Nothing deep,

funny, or remotely interesting to write about. Grace has been sleeping for 75 minutes, Sam is at a "Father's Cookout" (with Brad, obviously) at his school and I am on my second and a half glass of red wine, enjoying the silence and writing run on sentences.... Life is good and this is what we did yesterday. I love New England in May.

Cole

Today I took pictures of my friend Jenn's three month old son, Cole. He stayed where I put him and looked at the camera. It was a nice change...

Happy Mother's Day

He handed me a handful of dandelion heads and a few violets . I told him that they were beautiful. He said, "This is what Mother's Day is all about, doing nice things for your mommy.I love you mom." I looked at the handful of weeds in my hand and then into his beautiful, big brown eyes and I felt so unbelievably loved and lucky to be his mom.

Not one to be outdone, my sweet Grace ran over to the tulips. I smiled as she leaned over to smell them.

And then, she pulled the head right off and brought it to me. The grin on her face was priceless. She knew exactly what she was doing. Loving her mommy.

I am so incredibly blessed that God chose me to be their mom.

Happy Mother's Day to all my mommy friends and family. I hope that each of you had a special moment today that reminded you that along with the chaos and frustration that are part of this mommy job, we mommies are a lucky bunch. There's nothing in the world like the wonder and joy and love that children bring into your life.

PS. Mom,
Thanks for being such a good example. You were the best teacher. I love you and really wish we could have spent the day together. xoxoxo

Breakfast

How dare you put the chocolate in my hot chocolate?

I wanted to do it myself. I'm not even going to try it. I'm just going to sit here and scream.
Fine. I'll try it. I'm still mad though. I don't know why you treat me like a baby.
MMMM...it's pretty good. Maybe you do know what you're doing.
I'm sorry mom. I behaved badly.
I feel a little embarrassed by how much I overreacted. You're the best.
What? Did you just say "I told you so!"?
I hate when you're right and you rub it in.

How many trips to the ER before you get a social worker?

Kidding.

I used to work for DSS and already know the answer....

Today I took my kids and Andrew to the neighborhood park. We were there for less than five minutes when Sam started yelling, "Mommy, I got a boo boo!"

I looked over at him. He was just standing there, holding his head. He hadn't fallen and he didn't sound too upset, so I gave my standard, "You're okay buddy. Just shake it off!" and continued taking pictures of Grace on the slide.

I'm the worst mother in the world. As he walked towards me, I noticed a ridiculous, make my knees feel weak and my stomach turn, amount of blood running down the side of his face. I thought I was going to pass out. Sam looked at me and started crying, "Is it really bad mommy?"

I tried to look and see how big the cut was, but couldn't. So I wrapped my sweatshirt around his head and walked to a friends house. We took turns cleaning the wound and sitting with our heads between our knees. At one point, I went outside and PIMMALed (Puked In My Mouth A Little). I know, I should have been a triage nurse...

Through it all, Sam was fine. He was alert, talking to the other kids and making plans to go back to the park. I called the doctor and told him something like, "I don't know what he hit, I didn't see anything near him that could have done it....I have no idea how big or deep it is, because I can't look at it without feeling like I'm going to pass out. It has stopped bleeding though..."

Three hours in the ER with three kids and two stitches later (stitches that I couldn't be in the room for) we are home. Grace is sleeping and Sam is still mad that we didn't go back to the park. The kid is tough. From what I've heard, he didn't even wince.

Can you stand it?

How come chubby legs are so cute on babies and so not on mommies?

Sometimes, I just want to take a little nibble. Don't they look yummy?
Do you think that someday she will see these and ask why I didn't take pictures of my own fat legs and show those to the world?
I'll tell her she'll understand someday.

Potty Training....part 8

Last night Sam informed us that he wanted to go to bed without a diaper, "Like a big boy." I was reluctant. Quite frankly, I love to sleep. Having to get up in the middle of the night and change a little boy and his bed are way down at the bottom of the list of things that I look forward to doing in the middle of the night (there's not actually a list of things I like to do).

I hid my reluctance and encouraged and praised the heck out of him. I also used a little reverse psychology, "What's next, are you going to want to poop on the potty? ''Cause there's no way I'm letting you do that. I want you to poop in a diaper forever!" To which my contrary little guy replied, "No, I will poop on the potty. I'm not pooping in a diaper anymore!" We'll see.

So how'd it go? Drum role please.......my guy woke up dry! He was so proud of himself and confidently proclaimed, "It must be because I'm almost four!" To which I replied, "Must be!Just don't even think about pooping on the potty."

I know. I'm evil. I'm desperate. I've run out of conventional ways to get him to try. I'm sick of changing the diaper of a boy who weighs over 40 pounds.