Who am I?

I read my cousin's latest Post and it got me thinking about my own life. Let me start by saying that I feel incredibly blessed to have the life I live. God has been good to us. I am absolutely not complaining about any of it, except maybe the mounds of laundry that never get any smaller no matter how much I try.

I am an Oprah fan and she often asks her guests the same basic few questions:

"Who are you?" She usually presses for more if the guest responds with the standard "mother, wife, sister..." answer. Well, for me, I don't know any other answer than that. Why isn't that answer good enough.

"What is your bliss, what nurtures your spirit?" At this point in my life it is my kids. Hearing their laughter, watching them discover new things, experiencing their pride in accomplishment. Everything else pales in comparison.

"What do you know for sure?" I was meant to be a mother. So far in my 34 years it seems to be why He put me on this Earth. It's the oldest memory I have, the only thing I truly remember ever wanting to be.

I'm sure there are those people out there who don't get it, who think it is pathetic to have your entire identity defined by what you do rather than who you are. Well for me, what I do-raising our 3 kids-is who I am. Maybe one day I will go change the world, maybe, through my children, I already have.

Happy Fathers Day

Abbie and Cooper made their crowns a few days ago but in honor of Father's Day, they decided Tim needed one too.

I was feeling so pretty...

This morning was going so well. I had my follow-up appt. for my wisdom teeth @ 9am. I was up at 6:00 to start the morning rush. It is the first day in a week that I've put on make-up and fixed my hair, sorry honey, at least I did bathe several times. I even put on clothes that I couldn't pass off as pajamas. I had on my brand new shirt and even got a "Wow" from Tim as he headed out the door. Abbie and Coop were dressed and fed. Cam was next. So far so good. My goal was to leave the house at 8:00 so I could drop the kids off at Terri's with plenty of time to spare, maybe even stop to pick up some breakfast for everyone on my way over. Just have to grab Cam's passy and blankie and we're off! I can't believe it we're actually going to make it right on time! Pick up Cam to carry him down to the car... what's that noise, wait--what's that warm, moist feeling in my bra. What the @$&# is that smell?!? I can't believe my son just threw up down my shirt. I am completely, absolutely NOT believing this. Can I just wipe it off? NO. Do I even have any more clean shirts? Yes, thank goodness. Where's my other bra (because of the 12 in my drawer I only have 2 that fit). Whew, found it. A quick "Ho" bath, change of clothes and a squirt or 8 of my favorite non-perfume perfume Amazing_Grace and clean up Cam and then we can go. But of course, not a drop on Cam. His blankie saved him.

I'm sure there's a moral in this story somewhere. The cynic in me wants to say:

"Why bother, the world is just waiting for the chance to vomit on you".

But I think this is better:

"Sometimes all it takes to save the day is a blankie"

Summer has begun...

I decided to start off the Summer by having my wisdom teeth pulled. It was now or never since we may not end up getting dental coverage once we are paying for our insurance ourselves. I'm so glad I didn't take pictures. It's been 5 days now and I'm still pretty miserable. I can't imagine what a facelift must feel like. I'll never be finding out. I just want to eat something besides mashed potatoes. I'm out of the Vicodin they gave me and Ibuprofen just isn't the same, even when you take 4 at a time. I'm getting ready to send 2 kids outside to play and 1 to take a nap.

On the bright side, I've lost 3 pounds!

15 months

Cam had his 15 month checkup today. He weighs just under 25 lbs (50-55%), he's 33 inches long (95%), and 19 inch head circ. (75%). So I have a long skinny boy with a fairly large head. Sounds about right. I wish they had some tangible way to measure the daredevil factor. Every time I look in the playroom he's standing on top of something. We took out 2 of the chairs. I left a kid rocker in there but I'm not sure if that's wise.

This is Abbie's last week of school. Yeah! I'm looking forward to the Summer. Let's see what I say 2 weeks from now when the arguing and whining has already put me over the edge. We do have quite a bit planned so hopefully it will go smoothly. We joined our neighborhood pool so we hope to be up there at least twice a week. We're heading to Philly to see family. Tim will be out of town for a week in July. Abbie has a couple of day camps planned, one is the Young Naturalists camp at Reynolda Gardens and then Mad Science camp in August. I'm thinking about looking into piano lessons. One of my neighbors teaches it out of her home.

I need to find something for Cooper to start doing. He's ready for some kind of organized activity. He started kicking a ball around with his buddy last Sat. at Abbie's t-ball game. Maybe we'll try soccer for him soon. We wasted a lot of $ on activities for Abbie before she was really ready so Cooper is benefitting from wisdom I've gained after the first kid, ha-ha. It's a good thing Abbie's tough; I don't feel as bad about making all my mistakes on her.

Conversation with Cooper

We had spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner tonight. It's safe to say that my kids will never attempt the Atkins diet at any point in their lives. They could make a meal on bread alone. Tonight Cooper was upset that I let Abbie have another piece of bread after she finished her dinner...

me: "You need to eat some more spaghetti first, then maybe you can have some more bread."

Coop: "But my belly's all full."

me: "Well let's take your bath and then maybe later you can have a little something for dessert."

Coop: "Ooookaaay"

me: "Do you know what you want for dessert?"

Coop: "Bread!"

Memorial Day Fun

We went to my aunt's house over the weekend. We saw my cousins that I hadn't seen in probably 10 years. We had a nice family gathering and also celebrated aunt Cathy's birthday. The kids brought their suits so we fired up the sprinkler and they had so much fun. I just love the look of B&W photos, so right now I'm addicted to shooting this way.

My silly boy loved the sprinkler. He stood right next to it the whole time and let it squirt him right in the face. He was also trying to drink it some too. He is such a funny boy!