Time Flies!

It's already 2009! most of us are in the midst of making and already breaking new year's resolutions. I am still reeling from the fact that it is already 2009!!! I can remember clearly and vividly days in 2008. I remember them as if they were yesterday and now you are telling me that these "yesterday moments" were a year ago? six months ago?

The feeling that the days and weeks are whizzing by is so distinct that I set to wondering and asking people if they are feeling the same way. Some offer that "we're getting old" (please! you may be, but I'm not!). Others offer that we are more conscious of our time because there's so much to do now ( "now" as in "we're older" - what's with all this conversation about age anyway?)

I've decided that it's the boys fault. Yes! it's Repeat and Shortie's fault. Repeat is 2 years and 9months and Shortie is 15 months old. Shortie started walking in November so its his fault for sure. I mean he was just all swaddled and curled up on the sofa just last ... well ... maybe it was several months ago but still ... okay ... but Repeat is using the potty now, so if it's not Shortie's fault it's Repeat's!... yeah that's right it's Repeat's fault. I can remember when they were born! I can remember when they were measure in inches long, not inches tall !

Children, I've determined, make time fly. They make us notice the days passing and the months accumulating as we watch them develop and grow and learn. As we watch them move from Babbling to repeating to full on sentences. From cuddling-crawling-cruising to walking. It's their fault I tell you!

This year will be different! It will go slower! Because I've decided that I'll just join them. I'll be more like them. I will wake up each morning excited by the possibilities of the day. I will be glad to see those close to me. I will look forward to learning something new each day. I will bring things home just because they looked interesting (I won't hesitiate thinking about where it will go or if it goes with anything else in the house)

Then possibly like them I won't notice. Or at least if I do I won't care!

Christmas 2008 with ALL my Children!!!

Repeat was so pleased with his train table that
he played with it all day!

DD is clearly pleased with her gift from her hubby!

Shortie getting help from Daddy.

DS and DDnL explaining Wii to me.

DDnL is happy with her gift from her hubby too!

Two-s - Day - to -do

Two small things for my ever increasing To-do List

1- go to as many different beaches as possible.

2- plant flowers in my DD's and DSnL's the garden (side yard or pathway -grin) of their first home

Thank you!

When my son was a toddler I began saying "thank you" every time I gave him something and every time he gave me something. Over and over and over. unlike now there was no Internet, Google wasn't a word much less verb ( I'll just google it!) so I didn't really know when or if he would get it.

One day I was in a children's store window shopping and the clerk (a much older grandmother type) came over to speak to us ( well really to him) . She asked and I agreed that she could give him a cookie. He blinked a few times (his brain processing, processing) and then he said "tank ouu". The clerk was so shocked(!) (me too actually!) that she ran and got the other clerk, told her to "watch this" and offered my son another cookie ( no she didn't ask first) Again my son blinked a few times (processing, processing) and repeated "tank oouu". I was so proud! They refused to believe it and went for the bag of cookies (!) offering him cookie after cookie until I had to tell them to stop!

Never had I been so proud of another person's accomplishment! Thank you , DS!

half full? half empty?

Some years ago someone I knew felt that you could tell a lot about a person by the way they answered the question "Is this glass half full or half empty?" when I was presented with the question I replied " it depends". Instantly frustrated this person tried to force my answer by repeating the question " Is this glass half full or half empty?" Puzzled by their frustration particularly since the point was that my asnwer would reveal a lot about me I just repeated my answer "It depends" . Finally they asked "depends on what?" "On whether you poured half the water in or poured half the water out."

Because this person thought there were only two possible answers to the question they were not prepared for another possiblity and so they failed to see that although my answer was not one of the original two it still told you something about me (which was in fact their original premise).

The way we experience the world is determined by what happened before. Approaching the glass (or a person) as if we knew the present the circumstance without the previous story is limiting ( if not judgemental)... at least the way I see it.

So I guess they were right in a way...my answer to the question does tell you a lot about me!

Two-s - Day - vacation

Two vacation things I'd like to do soon...

1- vacation on an exotic beach without feeling like I have to cover some (or all) of my body... you know feeling too fat or some non-productive feeling like that.

2- Go to Disney World with Repeat and Shortie (their parents can come too!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Dear Son!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR SON!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!!

I LOVE YOU VERY MUCH!!
MOMMY

Birthday Memories

My two children are 23 months and 2 weeks apart...My DS's birthday --which is tomorrow December 7--comes after my DD's even though he's the oldest. As adults we think nothing of this. But children particularly young children just don't quite get it. Of course, I know this now but not when they were the "particularly young children that just don't get it".



One year when they were young, very young children --and when I had less than enough money (was there ever a year when that wasn't true?) I decided to hold their b-day parties together. I figured it was a good idea rather than invite the same family members and friends to another gathering just two weeks away. So I had their b-day celebrations together. I let them each invite their own friends. I ordered a cake for each one of them. (DD's was a Barbie cake and DS' was ET - you know the Extra Terrestial?) We sang "happy birthday" twice - once for each of them. So you can surely see that I was treating them as individuals right? WRONG! When my DS's b-day rolled around two weeks later, he wanted to know when his party was going to be. There was no explaining that his party had been on the same day as his sister's party - that he and his sister had celebrated together. He didn't get it that the two cakes, the two songs, the two sets of friends, meant two parties. I guess in his mind two parties also meant two days!



Maybe it was because it wasn't near his birthday...geez what's two weeks?! Maybe it was because it was before DD's birthday ...which if you think about it (apparently only if you think about it as an adult) it was also before his...but whatever the reason ...he felt for quite some time that he didn't have a party that year.

What can I say? I tried.

the Way I See It...Continuing Education

The way I see it learning or continued education is not an option. It cannot be something that we decide to do only if we have a degree to maintain or a license to keep. Continuing our education is not really a choice if we are to be connected, loving human beings. Maybe it is already clear that I think this as you witness my struggle with blogging and h-t-m-l codes and Thursday Thirteen formats. but what I want -no need -to make clear is that we each continue to have something to learn from each other.


While I am not old, I am also not young (at least by our society's standards) and what I am noticing is that there really are many, many other ways to do things. Not that I didn't know this before. It is just amazing to witness and experience. Let me tell you this as an example. At the place where I worship there is a young women "2Ks" who I watch interact with people who are not only different from her but often hostile. She is a gem. I'm not sure that I'd ever get to be as good as she. I watch her walk up to people she doesn't know and welcome them and start talking. I so wish!



I know that I may never do it as well or as easily as she but I can try to get there and in the getting there I will be closer to it than I would be if I never tried. not clear? pay attention and learn. don't be like a two year old struggling and fighting saying "I do it" ...clearly your way (nor my way) is not the only way...at least not the way I see it...

Two-s - Day - travel

Two places I'd like to go soon...

1- Alberquque, New Mexico for the fiesta hot air balloon festival in October...(but I'm planning a hot air balloon ride for my birthday so maybe that'd be enough we'll see.)

2- West Africa for a month (but I'd go even if it was only two weeks!)