Enjoyment

Jillian was coming down off her birthday high and had one of her crankiest days of all time today! She woke up on the wrong side of the bed and it was downhill from there. Needless to say, I was beyond eager to get her into bed tonight. As she took her bath I was hustling around the house spraying Lysol and trying to get things situated so that once she was in bed, I could just relax. I popped my head in to see if she was ready to get out - but she wasn't. So I started to rush off to continue doing who-knows-what (oh, I know - laundry, I am always doing laundry) when she gestured toward the toilet and hit me with..."Mom! Can't you just sit down and enjoy me?" Well goodness gracious. Who could turn down an offer like that? Especially since I hadn't "enjoyed" her all day long. So I plopped down and she told me about her mermaid and the magical, wish-granting cove under the sea. It was nice just to sit and be with her for a couple of minutes, I wish terribly it were longer, but somethings always comes up. When Brendan is in school, a few times a month Jillian, Karigan, and I have PJ days. Days that are spent in our PJs, doing whatever comes to our minds: dance, color, sing, paint, or sometimes a good cuddle and a book. Some may see this as slothful laziness because the rules are no cleaning, no errands, no phone calls, just the pure simple pleasure of my daughters' company and the fleeting chance to see the world through their eyes. We didn't have any of these days this summer, maybe once, but my memory is fuzzy, so it couldn't have been... And maybe, just maybe, Jillian has been missing these days. Goodness knows my mind has been consumed by more overwhelming matters than it is used too lately, but why is it so hard for me to just "sit down and enjoy" the little ones in my life that mean so much to me? I feel like I'm constantly rushing from one thing to the next and I never just stop and BE with them. My kids will be grown sooner than I might like. I need to "sit down and enjoy" them more. I have to remember tomorrow is not promised to anyone. The past doesn't come back and tomorrow may not come at all. Today is all we have. And so for the rest of my days and especially tomorrow, I will sit down and enjoy my kids. Or at least, I will really, really, REALLY try!

Locks of Love

Jillian received a thank you card today from Locks of Love for her hair donation. Just look at those long curls. Oh, how I miss them. As we were reminiscing about her temporarily absent locks, she reminded me that there was a little girl somewhere that needed her hair more than she did, "and besides, Mom, it will grow back."

The Suite Life of Brendan and Jillian

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Brendan and Jillian were quite comical when we arrived at the hotel. I have to admit, even I was slightly in awe over the beauty of my surroundings. And of course, Jillian was NOT speechless. She loudly, and I mean loudly, proclaimed "this is suh-weet!" Brendan added, "this is the sweet life" and then it became "the suite life of Brendan and Jillian." And that all we heard, all anyone heard from the front desk, to the elevator, to the room, to the bathroom, to the bed, to the view out the window - you get the idea, right?

Waking up TO raccoon eyes

Last summer, a gray-haired raccoon kept creeping out of the runoff drains and into the street. Rumors spread about the old guy being rabid. Neighbors said that if we saw him to call the sheriffs office, and an officer would "take care" of him. Me, being a country girl, wasn't really concerned. Mark and I told the kids what to do if they saw him. But for the most part, we just left him alone, and we haven't seen him since the end of last summer.

Then, following her daily-first-thing-when-I wake-up ritual of looking out the front window to decipher the weather, Jillian declared,

"Daddy, look at that cat!"

Well, not exactly, Jillian, but I don't think cats get more domesticated. It was a raccoon just strutting his stuff up and down the sidewalk. He didn't even flinch when I went out to take his picture. He just raised his front left paw in what seemed to be a gesture of hello. -- Now, as I am typing this entry, Mark sends me a picture message on my cell phone. He is on his way to work and is following a pest exterminator truck with a silhouette of a raccoon on the back. As soon as I get it on my email, I will post it too. Oh, the irony.

Wedding Bells with a Curly Headed Boy

Today was spent vegging out on the sofa finally watching all the glorious movies that have been piling up on our DVR. Starting with Camp Rock...afterwards, Jillian declared,

"I'm gonna find myself a curly headed boy, and I'm gonna marry him!"

All I can say is, heaven help us when she's a teenager (if the full-blown-I-like-boys years wait that long) especially with the boy crazy genes she comes from. We. are. in. for. it. Despite her unrequited love for the curly-mop Jonas brother (she and half the girl population under 14), every girl should have a innocent crush on a famous boy heartthrob at least once. So -- I thought I would check into concert tickets for her birthday. They are playing Nationwide Arena on August 23, and da-ta-da, the only tickets left are in the nose bleed section for $60 or some Citibank promotional ticket for $1000 (no, I did not accidentally type an extra zero.) Next stop - Ebay.

Hey Brendan, How's your vision?

They say pictures are worth a thousand words. This one is worth about nine.

Mom, I can't see out of my glasses anymore.

Mommy, a hot air balloon is going to land in the backyard!

Unfortunately, it did not, but we were hoping. It was so close the kids were having a conversation with the people in the basket. A small creek and nature preserve is located about 300 feet behind our house (the tree line in the background of the top picture). In the second picture, the balloon barely cleared the trees.

Kids Say...

I have never really had one of those mommy moments where I wished I was a turtle and could just poke my head inside my shell and disappear, that is, until the other day at WalMart...

I was trying to get some last minute shopping completed for Karigan's birthday. Rushing through the aisles, I was pulling the kids along as they were struggling to keep a hold of the side of the basket. As we came upon the baby section, a gentleman was waiting for us to pass so he could enter. Then, out of nowhere, Jillian LOUDLY proclaims...

Look Mommy, that guy is a DORK.

What am I supposed to say to that? Where did she even hear that word (Russell Hale!!!) Anyway, a long diatribe in the middle of the grocery store about the rudeness of her statement was more than what was necessary because, honestly, she did not know nor understand the gravity of her statement. Instead, I managed to pull out some sort of Mommy wisdom that sounded a little like...

Jillian, just because someone looks differently than we do, doesn't mean he is a dork.

Perhaps, in this instance I should have said simply - just because one's body works differently than yours doesn't mean he is a dork - as he wheeled himself in behind us.