A Perfect Day

Some days are just perfect.

Yesterday was SO not one of them. Yesterday was the "return from three weeks of being away" day. Filled with food shopping, house cleaning, laundry, and a fun (if exhausting) pick up at our CSA.....it was just one of those often time necessary days when I found myself saying "NO" more times than I wanted to. I fell into bed thoroughly exhausted last night, and feeling as though while I did what I had to do, I didn't enjoy it (or my kids) as much as I hope to.

Today was an entirely different story. Luke climbed into my bed at 6:30 for a "Mama I love you" fest, and Jules slept till almost 8, when I woke her as we had to be out of the house by 9. We headed down to a fabulous place that we had never been to before, the Smith Memorial Playground in Philly. What a fantastic place. So clean, such great toys, such beautiful weather, and such fun times with seven of my friends and their 11? ish kids. We played all morning, and then had a picnic lunch in the shade on a lovely lawn filled with children. The kids loved the toys as much as I enjoyed the companionship of my girlfriends, and they fell into the car tired and warm and happy at 12:30. They fell asleep immediately on the ride home, transferred seamlessly into their bed/crib, and slept soundly until I had to wake them at almost 3:30 when I realized that I was due at the pool in 5 minutes to meet my friends and their kids. I had cooked dinner while they were sleeping so that we could stay there until 5 or later. We hurried out the door to find the upper pool in a "Code Brown" (Yes, a floater), so we played at the downstairs outdoor waterpark/pool until 4:15 when we went up to our usual pool. They played happily until it was time to go, came home for an already cooked dinner, and fell into bed soundly right on schedule. Some days it just feels so easy. Of course, it is impossible to have days like today without the trials and tedium of yesterday, so I suppose that I have to be thankful for all of the days.

We did have one scare at the playground today as one of Luke's best buddies had one of those horrific "time stands still things move as though underwater" falls down a giant flight of stone steps. On what was probably a 25 step staircase, the little guy jumped with both feet from one step to another when only about 4 steps from the top. His inertia carried him forward, and I can say, that for all of its horror, it was an AMAZING display of athleticism as the little guy stayed on his feet, in an uncontrolled but foot first run until about the fourth step from the bottom, when inertia finally won, and he tumbled face first onto the ground. I saw it happening, and screamed, as did a few of my friends, and we all ran towards him as he tumbled, but could not get to him quite in time. It SO reminded me of Luke's fall off of the beach house steps last summer, and his landing on a brick sidewalk. Luckily the sweet little guy escaped relatively unscathed barring some scrapes and likely bruises considering the dramatic nature of the fall, and myself and my friends probably shed as many tears as he did as we watched him recover.

I hate how "accidents" are truly just that. Little shining moments of joy where everything is just SO right, and everyone is happy, and healthy, and whole, and then, LIKE THAT, in a horrible moment, everything is different. As stated, this had no horrific results. But I feel sure I will dream of that darling awesome little guy who I love dancing way too fast and entirely out of control down those steep stone steps tonight. I have said it before and I will say it again, Motherhood is not for the feint of heart. These little ones own us, and own us completely. I would fall from a thousand staircases to stop a little one from having to endure it (despite the fact that their rotund rubbery little bodies would likely recover from it much better than my old self would!). Seeing a little one hurt, or be afraid, is simply too much to bear.....yet bear it we do.

I wake up every day grateful for healthy kids, and go to sleep each night feeling the same way. To focus too much on the "What could happen" is to drive yourself insane. To never think about it at all is simple denial.

The kids are in bed and the house is clean (another by-product of the kids and I being out of the house all day). Thank God for little R being fine, and for all of the hideous things that did NOT happen today, AND for all of the wonderful things that did happen today.

I hugged my babies more tightly tonight.

That creepy bunny

So I betrayed my children's trust yesterday.

