bruises - ice cream - life

Had a sweet day with the kiddos.

 

JD has a goosebump on his head from the hardwood floor and we learned that biting the inside of your mouth during a fall can cause quite an oozy-slobbery-blood-mess.

 

I think I am forming a bruise on my forehead where I had a run in with the corner of an open cabinet in the kitchen.

 

Maia has no injuries. :-)

 

I got a lot of cuddles from JD and he dozed off in my lap in the rocking chair. Then he woke up suddenly, startled me, jumped up, and yelled "EL-MO!" waking Maia who began protesting "EL-MO" right along with him.

 

So we watched an episode of Elmo's World and then went and got ice cream cones. The car ride there was pretty much 2 toddlers chanting non-stop "ICE-cream-cone! ICE cream-cone!" Then they kept taking licks of their cones and saying "ICE! mmmmmmm"

 

Being a mom is the greatest thing I've ever done. Life doesn't make sense a lot of the time but it always feels right when I'm wearing my mama-hat and spending time with my twinners.

 

My SIL posted this on Facebook and it pretty much captured today's mood:

 

Miss Maia-Mama

Miss Maia has recently taken to being quite the incredible Mama to her twin babies. She got one doll for Christmas and another for her birthday - she will put them in her stroller, point at me and say "two babies" and then point at her stroller with a big smile on her face and say "two babies!" She does not like to go anywhere without both babies and her stroller - we take them in the car and recently she has insisted on taking them on our walks, meaning this is what we look like:

She has stamina because she has to hold the stroller there and will do so for several miles with no complaining. After we get up the hill a couple of miles I let them get out and walk, she loves pushing her stroller while I push mine:

I thought I wanted a tomboy but I am pretty captivated and head over heels for my little girly-girl. What a sweetheart.

a mother's work

I had a L-O-N-G night last night with two kids uninterested sleeping and on top of a few other things going on in life this week it made for a cranky morning....loved stumbling across this today that was encouraging, written by a mama over at Deeper Story.

"I pray big things for my sons. I pray for gentle spirits and for courage. I pray they will be men of conviction and mercy, justice and forgiveness. I pray they will grow to love the things that God loves.

And sometimes we have tender discussions about faith. We talk about God giving us new, soft hearts, especially on days when our hard hearts seem to be running the show. We talk about taking care of people who need care the most.

But most of my living with my boys is not “spiritual,” it’s physical. I am wiping snot. I am wiping rear ends. I am chopping vegetables; I am singing the praises of vegetables to the child who refuses to try new things. I am holding tools in my hands. I am tending ouchies. I am packing bags and packing snacks and packing my pockets with tissues because someone always has a cold. I am tying shoes and buckling seat belts.

And it is holy work. Yes, I said holy."

what little boys are made of

With dirt on his nose,
and scrapes on his knees,
the throwing or rocks,
and the climbing of trees,
with pockets of frogs,
and jars full of bugs
makes a sweet little boy
full of kisses and hugs

 

 

Someone asked me this week if I love both my kids the same....I certainly love them both as much (totally endless) but one of the interesting things about kids is that sometimes one doesn't need you much and at that same time the other one is totally connecting with you. And then another day it's vice versa. (...and then there are some days when both need you 24/7 and you just can't be enough....) Today was one of those days where Maia was kind of doing her own thing and JD and I were having a riot. This little man is a climbing, noise-making, dirt-and-water-attracting machine. He got two baths today....love it.

 

We played at our big local park for an hour, got soaked in a fountain on the way to the car, and then still wanted to play outside in the back yard when we got home. Hallelujah for spring and the sun staying out until late evening. :-)

JD-boy

This kid cracks me up everyday. His personality is a lot like mine so he drives me nuts (and vice versa) but I totally love him.....he is too smart for his own good and STUBBORN (Mom, did you ever tell me "I hope you get a kid just like you"? He's here!).

 

He already figures out how to get around the rules - for example tonight I told him not to pull the chair up to the sink (which he was doing so he could play with water in the sink) so instead he figured out how to drag a laundry basket in and use it to climb on the counter and thereby get his way without pulling the chair up to the sink. I can't help but be proud of those little wheels turning in his head even though it exhausts me!

 

This is the kid that at 18 months, when I said "JD, Don't touch that," he would look at me with a mischevious grin and put his finger 1/16 of a centimeter away from whatever he wasn't supposed to touch, and then giggle. What a tease.

 

He also gives the best kisses, makes awesome truck and motorcycle noises, takes great care of his teddy bear, Mr. Stinky (JD puts Mr. Stinky's paws together at night so he can say a prayer and makes sure Mr. Stinky gets tucked into the covers so they can fall asleep together), and thinks I am AMAZING because of how high in the air I can throw his ball. He likes to jump off the back of the couch (I give up), climb, jump, throw, stomp like a dinosaur (like grandma taught him) and play the drums (any stick-like object against a hard surface will do). He is strong and coordinated and already attracted to sports.

 

His best words are ball, boat, car, truck, Jeep (and yes he knows which cars are Jeeps, no idea how he learned this), please, Stinky (what he calls his bear), helicopter, plane, moon, cracker, and dog. He can also communicate impressively with a series of different toned grunts.....

 

Happy 2nd Birthday JD-boy. You are super fun and a really good kid.

Kiss

Eating a picnic dinner and watching the waves 

Maia goes in for a kiss

Is this not the sweetest thing you've ever seen?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh and in case you are wishing you could see the sunglasses Maia is wearing (which I had to beg her to let me take off her face when she went to sleep tonight!), they are this cute - thanks Debbi for the awesome birthday gift!

Julie

Word has it on Facebook that it is national infertility week. And I keep thinking about my good friend Julie. I was terrified to go the invitro route, but she was pregnant with a baby girl from just that. She talked me through the process, gave me the inside info on all the ups and downs, and encouraged me with her own courage. She even referred me to the reproductive endocrinologist who created all this in a science lab in Newport Beach:

 

Julie's daughter was born about nine months before JD & Maia. Her son was born just 6 months ago. A couple of months ago, we were at the park, letting our kids play and catching up on life. We hadn't seen each other and our three hour play date included laughing, crying, hugs, and chasing our toddlers around mid-conversation. Julie was healthy, happy, strong, and energetic.

 

So I couldn't believe it just 2 weeks later when I got a text from a mutual friend, asking me if I had heard Julie was in the hospital, diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.

 

I haven't seen her since that playdate - she is busy taking care of two babies while battling for her health and her life and her chance to raise those babies into adults - but I have, with thousands of others, been following her story here. For the past six weeks, whenever I've had what I feel is a bad day, I am inspired by Julie's hope, genuine honestly, and courage in the face of what would be a terrifying experience. If you want to be uplifted, read her thoughts and the ways her faith has strengthened from an incredibly difficult time.

 

I don't know if I would have gone through with in vitro if Julie hadn't been there to hold my hand along the way - thanks dear friend. :-) Praying for you and thinking of you often.