What's Growing Around Here

Chives

Strawberries

The Garden

Peas

The Willow

Girls

Bonfire

We had our first of the season last night.

Here's the Micah Ninja. He's taken to wearing this scarf as a sheaf for his pirate sword.

Ayla had princess curls. They were piled on top of her head in the morning, but by afternoon were starting to slip & fade a bit.

This photo is a good example of the attitude she had all day.

And here's the sweet baby enjoying her first bonfire. It seems so hard to believe that she will ever be sporting an attitude. Gotta soak up all her innocent sweetness while we can!

Choosing What Is

I think Micah is working on some kind of Mother's Day project for me. He had a pen & paper & was busy asking me all kinds of questions the other night. They were mostly along the lines of my favorite color & favorite food. I've been thinking a lot since then. Like lets say that someday he gets married & has his own kids, but for some reason I was gone already. What is one thing I would really like him to know about me? Or what kind of parental advice would I wish I'd have given? I do hope I have lots of parenting years ahead of me. I also realize that my advice will change a bit through the years. However, when I look back to my early parenting years I feel regretful of how much effort I put into being a perfect parent.

Micah was a textbook perfect baby. He was so sweet & happy. He napped well on his own. He slept through the night. When he got a bit older he mostly did what I told him. Even potty training him was fairly fast & easy. So you see I thought I was actually accomplishing perfect parenting or something close to it anyway.

Then I got pregnant with Ayla. I should have realized as I spent most of my time either puking or sleeping that things weren't going to be quite the same the second time around. You really think I'd have realized it when she came a whole 4 weeks early with a few complications. However, it really didn't start dawning on me until a week later when she got to come home. This baby cried all the time. This baby did not sleep. This baby had to be held all the time. This baby didn't do anything the way I thought she should. I was still trying to be the perfect parent with the perfect house & life. I kept trying to figure out what I was doing wrong, because there had to be some way to "fix" things.

The sad fact is that I can barely remember anything about Ayla before 9 months of age. It took me that long to really bond with her. When she was 9 months old I finally read this book when my dear sister-in-law mailed it to me. Then I finished up this program that I had started when I was first pregnant with Ayla.

Finally I had an epiphany. I was not choosing my daughter & my life as it was. I was resisting everything that actually was because it didn't fit into the "perfect" life I had imagined. So to make a long story short (too late) my biggest piece of parenting advice would be to enjoy what is while it is, because life flys by far too fast. Also, there is no one way to be a good parent (perfect is an impossibility). What advice do you want to leave your kids with?

Scene From This Afternoon

The scene: Ayla runs into the house holding a Frisbee & looking slightly wild-eyed.

Ayla: Mom?!

Me: What, dear?

Ayla: Do birds eat people?

Me: No!

Ayla: Oh, good!

The scene: Ayla runs back outside while muttering something about not needing to be afraid of birds.

We Are Family........

I got all my cousins with me!

We drove to Omaha to see Auntie Shari & to meet up with our southern relations during the first part of spring break. After picking up a couple carloads of relatives from the airport we headed straight to the zoo. The above photo was taken in the rain forest.

We spent lots of time in the aquarium. The Omaha zoo is pretty awesome. I'd have a hard time picking my favorite part, but I think this spot ranked highly.

Some of our monkeys stood still for an instant so I could get this cute shot.

After leaving Omaha we drove up to Duluth. Nuts, huh?! It was a long day traveling, but it went well. All our kiddies were so good. As you can tell Kaia enjoyed all the extra attention she got.

This is the last day we got to spend with everyone. It was in the high 40's so a perfect day for the park, doncha know. Someone thought this photo was bad, because of the sun rays in Julie's face. That's exactly what I liked about it though! I also like that you can see a couple kids in the background.

Our little papoose.

This is the very last shot I took of our time together. Everyone is safely back home & it's back to reality tomorrow, unfortunately.

This Week's Photo

Kaia with "Simon Says"

Can you guess who accidentally called him that?!

Welllllll

This week didn't go quite as planned blogging wise. I had several post ideas running through my head that never came to fruition. I wanted to post a photo of Ayla's own personal pig-stye. I've just been wondering if anyone else out there has a kids room that is so messy it makes you cringe. If so, what do you do about it? I'm tired of cleaning it up. When I make her do it she just moves the piles to the edges of the room. Or she stuffs it all in the closet & behind her dresser. How do you teach kids to clean? I haven't quite figured out the secret yet.

I also wanted to photograph our recent supper of grilled burgers, potato fries & salad. We grill all year round, but Wednesday's supper seemed more exciting. Maybe because it is actually starting to feel more like Spring than Winter!

I looked through Micah's old baby photos recently & found several where he looks a lot like his baby sister. I wanted to post some photos of both of them, but here it is Friday & I have no time left! We are about to embark on our spring break adventure. The first part of which involves an 8 hour car trip. * Shudder * I picked up the Chronicles Of Narnia on CD yesterday & I'm hoping that it helps to keep the peace. Wish us luck!

I have a cute photo from yesterday to post, but I've misplaced my camera. As soon as I find it I'll put it up. Have a great week, not sure when I'll have time to post again!