Tonight I'm thankful for:

Singing my children to sleep

Christmas lights and how they make me feel warm and cozy inside

The Hanukkah cards Lillian is making for all of her Jewish friends

The way Liam hugs me real right and says, "I LOVE you, Mommy!"

The three different advent calendars that we have counting us down to Christmas

The Christmas songs Sydney has been learning at preschool and how she sings them non-stop around the house

Clean laundry- it's all still in baskets, unfolded and not put away, but still clean none-the-less

Dinners with Bobby, even if they are at 5pm and he has to leave at 6:15pm to work an over-night shift

Piano music from Paul Cardall

Long Overdue List

Today I'm thankful for:

My children, whom I think are the most beautiful little people in the world.

My husband who loves me.

Unseasonably warm weather and a nice walk around the block before going to the bus stop to get Lillian.

Helping Lilly with her math homework.

Playing five rounds of The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel game with Liam and Sydney while I fold laundry in the floor.

The kisses that Liam blows to me when I walk out of his room at bedtime, and how he tells me to have sweet dreams.

The way Sydney bounces and skips everywhere she goes.

How Bobby will stick around to eat dinner with us before he has to leave for his night shift at the hospital, even though it means he'll be a little late.

Audio books that keep me entertained while I clean the kitchen.

Lillian's company. She's my little bff and I'm so grateful for her companionship.

Letter to A Bike Thief

Dear Bike Thief,

You stole my daughter’s bike today.  She’s seven years old.  Today was her first day of second grade.  I took her and her younger brother and sister out for dinner to celebrate, and that’s when you came and swiped her bike.  I have to give you some credit for doing it in broad daylight- that was gutsy.  Lucky for us, a neighbor across the street saw you and yelled at you.  Then she called the police.  She said you were just a boy.  Other neighbors saw the police cars in front of our house and police officers knocking on the door.  They called me and that’s how we found out. You should have seen the sad look on my daughter’s face when she learned that her bike was missing.  Her first verbal response was that she really liked that bike because she loved going on bike rides with her grandpa.  She just learned how to ride it without training wheels this summer. The day before her seventh birthday, her grandpa took her outside after dinner, took the training wheels off, and taught her how to ride.  I’ll never forget the joy and excitement I felt for her, watching her ride training wheels-free for the first time.  The smile on her face was so big; she beamed with self-pride.  That was also the first bike she fell off of and got a bloody knee.  She has many precious memories with that bike, as do I.  Shame on you for stealing a tangible piece of her childhood memories.

I don’t know if you stole the bike to make a few bucks, or if you’ve posted it on craigslist hoping to get a buyer (but believe you-me, I’ll be checking for postings that match the bike’s description). My almost-five year old daughter thinks you took it so you could give it to your little sister who really wanted a pink bike.  I think she’s giving you too much credit for kindness. Regardless the reason; no matter who has it now, I hope they enjoy it as much as my daughter did.  I hope you tell the new owner how you came to acquire it.  Then you can tell them how sad the previous owner is.  Her innocent little seven year-old brain is trying to comprehend why someone would want to steal anything from anyone.  But worse than that, she feels scared.  She’s afraid you are going to come back.  She doesn’t want to go anywhere in the house by herself.  Her personal space has been violated and she feels vulnerable.  Let that run through your head the next time you think about stealing another bike.  

I’ve learned my lesson- all the other bikes, tricycles, wagons, and scooters that were on our front porch are now locked in the garage.  They will stay there until I get a lock to keep them secure on the porch.  My two year old son learned a lesson from your actions, too.  He said he wanted to punch you.  I told him we should always be nice to people, even when they do not-nice things to us.  Then he said he would hug you instead.  Maybe if you got more hugs today you wouldn’t have wanted to steal my daughter’s bike.  So if you decide to come back around, perhaps you’ll want to put that pink bike back on the porch where you found it.  Then you can knock on my door and we’ll all give you a big hug.  

