My Maggie is One

Dear Maggie -

Happy birthday, my darling babe. All I could think about last night was how out of all of our kids, present and future, we tried the longest and hardest to have you. And in the end, it was worth every minute, because you were the baby we got. And you're perfect.

I love you, Mag-a-moo!

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Happy (Almost) Birthday!

We had a huge party for Maggie's birthday this past weekend. She did remarkably well considering that there were 65 people singing to her. As you can see, she was unimpressed with the cake.

She was equally unimpressed with the cupcake she was given to eat. But she was delighted when I gave her some goldfish crackers!

Everyone had a great time, including us grown ups, and Maggie got more presents than I've ever seen. I can't believe she's almost one, almost walking. Luckily she still loves to cuddle up to her mama.

If I bribe her with goldfish crackers, that is.

--

For more best shot Monday, visit Mother May I.

Wordless Wednesday: Naptime

Wordless Wednesday

Feast or Famine

Occasionally, maybe because I am pregnant, or maybe because I have three kids to keep track of, or maybe because we live in West Virginia, or maybe just because I'm getting too damn old, I forget if we have enough of something at home. This is how we end up with two gallons of orange juice, or three boxes of cheerios, or four jars of peanut butter. We always end up going through whatever I've bought in excess, but it makes me wonder what exactly is going on inside of my head.

Recently I noticed we were in need of toilet paper. We were planning a trip to Sam's Club that weekend, so I made sure we stocked up.

Later that week I had to go to Target. Because we had left the giant package of toilet paper in the garage, I kind of forgot we bought it. When I saw that if you bought two packages you got a $5 gift card, I threw two huge packages under my cart.

I had to return something to Target later that same week, and somehow my brain short circuited and forgot that I had already purchased two packages a few days prior. Those sales really suck me in.

So when SOB finally got around to unpacking all of the packages, I shouldn't have been surprised when he called me to the closet, and said to bring my camera. And I didn't even take any photographs in the upstairs bathroom.

Simply put, I don't think we'll be needing any toilet paper any time soon. Unless the kids discover the joys of tp-ing a little earlier than expected!

Inspiring

Last week my firstborn ran head first into everything that was headed his way. It was an amazing week for me, really, just watching him. Since he is only four and a half, he didn't realize how his positivity affected me, but if it was something I could bottle our whole family could live out the rest of our lives without having to lift a finger.

On Wednesday the kids went to their first dance class. Sam has been asking to take dance lessons for a long while, most likely because we watch SYTYCD together and he lurves it. And Lulu has been begging for ballet classes ever since her pal Reagan started taking them last year. Signing them up for dance was near the top of my list when we moved. Now, I had no trouble finding Lucy a cute little leotard and skirt to wear to class, but I had a lot more trouble finding dance attire for my son here in West Virginia. That should have been a sign for me, but luckily I'm pretty stubborn and fairly plucky, so I just threw him into some of Lucy's leggings, topped it with a slightly small tee shirt and called it dancewear. He called them his handsome pants.

We walked through the door of the studio and my kids kicked off their shoes and bolted into the room. I was glad they were so speedy because that way they didn't have to hear the comments about boys not belonging in dance classes and what not. I got a lot of strange, mean looks in that lobby. The part that really killed me, though, was the five year old boy who lit up like a Christmas tree when Sam went into the class. He turned to his mother and said, 'I didn't know boys were allowed to take dance class!' expectantly. She just glared at me and said, 'They're not.' Her poor son sat there for the next hour all long faced, looking for any reason to go into the studio, only to be scolded.

And guess what? Sam and Lucy had an effing blast. Best 45 minutes of their week, so far!

Lucy doing "ballet"

But it only got better from there. On Sunday morning Sam started his instructional hockey league.

He was so, so excited. We got there nice and early to get suited up, and even though he couldn't get on the ice for almost 40 minutes the kid refused to take his skates off. He just walked around in them, talking about how awesome they were.

As soon as he got on the ice, though, his tune changed. At the very beginning things were chaos. There were at least thirty kids out there, a dozen or so who couldn't skate at all, and others who could only skate a little. There weren't nearly enough adults, and Sam panicked. But after a few minutes a girl from the youth team got him a chair-type thing and he perked right up.

