Just a couple random conversations that have happened around here that I don't want to forget.

The scene: CR is riding the horse in our bedroom.
RC: I want a turn!
CR: What's the magic word?
RC: Get off!
CR: Not even close.

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The scene: CR is giving RC clues about some pictures she holds in her hands so she can guess what is in the picture.
CR: Okay R, this one is easy. What is purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and red?
RC: A tractor!

The Invasion

Here's the final piece I wrote for Mamalode that was not chosen for publication. This one was written for the theme "space."

The Invasion


“I’m going to take a shower now. No hitting, fighting or screaming, okay?”

“Okay, Mommy,” says my eldest.

Before the water gets hot, before I can even heave my pregnant self behind the curtain they are here- invading my space. Three beings crammed into the smallest room in the house. 

There’s been a quarrel. One is screaming about a Barbie. The other is crying, “Pick up you! Pick up, mama!”

Against my better judgment, I get in the shower. A struggle begins with the little one; repeated attempts to keep the shower curtain closed. I ultimately lose the battle.

Her big sister wonders aloud if it’s snack time; it’s been 20 minutes since breakfast.

And then, all of a sudden, silence. I am alone again. When I emerge from the bathroom, there they are together, curled up in my bed, quietly turning pages of a storybook. All is forgiven.

Crash & The Bloody Mess

Here's another essay I wrote for Mamalode Magazine that wasn't chosen for publication. I wrote this one about a year ago. It details one of those mama mishaps that is only funny when you have completely removed yourself from the situation.

I should’ve known something like this could happen. Crazy stuff happens to kids every day but aside from a few scraped knees and an ear infection, our life as parents was, for the most part, stress-free. Up until recently, we had escaped major trauma. I wasn’t expecting, nor prepared for, another one so soon. And all fingers would’ve pointed to the accident happening to our youngest, a.k.a. “Crash.”  That morning the girls and I went to the bouncy castle playgroup.  While the girls played, I found myself in a conversation with a mom acquaintance; I described for her the many differences between our cautious, older daughter and her accident prone sister.  Ironically, just seconds later, I ate my words.

There was a scream. I watched as my older daughter ran towards me crying, both hands covering her face. I remained calm, guessing she had bitten her tongue and perhaps just needed a hug. When I pulled her hands away, there was blood. I pried her mouth open and my face drained of color. One of her top front teeth was gone; a gaping hole in its place. How did this happen? Three year olds don’t lose teeth, they cut off their hair, right?!? Then I remembered Crash. In a mere 10 seconds she had climbed atop a nearby table. My mom acquaintance jumped in and offered to look after her while I tended to the Bloody Mess. I was trying my damnedest not to let my daughter know I was scared. I wanted to look for her tooth, but the other mom knew better. They don’t glue teeth back in, she said. I called my husband at work, he’d know what to do, right? Cool-headed Daddy phoned the dentist. They said to bring her immediately, they were about to break for lunch but would wait. I thanked the other mom and made a hasty retreat. We had only driven a block or so when the Bloody Mess in the back seat spoke up. Where are we going mama? I told her we were meeting Daddy at the dentist. But why, mama? My teef feel more better now. Through my tears, I managed to laugh. I told her the dentist just wanted to look and make sure everything was alright. Oh, can I have a lollipop? She may have been over it, but I wasn’t.

The scene at the dentist’s was not my proudest moment. I cried, especially when the dentist told me her other front tooth would have to be pulled; it was hanging on by a thread. Cool-headed Daddy took a picture of the Bloody Mess and posted it to Facebook. Check out my new smile, the caption read. We were free to go. Baby teeth are baby teeth, they told us, even if they fall out three years too soon. The tooth fairy was coming to our house!?!

The Bloody Mess likes that there are two fewer teeth to floss every night. She eats whatever she wants without inhibition or difficulty. Periodically, she asks when her new teeth are coming in, but six months has passed and she rarely mentions it now. We were flooded with kind words from friends who saw the Facebook post. “She’s still as beautiful as ever” and “An accident like this builds character” were some of the responses. While accidents may build character, it definitely adds a few grey hairs to a mama’s head and left me yearning for a stiff drink and a Valium.

In preparation for a little more traffic here (scary!) due to my essay going live on Mamalode's new website later this week, I've decided to share a few pieces I submitted for publication but were not chosen. I still like them and hope you do too.

