy telling us how delicious her cake was!

Lucy crawling away from present opening time.
Lucy's reaction to the fuzzy elmo card! She is laughing (screaming), not crying.

the aftermath of present opening time, and Lucy is still carrying the elmo card from Uncle Ben.

 Now the party is over.  Back to reality.  I don't have to think of all the extra grocery items and decorations for the party.  No more parties for several weeks.  I have celebrated Miriam's Birthdaymy mother in-law's birthday, and Seth's birthday.  Last will be my husbands, but there won't be a big hoo-haa about that one (Thank goodness!) and our families birthdays will be over until mine at the end of December. YAY!  Now onto wedding season!