February in Pictures

Our dogs really love each other.  This is how they sleep 99% of the time.

These,  my friends, are gluten free, egg free, dairy free pumpkin chocolate chip muffins.  They were fluffy, moist, they rose, and they even tasted good, something that has been a difficult combination to achieve this past month and a half.  Even our non GFCFEF neighbor kids loved them.

At our elementary the second grade presents puppet shows.  There are four classes with each class doing 3-4 shows.  It's a lot of puppets.  And they have 5 performances.  When you have a lively child like BoyTwo and a anxious child like Three, you get to be to all five performances.  I was able to multitask a little (okay, a lot) and decorate the gym for something else when it wasn't their exact turn.  These pictures are of the cast introducing themselves before they take stage.  Three is Chicken Little.  BoyTwo is a pig from the Gingerbread Man.  I'm pleased to say there were no inappropriate things said into the microphone, no microphones were thrown, and no little piggies went running wee wee wee all the way off the stage.  Phew.  In the hallway after one performance, the pig did have a little run in with another animal, as in he literally and purposely ran into and over the poor guy, and lost his snout which was later surgically replaced with hot glue once reparations were made and privileges earned back.

He assured both his teacher and I that it wasn't supposed to be a 'real fight, just a fun fight.'  

Four's kindergarten class filled their marble jar and voted on a superhero party.  Rules were that you had to invent your superhero to portray special abilities/talents you had.  So there you go.  Cheer You Up Cheetah Girl.  She makes me so happy.

Not sure why these pictures were split up.  Oh well.  This is an intense game of Blind Tickle Monster.  The kids sit in a circle around Huz who counts to ten and then tickles someone.  They aren't allowed to open their eyes or else they are disqualified.  Here they were waiting with such intense anticipation that I was laughing out loud.

Four loves animals.  She would really love to be a cheetah.  Or a horse.  Or a cat.  Or dog.  You get the picture.  She would love to wear this little get up 24/7.

Oh!  Looks like Two was the one caught by the tickle monster :)

Natural(ly)

As I filled out the paperwork for BoyTwo's much anticipated, eagerly awaited, desperately counted down the days for neuropsych appointment, I came across a section in which I was to fill out information about myself.

1. Are you the patient's:

___natural mother   ___adoptive mother

etc.

Really?  In 2013 we are referring to a biological relationship as natural?  

sigh.  eye roll.

So, naturalLY, being both an adoptee and adoptive mother, I crossed out the word natural and replaced it with the word biological and was sure to let the front office know of my 'suggestion' to change the form to more accurately and correctly represent the relationship of the adult and child in question.

Fingerprints

Well, it's almost like I went and fell off the face of the earth!  Life is so busy.  Oh my gosh whirlwind what just happened busy.

Today as I ran through the house trying to get things somewhat in order, feeling frustrated that the kids aren't better about picking up their 'things', I remembered the fingerprints.

In our old house, there were french doors in the kitchen/family room area that led to our backyard deck.  The girls were all babies in that house and grew up there.  They loved to stand at those windows and lick the glass as babies do and put their chubby little fingers all over them.  We'd often leave the door open so they could wander in and out.  They loved 'kissing' each other through the window and pulling funny faces at each other with their little cheeks and noses smooshed against the glass.  As you can imagine, the bottom third of the windows were covered in prints.  Lip prints, cheek prints, finger prints, you name it.  And I never cleaned them.  I was always afraid that if I did something would happen to one of the girls and I'd be so sad that I had cleaned off their little markings.  I wanted them there all the time so that I could see them and remember their littleness.  I remember one time coming home and a well meaning baby sitter had cleaned them for me.  It was all I could do to not start bawling that very moment.  haha.  Now don't pass out, they did get cleaned, occasionally.  Just not every single day like they needed.  It was a sad day when we moved out of that wonderful little house and I had to wash the prints away forever.  And it was forever.  They were gone and so was that phase of our lives.  We wash the windows weekly here in our new house and rarely are there any prints at all on the windows.  That little phase of our life was left behind at our old house and in our memory.  Silly as it may sound, I'm so glad that I let those fingerprints and smudges stay.  I can still see them in my mind and it is a treasured memory, a reminder of a different part of my life that I will never have back.

They're growing up so fast.

As I looked around at backpacks not put away, sewing projects left out and unfinished, coloring books and puzzles haphazardly slid to the sides of the walls, I realized that this was the new 'fingerprint'.  And that sadly, someday, the house will stay picked up after it is cleaned, the locker hall will hang empty, toys and puzzles will be a thing of the past, and Huz and I will be alone.

I'm grateful for these thoughts that I have that help me to slow down and to be present.  It's something that I have to work on constantly.  Time is so easy to take for granted.  'I'll read it to you tomorrow', 'I'll play chess with you after I _____', 'let me make this phone call first', etc.  One day I'll wake up and they'll be all grown up.  I think about my own mother who will call me to talk and it will take me a day or two to get back to her with a free minute to chat.  Someday they won't need me every second of every day (like today.  I think 'mom' was said over 50 times in a single half of an hour.  I hid in the bathroom and they were waiting centimeters away from the door when I emerged thirty seconds later:)).  Someday they will be the ones who don't have time for a game of chess or a little chat.  Oh, it makes me wish for more time with them.  

(the fingerprinted doors are behind us)