2

My baby turned 2 today. TWO. We had a fun day celebrating Adrienne, and I think she enjoyed it. As I was getting her dressed for bed tonight I was talking to her and telling her a little story about the day she was born. I sent Matt home for the night so he could get some rest, and we talked on the phone just before he went to sleep. I distinctly remember telling him that I had fallen hard for Adrienne in the few short hours we had known each other. She was so snuggly. So sweet. So unique and charming to me already.  "I LOVE this baby", I gushed enthusiastically to him. I said it over and over and over.  I LOVED that baby, and I LOVE this two year old. Happy Birthday, Adrienne Elizabeth. Your mama is smitten with you.

Birth Day

1st Birthday

Good morning, sunshine! You are TWO!

Saturday Adventure

A few weeks ago (June 8th, I believe) we decided to take a local day trip. It was a beautiful day and the girls hadn't gotten to ride in the new car yet (since Matt had stolen it from me for a week while he put off installing the car seats). I suggested we head to Stillwater, MN, as it had a promising looking Teddy Bear park for kids and a cute little malt shop where we could stop for lunch and treats. Everyone was all smiles as we headed North.

We arrived in Stillwater to find many streets blocked off, and people standing on the sidewalks. We were pleasantly surprised by what we thought was surely some parade we would have awesome viewing spots for. As we walked around trying to find a bathroom (and the details about the parade), we learned that this fanfare wasn't about a parade, but rather a robbery and bomb threat at the local bank that forced a shutdown of the town. What luck!

Hmmm...what to do? We thought for a moment and then I suggested we head over the river to Hudson, WI. I quickly texted a friend whose in-laws live there and she told me where to find lunch, what to do with the kids, and where to find our ice cream treats. Ah, the wonder of technology. Thanks, Steph! So, we had a yummy pub-like lunch at Barker's and then headed down to the water front to walk around.

We found ourselves some delicious ice cream before loading up, stopping at a liquor store to "smuggle" home some of our favorite New Glarus beer (sold only in WI), and enjoyed sleeping girls as we made the trek home.

Cheer Camp

Jillian continually asked me about doing RAC Cheer Camp again since it concluded last June. She loved it so much, so despite my issues with the timing/lack of organization of the camp, I signed her up. The highlight of the experience is of course the pre-game performance at the Rochester Honkers baseball game. This time we hired a sitter for A so we could have a special night with our big girl.

Pre performance with a silly Daddy!

We are in serious trouble, aren't we?

The whole group

Waiting to take the field

The 3-4 year olds getting ready to dance to "Rockin' Robin"

Leaving the game, playing with some very loud thunder sticks she won

Those are some tired eyes...but she rallied for her chosen treat of Flapdoodles ice cream on the way home.

Back In The Saddle

It's time to get back in the blogging saddle. What a busy, fun couple of weeks it has been for our family! I have some major catching up to do...day trip to Stillwater/Hudson, RAC Cheer Camp, and our Hilton Head vacation with the Tauntons. It's gonna be awhile before I get my act together, especially since I am trying to get my bearings post-trip and prepare for Adrienne's birthday this weekend. Until then, here are the whopping two family photos we have of our trip last week. Stay tuned for gobs of photos and more details than you care to know about our adventures.

At the top of the lighthouse in Sea Pines, post pirate cruise (hence J's accessories).

In the barn after just boarding our carriage for a mule-drawn ride through Charleston. Where's your smile, A?

Enjoying Today.

