Wednesday, April 29, 2009

the mother's day surprise at patti's place was a huge success!! my stepmom and grandmother were totally surprised and delighted. it was so much fun. : ) they loved the coffee and baked goods, and enjoyed the decor and atmosphere of the place. i knew they would; the whole time i was there for the coffee break with my mom friends saturday before last, i was thinking about vesta and joann and how much they would love it! i am proud of myself; usually, this type of surprise outing is something i would think and daydream about doing, but probably wouldn't end up following through with. but this time, with my dad and grandfather's help (they helped orchestrate the surprise part, and watched the kids for me since josh already had plans), i actually pulled it off! maybe coffee at patti's place will be our new mother's day tradition.

yesterday the kids and i went to our la leche league toddler meeting. it was a fun meeting; the topic was loving guidance, and it was one of those topics that is so reassuring to discuss with other moms, because everyone else is dealing with the same issues and is feeling like they don't know what in the world they're doing sometimes! it's easy to forget how many other parents are out there, struggling with the same challenges... and it's easy to tell yourself, "anyone else would be able to handle this the right way; what's the matter with me? i'm going to screw my kids up for good." but after getting together with other like-minded moms - like at la leche league meetings - i always feel reassured and comforted, and reminded that i have a huge support network of moms whom i know would be happy to talk me through any tough time! what an awesome feeling.

after the meeting yesterday, we met my mom and maya at highland park cafeteria for lunch. it was delish, as usual. the meeting and lunch were a breeze because i recently discovered that lina loves being carried on my back in the mei tai.

today, it's raining. we had plans to meet alison and her boys at story time in garland, but as we were getting ready this morning, micah told me she didn't want to go. i asked her why not, and she said, "because it's not fun." i asked her if she enjoyed the evening story time at our neighborhood libary that we recently attended with some friends who live diwn the street, and she told me she did. i asked what she liked about that story time. she replied, "it's fun." it doesn't get any simpler than that, i guess. one's fun, one's not. so, we skipped story time. then we made plans to just meet at alison's for playtime, but micah proceeded to have an hour-long meltdown... so i opted to just keep everyone at home for a calm, quiet day. i figured if we did get together with our friends, that would just be pushing micah too far and asking for multiple altercations. i knew she needed a day at home, with her toys and things. and she did get upset when i told her we weren't going to alison's... but once she calmed down, she's been playing happily by herself all day long.

a little while ago, rowan surprised me by asking to sit on the potty! when i say he "asked", i mean that he opened the toilet lid, put the potty seat in place, got the step stool situated, then lifted his arms for me to put him on. he was naked, having just gotten out of the tub, and i thought, "oh my gosh, what if he actually pees in the potty? this is wild, he's 18 months old!" but no, he just wanted to experiment. he was so adorable; he just sat there with his hands on his legs, sort of tapping his fingers, looking around and waiting for something to happen... then he'd grab a bit of toilet paper, put it in the toilet, get down, flush, then want to do the whole thing over again! it's sooo much fun watching them imitate and practice doing things like this! he always comes in to watch micah use the potty, and it was so sweet that he wanted to do just what she does. i've always heard that younger siblings learn to use the potty earlier because they watch their older siblings doing it.

anyway... samantha picked lina up at 3 o'clock today, and rowan's napping, so right now i've got micah all to myself. and, of course, she's nursing. : )

this evening at 6:30 i'm going to bryle's research in richardson for a taste test that pays $25. it takes an hour; for that much of my time, i was hoping it would pay more. but, i'm going to do it anyway. it's close to the house and it sounds like fun. after that, at 8, micah and rowan and i are meeting wesley and maya at chick-fil-a for dinner and playtime.

i have neat pictures to post, but we got a new computer from josh's boss and i haven't figured out how to download yet.

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