That Baby Smell

I was sitting at the computer after all the kids were asleep when I heard some stirring in the bedroom. "Crap," I thought. As I walked in I saw Gus waking up. I got back into bed to nurse him back to sleep, hoping that it wouldn't take too long. I bent over to pick him up and give him a kiss and there was that newborn baby smell, that sweet, new, perfect scent. It just put me in a timeless place, so pure and so fleeting. I almost teared up thinking that this may be one of the last times I smell that smell from him. 7 months have flown by.

Up Til Midnite with Bode

I've been really trying to stay in the moment with Boden. He is super smart, full of energy, curious and doesn't always need a lot of sleep. A challenging combination for me at times;) But he is so much fun and I really like being able to give him my undivided attention, which I admit doesn't happen that often. So the other night when he took a 3 hour nap late in the afternoon I not surprised that he wasn't tired and I decided to take this as a perfect opportunity to spend some fun time together. We had such a great time!! I cleaned up the downstairs while Bode watched some tv and then helped a little. We played, had a snack, read books and snuggled. It was so nice to just spend time together and I really don't know how many times he told me he loved me. That's just the sweetest sound. Sigh.

Cat pee!

Fact 1: We got a new couch.
Fact 2: We have a cat who is very sensitive to the overall energy in our house.
Fact 3: I was in a very bad funk one day last week.
Can you guess Fact 4?
That's right pee on the new couch!!
So now I am thankful for a cat who reminds me when I need an attitude adjustment and also for vinegar.

I'm stopping this car right now!

Boden was screaming, not crying, just yelling as loud as he possibly could on the way home in the car today. It wasn't joyful, happy screams - which I can handle. He was screaming so that I would know that he wanted to get home (which is where we were headed.) Well, it completely drove me nuts and I had to get off the highway and actually stop the car because I wasn't cool enough to just tune it out and drive at the same time. I felt like I was in one of those horrible family comedies that make you laugh but at the same time you wish you didn't get the jokes. I got out of the car to talk to him and he stopped screaming, though I was still hanging onto that frustration. But I turned it around!! I got some compassion, he was super tired and we had just had 3 fun-filled hours at the childrens' museum. I knew he would be asleep in just a few minutes and I just had to wait it out. I want to respond to things like that with love and calm patience, that is my goal and I know until I can do it consistently these kind of occurances will keep popping up in my experience.
So today I am thinking how thankful I am for my vocal son!!

Groceries on my head

My son Boden, 2.5, was helping me put away groceries the other day (a really great distraction from hitting his sister with plastic dinosaurs) and he reminded me how important it is to have fun. I know I sometimes get bogged down in the basics that need to get done - feed everyone, change diapers, brush teeth, comb hair and oh yeah, nurse, nurse and then nurse some more. But as Bode tried to balance the granola bar box on his head before he put it away I realized I should do that more often, or at least try it because I really don't recall the last time I tried balancing groceries on my head before putting them away. And it could be really great.

Think Thankful at Ning

I just started a Ning social network thinkthankful.ning.com
I originally had a vision for thinkthankful.com where there was a social networking forum just for people sharing what they were thankful for in their lives. I didn't really have the faintest idea of how to make that happen but I kept thinking "Oh wouldn't that be great where just pure positive energy and appreciation was flowing through online posts. Big things, little things, pictures, videos, whatever. All about appreciating." Well now there is and it was really pretty easy though the site is still in its infancy. I have a lot to learn about it but I'm excited for this challenge.
So come and join Ning and the Think Thankful community!

Art class update

So Iris finished up her week of art classes this week and she loved it! In fact today when I thought she was giving me a hug when I dropped her off she was actually pushing me out the door.
Sometimes as a parent you second guess yourself, especially when you see other kids doing things that your kids aren't quite ready for yet. Keith and I always *try* to be supportive of our kids own timetables. We were both unsure if Iris would even finish one of these classes and had decided that the worst that could happen would be losing $70. That's definitely not a good enough reason to get all worried about what would happen. So we let it go and she enjoyed them more than we had even hoped. Now she's asking when summer is over, so that she can take another set of art classes.
One interesting thing Iris said struck me about taking art classes - she said it was hard to do her own thing sometimes because she would look at what other people were doing and she thought that was interesting and she wanted to try to copy them. I guess that is the big dilemma about art classes: does it really bring about your creativity to design something when there are some set parameters first or do those parameters just kind of stretch your creativity in a direction you might not have gone without some kind of constraints?