This first one I wrote in June of 2011 when R.C. was almost one. We have since graduated the oldest from preschool and she will begin kindergarten in exactly four short weeks. I am fairly certain that letting go will always be a difficult part of parenting for me. Even with baby T.J. re-setting the clock back to zero this past spring, sending the big girl off to all-day school feels like a HUGE milestone. Hope I'm ready!

Letting go while clinging tightly

Every morning when I gaze upon my sleepy-eyed daughters,

I am one day closer to letting go.

A surprise revelation- the baby has been out longer than she was in.

She is very close to pulling herself up to stand, and one day soon will turn from my arms and walk away.

In a matter of weeks, big sister will walk into a classroom for her first morning of preschool.  She will begin a life that doesn’t include me, she will begin letting go.

We just bought a “big-girl” bike and we are once again planning a first birthday party- the months have passed quickly, the perpetual forward motion of our day-to-day lives.

While I reflect upon the milestones that too quickly pass, while I learn what it means to let go, I teach my girls this:  mama will always be here when you need to come back.

Here is  my photo for With a Little Moxie's Monday Montage of photos. This is baby T.J., the third (and final) of my three little princesses. She is 13 weeks old and a joy to have around. LOVE her smile and hope you do too!

Enjoying Life

Here is my submission for this week's photo challenge at iheartfaces.com.

The theme this week is "enjoying life." 

I took this picture at our local minor league baseball stadium where the Missoula Osprey play ball. While her big sis ran the bases after the game, lil' R.C. decided to avail herself of "the best seats in the house." She climbed up there all by herself, but when I pulled out the camera I prompted her to "sit back and relax." :)

August/September Nuggets

As this month rapidly comes to a close, I realize the waning days of summer are all too quickly behind us.  For the past few Septembers, the weather has been absolutely beautiful with cool mornings turning into shorts & flip flops afternoons.  Then, in the evening after the girls’ bedtime, we can open the windows and cool the house down again.  I love summer in Montana, but it is entirely too short.  Each day has to hold the memories of an entire week to make up for the long, slow, dark winters we endure.  Perhaps this is why I haven’t sat down to write much.  But tonight I decided it was time to catch up, back up all the photos off the camera and begin October with a fresh slate.  So with that said, here’s what we’ve been up to the last few weeks. 

My girls have such amazing blue eyes, sometimes the light is just right and I have to take a few random pictures to catch the beauty of them.  Everyone who meets the girls, whether it be a waitress in a restaurant or the older lady at the end of the block, makes a remark about their eyes.  Then they look at my husband and me and ask where the blue eyes come from.  We have done a little bit of research about the genetics involved in eye color, and by research I mean we’ve done a few searches on the Internet.  Turns out blue eyes are recessive.  Although my husband and I have brown eyes, we are both carriers of the blue-eyed gene.  Hubby’s family has a lot of blue eyes, his mom, his mom’s mom and dad.  Most of his grandparents’ offspring have the same eyes.  I on the other hand, have never met a relative of mine with blue eyes.  I am of Jewish descent and until we had kids with blue eyes, I was certain that being Jewish meant you had brown eyes.  Apparently not.  Someone, somewhere in my family tree had blue eyes.  What are the chances that two brown-eyed people would produce two blue-eyed beauties?  Not sure, but we like it all the same.

 

Little sis is a champion crawler, and at 14 months has proven that she is in no hurry to begin walking.  Big sis started walking on her own at 14 months and 4 days, so unless the little one has an amazing trick up her sleeve, she will be a little later than her sis at this milestone.  Not to worry, she gets into enough trouble on all fours.  I found the first pair of shoes that C.R. wore when she began walking, so for fun we tried them on a few weeks ago.  Little Boo looked so proud to be wearing shoes!  For someone who can’t go five minutes without yanking off a pair of socks or a hat, she wore those shoes (with a huge s*#t-eating grin on her face) for hours!  

The girls had an impromptu playdate with their new cousin, Smitty.  Smitty is a Boston terrier puppy belonging to my brother in law and his girlfriend, Mitten.  The baby was completely unfazed by the dog, he climbed on her, chewed on her binky, licked her, and generally made a menace of himself (as all puppies do) and she loved it.

