The Mom I Want To Be

It's been another whirlwind season as we transition from my last post in winter to today--almost summer. I say almost because technically we're in the middle of spring, but my city only seems to have seven months of hot and four months of cold. We are finally reaching the hot days, though I'm grateful it took a while this time. There have been years where my brother hung out by our old pool in February and there are years where I had to break down and turn on the air conditioner before our usual April 1 date. This year it's been too cold for the air conditioner just yet, thankfully, as the wind seems to keep picking up just in time for cool-ish weekends to punctuate the slightly warmer weekdays. But with the highs in the upper 80s and low 90s starting tomorrow, I think we've seen the last of chilly days (tomorrow is the last time we'll have a low in the 50s as well). It is nice to be able to move out of a "transition period" and firmly into predictabil

Wow, I haven't posted since summer and it's already a post-holiday chilly winter now! A lot has happened in the past few months as our little world has decided to rebel against the status quo! August: The end of summer brought my birthday, and the worst present of all: Covid. Definitely an immune system rebellion. At least me and the boys got to take cute "Breakfast at Tiffany's" cake smash photos for my birthday ahead of the day. We quarantined for 11 days, with Hubby getting hit the worst (lost sense of taste and smell) me getting it medium, and my preschooler not getting it at all (my youngest only got a drippy nose, thankfully). At least to keep occupied during quarantined life, the boys had fun playing outside in our driveway with kinetic sand, water toys, bubbles, rideable cars, and more. September: School started up at the end of August so we were back to the swing of things by September. My oldest did a bit of a rebellion against school picture day shirts.

"Come on, Barbie, let's go party." It's the end of July, definitely a mid-point of summer. It's a time after summer birthdays and preschool summer camp has ended, and also a time when the weather in our city reaches the triple digits (as in 100-117 degrees). Which means we can't go outside quite as much, but still try to find things to do to keep occupied. There's been a lot of trips to the library for summer reading story time (as early in the morning as possible to beat the mid-day heat), as well as an invitation to a my preschooler's first ever pool party! His classmate invited him to a recreation center outdoor pool, and while it was still hot as all heck to attend outdoors, was made infinitely better once we made it into the water. The challenge, of course, was that my preschooler did not initially want to go into the water. At all. He didn't like the idea of changing into swim clothes (he didn't even really like the idea of me changing i

We had such a lovely month of Mother's Day celebrations, not something we could even contain to a single day! It started and ended with my firstborn bringing home flowers from school (a potted plant and decorated pot for May Day and a single flower in a decorate glass vase for the end of the school year). Then Hubby got me flowers and mini Mother's Day donuts a couple of weeks early and I finally got a chance to post our Mother's Day photos and annual family portraits taken in April to be ready for the special holiday. With all the excitement I didn't even need anything else on the actual Mother's Day Sunday, though we did start the day with Dutch Bros (so I could finally get myself a "Dutch Mom" sticker this year), had brunch at my mom's house, delivered gifts to my in-laws, saw cute drawings and words written by my preschooler, and then spent the evening helping him get his stuck poopie out because that's what moms do. The month of May was also e

As we approach warmer weather and a new season of Spring, I've noticed a lot of moments where I've wanted to cry--happy tears, thank goodness--in little moments of seeing my boys grow. This week, for example, my 3.5-year-old excitedly sang the "Happy Birthday" song to his baby cousin at her first birthday party, which was a surprise milestone because the song used to scare him (when sung in large groups and he would run away or cry). This time he stayed in my husband's arms, cheering and clapping the whole way through. That's another milestone: being in Hubby's arms. Because that meant I was holding baby brother. While my firstborn has always ADORED his brother, there's been so many times where Daddy had to hold the little one so I could hold and comfort big bro who wasn't so used to sharing Mommy's arms. But now, thankfully, we've reached a point where we can take turns a little, which fills my heart with so much joy I'm almost going t

December was a busy month for our family, starting with Hubby and my anniversary on December 2 and continuing to just the everyday festivities that lead up to Christmas. Since this was Baby 2's first Christmas (and first birthday the week after Christmas), I constantly wanted to ensure he was not getting "shortchanged" (even if he doesn't remember these days) just because he was the second born. The good news is that my firstborn reached an age where he could participate more fully in fun Christmas activities, so he got excited at the idea of visiting Santa Claus and decorating the tree (taking photos in matching outfits, not so much). In December we did, in fact, get pictures taken with Santa in matching white sweaters (Baby 2 had just woken form his nap so was just a little terrified), as well as various other Christmas activities including decorating a gingerbread house, eating holiday-themed donuts, learning a couple of Christmas carols (he learned how to sing mos