• You take a shower and a sticker appears on the floor of the shower yet you have no idea where it came from or how long it was on your body
• You see an airplane in the sky and look around to see if your kids are there to see it, too
• A corn dog is a good option for lunch
• Combing your kids’ hair seems trivial when you haven’t combed your own hair

Feel free to add your own comments!

I love it when I can see some of my favorite things come to life in my kids.  It is one of those “full circle” moments. 

Here’s my tip… When offered 2 double beds or a king, I opted for a king.  Don’t do that.  Get the two beds.  Sharing a small space with my husband is a lot more fun than sharing a large space with my 3 year old and my husband.  Basically, my husband had the equivalent to a double bed and then my son laid/pushed against me as my ass hang off the side of the bed.

Get 2 beds.

In my everyday reality, I’m faced with some pretty mundane things.  I wipe noses, dispose of dirty diapers, pick up markers off of the floor, negotiate naps, and pretty much try to entertain my children.  When you’re in the middle of it, it can seem a little messy and unremarkable.  However, given the opportunity to step back, even for a moment, to absorb the life I’m enjoying, I’m able to marvel at my very precious daughter as she turns 1…

To see a smile erupt from her face, to hear the laughter spill out of her still-appearing-front-toothed-mouth.
To watch her do a crazy walk with her arms waving high in the air.
To snuggle with her fast growing body and watch her eyes become heavy as she gets close to dreamland.
To envy her angelic sleep and wonder at her fantastic dreams.
To kiss her tender forehead and wish with all of my heart that every wish she makes comes true.
To love a gift so special, so pure, that words seem entirely inadequate.
I am grateful and blessed to have her in my life.

Gushing is ok on their first birthday, right?    Sappy, but heartfelt.

I used to have pretty mundane things to say like, “work on reports,” “field incoming questions,” etc. Now, I’m a middle-weight squirrel fighter!

Here’s the story…

We put out a bird feeder a few weeks back and I love it. We have a pair of cardinals that enjoy 3 meals a day right outside our door. Unfortunately, we have a squirrel too, and he doesn’t have reservations.

The little bugger (he is cute after-all) comes and eats all of my birdseed. His acrobatics include hanging precariously upside-down while munching all of the seeds. His presence, I’m assuming, also deters the dainty birds from visiting.

So, what do you do when you have unwelcome guests at your table? I tried yelling, well, squawking at him. I even enlisted my 3 year old for help. It worked… once.

Then the little guy decided we weren’t much of a threat. Next, I slipped my toes into my tennis shoes (too lazy to actually get my whole foot in), and tip-toed out into the snow. Do you think that even phased him? Nah. We were eye-to-eye and he stood his ground (in the tree).

Without getting a net or a gun, I felt pretty hopeless. My attempt at throwing the remains of my son’s banana at him was unsuccessful (I missed by a mile).

With nothing left to try, I decided I would just give him his own lunch and maybe he’d leave the birds alone. That lucky dude got his own pile of sunflower seeds piled nicely on the ground below. He ate his fill and skipped away knowing that he was victorious. I lost, but at least my son knows I’m not afraid of taking on a squirrel. And you know, they are pretty cute when they sit and eat.

If you are familiar with “Lord of the Rings,” you might remember Gollum.  He’s the little guy who runs around naked with the hobbits.  Though my son really is a cutie (duh, I’m his Mom), he loves to run around the house naked and I can’t help but think he looks a little bit like Gollum.  The resemblance is most striking when he hides behind furniture and gives me his devilish smile!

My precious.

• Car windows that you had to physically “roll up” or “roll down.”
• Alarm clocks where the numbers “flipped over” instead of the digital ones nowadays (or iPods)
• Riding in cars without wearing a carseat or seatbelt
• VHS, cassette tapes, large boomboxes (I still have my original one circa 1990) (I remember 8-tracks, too)
• Card catalogs at the library with yellowed index cards and a musty smell
• Floppy disks
• Full service gas stations
• Saying goodbye to loved ones as they board the airplane… now we have to say goodbye before security
• Black & white TV (bonus… they will never have to use pliers to turn the channel!)
• TV dinners with foil lids
• Film for cameras, negatives (I can even remember the cameras that you had to add the flash)
• Chicken pox
• Standing in lines to get registered for college courses (I only had to do this once or twice before everything was computerized)
• Stamps you had to lick
• On the phasing out list…
  • car lighters
  • home phone/land lines… You mean there were phones that had cords? We hardly even had rotary dials, ourselves.
  • Shredding your own cheese
  • Walking to school
  • Smoking in restaurants

Send me a comment if you want to add to the lists! Thanks

The only thing I will miss, however, is the random conversations I have with myself in those wee hours of the morning.  In my mind, I have some great discussions, monologues, and ponderings.  I don’t know if it is because of the lack of distractions (the house is completely quiet, the lights are off), or because I’m somewhat delusional if I wake up in the middle of a dream, but my mind seems very sharp while I’m trying to rock the little girly to sleep.

I think about the next day, about what kind of job I’ll have when I return to the workforce, ways to incorporate more exercise in my day followed closely by the notion of making cookies with my son.  I get random songs in my head… a lot of them sadly are theme songs from kids’ shows (Fireman Sam anyone?).  I sometimes say prayers of thankfulness because as I hold this sweet girl in my arms, I know how quickly she’ll outgrow my lap. (Note: the previous statement probably has a lot to do with why I have allowed her to wake me up this long). 

So to all of you night-owls, I say Good Night.  Here’s to a couple of rough nights followed by some restful, dream-filled, uninterrupted nights of sleep.  Peace to you.

*To all of you Yaz fans out there, hope this brings good memories. 

And what happened then…?
Well…in Who-ville they say
That the Grinch’s small heart
Grew three sizes that day!
And the minute his heart didn’t feel quite so tight,
He whizzed with his load through the bright morning light
And he brought back the toys! And the food for the feast!
And he……HE HIMSELF…!
The Grinch carved the roast beast!