One evening after dinner, against my better judgment, I took the girls to the library.  Since big sis isn’t napping regularly, the evening hours have become tricky.  Sometimes she reaches her breaking point earlier than other nights.  Luckily the library was deserted and no one had to witness the tantrum.  We managed to look at books for a few minutes and even check out a few before we made a beeline for the car and the refuge of our beds. 

The baby is finally big enough to play with C.R.  Now that the toys must be shared, a few more fights break out but usually they play together very nicely.  Although I'm sure there was a time that my sister and I played together like this, I don't have any memory of it.  These sweet sister moments are made that much sweeter because of this.

I made cupcakes for my birthday this year.  The pigs were supposed to be for the baby’s party, but it was so hot in July that I made an ice cream cake instead.  Three cupcakes didn’t make it to the party at my in-laws, their neighbor’s dog almost made off with one too.  They were cute.  I told myself it was practice for being a good preschool mom.  Who can resist a pink piggie cupcake?

Big sister apparently has a streaking fetish.  She insisted on dropping trou while she was playing in the sprinkler.  I am sure these pictures will embarrass the heck out of her in years to come, but I will remind her that as she ran naked through the yard, it was HER idea to take pictures.   Luckily her dad was there to back up my story.

My in-laws invited us to join them for a day trip up to Placid Lake.  The girls enjoyed the water and the company.  Me too.

 Big sis thinks that the baby is pushing Daddy into the lake in this photo.  I think she looks like a little explorer surveying the sea.

 Sister was thirsty after all that sunbathing.

When my dad was visiting for the baby’s birthday in late July, a plan was hatched to fly to Atlanta the following month and surprise my sister for her 40^th birthday.  Since my husband had to work, I took the girls by myself.  We arranged the flights so that my dad was there to help on one leg of the trip.  Without a job to return to, I had the luxury to stay for a good long time and we visited with my mom as well as my sis, her husband and two boys for almost two weeks.   The girls enjoyed playing at my mom’s house and with her enormous, silly dog, Charcoal.  It is also so fun to have my whole family together at one time.  It was only the second time all four grandkids were together, and as C.R. gets bigger and bolder, she has more fun with her rambunctious cousins.  

 Playing with cousins' hand-me-down toys at Grammy's house.  

 Making art with glitter glue and watercolors.  Mixed media, very sophisticated.

 Cream cheese face  

 Atlanta Aquarium with cousins  

Detour from the fish for a quick snack break  

This tank held "Nemo" according to my three year old.  "But, Mommy?  Where's Nemo's dad?"

Big sister started preschool when we got back from our trip.  She was very proud to have her very own backpack and was looking forward to playing with new friends.  Everyone told me I would cry when I dropped her off the first day, but I held it together.  She is definitely NOT shy and barely acknowledged me when I turned to go.  In fact, we had more of a scene when it was time to be picked up.  Other kids were running to their moms with open arms.  My kid screamed and said she was not ready to go home.  I have been trying and prying to get any little detail from her about school, but she has very little to say.  It is very weird that she has a life away from home that we know nothing about, but I figure that if there is something I need to know, Miss Wendy will fill me in.  During dinner the other night, she finally let loose with some gossip.  She told me that a little girl in her class made pee-pee all over the floor and another girl stepped in it.  Hmmm, not exactly what I was hoping to learn.

Like father, like daughter

When my dad was visiting this summer, he tuned up our bikes and replaced all the broken and worn parts so that we could ride them again.  We were inspired to pull our bike trailer out of storage and have since gone out on several rides with the kids in tow.  We are hoping to get out several more times before the cold weather chases us indoors.  Apparently it is a pleasant ride since big sis took the opportunity one afternoon to snag a quick nap.  Little sis didn't make a very good pillow and she kept trying to wake her up, but there was definitely snoring coming from back there.

This year was the 2^nd time I’ve participated in the Missoula Buddy Walk.  This time I brought the entire family.  Big sis was beyond excited to see that they had cookies for the kids.  We scored some new t-shirts and donated some dollars to the National Down Syndrome Society.  All in all, it was a beautiful day for a walk and we were excited to be a part of such a special event.

Last but not least.  The baby has been eying her sister's hippo chair for weeks.  Today she finally decided she was taking a turn.  Girlfriend knows how to kick back.

 

 Bye for now!