Back around Christmas time I posted about Santa and all of the weird ethical feelings he roused in me. My friend Cammi pointed out that Santa was nothing compared to the giant man dressed as creepy plastic faced bunny that we call the "Easter Bunny". Since she mentioned that to me, I have been dreading the appearance of the bunny man. The cult-that-masquerades-as-a-gym that we belong to had an Easter Festival/breakfast with the Easter Bunny/Easter egg hunt yesterday. I love free breakfast, and I love cheesy opportunities to let my children hunt plastic eggs, so I signed us up. For two days I thought about how the bunny man was going to be there. I decided that I really didn't need to put my children on the lap of the man dressed as bunny. Then we got there, and I did. Shamelessly. I handed over my precious kids to the bunny man. Look at the betrayal on Luke's face. He totally gave bunny man a "What you talkin bout Willis?" look as he inched away from him. Julia, meanwhile, was too taken with her pretty paper bracelet to even notice that she was sitting on the lap of a creepy bunny.

An Easter egg hunt in a gym is hilarious, by the way. Lacking grassy knolls and flowerbeds to hide eggs in, they resorted to plastic cones and parachute tent structures. It was a melee. Kids running everywhere, and parents bumping into one another because they were all walking around watching everything through their camera lens. Luke was a great hunter, and gallantly showed his baby sister the ropes. Julia bounced up and down with delight the first time she picked up a cone to find a shiny plastic egg beneath it.

In other news, while we ate breakfast today Julia ran around the kitchen with lipstick in one hand and a debit card in the other, screeching with delight. Friends gave her "My First Purse" as a birthday present, and she opened it this morning. Serious.Delight. It came replete with a cell phone, mirror, debit card, car keys, lipstick and a wallet. It was both the cutest thing that I have ever seen, and totally terrifying. My daughter, holding a cell phone up to her ear while chewing on a debit card. And its going to be all too soon that it's a real phone, and our real debit card. AAAArgh.

Linkster Luke

Here is Julia checking out her Daddy and Luke checking out the golf course over at Applebrook.

Both were a hit.

Julia went to the gym for the first time today. Babies have to be 8 weeks, so I only lied a little bit. The weather is horrible and being inside the house all day is just long. Tomorrow the wee one gets to go to her first Phillie's game while big brother Luke stays home with Grandpop. Look for us ~ we will be right behind home plate. Wednesday is Luke and Julia's first trip to the Philly Zoo (Luke took in the Norfolk VA Zoo last year at about 8 weeks old) with playgroup.

My little Luke will be 15 months old tomorrow. Can't believe it.

Aunt Annie's Alligator

Our gym has amazing childcare. The women who work there love Luke and he always seems to have a great time playing while we are working out. I feel like they actually know and like and take great care of my child, which gives me so much peace of mind in leaving him.

After today I know that they are also wonderfully creative people.

Nate took Luke to the gym so that I could get some cooking done. When he came home, he was wearing the above get up ~ in case you can't tell from the picture, that's some strangers t shirt he is wearing on his legs. Apparently my son had a blowout diaper (something that we have not seen in months and months) while at the gym. He had no pants, so they came up with the tshirt idea. Nice! He seemed perfectly happy, but now that I look at the pic that I took I think that he actually looks a little worried ~ I sometimes wonder how much long term damage I am doing posting pictures of my post blowout t-shirt pants-ed son. Someday I imagine that he will read this, and I can only say that I hope he does not mind the graphic details.

The other item in the pic is the Dr Seuss ABC book. I can now proudly say that I know every single word to every single page and can recite them verbatim. I always hoped to raise a child who loved to read as much as I do. I firmly believe that reading to kids fosters a love of reading. I just didn't know that I would have a son who, at least at this point, only wants to read TWO books over and over and over. I read the DR Seuss book to Luke 7 times today. I can only guess that Nate read it to him about the same number of times. I wake up with

"Big A, little a, What begins with A? Aunt Annie's Alligator, A.....A.....A"

racing through my head over and over. The other book that he loves is called "100 Words". In case you can't guess from the title, the plot isn't real thick.....its 100 little pictures of scintillating things like "Purple Tricycle", "Pink Flower" and "Highchair". It's mind numbing and painful and I sometimes start to drool and lose focus while "reading" it to Luke, but he loves it. He turns the big cardboard pages indiscriminately, saying "ah dat?" at every single picture. He can identify the dog, kitty cat, duck, and baby.......but that leaves an awful lot of "ah dat-ing" considering that there are 96 other words and pictures.

