WalkAmerica

I don't know why but the last Sunday of April, which is always when March of Dimes' WalkAmerica is, feels just a little bit like Christmas to me. It's a single day's event that I've planned for for a long time. I've gotten friends and family involved (who donated generously to my walk, thank you!), have been emailing updates to the PM team at work on the walk, etc.

I woke up this morning excited to get the girls ready and go. I am ever grateful for Wayne -- if it hadn't been for him we wouldn't have been out the door before the walk started.

Our team met at Bruegger's near our old office for some breakfast, then headed down to the walksite. It was a beautiful day, and it was so nice to have a great excuse to get out and enjoy it!

I didn't even see Lindsey the entire walk -- my friend Bridget was pushing her stroller and got so far ahead of me that I didn't meet up with her until the finish line. They told me she did wonderfully, was very well behaved and even...quiet! That's that thing that she is around other people, not us.

Marissa did fairly well, though she did have one meltdown when she wanted out of the stroller and I refused to carry her. (She's 29 lbs, have you seen her lately?) I ended up having to strap her in because she wouldn't sit in it nicely, so she screamed for about 10 minutes about that.

But overall, it was a nice day, we had a nice lunch and some free music after, then went back home to take a nap, which Lindsey and I both did, Marissa not so much.

What made it even better is that our team raised $4,212 dollars for March of Dimes this year, well over our goal of $3,000. Thanks again to everyone who sponsored us!

Lindsey-isms

Lindsey did two things this evening that really struck me that I thought I would share.

Thing #1:

Tonight Lindsey and I were "dancing" to a children's CD. It has funny songs on it like "Lonely Peas," "The Crabby Song" and others that are actually quite fun and not grating to parents.

We started out dancing by holding hands and going around, pretty soon I was carrying her around and dancing backwards and forwards, practically spinning her around as I went about the room. (It was a GREAT workout, highly recommended!)

She was giggling and hanging on to me as we twirled around, faster and faster. She laughed once and said, "Mommy, I am happy!"

She stated it so matter of factly it took me by surprise. My response of course, was, "I am happy too!" and gave her a big hug and an extra fast twirl.

Thing #2:

After her bath, I was attempting to blowdry and comb out Lindsey's hair as she was "playing" with our four toothbrushes. (You have no idea how frequently we change our toothbrushes around here!) She was holding all four in her two hands, lifting them up and down and pretending to "wash" the mirror with them. She was saying in a sing-song voice, "Let's wash Ava's red dress! It'll be fun! Let's wash Ava's dress! Okay! You take this brush, I take that brush, let's wash Ava's dress!"

What struck me about this is that she was looking herself directly in the eye as she was singing this, smiling and waving the toothbrushes around.

When's the last time you looked yourself in the eye in the mirror and said something? Sang something? Wished for something??

I did not too long ago, prepping for a presentation I had to give in front of a crowd of 160. I'm glad I walked through my presentation this way too, because wow, was it uncomfortable, and I found myself floundering in talking to myself and was able to smooth out the rough spots by the time I got to the actual presentation.

When do we lose touch with ourselves so much that we don't look ourselves in the eye? The closest I get is when I inspect my eye makeup before leaving in the morning, or to get an eyelash out of my eye.

Try it sometime, see how honest it feels, to say something to yourself while looking yourself in the eye in the mirror. It was really amazing how natural it was to Lindsey.

Nostalgic Parenting

Tonight I was putting the youngest to bed and got a blast from the past. She likes to curl up with a bottle (I know, she's too old for a bottle, no lectures, please), have some warm milk, then snuggle up on your shoulder before hunkering down in her bed.

Tonight she was having her bottle, snuggled in her little pink blankie and I started doing something that my mom used to do to my sister and I when we were kids -- I began clicking my fingernails against each other on her head. It sounds very strange, but I remember it being very soothing when I was a child.

I've done it to Marissa, Lindsey and my friends' babies with alternating responses -- some are soothed and their eyes practically start to shut, others are distracted by it, start looking around and don't like it at all.

Marissa finds it soothing. I did this to her for a while, then I stopped. She promptly picked up my hand and put it back on her head again, signaling that she wanted me to continue! She did that twice, picking up my hand and putting it back on her head, all without saying a word since she was busy with her bottle. It brought me back to those days of having my mom do this same thing on my head during church -- I suppose it was the one way she could keep us quiet for an entire hour.

On an unrelated note, I was in an internal meeting today with some co-workers and one of my friends asked me, "Have your feet always been that vein-y?" (I was wearing a skirt and heels -- no pantyhose, of course!) And by the way, this was a close friend, so it wasn't unusual at all that she would ask me that, as varicose veins bulged out of her own legs as she waddles around in her 9th month of pregnancy.

I said yes, my feet and hands have always been "vein-y," and then told her how I remember "playing" with the veins in my mom's hands during church. I used to push one over the top of the bones in her hand, only to watch it slide back over to the other side...eventually. She started re-counting how she used to pull on her grandmother's skin on her arm during church, just because it took so much longer to go back to its normal place than her mom's did!