Even though he fell down an awful lot he kept getting back up. He came off of the ice after forty five minutes, and when I told him he still had fifteen minutes more, he beamed.

When he took off his helmet, he looked so much like my little brother that I may have gotten tears in my eyes. I was worried that he would complain and not want to go back, but instead he complained that he didn't have hockey every day. He's probably asked us to take him skating at least twelve times since then.

This kid never ceases to amaze me.

Knock! Knock!

My kids have discovered knock-knock jokes. This is, all at once, both entirely adorable and totally insufferable. As you can see from the following video, the cuteness cannot be denied:

(These are her favorite jokes because: Amanda is my cousin, and one of Lucy's favorite people of all time. Will and Joshua are twins in her class, and also on the 'all time favorite people' list. The 'Will you let me in it's cold outside!' joke came first, and Lucy just assumed that 'Joshua' would work in the joke as well. She's so pretty!)

However, when hearing these same jokes for the 117th time today, well, let's just say it can wear on a person. You can probably pick that up from my voice. That patient, encouraging, loving, but-seconds-away-from-puncturing-my-own-ear-drums tremor that only a mom can understand.

But you know what? Once she's in bed I bet I end up watching this at least a few times.

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG

I know you've seen this before, but when I Heart Faces picked 'Vroom Vroom' for their theme this week how could I resist?

Click on over to see all of the other awesome photos!

Monday Memories

The butterfly bush is quickly fading, but I came across this image that I forgot about, and it made me smile.

We spent the weekend in Philly, and I didn't take a single photo, so this will have to do! For more Best Shot Monday, visit Mother May I.

Some Pretty Parts of West Virginia

The view from Cooper's Rock.

The view from my front window.

Love carved into the surface of Cooper's Rock.

One of millions of trees.

Maybe the loveliest of all.

Big Brother

Last weekend Sam overheard me about an ultrasound I was having that coming week. I must have said something about 'seeing the baby' that caught his attention, because all of a sudden he was insisting on joining me at my 7:30am appointment. Since SOB was going to be home that day I figured what the heck? The boy could come along. He's usually pretty chill early in the day anyway, so I figured he wouldn't be much trouble. I got out some of my ultrasound pics from him and his sisters so he knew what to expect, and we planned for our morning out together.

As soon as we got into the exam room, he saw the TV and asked the ultrasound tech to put on a kids' show. At that point, I wasn't too optimistic about his enthusiasm. However, once the image of the tiny baby came up on the screen, he was riveted.

The tech was awesome. She focused right in on the baby's head and pointed out the face, hands and legs to Sammy. After a few minutes of pleasantries, though, she had to get down to business. Once she started in on non-identifiable (to a 4 year old) stuff, Sam got a little testy. He kept insisting that she go back to the baby's face. Finally, after much explaining, he seemed to understand that she needed to check things other than the face. He was somewhat intrigued by the heart, but asked if he could play his leapster when she was measuring my ovaries.

Afterwards, he told everyone how he got to see his new baby brother (no official word, just Sam's steadfast opinion) and how awesome it was. And it totally melted my heart.

By the way, he also got to see me get my blood drawn and give a urine sample, but luckily he didn't mention those parts to his teacher or friends or our babysitter.

Deja Vu

Did you ever have a memory so foggy that you weren't sure if it was real?

Back when I was a child, my parents were the king and queen of day trips. The only real vacation we ever went on was our two week trip to my grandparents' house in Florida, so they would pepper the rest of the year with car trips to local historical sites and attractions. We visited the Johnstown Flood Museum, Fort Necessity, Gettysburg, and more state parks than I can remember.

On one such trip, I recalled driving across a long metal bridge so near to the water that even in my youth it frightened me. Through the years this bridge would appear in my dream, but no one but me ever seemed to remember it.

Then we moved here, to West Virginia.

Hoping to avoid traffic on the highway one day soon after we moved, I took a local road home. We were winding down the hills, and I could see the lake through the trees, but I had no idea where the road was heading. Then, right at the bottom of the hill the trees cleared and a bridge appeared perpendicular to the road.

I got the shivers, and every hair on my head was standing on edge. It was the bridge from my dreams, which weren't really dreams at all! The kids loved it, and every day beg to drive over the rusty bridge. We found out recently that it's going to be closed and removed sometime in the next year, so we do drive across it every chance we get. Even if it does still give me the chills.