In other news, I am now 7 days from my due date. Going strong. I would love to have a little St. Patties day baby....but there is no real reason to believe that the baby has any plans to arrive tomorrow. In the baby pool I have the 19th......I think that should I go past that day I will start to really get impatient. With a brief 18 week reprieve (during which I provided the sole sustenance for my exclusively breastfed son), I have been pregnant since May of 06. Its now March of 08. When I think of it like that its easier to give myself a little leeway for the impatience that is creeping up on me. I just cant wait to hold this baby.....to know if its my son or daughter who I have been growing all these long months. I want to ensure that all of its parts are in the appropriate part places, and that it is a healthy baby safely arrived. Sigh. Patience is not one of my strong suits (in fact, its not even one of my medium~strong suits....I am one of the most impatient people on Earth) ....but I'm trying to temper it with my gratitude for another easy pregnancy and a wonderful supportive husband and a really easy, happy, healthy son who provides me with endless delight while I wait. I had a great massage on Saturday ~ my Massage therapist said that she was getting Tuesday night vibes for babies birth. I'm game if baby is.

In other news, Villanova made the Tournament, much to our surprise. And I officially skeeve the word "bracketology" and think that anyone who uses it is a dork. I love the tourney and I love college basketball, but jeez this "bracketology" stuff is so trendy and annoying.

White Stuff

This is Luke checking out today's snowfall. On our way to the gym we took a quick pit stop into the back yard to check it out. Luke was a fan. When the snow would hit his face he opened and closed his mouth in this really strange and funny guppy imitation. I don't know what all that was about, but of course it made me laugh so hard that I kept turning his face up to the snow to see the show again.

Speaking of funny shows !~ today I did an "Aerobox" class at the gym. I kept looking in the giant full wall mirror that was (unfortunately) directly and unavoidably right in front of my face, and thinking that if I only had a video camera with me I could undoubtedly make some money off of myself and how utterly silly I looked. I have this GIANT belly, and was bouncing around the room doing jabs and uppercuts to the air. Lets not even talk about the kicking. Ever tried to kick with a basketball under your shirt? Try it out sometime, preferably in front of a full length mirror. You will likely fall over laughing. Pregnancy really teaches you to laugh at yourself.

I am thrilled to report that Luke is back to being Captain Sunshine. After a week and an half of general sickness and the accompanying change in schedule AND demeanor, we are BACK, baby. I had missed my little easy going kid. Motherhood once again feels easy.

Drinking the Kool Aid

Here is Luke flexing for the camera. I know, I know, he's a total stud. I try not to brag ;).

I took this the other night during our nightly Naked~time/Pajama Mama/Spaz hour between dinner and pajamas/bed (I'm editing this to add that Luke is the Naked one ~ Not the Mama.....) . Luke gets into an absolute frenzy, squealing with delight as the clothes come off and he gets to wreak havoc amongst the toys and random delights of his room. I felt about the same way tonight as I stuffed myself into my uber sexy maternity bathing suit for a "water workout" class at the gym.

Sidebar ~ Our gym is a cult. Before we joined I used to call it "the cult", as it seemed that everyone who was a member there was drinking the Gym Kool Aid a la Jim Jones. Now I see why. Any gym that has its own spa, water park, restaurant, and children's programs out the yin yang absolutely positively becomes a sort of mecca to Mom's like me. Speaking of Mom's like me, in the event that I am ever feeling even slightly creative in my decision to get married, make babies, and dare to try to retain my girlish figure (chuckle) all I need do is walk in the door of the "cult" to remind me that I am a dime a dozen. Trite. Common. The Mom's of my gym are legendary. Skinny little things. The bigger I get the smaller they seem. That goes for anyone, by the way......I swear all of my friends at playgroup today appeared waif like and frail.....but I know that its just that they are healthy and normal and to even see a waistline inspires some sort of weird nostalgic wistfulness in me at the moment. I used to have one of those, you know.

Anyhow. Sidebar over. I had an awesome time swimming and jumping around for an hour. I miss the very act of jumping. With the move and the holidays I had not been to the gym in about 4 weeks and I didn't even realize how much I missed it until tonight. I'm now proudly back on track. With only 11 or so weeks left of this pregnancy I figure its now or never.

We also had playgroup this morning, where Luke got to lavish his walking skills amongst his friends. (again, with the move it had been a few weeks since I had been able to go to playgroup, and was missing the interaction with my friends madly). While I stuffed my face Luke lurched around the room like a drunken Frankenstein with beer goggles lavishing wet kisses on the other kids. My kid, the lurching lover.

