February 2013

So far, the overarching theme of 2013 seems to be illness and not much sleep. Another round of colds at the beginning of the month has left little Bug with a cough that just WON"T GO AWAY. Combine the days home from normal activity, cold weather and Bert  going out of town for a week; Loulie and I got lots of quality time together. At the time, I felt like the days were going by slow but now that the month is over, I really don't know what happened to February. 

February 

- The month began with fires and crafts and dress-up, lots of time making Valentine's for family and friends at school.

- Bert went out of town for a week so Loulie and I had a few girls' nights with homemade popcorn and movies, a lunch date with Aunt Meme at Butcher & Bee, and a new addiction to FNL on Netflix.

- Valentine's came and went, beginning the day with a special family breakfast and ending it with a feverish 3 year old. A new princess dress from Lovey made up for the blah weather and feeling bad though. 

- In between sick days, we were able to attend the SEWE festival, a few play dates, a birthday party and catch up with friends on the other side of the world in Mt Pleasant. Bert and I actually went on two dates this month--I think that might be a record for us. 

- And Loulie learned how to spell and write her name!

                 

Now that it's March, I am itching for spring. The appreciation for cold days and long nights with a fire has been replaced with an impatience for daylight savings and sundresses. I am ready for the cold season to be over, both literally and figuratively. And since we're still holding on to this cough, I'd appreciate any prayers you might throw up for my girl--we are going to make one more polite trek back to the doctor if she isn't better by the weekend. 

What is love?

Baby, don't hurt me, don't hurt me no more. (I really can't say the above sentence without picturing Will Ferrell bobbing his head back and forth. If you didn't grow up in the 90s and don't know what I'm talking about, then I really can't help you.)
Loulie's class party was at school today. This created a dilemma since in my mind I had it on the calendar for Wednesday, that is until I finally read the class email Saturday night at 11:00 wherein the room mother explained that the class party was moved to Monday due to Ash Wednesday services at the church. Since Loulie originally suggested that we make our own Valentines that are orange with sprinkles (i.e. glitter) that shoot out and then it turns into a sticker, I asked her again Sunday morning what exactly she wanted to give as her valentine. She decided she wanted her "valentime" to be cookies shaped like a heart. Which is how I came to be standing at the counter at 12:15 on a Sunday night icing 50 homemade heart shaped cookies. And as I stirred that giant bowl of diabetic coma inducing sludge, I thought about the insane things we do at the request of our children (and how stupid I am for thinking this would only take 30 minutes).
Like the time my mother stayed up all  night sewing me a dress to wear to my good guy friend's bar mitzvah the next day while also suffering through strep that had moved to her organs. I'm sure that was a real good time--I can barely make it up the stairs at 99.9 degrees, forget full body pain, sore throat and feverish. But finish she did! And did I feel like a young Kelly Kapowski in my fitted velvet shift dress with slightly puffed sleeves (again, if you are not a child of the 90s, I cannot help you with these references).  I danced my tail off that night and held my own with my slightly more developed friends who could actually buy a dress off the rack without having to stuff or take the bust in six inches. No, I felt good in my homemade shift dress, completely clueless to my poor mother who probably launched herself into the bubonic plague finishing the hem. I don't know if I ever properly thanked her but I think it might have gone down like this...
When Loulie got up this morning and walked into the kitchen, her little mouth formed into a perfect O and after a brief pause and slight inhale exclaimed, "Oh mama, those are MAGNIFICENT!"

 

 Love makes us do crazy things people.

P.S. Loulie Bug, if you are 35 and reading through your mama's old blog post, this would be a great time to weigh whether or not you should move me into your carriage house or ship me off to the nursing home. Just saying.

Happy week of love friends!
(and thank you Mom for the countless hours of lost sleep)

Valentines

It's a double edged sword this whole motherhood thing: on one side you have this view. The whole "who the hell has time for that?" mindset. On the flip side there's the "you stay at home and you can't find the time to work with your kids on a simple craft? What else are you doing?" I'm just going to confess, I've been guilty of being all judgey on both sides. And after my tirade last Friday and now being in the actual shoes of a mother, I feel super bad for thinking either. And as usual, Bert put it all in perspective for me: "they are just going to throw it away anyhow, what do you think Loulie would like to do?" And then my own conscious reminded me to not really give a damn what everyone else was doing and to just enjoy hanging with my Bug.

So we made these:

   

They are valentine pinatas filled with M&Ms. A homemade valentine meant to be torn open and thrown away! And we had a big time making them. I cut out the hearts and obviously did the names. Loulie and Bert decorated the back. Then I spent about 10 minutes sewing them together and filling them with the candy. All with the Rio soundtrack (per LB's request) playing in the background. It wasn't until they were completely finished that Bert pointed out the mess they could make being torn open in say the car. By that time I was unconcerned and just hoped that the kids would have some type of supervision when going through their valentines. 

The frightening part of this whole ordeal was watching Loulie decorate her hearts. 

"What sticker do you want to give Griffin?"

"Hmmmm" (at least 2 minutes passes) "Dat one--the froggy."

Poor child has my OCD/ things must look just as I envision/older child syndrome. And to place two such people in a situation, each with their own vision? Well, it requires wine, patience and lots of prayers!

But does it really matter what you're giving out when you go to school dressed like Tammy Faye Baker?! Loulie picked out her outfit head to toe on Monday. And nothing says party like a fur coat and sunglasses!

All in all, it was a sweet day. I have never been one for valentine's day but this year we went out with friends to celebrate a birthday. Well into the wine tasting, someone suggested that all the guys had to recall to everyone how they met their wife and how long they had been together. After hearing some hilarious stories and holding my side from laughter; we noticed that many of the couples had known each other 10+ years and based on statistics should be divorced. And since everyone in the room had just reminisced over fateful meetings and years of courtship; someone toasted to "Great friends and beating the odds!"

And I'll celebrate that any day!