How funny, all these little pieces of nostalgia attached to memories of these things we did to comfort ourselves...all at the expense of our patient, understanding parents.

Writing Down the Words: STILL GOING STRONG

Writing Down the Words: STILL GOING STRONG

I happened across this blog and this particular posting in this blog and knew that a certain someone who reads my blog every now and then would appreciate the nostalgia and sentimentality of the thoughts written there.

Follow the above link to see what I'm talking about.

Enjoy, Dad!

Pretty Princess Dancing

I had to put up these photos of Lindsey and her friend Jamie. They both love to play dress-up. We found a beautiful little white pleat dress over the weekend at Gap Kids that Lindsey LOVES. She wants to wear it all the time, even though I'm trying to keep it clean for her birthday party in a few weekends.

In the last two photos the two of them are dancing to the "Cars" soundtrack, Sheryl Crow's "Real Gone" song. What dainty dancing for such a hard rockin' song!

Whenever we have Jamie over she's only in the door for a few minutes before both girls are stripped down and digging in Lindsey's closet, pulling down the dresses from the hangers and putting them on. What girls!

Updated my Links - check them out!

I have a new favorite ad on the "Very Funny Ads" website -- check out the link to the right.

I've also got a link to my WalkAmerica page if you would like to donate to my walk which is Sunday April 29th. I'm nowhere near my own personal goal of $700, but that's because I'm heading up a team this year where many donations have gone to the team and not me personally -- we've already hit our goal of $3,000 for our team. Yeay team!!

Easter

Easter is a low key event in our home. We don't go to church, we don't get together with family, in many ways it's just an ordinary day, made special by little things.

We have a neighbor who leaves "Easter bunny tracks" on the front stoops of the homes up and down the street where little kids live. We awoke and retrieved the paper to find large, human-sized bunny tracks on our steps (I think she uses corn starch and a stencil of some sort).

Lindsey and Marissa were happy to come down the stairs to find Easter baskets awaiting them on the piano. Unlike many of their counterparts, their Easter baskets are small. They don't need much, they are perfectly happy with the little treats that they get, and I get really annoyed by the commercialism of Easter of all holidays. Christmas, okay, it's a birthday, let's celebrate. But Easter? Someone died, okay? Have a little respect.

The jelly beans were a hit with Marissa, not so much with Lindsey. Chocolate eggs, also a hit with Marissa, not so much with Lindsey. But they both enjoyed the little chicks that had Play-Doh in them.

We had our friends over for Easter dinner which, in typical fashion, was delayed by my not-terribly-planned-out prep work for the meal. (I could've gotten more done earlier, prior to their arrival, but opted for a nap instead. Who wouldn't??)

Everything was ready on time except for a side dish that I was trying out for the first time that took longer than expected. Thankfully the ham stayed moist while it stayed in the oven an extra half an hour, and the potatoes were done all the way through (unlike other years when they aren't QUITE done when I have to take them out). So we ate later than scheduled, but we certainly passed the time with fun conversation and entertainment from watching the kids.

Lindsey and Jamie had lots of fun playing dress up. Jamie looked so beautiful when she came to our house wearing a beautiful spring dress with an adorable cropped pink sweater. This was promptly traded for velcro-on dress up clothes and "noisy" shoes, as Lindsey calls them, or those dress up high heels. They took turns being Cinderella in Lindsey's Halloween costume from this past Halloween. Lots of running around and giggling abounded, with Marissa behind them, trying to keep up and be a part of the action. Unfortunately she and Molly are just a little too far apart in age (and size!) to really be playmates right now, though Marissa did have fun "dancing" with Molly (see photo). So Marissa was handed the role of annoying little sister who always follows us around, and Mom can't you make her leave us alone?? Oh...I remember those days...but from the point of view of the little sister, not the mom!

Weekend in Tracy

I've got just a few photos here to share of our weekend in Tracy. It was a short one, made miserable by a sinus infection that I developed. I feel bad that I filled all of my in-laws little trash cans throughout the house with loads and loads of nasty Kleenexes!! Ugh -- sorry all, for exposing you. The good news is by the time Sunday rolled around it was no longer a cold and was a sinus infection, so hopefully it wasn't contagious anymore. And I washed my hands so much they were raw, so I hope I didn't leave too many germs left in the house.

Marissa's been sick as well, she stayed home w/me Monday with a temp of 101.2. I think that since having kids I've only taken one sick day for myself when it was only actually just me at home -- every other time I'm also responsible for a little one who's sick as well. Makes it hard to rest and nap, especially with Marissa, our little busy body.

I'm on the mend now, got a good night's sleep last night, though I awoke at 4 am from a terrible dream in which I believed I was being suffocated. Turns out I was in a way -- both my nostrils had closed up and I was no longer getting the air I needed. I must have been struggling for air until I woke up enough to open my mouth to breathe.

By the way, this last photo of Lindsey was taken about half a mile outside of Tracy. Lindsey didn't like the DVD we put in the van. We put in one of Marissa's, knowing that if we put one in that Lindsey had really liked she wouldn't have fallen asleep. I should've taken a photo again about 2 minutes after this one, with her head lolling to the side as she slept.