A sick day

William: mom? You know what would make me feel better?*
Mom: what sweetie?**
William: I just want to read some books. I just want to read some books with my sisters.
Mom: ok. We can do that. Just maybe don't kiss them. Or cough on them.
William: ok.









*William woke up feeling a little rough last Saturday. He had a low fever and didn't feel like eating. He stuck to the couch and that was it. He woke up back to his normal self the next morning.

**I'll admit to cringing here. His requests included the following: a cold, but not cold ice pack to cool him off. A "nest" of blankets on the couch arranged to keep him warm in a circle. breakfast to fill him up but nothing that tasted funny. Something to drink with ice that wasn't cold. Good books to read that weren't his favorite.

Tacos for dinner

We had tacos for dinner on Friday night. Gemma has been super picky lately and isn't eating much at all (I suspect her 2 year molars are coming in based on the lack of eating and the constant chewing on her fingers.

She didn't eat any of her taco. She pulled it apart and made a huge mess out of it, but she didn't really eat it.
As soon as put a little bit of sour cream on Amelia's plate, Gemma started squawking. She needed sour cream too. I dolloped a scoop on her tray so I could eat myself.

The next time I looked over, Gemma's hands were covered with the sour cream and she was rubbing her hands together as if she had lotion on them.

Gemma jumps!

I adore when kids this age try to jump, believe they are jumping, yet their feet haven't left the ground. Hilarious.

Gemma dances

And I try to cover all pointy corners nearby while taking video.

The biggest Hug

William was supposed to go back to school on Monday (January 6). with the weather, we got delayed and he didn't actually go back until Friday (Jan. 10). His last day of school was Thursday, December 19th. This means he has been off of school and our family has been together for a solid 3 weeks.

After William got off the bus our whole family was in the living room. John and I were discussing plans for dinner, the evening, etc. William was trying to convince Amelia to help him do his chores (put away his backpack, lunchbox, shoes, etc).

Gemma looked around at the loud chaos and had a huge smile on her face. All at once, she took off at a run and threw herself at William. She wrapped her arms tightly around his midsection and tipped her head back so she could gaze up at him.

William had a huge smile on his face too. "I guess she missed me...." he said.

Sent from my iPhone

"Thank you Mama"

This has been a crazy week. We've had weather and school cancellations on top of trying to find our groove after the holiday and Christmas craziness.

On Thursday, I dropped Amelia off at preschool (her school was open) and went with William (his school was not open) and Gemma in search of a science project display board. The requirements for a display board are very specific* and we went to 2 stores before I finally gave up (and went with PlanB**) This boiled down to me trying to completed measurement conversions in the aisle without scrap paper while keeping Gemma from falling out of the cart and keeping William from climbing the shelves. This was a parenting task rated 8.5 on the difficulty scale. I was frustrated and crabby because William's behavior was not great and the minute I stepped more than 8 inches away from the cart Gemma would either scream, "MAMA MAMA MAMA MAMA!" or attempt to fall head first out of the cart. I was frazzled. It was not my finest parenting moment.

When Gemma pointed at some brightly colored plastic on the shelf, I happily handed it to her with the hopes of 5 seconds of quiet in order to collect my thoughts. I would have to figure out how to get the 59 cent can of playdoh from her later.

which is when she said in her sweet voice "Dank du Mama"

This was so unexpected, I just stood there in shock.

This right here is parenting for me. You are at the end of your rope and feel like you have been pushed as far as you can go when a tiny miracle happens that bowls you over.

That moment erased everything negative and brought me back to the moment.

This moment where:
My daughter spoke her first 3 word sentence (to me!)
One of my children was thankful for something I had given them.
when I finally said, "What?" She replied "Dank du Mama" again and I thought my heart would break open right there from the downright cuteness.

Needless to say, I figured out enough to know that the board wasn't going to work and we left. We left after I paid for the Playdoh. I wasn't going to take it away from her now!


*the requirements are all given in metric, which is understandable because the scientific community operates on the metric system. However, the rest of the US is happily using the English system of measurement. All project boards are labeled in English units (inches, etc) and the requirements are all in metric (centimeters, etc). Students who submit a project that does not meet the size criteria will not be allowed to participate in the science fair. So, while I don't care to make more of a 1st grade science project than it really is, I am not investing time and energy into helping him figure this out and then not be allowed to participate.

**PlanB is to call the school and find out if they still have display boards left in their school supply store. They did. Problem solved. Mostly.

Sent from my iPhone

Club cantina

When we were in Kansas City in October, we went to On The Border. While there, we were invited to join their loyalty program. The hostess gave us a information card to fill out and a tiny golf pencil to complete the form.

Gemma was 100% enamored. She worked and worked at filling up every space on the card with her little pencil. She was so sweet and so well behaved, I had to take a picture of her hard work.