Mumma's day 2012

I recently celebrated my third mother's day; the first one as a mum to two babies.

It has been a crazy year in my journey through mummahood.  Remember when we were living in a chalet at blue knob for a few months and I went a little nutty?   Remember when Greyson learned to run and destroy everything in sight and I went on a parenting boys self-help book buying spree?  Remember when we adopted a new dog when I was 9 months pregnant? Remember when I got super sick after giving birth to our little girl?  Sheesh, its been a weird and exciting year in momland.  But no matter what kind of crazy we have going on (which we've always got crazy going on), those two little faces remind me that I am not the keeper of my own heart.

It was a low key mumma's day (exactly the kind that I needed) and I was pampered all day by Brandon who did overtime making sure I didn't have to lift a finger (thanks Bud!)  We had breakfast (served by Dadda), church, and then a quick stop at the grocery store where we had a double meltdown (aka both kids at the same time).  We were at a stoplight on the way home while the kids were both crying in the back and Brandon looked at me laughing and said, "Well, happy mother's day."  Then we both started cracking up and I used my mom superpowers to sing the kids quiet for the rest of the way home.

The kids (aka Brandon) got me the most beautiful Mother's ring with the April and February birthstones of my babies.  I'm kind of in love with it.  We invited our parents over for a cookout dinner (again, Brandon on chef duty - it was all delicious).  While we waited for dinner to be ready, the mums and the kids got to work on our Mother's day project.  We made aprons!

I bought canvas aprons (they come in a 3pack from Michaels!) and some fabric paint.  Then we set to getting the kids all messy to put their handprints on our aprons.

 Once the aprons were spotted with the kids' handprints, we added their name and age to one of the prints for posterity's sake.  They looked cute enough like that, but we weren't through just yet.  Grey used fabric markers to color on the aprons to add a little more pizzazz.  And I wrote our "names" on each (aka:  Mum, Abba, and Gigi)

And for a final touch (that our moms loved), Brandon and I added our handprints to each of our mom's aprons too.

We'll see how it goes for next year, this might be a project we come back to and re-visit to keep adding handprints each year?  In any case, the aprons look adorable and it was a fun project that kept us happy and busy while we waited for our Mother's day feast.

I spent this Mumma's day feeling particularly grateful to be a mum to two healthy, happy, active babies.

My babies that smile and laugh when I make funny faces at them.  My babies that currently annoy me with their whining and pouting and not wanting to change their diapers.  These are my kids biggest pain points right now, not wanting to change their diapers and taking naps.  Sometimes my kids make me so nuts; what with my two year old's incessent whining and my 3 month old slobbering through three outfits a day, that I find myself taking deep breaths reminding myself that its almost naptime (or daddy's coming home or bedtime...whichever is the closest).  And then like a Mack truck, I'm reminded of how unbelievably lucky I am to even be able to fret about things so insignificantly small in the scheme of life.

Josh and Ashlee, a couple we went to high school with, have a baby girl about three months old, Taylor, (she was born a few weeks earlier than our Gemmi) who was born with Hydrocephalus and has been in and out of hospitals for her whole little life.  My heart aches to think of what it must be like to be a parent of a sick child, because we have been so blessed to not know anything about what that must be like.  Taylor was on her way to NC this past weekend for a cord blood infusion to hopefully help heal some of the damage from the fluid in her brain and/or her recent seizures.

Miss Tay (as her parents and family call her) has been on my mind and in my heart for the last few days.  She helped remind me this Mumma's day that maybe Mother's day isn't all about my kids saying thank you to me, but me saying thank you to the universe for giving me the chance to be their mumma.  And even though it feels really hard sometimes to be their mum, I recognize that it could be so much harder.  (happy mother's day, Ashlee.  hang in there.)

If you're interested in reading more about Miss Tay's story or donating money towards helping her and her family, please feel free to check out her page here.  If nothing else, please think of Taylor with warmth and good thoughts and send them off into the universe so that she can feel love and happiness surrounding her everyday.

happy mother's day to all the mumma's that stop by and read my blog.  Hope you all enjoyed your special day with the kids that make you crazy with frustration AND silly happy...usually at the same exact time:)