I got hit between the eyes this morning. Not literally, thank goodness, but with some pretty simple words I read in a devotion on motherhood that I've been trying to do. I'm terribly inconsistent, but that's not the point this time. The author, Jen Hatmaker, was starting down the path of reminding us (moms) that kids grow fast, blah blah blah, enjoy the time you have, blah, blah, blah. I've read it all before. It's very cliche, and while true, it is not always helpful to have someone (especially an older woman) to remind one to enjoy the present with the crazy little people who stretch every fiber of patience, composure, and abilities I have. You can read my favorite post ever written on that topic here. Anyway, yesterday, I read a different post on Facebook about the "real life" definition of  a mom, and it really struck me as beautiful. A perfect balance of all those emotions, experiences, and thoughts that make the job unique and the most important I will ever have. I couldn't stop thinking about it as I was up with a scared Jillian at 3 a.m. ("Something touched me". I really hope it was one of her billion stuffed animals in her bed. Just sayin'). I'm going to paste it here, so I can remember it, before I continue with my story about being hit between the eyes (I promise I'm getting somewhere. Eventually.)


The (Real Life) Definition of Motherhood--lisajobaker.com
I am stretched and tired and fearful.
I am wild and brave and broken.
My closet has a sense of humor and clothes in every size.
I’ve worn these hips three times around the labor and delivery dance and they are not ashamed. I speak three languages and that doesn’t include my ability to translate my middle son’s moods.
I have danced circles into the midnight carpet on two continents.
I have rocked restless babes, cut baby curls, snipped fingernails and served a thousand thousand bowls of Cheerios.
I can build a blanket fort, pry splinters out of fingers, and sharp words out of young hearts.
I have lost it, yelled it, fought it, cried it and apologized it all before 9am.
I have fingerpainted, caffeinated, and run out of explanations for a line of why questions that stretches around the living room, out the front door and around the block.
I have tripped on Legos, stepped on scooters, slept on bottom bunks, and strung yards of white, twinkling lights above the heads of two blonde brothers afraid of the dark and their bad dreams.
I have been woken up, shaken up, thrown up, loved up, and shut up. I have never quite, completely, ever given up.
Love sleeps in my bed. Curiosity eats at my table. Delight runs laps around my back yard. Exhaustion is a faithful friend. But so is grace.
If I started tonight and counted backwards all the gifts of the past seven and a half years of two boys and this still-smells-new baby girl I would still be counting when their grandchildren were standing tippy toes with noses pressed against these smudged windows.
So I count dimples instead.
And piles of stray socks and jeans with knees missing and shoes that only fit for a few months and hair cuts and loose teeth and how many times I look at them and say with the disbelief of the proud, “I can’t believe how much you’ve grown!”
I am overwhelmed, infatuated, love struck and completely unhinged. Especially on the nights they bring in wild flowers and all the ever-loving mud in the world.
I am full and fulfilled.
I am older and comfortable in my skin.
I am about the work of raising tiny humans.
I am out of my mind and in my calling and desperate for five minutes alone and a lifetime together.
I see cherry blossom fireworks when two brothers enter school and friendship and new worlds together. Right there, just an outdoor, black top, basketball court away from me.
I want to stop time, tame my fears, bottle their dreams, live a hundred summers of dripping, sticky, caramel ice cream. And in between I hang onto my faith, my temper, and my sense of humor with my fingernails.
These are the good days, the glory days, the slow-as-molasses days. These are the fast years, the wonder years, the how-do-I-find-words years.
But we do. They usually start with “help” and end with “thank you”, and the middle?
The middle is a thick layer of one syllable wonder sometimes whispered, often shouted, always answered.
The middle is me. The middle is you. The middle is just, “mom.”

I got hit between the eyes this morning. Not literally, thank goodness, but with some pretty simple words I read in a devotion on motherhood that I've been trying to do. I'm terribly inconsistent, but that's not the point this time. The author, Jen Hatmaker, was starting down the path of reminding us (moms) that kids grow fast, blah blah blah, enjoy the time you have, blah, blah, blah. I've read it all before. It's very cliche, and while true, it is not always helpful to have someone (especially an older woman) to remind one to enjoy the present with the crazy little people who stretch every fiber of patience, composure, and abilities I have. You can read my favorite post ever written on that topic here. Anyway, yesterday, I read a different post on Facebook about the "real life" definition of  a mom, and it really struck me as beautiful. A perfect balance of all those emotions, experiences, and thoughts that make the job unique and the most important I will ever have. I couldn't stop thinking about it as I was up with a scared Jillian at 3 a.m. ("Something touched me". I really hope it was one of her billion stuffed animals in her bed. Just sayin'). I'm going to paste it here, so I can remember it, before I continue with my story about being hit between the eyes (I promise I'm getting somewhere. Eventually.)


