I had a moment of being truly physically pulled between my two lives though, as I was trying to mix the icing, and having Katrina tugging on my legs, crying. I squashed a pulse of irritation at a grumpy baby literally pulling me away from little-kid life. But, it passed quickly; I put her down for a nap and we were able to get to work. She never actually went to sleep, but at least she was out from underfoot for the hour we needed.
Licking the beaters is always fun, despite the Goth effect resulting from the black icing:
So I assembled the house, put on enough icing to get started sticking decorative candies, and let the boys go to town. It was a lot of fun, we laughed a lot, and I enjoyed making silly suggestions and running with ideas they had (such as one side of the roof black, and one side orange, then the stripes) and working together with them. This, to me, is the pinnacle of what makes motherhood fun!
Gabriel couldn't get over how different our house looked from the perfect example on the box, and asked me again and again why ours didn't look like that. He just wouldn't accept that the haunted house in the photo was done by professionals with better tools and that it'd be no fun to try to make ours perfect. To him, it must be perfect!
Can you tell I'm a boy mom? This scene struck me today. Katrina dressed in stripes and jeans, holding a toy car. If it wasn't for the little hairclip doing an inadequate job of keeping her bangs out of her face, and the pink Robeez, you'd never know she was a girl!
She loves pushing cars around though. This little school bus was one I got at a used-clothing store when Gabriel was a baby, because I saw a 12-month-old girl pushing it around and loving it (and her mom didn't buy it!). At the time, I figured that's what 12-month-olds do, but Gabriel didn't push things around until he was much older. Katrina, being completely normal and typical, does.
A sampling of what the boys do together in the afternoon in the backyard, and why I can't let Katrina outside to play without being 2 feet away from her. They're hazardous on their bikes out there! Note Gabriel's nice slide at the end, which he's not supposed to do because he's wearing his tires out too fast.
This video is really dull, but that's the point: nice, quiet, peaceful. What astounding good fortune I have! While it's not always like this, it's still quite common that my three darlings quietly read together.
Katrina ooh'd and ahh'd this baby book from Bonne Maman and Papa Paul, given to her when she was a newborn. There she is at one month old looking at it, and now she's old enough to sit and flip the pages, and loves it!
More happy dull: Julian "reading" to Katrina. He's memorized this book, but was having fun joking around with silly words to amuse her. Nothing makes him happier than making her laugh, though she was taking this book very seriously.
[ drat, YouTube started site maintenance just as I was uploading ]
This afternoon, I went to my OB's office to pick up a sample birth-control pill pack, to see if they might help manage my migraines. I explained to the boys that we were going to the doctor to get "medicine" for my headaches, and Gabriel asked why I had them. I said I didn't know, then he said, "Maybe it's because you don't eat enough food." That was an interesting comment, because I have wondered a lot if it could be food-related. Though the food-allergy testing didn't yield anything, that doesn't rule out some sort of food-related triggering.
Since Katrina was born, my eating habits have changed drastically -- but mostly for the better! Baking kick notwithstanding, my junk-food intake has gone way down, I cook a lot more, and we have a lot more fresh things. But Gabriel rarely sees me sit down and eat. I never have breakfast with them home, and at dinner, I'm IN SERVICE and never sitting for more than a few minutes, even if Katrina is happily playing in the family room. I guess he's fallen for my brainwashing that eating their dinner will keep them healthy and strong. If only it were that simple for me.
Another fun time this afternoon was rehearsing Happy Birthday to sing to cousin Remi, who turns 3 today. (Good luck with that one, Aunt Stephanie...boy, I am so done with 3!) Then we called Remi and sang together. Yesterday, the boys wrote (Gabriel) and colored (Julian, to obliteration) a card for their cousin, and helped me wrap a gift. We sent it off today, late as usual. I live by the premise "better late than never."
Though the day was marred by headache again, I'll remember it as being a really fun, warm, happy one.
10/30/07
1 comment:
i'll buy Gabriel new tires. get him to slide the front AND back.
Post a Comment