Little Email

I just got an email from Lillian, which she sent from my email account. :) This is what it said (with her original spacing):

I    Love    you    Mom    Love       Lillian

So she doesn't have to hack into my email anymore, Lillian now has her very own email address! LillianDoran@gmail.com Send her a line, and she'll be more than happy to respond to her [fan] mail.

Rocket Ride

This was my conversation with Sydney during lunch today:

Sydney: Mommy, can I go on a rocket someday?

Me: Sure, sweetie.

Sydney: Well, there has to be a buckle so I won't fall out.

Me: Yes, good idea.  We don't want you to fall out.

Sydney:  Yea.

My Funny Kids

Lillian and Sydney have been saying some funny cute things lately.

On Saturday we took a family trip to the Please Touch Museum.  I found myself alone with Sydney in the 3 and under play area that's set up like a little town.  I had fun watching her play in one of the houses, as she would go up and down the front steps, walk across the little porch and ring the doorbell (which actually rings) and talk to her imaginary friends when they opened the door.  Then she found a Sydney-sized wooden push broom and she put herself to work sweeping the front porch.  Every time I told her to look up and smile so I could take her picture she would say, "No, Mom, I can't.  I'm too busy brooming!"  It was so cute!

Tonight I read bedtime books to the kids in my bed.  Sydney picked Fancy Nancy "Everyday is Earth Day" (for the fifth night in a row...).  Afterwards Lillian and I started talking in British accents, trying  to be fancy like Nancy (not that she's British, or that you have to be British to be fancy, but British accents are just fun and you have to admit that they do sound quite fancy).  We were cracking each other up and as I was smiling and laughing Lillian looked at me and said, "Your face gets PIMPLES when you smile!"  It took me a split second to get what she said, then I asked her, "You mean DIMPLES?"  She responded with, "Oops, yeah! Dimples!"  She was a little embarrassed by her mistake, but we just laughed at that, too. :)

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

Today I'm thankful for . . .

1. My organized spice cabinet.  I bought these turny-table things the week we moved into this house.  That was over SEVEN months ago!  Just tonight I FINALLY put them in the cabinet and organized my spices!  Have I mentioned how it takes me FOREVER to unpack and get organized??  It's such a relief to have all my little spices in a nice, neat place.  They were falling all over the place before and it was a horrible mess.  Now I can breathe when I look at it...and I can also find what I'm looking for without having the garlic powder tumble over and land on my head. I should've taken a "before" picture for comparison...

2. Feeling thankful.  Gratitude is a blessing.  It makes life more pleasant, enjoyable, and worthwhile.  It's not easy to be grateful all the time, though...it certainly takes practice and hard work.  I try really hard to have a thankful attitude, and I empathize with those who find it difficult.  I know that when I'm dealing with depression it's really hard to feel truly thankful.  During those times I know that I am thankful, but I don't feel the deep-down gratitude that brings joy and relief into my life.  I'm thankful that I'm going through a period in my life when my heart is filled with so much gratitude and happiness.

3. Friends.  I went to a baby shower today.  I had to bring all three kiddies with me because Bobby was stuck at the hospital waiting for the cardiologist to show up and give the approval for a patient to go to the OR to fix a broken hip.  Lillian and Sydney immediately split to go play with the hostess's daughter who is 4 and just as spunky and fun as my girls are.  Liam, on the other hand, started wandering around begging for food and looking for trouble.  My friends immediately swooped in and got Liam some yummy banana chocolate chip bread to eat, they guarded the basement door so he wouldn't tumble down the stairs, they grabbed him off the upstairs staircase each time he started to climb up, they cleaned up the cup of water he knocked over on the floor, and they carried him down to the basement so he could play with the girls.  My friends are awesome!

4. Phone calls.  My sister-in-law called today, just to chat.  We don't normally do that over the phone.  It was nice to talk about random stuff--mostly our kids--and to get caught up on how she's doing.  Miraculously, her kids were napping and Lillian and Sydney were entertaining themselves nicely while Liam was napping, too.  It was the quietest, most attentive phone conversation I've had in a long time!  My mom called me yesterday morning just to see how I was.  After Lillian took the phone from me and talked to her for 15 minutes I got some time to talk to her, too, which was nice.  This evening my sister called from the airport to say good bye and to schedule a Google Chat session while she's abroad.  And not too long ago a friend messaged me on Facebook to say she missed me.  It's nice to know that people are thinking about me, and that they take the time to keep in touch.  I think about my family and friends all the time, but I'm horrible at contacting them...something I would like to improve.

Valentine's Day Book Review

I just finished teaching Sydney's preschool with her and three other friends.  The theme was hearts and Valentine's Day.  We had a good time looking at different shaped hearts and finding the BIGGEST one and the smallest one.  We also found different colored hearts around the room.  At the end of the class we played Heart Bingo and read some "hearty" Valentine books (haha, dorky pun intended).  The kids really enjoyed the books so I thought I would write a little review on each of them...making this my Children's Book Review DEBUT! :-D

Little Mouse's Big Valentine by Thacher Hurd-- Little Mouse makes a valentine so big that he's having a hard time finding someone who will accept it.  He then embarks on quite an adventure trying to find the right person to give it to, using his great big valentine as various modes of transportation.  When he meets another little mouse named Gloria he finds friendship, and together they are able to come up with a solution to his great big valentine predicament.  This is a cute story with a nice ending that reminds us that sometimes it takes a long, hard journey to find the right person, but in the end it's worth it.

Valentine Surprise by Corinne DeMas-- Lily is a sweet little girl who is trying to make a Valentine for her mother.  Each day of the week she sits at her little craft table by the window with her Valentine's paper and a pair of scissors and she tries to cut out a perfectly shaped heart.  Poor Lily finds flaws in each of her hearts- too skinny, too curvy, etc- and she hides them all under her bed.  By Valentine's Day she is distraught because she still doesn't have a perfect heart to give to her mom.  In the end, Lily learns from her compassionate mother that true perfection comes from within.  Very cute story and also lends itself well to teaching about different shapes.