Farm Party!

Olive and Mae's best buddies had a co-sibling birthday party last weekend. Wren turned 3 and Kaj turned 1. We were invited to their birthday blast at the family farm. It was so much fun!

Olive surveying all the options:

Irene painting her face:

Olive painting her face:

Masterpiece:

Swinging:

The crowd gathered to watch The Flyers concert:

Lunch time:

Happy Birthday, Wren and Kaj:

Spring?

Well, it's mid-May now and spring has not yet sprung. We've had several nice days, but that's it. It's been cold, rainy, and not very nice.

These pictures are from Mother's Day. It was gray and cool out, and Sam was sick. We needed an outing, so I took the girls to Minnehaha Creek to explore.

Still thankful

I wrote this 2 years ago.

To Olive my love,

Thank you for letting me love you too much.

I am happy on this Mother's Day that I am learning to be a Mama from you.

I love you.

To my Mama,

Thank you for letting me love you too much.

I am happy on this Mother's Day that I am learning to be a Mama from you.

I love you.

It needs an addendum.

To my Maisy Moo:

Thank you for letting me love you too much.

I am happy on this Mother's Day that I am learning to be a Mama from you.

I love you.

Just wait

When I was pregnant with Mae, I went through a couple of months of feeling incredibly guilty.

Guilty that Olive wouldn't be an only child anymore.

Guilty that she wouldn't get all the attention she was used to.

Guilty that we were adding a little person to our family, who would, undeniably, take up lots of our time.

I remember posting about these feelings on a private, online message board I'm a member of. It's a group of Moms, and we came together a few years ago as a group of cloth diapering moms, but have morphed into a group of friends.

I explained how I was feeling, looking for reassurance, and the overwhelming response from moms of two or more children started with the words...."Just wait".

Just wait until you see them together.

Just wait until you see how they interact.

Just wait until you see how the baby smiles biggest at her sister.

Just wait until you see how proud the big sister is.

Just wait.

Just wait.

I trusted them. I waited. They were right.

Worth the wait, indeed.

And I know there's more to come. As Mae gets bigger, I see such amazing glimpses of their friendship forming. As she gets more interactive they're really having fun together.

They're already becoming buddies.

They're sisters. It's the best.

Sleepy Mae

I caught these sweet, bright pictures of our sleeping cutie last week when I had to wake her up to pick Olive up from preschool.

I love how her head is on her froggy.

Until now, neither of my girls has had a special "lovey". Olive sleeps with about 100 stuffed animals but isn't picky about needing a certain one.

I think Mae is getting attached to this frog. She usually holds its leg, right above the foot.

And a sweet little video of the sleeping cutie. And me trying to gently wake her up. And her continuing to sleep. Crank up the volume to hear some baby snores.

Mae's sleep is finally improving at night, too. She is now up one-ish time at night to nurse. And a couple of times she's slept all the way through the night! Life feels much more routine and normal all of a sudden.

And I like it.

Monkey name

Today, Olive found a small stuffed monkey in one of her toy bins. I can't remember where it came from and neither can she. I asked her what she wanted to name it and without even thinking, she said, "His name is Honkitonk".

What?

How does she even know that word? And why would you name a monkey Honkitonk??

And then she proceeded to tell me that Honkitonk is a 6 year old monkey, but when he was younger, his name was Leaf Collection.

OK, kiddo. OK.

In case you were wondering...

This blog has turned into a place where I write things down that I want to remember - whether that's just a moment, a quote, or a larger time of life. I think of this as a place to keep track of memories I want the girls to hear about.

But in case you were wondering...we're not perfect. Life is not always beautiful and easy around here. Sometimes it's loud. There are tantrums, screaming, talking back, and many frustrations every day.

There are times I wish and wish and wish for a mute button, or a privacy window in the car like I've seen in limos. It's behind the driver and in front of the passengers. I picture myself pushing the window button on the car door and that window slowly going up behind me, silencing whatever is happening in the back seat.

We live a real life. We rush to get out of the house in the morning, Olive cries over silly (to me) things, we all get frustrated at bed time. There are battles over

eating

clothing

bathing

sleeping

show watching

helping.

But all it takes for me to remind myself to take a deep breath and thank my lucky stars for a sassy, back-talking kiddo, is to go to work and see first hand what so many parents deal with

every second of every day

with their child.

We are lucky enough to experience typical.

I'll take it.