The (Real Life) Definition of Motherhood--lisajobaker.com
I am stretched and tired and fearful.
I am wild and brave and broken.
My closet has a sense of humor and clothes in every size.
I’ve worn these hips three times around the labor and delivery dance and they are not ashamed. I speak three languages and that doesn’t include my ability to translate my middle son’s moods.
I have danced circles into the midnight carpet on two continents.
I have rocked restless babes, cut baby curls, snipped fingernails and served a thousand thousand bowls of Cheerios.
I can build a blanket fort, pry splinters out of fingers, and sharp words out of young hearts.
I have lost it, yelled it, fought it, cried it and apologized it all before 9am.
I have fingerpainted, caffeinated, and run out of explanations for a line of why questions that stretches around the living room, out the front door and around the block.
I have tripped on Legos, stepped on scooters, slept on bottom bunks, and strung yards of white, twinkling lights above the heads of two blonde brothers afraid of the dark and their bad dreams.
I have been woken up, shaken up, thrown up, loved up, and shut up. I have never quite, completely, ever given up.
Love sleeps in my bed. Curiosity eats at my table. Delight runs laps around my back yard. Exhaustion is a faithful friend. But so is grace.
If I started tonight and counted backwards all the gifts of the past seven and a half years of two boys and this still-smells-new baby girl I would still be counting when their grandchildren were standing tippy toes with noses pressed against these smudged windows.
So I count dimples instead.
And piles of stray socks and jeans with knees missing and shoes that only fit for a few months and hair cuts and loose teeth and how many times I look at them and say with the disbelief of the proud, “I can’t believe how much you’ve grown!”
I am overwhelmed, infatuated, love struck and completely unhinged. Especially on the nights they bring in wild flowers and all the ever-loving mud in the world.
I am full and fulfilled.
I am older and comfortable in my skin.
I am about the work of raising tiny humans.
I am out of my mind and in my calling and desperate for five minutes alone and a lifetime together.
I see cherry blossom fireworks when two brothers enter school and friendship and new worlds together. Right there, just an outdoor, black top, basketball court away from me.
I want to stop time, tame my fears, bottle their dreams, live a hundred summers of dripping, sticky, caramel ice cream. And in between I hang onto my faith, my temper, and my sense of humor with my fingernails.
These are the good days, the glory days, the slow-as-molasses days. These are the fast years, the wonder years, the how-do-I-find-words years.
But we do. They usually start with “help” and end with “thank you”, and the middle?
The middle is a thick layer of one syllable wonder sometimes whispered, often shouted, always answered.
The middle is me. The middle is you. The middle is just, “mom.”


So, as I was saying before the rather lengthy digression, Jen Hatmaker was rambling slightly about enjoying the moments with your children. OK, I get it. But then, she just summed it up nicely with a big bang: "Enjoy it today, or enjoy it never". Did you catch that? NEVER. I thought about that for a minute, and while it is so simple, it is so true and so profound. I have one chance to enjoy this day with my children. I can either choose to enjoy it today, or I never will enjoy it. I can't decide today that I enjoyed yesterday. I either did or I didn't. Looking back on a period of time with fondness isn't the same as enjoying it in the moment. It's a message we've all heard before, but somehow her spin on it made me reconsider it with fresh perspective. I have a lot of regrets. A lot of days have passed where I didn't enjoy my girls. Girls, I know you will read this someday and I don't want you to misunderstand the difference between loving you and enjoying you. I love you with a fierceness I can't explain, but I am human and I don't always enjoy the moments. I have been like this my whole life, and it is part of my goal-oriented personality. It's not an excuse, it's part of me, and one I am learning to examine as it affects my perspective on mothering. The stage we are in together right now is a tough one, and it is testing me in ways I haven't yet been tested. That will surely continue. But I have a choice--I can either trudge along wishing away today so that we can get to some unspecified "easier" stage that I will promise to enjoy when it arrives (and then just look ahead to what might be better), or I can just look for the good stuff in every day. I bet I'd see more of it if I just started looking. It's time to open my eyes.

