Spoiled

I realize that Mother's Day can be a sensitive and touchy holiday for some.  But for me, I just revel in getting spoiled for the day.  While I am far from the perfect mom, I am trying dang hard.  And I love and cherish my role as a mother.  And the three great kids that get to be the recipients of my attempts.  Here's how they took care of me this year:

*For our date the night before, Andrew took me swing dancing.  LOVED that.  We had an hour-long lesson followed by a dance where we got to practice our East Coast Jitterbug.

It was fun!

And I'm afraid we already forgot all our moves.

*Whitney (with a little help from Caroline) made me a giant chalk drawing Mother's Day card. 

She describes me as

clean,

yummy,

 

cool,

(love that she included my beauty mark!)

fun,

(because I play video games)

 

 and brave.

(she says I helped rescue her in the ocean...)

And Care Bear added this portrait of me.

in pigtails.

with eyelashes.

During Activity Days at church, Whit made me this corsage.

I learned about a Southern tradition.

On Mother's Day, you are supposed to give your mom 

a red flower if her mother is still living.

And a white one if her mother has passed away.

We've lived here for nine years and I'm finally

properly accessorized for the holiday.

During primary, the kids colored these flowers:

Here's what they had to say about me:

My mom makes the best...

B: Italian salad

W: Bacon

C: Cheese

My favorite thing to do with my mom is...

B:  summer school and road trip

W:  walk

C:  play games

My mom is good at...

B:  cooking

W:  art

C:  painting

My mom is as beautiful as...

B:  An Uncle Tone Painting (when I first read this, I thought it said I was as beautiful as Uncle Tone.  That was confusing.)

W: a flower

C: a bird

My Mom teaches me...

B:  How to be nice

W:  Math

My Mom loves me because...

B:  she is my friend

W:  she loves me

I love my Mom because...

B:  she is awesome

W:  she's my Mom.

The girls also brought home gifts they made at school.

Whit made me breakfast in bed!

(which Andrew had already planned, so I got two days in a row!)

Care Bear gave me a candle holder.

Andrew made a yummy lasagna dinner

And I got cheesecake for dessert.

And a fabulous book for my gift.

 It was a wonderful day.

Thanks, you guys!

20/20

We had Whit's annual eye exam with Dr. Buckley recently.  We were THRILLED to hear that her vision is excellent!  She is seeing 20/20 in both of her eyes.  Yippee! 

I was thinking back to some of our first visits at the Duke Eye Center.

Look how little she was!

Two-year-old Whit and her then-crush Dr. Buckley

The patching, surgeries, and visits seemed never-ending.  I was afraid my little girl would never have normal vision.   I was afraid the first thing people would notice about her would be her not-quite-aligned eyes.  I worried about how that would affect her education, her range of choices for sports and activities, her ability to make friends. It consumed my mind and stressed me out.  It was terrifying.

 Fast forward six years....

Dr. Buckley hasn't aged a bit.  :)

At this point in our lives, Duane's Syndrome feels like a thing of the past.  While it is a congenital disorder and has no "cure", the symptoms are barely visible in Whit.  She is thriving in school, both academically and socially.  I don't feel like she is limited in any way by her eyesight.  We've come a long way.  And I'm so grateful for the access she had to Dr. Buckley and his life-changing surgeries.

At the end of her appt, he said, "Come back in a year or two."  We'll take two, thank you very much.

Everybody jump!

The loft is still an enigma.  I've already changed my mind about having the Wii up there.  Not nearly enough room for dance parties with my girlfriends.  Right now I'm thinking it will just be a little seating area with a bookshelf.  We can hang out, play board games, read, just enjoy the peacefulness that always abounds in our home....Ok now you know I'm dreaming.

In the meantime, while I continue my sofa-hunting adventures, this is the most common use for the loft.

Let me know if you want to come over and jump off the stairs with us.

 I'd be happy to take pictures of you, too.

What April looks like

 

 

Out of the Mouths of Babes--April

4/6--Out of the blue, Caroline informed us that, "If I had a pony with yellow hair and polka dots, I'd name it Bright Sun."

4/7--Deep thoughts by Whitney:  "I wonder what it feels like to be a pile of dirt."

Future (current?) philosopher

4/8--Sitting around the dinner table tonight, Andrew was telling the kids that if I was a Disney Princess, I would be Belle. "Your mom is beautiful, has brown hair, loves to read..."  Brandon piped in, "...she married a beast!"  Hilarious!

 Love his quick wit.

4/9--Whit wrote this song, "Yellow, yellow bananas.  Oh, how I hate you.  You make my mouth feel like it's on fire."

4/12--When we were lying on the beach today, I asked Caroline to tell me a story.  Here's what she came up with, "Once upon a time there was two potatoes.  They went to a restaurant.  The cooker saw them and chopped them in half.  The end."

 There's a morbid side behind that sweet face.

Her stories ALWAYS end in death.

4/13--Whitney told everyone at the beach house, "I have three talents:  I'm an artist.  I'm double-jointed. And I have REALLY big tonsils."

4/16--Gigi and Grandpa were getting ready to take the kids to a movie this afternoon.  Caroline said, "I want a drink at the movies."  Gigi told her, "Maybe if you can use some magic words."  C said, "I want a drink abradooki!"

 I don't think those were the magic words she was looking for.

4/18--When we shop at Michael's craft store, Care Bear loves to spend time playing with the plastic animals.  Today she was looking at a toy alligator with babies on its back.  I made a comment about it being a mommy alligator.  She said, "He's not a mommy.  He's a boy because he doesn't have eyelashes."

4/26--We spent time with a friend yesterday who is allergic to cats.  We don't have allergies in our home and I'm not even sure if Caroline had heard that word before, much less understood its meaning.  But this morning during breakfast she announced, "Mom, I'm electric to dolphins."

If any grandparents were thinking of sending her

a pet dolphin for her birthday, please remember,

she's electric to them.

4/26--C's latest career aspiration, "Mom, guess what?  When I grow up, I'm going to be an Ice Cream Man.  And when I'm all out of popsicles and ice cream, I'll have a backyard.  With a lake. And ducks. And a playground." 

I didn't know this shirt was going to be the

start of a career path for her.

4/28--Care Bear was watching the NBA playoffs with Andrew and Brandon this afternoon.  They showed a close up of Dwyane Wade and she said, "I never knew that boys had eyelashes!"

 If you look *really* close, you can see them.

4/30--Caroline drew all over the face of her Rapunzel doll.  (Boo.)  She held her up and had Rapuzel say, "Arrrrrr!  I'm the dolly roger!"

 Apparently all the pirate dolls are getting tattoos,

all over their faces.

4/30--In the bath tonight, Care Bear told her daddy, "I like my armpits.  They are pits...but not lava pits."

 A girl and her armpits.

(Note the lack of lava.)

RANDOM PHOTOS OF THE MONTH

I feel like this could be some sort of object lesson
with the "DO NOT ENTER" and "WRONG WAY" signs
right in front of them.

Whitney has such sweet friends.

Makes my heart happy to find notes like these

in her backpack.

LOVE this pic.

Andrew found a snack  snake in the common area
behind our backyard.  Yikes!
(Thanks for the heads up on my typo, Grandpa!)

Upside down girl!

How Caroline shops for carpet.

One night, when I went to check on the girls before bed,
I found their princess castle like this...

and Caroline asleep in the bottom.

Silly girl.

Duck toupees:  the latest in duck fashion