Happy Mother's Day!

We had a very nice, low-key Mother's Day. The day started with Gabe & the kids bringing me breakfast in bed - can't beat that! I've wanted a bike trailer since Campbell was a baby, so we finally went out and got one - a good deal even! I'm super excited to ride the trails that are so close to our house again, especially since I got a new bike to go with the trailer...whoot whoot!!!

Here are the cards the kids made for me. I love how Campbell is attempting to draw so many new things, as this card clearly shows: Boots the Monkey, a mommy cat & daddy cat, a little hen, glasses, mouse, koala bear on a branch, a rooster, two berry bushes and lots of berries. She also wrote her name perfectly, just backwards. I am very impressed with Blake's card, too. He's usually too busy to do more than a couple scratches, but he really went all out and scribbled a good portion of the paper, with different colors even!

 

I promise this isn't staged. I ran to a couple garage sales in the morning (looking for kids' summer clothes) and when I got back the kids ran to me and immediately started KISSING MY FEET and nibbling on them, which was unbearably ticklish. I don't know why they were doing it, but very appropriate thing to do on Mother's Day. So funny!

Blake was quietly eating his snack while we were out running errands. I turn around to find this...dried blueberry all over Blake's hands, face and carseat. Lesson learned, don't give a kid a cereal bag with just the dusty enders in it.

Campbell is excited to hit the trails.

Campbell & Daddy surprised me with flowers.

Gabe made a great steak dinner & while we were eating, he had the kids say what they liked best about me and Campbell said: I like it when you help me on the monkey bars. Blake couldn't come up with anything, except: Uummm. Love it!

Some other classic lines from the day:

• Campbell: "My bother's the only one in town with curly hair."
• Gabe at dinner: "I guess Mother's Day dinner isn't meant to be romantic - someone got hurt and something broke." Now isn't that the truth!
• Gabe is great at making up his own lyrics to songs, often times relating to what we're doing. So Gabe, Campbell & Blake were singing Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr.Golden Sun, please shine down on me, these little children are asking you, please come out so we can play with you.... Gabe still singing with the melody: "Mr. Blake wants more milk, too". Campbell: "He's so sweet and you can't refuse." It was awesome, right with the melody and perfect timing. She takes after her Daddy!
• My favorite one from the day....Campbell: "So what'dya think? You have the best Mother's Day ever?" Yes, I did. Couldn't have asked for a better day!

Random. A duck on our neighbor's roof....he's looking for his Mama.

Piggy back ride up to bed for my sweet boy.

Campbell was having trouble settling down for bed and she snuck outside to find us setting up the trailer. Does she look like she's ready for bed?

Pick 'em up!

Late night test drive with Blankie. She loved it and keeps asking when we are going to go again. We'll go once my new bike gets in, my old (20ish year old, super heavy mountain) bike is too small for me & something about the angle I sit at really hurts my wrists. After a couple trips down the alley my wrists were pretty sore.

Amazing to think that last Mother's Day Blake was just starting to walk and Campbell wasn't potty trained. It's incredible what a difference a year makes.

Not too long ago, a former co-worker's newborn died when he was only a couple weeks old. He was born 6 weeks early, same as Blake. Also, a good friend's 6 month old nephew was recently diagnosed with a degenerative neuro-muscular disease and is only expected to live a few more months. This next one is so shocking that I still get goosebumps when I think about it: A member of my mom's group brought her friend to our meeting the other week. During the course of our discussion, it came out that she had lost her infant son, and at the end of the meeting she shared with us the whole story - that her husband was in jail for killing their baby. It was a story I remember hearing on the news - the husband drowned the baby in the laundry tub while the mom was out grocery shopping. The husband was/is mentally ill and a general practitioner took him off all his medication, cold turkey, and within a week is when this happened. When she told the story to us, everyone sat there, totally stunned, not knowing what to say. Hearing a story like that on the news is a lot different than when it comes straight from the person who it happened to.

Don't mean to be such a downer, it's just that those heartbreaking stories have been on my mind lately. I try to keep it in mind how lucky I am to have 2 perfectly healthy kids and a wonderful husband, but hearing these horribly sad stories makes me even more appreciative for the blessings in my life and keenly aware of how precious life is. I love being a mom and I feel so honored to be doing the job I'm doing. Pretty sure I've said this before, but I feel very lucky to be able to spend my days with my kids. I wouldn't trade it for anything and wouldn't change a thing.