Dental Darlings

These little ladies rocked it at the dentist's office this morning. You would have thought I took them to the candy store, they were so excited and well-behaved. Proud of you, girls!

Reading in the waiting room

Checking out her freshly cleaned teeth

A's turn. Looking at the light.

Letting Dr. Loewen take a peek

Slightly surprised at this almost 2 year old's compliance with a dental exam. She definitely had a good role model in Jillian.

Staycation

I occasionally have a good idea. A few months ago, I suggested to Matt that we ask my parents to watch the girls at their house in Des Moines so that we could have a few days at home together to get stuff done. We love our children greatly, but it is truly hard to do any home projects with them at this stage. Matt liked the idea, my parents were all for it, and suddenly we had ourselves set up for a 5-day "staycation" that just so happened to encompass our 11th anniversary. Could this really be as great as it sounded??? The answer was YES! I met my parents halfway (in Clear Lake) on Thursday for lunch, then we switched cars and they took the girls to Des Moines. We met again today, and while I think the girls were glad to see me, I really think they would have stayed longer! Jillian has had several episodes where she fights back big crocodile tears because she misses Grammy and Grandad, and Adrienne keeps asking for the kitty. I am sure my mom and dad had a quiet ride home.
 This time was such a gift for us all, for different reasons, and I am so grateful to my parents for being willing (and even enthusiastic) to do it. I know they created precious memories with the girls that they all will cherish forever. That makes my heart happy.

May 31, 2002....11 years is worth a celebration!

We spent our actual anniversary at 6 dealerships in Rochester and Minneapolis, and after TWELVE painful hours, it was time for Matt to say a final farewell to his 'old buddy'. While car shopping is not romantic, doing so without children was much, much easier.

Matt picked me up in his '97 cavalier while we were home on Spring Break in 1998--our sophomore year of college. This car has been a part of our story ever since. It was odd and kind of emotional that after we walked away for the last time to sign papers on the new car, Green Day's "The Time of Your Life" came on over the loud speaker at the dealership. Super weird.

Momma was not very sad to say goodbye to the Cavalier, in all honesty. This means that Matt is now going to drive my CR-V, and I will be hopping around town in my new Tahoe

I decided to call her "Afternoon Coffee" since she is the color of my beloved  latte.

Saturday morning shopping at Costco was SO much easier--lots of space for storage shelves for our projects!

We spent the entire day on Saturday cleaning out the basement storage room and installing shelves

This really makes me happy

Rhubarb was harvested...and the garden was officially planted on Monday (no pics of this)

And I enlisted the help of 2 physicians to dust my chandelier. I'm kidding. Sort of. Thank you, Michael, for having a ladder tall enough so that Matt could actually replace our light bulbs...and for being willing to hold it steady. This scene totally scared me. That is a 22 foot ladder.

So while you can see that Matt and I actually did some real work, the girls did nothing but play. Here are some pics that my parents texted me over the days they had the girls.

At the zoo. I also was sent a video of Jillian and my mom riding a camel!

Backyard swimming

A is getting pretty brave in the water these days.

Mom had to buy Adrienne some pull-ups because she refused to wear a diaper. She pretty much potty trained her while she was there.

Stories and naps

Big girl tea parties

Sleepy morning snuggles

Ice cream

Lots of ice cream. And hot dogs. Jillian asked for them repeatedly. Guess she really doesn't like this vegetarian-ish year at our house.

Princess dress up...are those tired, spaced-out eyes I see, Adrienne??

Petting calves at the creamery

At the creamery--more ice cream was had here, too! My little treat monsters were in heaven!