Scare You

Last night I was rocking Clair before bed when Lady Grey jumped up to the back of the chair and Clair was very startled. 

Clair looks at me and says, "scare you!?" In a startled and slightly sad voice. 

I asked, "did Lady Grey scare you?"

She replies, "yes....."

This was the first time Clair tried to tell me how she felt with words. She's two next week. Words have not been her thing and I am seeing such a leap in this area of development over the past few weeks. It's exciting to watch her grow of course and is another sign of the baby years slipping away. 

My big girl is so cute with her curly pigtails Ms Sarah (pronounced by Clair as warwa) gets in her hair but mommy can not!

Happy kids or kids that don't take responsibility?

I walked around to the backyard the other day while taking a phone call and was greeted by a beautiful spring green long decorated with colors of plastic toys everywhere.

I finished my call after admiring the nice crystal clear pond water in the luxury of the green coming in in the backyard. I looked around at the toys everywhere and couldn't help but wonder is this the backyard of happy kids or is this the backyard of spoiled kid you don't have to take responsibility to clean up their toys. I think David and I fall on opposite sides of the answer to that question.

Max absolutely loves having all these tools that he does things with across the yard. He is a busy, busy boy.

Big girl things

Ellie is growing and more and more mature. She needs me to recognize this and find ways to show her I see her as grown up. It is cute. I love watching her grow. 

She suggested taking a picture of me with the Easter eggs today. She snapped this one. 

"Eep Moma"

Clair's big girl bed opened the door to me crawling into bed with her. Right after she got it this happened a lot, but then not very much for a while. About a week ago it started up again with a night of pitty during a sickness. 

For the past many nights, Clair tries hard to get me to lay down with her at bedtime. She taps the back of her hand hard on the second pillow and proclaims sternly "eep Mama!"

I tell her no at bedtime because I have chores to do and things to accomplish. So she finally falls asleep. However, usually around 1230am when I've settled into my bed nicely she starts screaming loudly for mommy!  When I get there I get what we refer to as the tap down- backhand to the second pillow "eep mama."  Protesting is futile and quite frankly I will do anything to get back to sleep as I'm exhausted.  So I crawl into bed and eep!

If I ever try to sneak out later when I think she's asleep she wakes instantly and protests. At times she's gone as far as to throw herself on top of me to make me stay. Or, if I sit up she jumps up and crawls into my lap to hold her and fusses until I lay back down or take her with me. 

She is a mamas girl for sure and knows how to work it. 

She even rolls over to me when I'm laying there, puts her arm around me, snuggles close face to face and smiles while she says "mamas girl!"  She works the system. And I have to admit I like it sometimes. :)

Poor Ellie bean

Tonight, at the third softball practice of the season, I hit Ellie in the face with a softball. It was horrible. There was blood everywhere. In her mouth, and a per nose down her nose on her face everywhere, there was blood.  

I was horrified that I hurt her that way, and thankful for another mother who was there with a calm voice and knew what to do. It makes me cringe thinking about this each time. 

Ellie is brave, she handled this so well!  She Did what she was told rinsing out her mouth, and not freaking out when the gobs of blood went into the sink. It Took her nose about 15 minutes to stop bleeding, and then it bled again tonight in the shower.

I tossed the ball harder underhand than I normally do, and probably too hard for how close I was to Ellie. She was paying attention, but did not react fast enough. I feel horrible for her. We agreed were getting her a facemask. I don't want her to be scared of the ball.

Sadly, two other teammates were also hit in the face with the ball in five minute intervals following Ellies accident. It was a sad night on the softball field.

Ellie is tucked into bed, and forgives me gracefully. I love that little girl. I hope we can get over this and move on.

Maxs first tball practice

I'm not sure if Max is really all that excited to play T-ball. I think he preferred to have the time regularly spent playing at the park. But nonetheless, we signed him up so he's playing. Today was his first practice. 

You can tell I haven't done as good at preparing him to play ball as others have done. He has some very patient coaches who took a lot of time trying to teach him how to throw a baseball. It was really sweet. He was done after about the first 15 minutes, but he stayed there because all the other kids did. It was a cold day. I hope when it warms up he has more fun.

He wasn't bad it hitting. I'm excited for this opportunity for him and I hope he enjoys it. It's his first organize sports team.