Sincerely,

Sydney's Selfie & Other Things To Be Thankful For

Today I'm thankful for . . .

1. Handprint Art.  This afternoon, Sydney and Liam made some pretty awesome works of art for Father's Day.  I would post pictures of their work, but it would spoil the surprise for you-know-who.  I'm under strict orders to keep it confidential.  So stay posted until June 15th...

2. Picnic lunches in the yard.  Sydney and I had lovely picnic lunch in the sunshine this afternoon.  Sydney laid out a big yellow beach towel all by herself, which she was very proud of accomplishing.  It started to get pretty hot in the sunlight, so we fetched our giant umbrella and ate under its shade.  We enjoyed star noodles, cold pizza, grapes, strawberries, cucumbers, and goldfish crackers.  It was quite a feast.

3. Big umbrellas.  Our big umbrella is good for more than keeping us dry during a monsoon or providing shade during a sunny afternoon picnic.  It can also be a big boat, as Sydney showed me.  She sang "Row, row, your boat" as she rocked back and forth inside of it.  She also twirled it around like a baton, and she even stood up on a chair and stretched up high to make the umbrella touch the ceiling.  It kept her quite entertained for a good while.  I just hope that the old superstition isn't true of having bad luck when you open an umbrella indoors- if it is, we're totally doomed.

4.  Sydney's Selfie.  She got a hold of my phone this morning and took about 50 photos around the house- mostly of her toes, the inside of our bedroom closets, and the view looking over the balcony and down the stairs (I don't want to think about how she had to dangle my phone over the edge of the balcony for those photos...)  Of all of them, this one is my favorite.

5. Lots of time with Sydney.  I just realized how much I'm writing about Sydney.  I'm so glad I got to have some one-on-one time with her today.  Liam has been sick with a fever and a cough over the past few days.  Today his fever seemed to hit a peek and he took a very long nap in the morning.  That gave Sydney and me some extra time to spend together.  We had a lot of fun, but I hope Liam hit the worst of it today so he'll be feeling better soon.

6. Drawing with Lillian.  Lillian wants to learn how to draw a horse, so we looked up some easy step-by-step instructions online.  We sketched, erased, and resketched together.  We discussed where to draw our lines and we asked each other, "How would Unlce Alan do it?"  In the end, our horses didn't turn out nearly as well as the teacher-illustrator's, and we decided that her instructions weren't ideal (although our ability level is probably some of the blame...at least a little bit). :)  I did a quick search on our library's online catalog and found some books by a guy named Dan Green.  He has a bunch of different books on how to do simple line drawings, geared toward kids- "How to Draw....101 Animals; 101 Monsters; 101 Silly People; 404 Things for Girls; 404 Things for Boys; Dinosaurs and Other Cool Things, 101 Ocean Animals," etc.  I'm hoping we can get our hands on some of these books soon.  Lillian suggested getting them for her birthday...hmmm, good idea!

I love how Lilly drew her horse's mane, and the sun with the squiggly rays coming off of it.  Like it's right out of My Little Pony! 

7. The way Liam says, "I want you" and "I want to hold you!" when he wants me to pick him up and hold him.  If he's talking to someone else and I mistakenly think he's talking to me he'll say, "I'm not talking at you, Mom." His little brain is working so hard trying to master the grammar of the English language!  I love it!

June Joys

Today I'm thankful for...

1. Lillian falling asleep next to me with her head on my shoulder and my arm wrapped around her.

2. Acetaminophen, Ibuprofen, and antibiotics to treat Sydney and Liam's fevers and ear ache.

3. Freeze pops.

4. Paul Cardall's piano music.

5. Warm sunshine. So nice after a long, cold, snowy winter.

6. June! This is the month of the last day of school and the first day of summer! I'm so excited for all the things I'll get to do with the kids, with Bobby, and with other family and friends over the next few months. Can't wait!