Learned behavior.

As we were getting ready to go this morning, Gabbie looks at me and Joel and yells....

"You guys are driving me f------ nuts!"

Um, what?!  I guess she pays more attention to the words that the tallest member of the household says than he thought.  I've been working on his "word of choice" for 2 years, and now she has outed his "when momma is not around" phrase of choice for when his fuse for fussing is short.  Hm.  It took all I had not to correct her language (don't want to sensationalize it), but to walk away, growling to my husband to fix it.  

Yeah, it's cute.... When it's someone else's kid. 

Blergh.  Give me a dozen years..... It may be funny again.   

He's a keeper.

My ladies are very fortunate to have such an awesome daddy.  (I'm also fortunate to have an awesome husband, of course.)  He's more involved with them than a lot of other dads I've seen. 
Sometimes he paints Gabbie's fingernails and toenails for her. Sometimes he goes out to the van to get her baby doll after the sun has gone down and it's quite cold.  Sometimes he horses around in the playroom with both girls in a way only a daddy can do. 
Last night was our daughter's first night in her new "big girl bed". It took over an hour for us to get her to finally go to sleep and understand that there were no monsters coming for her. Shortly after we went to bed,  she came in looking for help with the monsters. I was so asleep I barely knew she was there, but my husband was off right away to take her back to her own room. I slept the entire night as peaceful as a baby, and when I woke up this morning I discovered it was just me and the cat and the dog in bed. My husband had gone with her to her room to get her back to sleep and stuck around for the rest of the night. Here is a picture of them in her new bed. 

Take another one...

There is a song that is many years older than me by a wonderful artist by the name of Janis Joplin.  Part of the refrain goes, "take another little piece of my heart now, baby."  

Each day with children is like this.  

Before I had children, I had a ton of professional aspirations, and Joel and I had lots of things we wanted to do.  Vacations to take, goals to accomplish, things to buy, etc.  It took until Gabbie was a few months old, but I realized that all I wanted to do was raise my kid(s) to be happy, well-adjusted, smart, loving, well-rounded, and to have heart.  Easy peasy, right?  

I didn't feel like I was giving up on "my" goals, but they eventually became family goals.  "I" became "we", "mine" became "ours", and our family was changing from 3 people into a unit.

I have been emerging from my long-term "new baby mommy cloud", a little each day, but I still have such a sense of accomplishment when my kids do something new, which is daily these days.  So what, I got a 99% on my first college class since the 90s?  Gabbie went a week with no accidents, can count to 12 and comes up with complex sentences daily.  Who cares that we are accomplishing our (modest) savings goals?  Lilah's troublesome canines came in and the molars are on their way, too.  

Each day, the things these kids do just amazes me.  I don't know that I will ever not be amazed.  One day they will do something so mundane to them, that will be so awesome for me, and they will roll their eyes for my excitement.  My mom called me at work awhile back and I was out servicing some equipment that had broken.  When I called her back, she said she didn't realize that I was trained on how to fix it.  It was such a normal, average part of my job that I never even thought she might think it was cool.  It's so strange to be the mom and the kid at the same time.  

We are endlessly, annoyingly proud.  I am sure others don't love to hear our parent stories all the time, but we don't really care.  We love them so much, and it's so amazing to watch them grow.  It's not easy to put it out there for everyone to see.  There's so much judgment, especially in social media.  Each picture or story makes us vulnerable.  Heck, even this entry makes me vulnerable.  

These children are my (our) absolute best, greatest accomplishments.  They are living, breathing, giggling, dancing, sassing, loving works of art and love.  Every day we come back to these masterpieces, tweak a little here and there, and step back to see how they do in the world.  I give them  a piece of my heart every single day.  

"Just one more huggy, momma."

"Momma!  Lilah is sharing with me!  Good girl, sister!"

"Momma, don't give up.  You can do it."  

Geez, kiddo.  Here's my whole heart.  Take it.  Just please.... Share with your sister and daddy.

Hold me

Each night as we put Gabbie to bed, we get her settled in, get her a "baby" and a blankie, and each night she says the same thing.

"Hold me."

Oh sweets..... I wish I could forever. 

A lovely challenge

Every time we have our children professionally photographed, I feel like the photographer and the parents become a tag team with the children and it is  eventually turned into a contact sport.  Because our ladies are so spirited, I have found that we cannot do studio photography... It takes a very special kind of person to be able to get good pictures from such busy little people.  With all of the commotion in most studios, and typically the limited time frame, we have a very difficult time getting them used to the photographer before we have to be out the door for the next person's appointment to come in. 

I am very envious of the families who bring in perfectly dressed, beautifully-coiffed children and babies, posed perfectly and pictures turn out wonderfully on the first try. That is not my family.

Thank goodness we have some wonderful friends who are very talented in that area.  Last night, one is being photographed, we are negotiating with the other one to get dressed and to stop crying, and we have a barking dog in the background. It was pandemonium.  Then once everybody is dressed and we're almost posed, one of them is either in tears, or off playing with something else again. It's like trying to catch lightning in a bottle.  There is a lot of bribery involved to get a few good shots.  Thank goodness my friend is so patient.

