Monday, May 30, 2011

For my Mom

I have been intending to write a post about my mom this month in honor of her birthday and Mother’s Day (um…both in the past.).  I am a busy person.  It’s not an excuse—it’s the truth. 

My mom is awesome.  Yeah, yeah, I know that most people say that about their mom’s too—and it’s true—but this is my mom.  I’ve heard that people appreciate their moms more the older they get and even more after they have children and it is the truth.  So, in the 15 minutes of free time that I do have, I give you things that I appreciate about my mom:

  1. Her patience.  Six kids?  Patience.  40+ years of marriage?  Patience.  And, who but a patient person can teach junior high for 20 years?  Ick. 
  2. Her faith.  It was my mom that gathered us together EVERY night to pray and gathered us around to say that rosary and have Bible trivia.  I still have memories of her on her knees praying the rosary in her room.  She laid a foundation for us to build on (if we chose to…).  She has always been totally committed to her faith which I admire and it means so much to me now. 
  3. Her sense of humor.  How else can you survive watching your kids grow up and getting a front seat to every decision (good and bad) they will make on the way?  She cracks me up—I’ll never forget when my brother and I were talking about a ghetto (probably where we used to live) and my mom broke out with the West Side Story finger snap.  Totally mom.
  4. Her stength and commitment.  Enough said.
  5. I love that our kids love her.  Of course, bribing with dolls and books always helps.  :)  Seriously, it's one of the few people outside of Joe & I that can comfort our kids. 

I will always remember the story that she tells when she was pregnant—I can’t remember if it was baby #4 or #5—when somebody looked at her and said something to the effect of “don’t you know where babies come from?”*  She just laughs about it.  The ability to take people in stride—that’s what I’m talking about.  J

I just hope that when my girls are older, they can be as close to me as I am to my mom. 

*Funny, at our current church, 4 or 5 children families are the small families.  It usually means that there only halfway there….

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Cecilia-isms and More Fun

If having a toddler has reinforced any idea, it is definitely that patience is a virtue.  I used to fancy myself a patient person—but there is nothing like a hard headed (gets that from her dad…) two year old to prove me wrong.  But, where my children can really try my patience at times, most of the time, they make my heart sing.  They can make me smile, laugh, and burst with pride without any warning.  Watching Cecilia develop over the last few months has been so much fun—she is becoming really agile and her language skills have skyrocketed.  Toddlers have no filters which makes it even more entertaining.  The following are some of my favorite phrases:
“Mom Kiss It!” 
So funny because it sounds like she is telling me off when she says it.  With her rate of injury, this is heard constantly throughout the day.  And just because your “boo-boo” is days old or even completely disappeared, don’t think that it is forgotten!
“Smell Bottoms”
Dad has taught us the concept of smell by teaching us to smell flowers.  It’s really cute.  But, I’m learning that you REALLY have to watch what you say around Cecilia these days.   I’m sure it started when I made an offhand remark while changing Anna one day—something about her bottom smelling—which translated to Cecilia that she should smell her bottom.  Yeah, well, I had to explain that we don’t smell bottoms but it doesn’t stop her from running over and saying this phrase every time I give Anna a diaper change.  
“It’s Whining.”
We’ve been working on the concept of whining—well, I should say NOT whining.  I think that she gets it now.  We were at the park the other day and a boy wanted to use her shovel but the mom made him give it back.  He didn’t like that and started whining to which Cecilia pointed out (over and over) “It’s whining” while waiting for me to do something about it (i.e. time out).   
She LOVES the slide and does not seem to have much fear.  She had zero problem climbing to the top of this slide and sliding down yelling “WEEEEE!!!!” the whole way. 

And Anna, oh my precious baby...  She now manages to explore a room by rolling and rotating her not so little body around.   (Has it been 6 months already since she was born?!?)  Her laugh makes me laugh and she laughs a lot, especially at her big sister.  If I’m ever feeling a little sad, I give her a tickle to cheer me up.  J  And this girl LOVES to eat.  All. Of. The. Time.  The other day, I set the spoon down to get something and when I turned around, she had grabbed it out of the bowl and had a spoonful of oatmeal in her mouth.  She looked at me as if to say, “Well, I was tired of waiting for you, lady!” 
Her latest trick is trying to crawl.  She managed to get herself up on all fours repeatedly today.  (Insert slight panic attack at the thought of having two mobile children.)  She was so proud.  So was I.