Grandparents

So I had a long and productive day. We woke up to crystal blue skies and a couple of inches of snow all white and lovely clinging to everything in sight. Due to the snow, biblestudy was canceled, so I unexpectedly had the morning free. Mom called me to see if she could watch Luke for me to enable me to get some packing done. She picked him up around 11.30 and took him for the afternoon. I went to town on the basement, raising a veritible dust storm as I ruthlessly threw away, organized and repacked boxes. It was a lot of work, but getting it done felt great. We went over to the new house to check out the progress and make some decisions re: blinds. The house looks simply amazing....all of the hardwood flooring is in, all of the light fixtures, both decks are finished, and the office and downstairs powder room are completed. I still cant believe that in just a week we are going to be living there. Anyway. We picked Luke up and came home for a hasty dinner before I had to run out to my "reward" of a facial over at ACAC. I left my two men hanging out in the living room and escaped towards the relaxation that I needed.

I may well be the first person to cry while getting a pampering, relaxing facial! The estetician and I were talking about my move, and pregnancy, and Luke etc etc....I started talking about how lucky Nate and I felt to have all of the support of family and friends that we do during this hectic and stressful time. I went on to talk about what a blessing it is that Luke has four wonderful grandparents, three great grandmothers and a great grandfather. I was talking about how no one can really prepare you for the love that you feel for your child, but how I had known going into this whole parenthood thing that I was going to feel a love unlike any I have ever experienced. I was telling her that my biggest surprise of motherhood thusfar is the unbelievable and indescribable joy that I feel when I see the love that Luke's grandparents have for him. To see their faces light up when they see my child awes me. To see Luke kissing Carolyn's face, or him sitting so snug in Mom's lap this afternoon drinking his bottle cozy and safe and warm just utterly melts me. As I was talking about this I promptly burst into tears. I dont know if its exhaustion, pregnancy hormones, or simply a heightened awareness of all of the love in our life and in Lukes life, but either way, I feel a little awed tonight. In this world, with all of its unrest, strife, and pain, to have a little joy is a beautiful thing. Tonight I feel blessed beyond measure.

Age of Aquarius

So Luke is a swimmer now. The kid seems to love the water. We spent a good chunk of Friday and Saturday at/in the pool (its been in the 90's around here, awful for May/early June) . His whole body just relaxes and he was laughing out loud as we were lifting him up and down in the water ~ I love it. The pic is from the pool on Saturday. We are officially drinking the ACAC Kool Aide around here , I love the gym. Its so nice to have such a safe, entertaining, clean place staffed with such wonderful people to drop Luke off at while I work out. I went with the baby on Friday, and both Nate and I went on Saturday. Becca and I took a Yoga class while Nate worked out, then we all went out to the pool and ended up having lunch there. We managed to spend just about all of the past 3 days outside, whether at the pool, walking around WC Friday night, or at the Phillies game on Saturday night. I could not resist the opportunity to take Luke to BOOOO for Barry Bonds, as the Giants were in town. Barry did not have a home run, but he gave a ball a great ride and ended up with a double. He also had an error in the outfield which resulted in a run for the Phillies. The Phils won 5-2. At one point the whole outfield was chanting "You do Steriods" at Bonds......welcome to Philly, baby. He can now say that he got to see Bonds play the season that that fraud defiled one of Baseball's sacred records. Luke wore his Chase Utley jersey and could not have been any easier at the game. He sat in our laps, drank a bottle of EBM, and worked hard at actually shoving BOTH hands into his drooly little mouth. We got home and put him to bed around 10 (which was later than his usual 8.30 bedtime) and he slept till 6.45, ate, and is still sleeping upstairs in his crib now. Have I mentioned that having a kid who is so wonderfully easy with his sleeping is simply fab? He lets me get a full night of sleep every night, which makes this whole motherhood thing a lot easier. I can't imagine being up several times a night for months at a time, it must really wear you down. Luke is a bit dangerous, as I know that it would be rare for our next baby to be as easy as him.......and I'm so spoiled as a Mother to an easy baby that I worry that I would not know what do with a more demanding one! What if I didnt like it as much?