At one point she was standing upstairs dangling a stuffed animal over the banister , my children who were supposed to be seated in a leather chair looking up at her, praying that she will just drop the toy and let them go back to playing.

Ah well.  I guess I can't say my life is boring, right? 

( I am attaching a picture I took of them trying to get them settled in during our session. Cute, but not settled.)

Gabbie's big weekend!

Ms Gabs had a very big weekend.  Friday we had a date with my mom (Nana) at a local kids "spa and salon", as a gift from my mom to Gabbie for her birthday.  She got a manicure, sparkly tattoo, some very light makeup and rhinestones, and a few other things.  She had so much fun.  We also had lunch and did a little shopping.

Then Saturday was her birthday party!  She had so much fun with her family and a few friends.  We had pizza and cake at Rocky's.... And presents.  Oh the presents!  I don't usually think my kids are spoiled, but she was VERY blessed with lots of gifts.  Clothes, toys, a big wheel, a big girl bike, lots of girlie accessory items, etc.  There were even a few items for Lilah.  We also played a few arcade games.... she just wanted to put her "money" in the machines.... She didn't care much about the tickets. 

Today we saw her first movie (Frozen).  She was so great - she sat for nearly 2 hours, loving the unlimited popcorn.  I loved the story - a love story about the love between 2 sisters.  Then we got her first haircut.  

We went back to the same place, and saw the same wonderful lady.  Gabbie wore some new boots, which she got from our awesome daycare provider.  They are owls (this will matter).  As she was up in the chair, in her cape, with her hair all separated out for cutting, she jumps off and runs over to a sales display.  The store has several displays of things that appeal to young ladies (ages 2-12).  She grabbed an owl backpack, and started putting it on.  I took it off her, and she yelled at me: "Stop being mean to me!  I need it and it matches my owls!"  She was accessorizing her boots.  After a lot of negotiating and discussion, her haircut was done, complete with a blue sparkly hair feather.  

Whew.  What a weekend.  Tomorrow the girls get their pictures done, which is always mostly fun, with only a little pandemonium trying to get them to cooperate.  :)

My baby is turning 3!

Gabbie is turning 3 on Sunday, and (like any other mom would say) I have mixed feelings.  

I am so happy to be watching her grow and learn each day, and I love being a part of the scenery as she develops her relationship with her sister.  I love the days when she falls asleep in our bed, because cuddling with her as she sleeps is one of the best things on earth.  Even on her sassy, "definitely a toddler" days, she is still a cuddly, silly, sneaky, smarty-pants little lady.  I love watching her learn something, or figure out something new.  I love listening to her put together bigger sentences.  

On the other hand....

She's getting too big for me to carry.  She's already in a size 4, which is on the upper end of baby/toddler clothes.  She had a big girl salon day today, with a tot manicure, a sparkly "tattoo", and some very light makeup.  She has her first haircut on her actual birthday on Sunday, and we are going to her first movie theater movie (Frozen) that day as well.  She got a big girl bed for her birthday, and loves it.  

The conundrum is that while I love sharing these moments, we won't have them again.  Of course, we have them with Lilah, but there's something very fleeting about these moments with our firstborn.  In a few months I will be writing about how once we don't have them any more with Lilah, we will no longer have them again.

So, happy birthday to my spirited Gabrielle.  Each day we try to cherish every moment - even the times  when you ask us to leave you alone, or lay on the floor in the middle of a department store because I didn't buy you the backpack you NEEDED.

No matter how big you will get, you will always be our Babylady.  

(These pics are the beginning and ends of age 2.)

Karma

Now, I'm going to be honest here... I was kind of an awesome kid. I barely gave my parents any trouble, and never talked back, and I was a loving sister to my younger brother.
However if you were to try to corroborate the story with my parents, they would probably tell you I had sticky fingers.  I would occasionally take a dollar or two from their purses or wallets to purchase a treat on my way to school at the local gas station.  There were times when I took more than that but those were pretty rare. I looked at these opportunities as a delayed receipt of my certainly earned allowance.
This morning my husband called asking me if I was missing three dollars from my wallet. Sure enough, I go into my purse into my wallet, and discover that Gabs had taken my last three dollars.
I've always known this was going to come back to me, however I never would have imagined it would be so early.

Welcome!!!

Welcome to my corner of the internet!  This blog will be about my daughters - the sweet things, the crazy things, the hilarious things, and the remarkable things they say and do.  This will be my digital "baby book"; my love story to them, and dated evidence of how crazy they WILL make me, so I can remind them of it one day when they are about to put me in a home.  

Right now they are thisclose to being 3 and 16 months.  I work full- time outside the home, so we have evenings and weekends as a family, which I cherish.  

My first post...

As Joel was putting Gabs to bed, she said that Jesus can only come to her birthday party if he brings her a candy cane.  

There you have it.  My first gem.  :)