Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day! Mine was nice. Danny took care of Emma and Josh so I could sleep in until 7:30. We went to church and after Josh went down for his nap, I was able to take a nap. Sleep was a beautiful gift!!! My gift from the family is a parent/child cooking class for me and Emma. We will be going to Central Market in a few weeks to make pizzas and calzones. They presented it to me with a picture Emma drew of the two of us at the class together. I am really looking forward to going! Also, at school, Emma painted a picture of me and wrote a fill in the blank note about why I am special. Whenever she does those, there are multiple references to my cooking, so apparently, that's the way to Emma's heart, just like her father. So, to celebrate Mother's Day, I'd like to share a few of my favorite mom moments to highlight my best parenting skills (HA!) and cute stories from the kids. Josh is so proud when he learns new words. We were at the park a few weeks ago when I was talking to a lady with some puppies. I told her that her dogs were cute. As we walked away, Josh said, "It cute." Since then, when I point out dogs to him he'll say, "Dog. Woof. It cute." Last week, we were taking Emma to school and I pointed out a dog walking with a family to school. Josh said, "Dog. Woof. It tute!" :) Emma is our designated poopy diaper detector. Whenever Josh has a dirty diaper, she's the first to pick up on the scent. If she's iffy, she'll stick her nose right in it to confirm. I felt shame about taking advantage of it for the first time a few weeks ago. Kate made "the face" in church, so I sent Emma in to confirm. She wasn't very discrete, as I'd hoped. She put her nose right into Kate's carrier, checked the diaper area and turned around with a huge nod yes and waved her hand in front of her nose. I avoided eye contact with the people behind us when I left to change her diaper. At school, Emma draws a picture each day and writes a sentence to go with it. They are supposed to sound out their words the best they can. She came home a few weeks ago with a picture of a horse. Written below the picture: "It's a hore." Kate has started to smile! It's the perfect timing for babies to start to smile. The getting up at night is more exhausting the longer it goes on, but a sweet smile from a baby makes all those thoughts go away! We've received so many graces and blessings since we learned we were pregnant with Kate. She was meant to be a part of this family and although we are having more chaotic than peaceful evenings right now, we wouldn't have it any other way. Family has been the greatest gift in life. I am blessed to have Danny and share the experience of raising kids together. We've definitely learned a lot about ourselves as the kids have brought out the best and worst of us both. I do believe that having kids has been faith-deepening as well since we can better see our areas to work on and are given daily opportunities to improve. I also feel I better understand God's love. We give our kids the tools to be their best, guide them as we can, but ultimately they make their own choices as we cheer them on from the sidelines. And, whenever they make mistakes, we are here to forgive them and love them again and again. To all my mom friends, I have really enjoyed sharing motherhood with you! It has meant so much to have your friendship, share our stories, feelings, fears and joys with one another. There is a whole world of judgement that we are exposed to after becoming mothers, but friendships that are genuine and supportive overcome the negative around us. Thank you all for being here for me. I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day! To my mom, I love you so much! You are so good to me and I'm truly blessed to be able to share motherhood with you. I always know you are on my side and would do ANYTHING for me or my family. You are a wonderful example of a generous, loving and very fun mom and grandma. I really love seeing my kids love you. That "Graaaaannndmaaaa" greeting you get is priceless! Happy Mother's Day!