I had a Baby, One Year Ago Today.

Today my baby girl turns one!
Oh Delilah. ( No, she's not named for the Plain White T's song "Hey there, Delilah" )
She's just Delilah, and she's the smallest blue-eyed girl in this crazy family. Today she turns one!
It's such a cliche' to say, but where did the time go? I feel like every year the time speeds by faster.

When I was kid I remember sitting in my kitchen, waiting to go to a Halloween Party for Andrea Johnston. I think I was a kitty. My mom had painted whiskers on my face and I sat in the kitchen, waiting for the party.
"Mom, when do we get to leave?"
"When the big hand is here ( points ) and the small hand is here."
UGH! REALLY?! THAT'S FOREVER!
So, I did what any kid would do... sat and watched the clock tick by the minutes. Staring it down, hoping that by doing so I could somehow harness the force and make it go faster.
I think that it was only like 45 minutes or something that I had to wait; but that might have well been 5 hours as far as I was concerned.

Why can't time be like that anymore? 45 minutes? That is how long it takes for me to get myself and three kids prepared to leave my house. 45 minutes? That's nothing! I blink and 45 minutes has passed me by.
Maybe its because my time is more precious these days. Maybe its because the time is more meaningful and I spend it doing more than just sitting, staring, and literally counting the minutes as they tick by.
I have so much more to do these days, and what seems like so much less time in order to do it all in.

Delilah turns one today, and it feels like she was born yesterday.
Just like yesterday when Andy and I took the girls to his parents to spend the night, and we went to eat dinner one last time as a couple who had only two children; soon to enter the world as parents of three. We would soon be outnumbered by our kids.

It hasn't really gone away in the blink of an eye. I have cherished and held every moment in my heart of the past year. She has gone from a tiny infant, barely able to do anything, to a walking and talking little person. She eats solid food and drinks from a sippy cup and walks, runs and gives high-fives. She laughs at things that are funny. She smiles at people, and scowls at them when she's examining them. She dances and sings. She beats her sisters right back when they get too rough with her. She loves fruit and vegetables. She doesn't like her drinks too cold. She only like to cuddle when she gets hurt and thinks she can do it all on her own. She doesn't need your help, so independent. She talks alll the time, baby talk right now with some words thrown in here and there, like: mama, dada, oma, bang, lilah, baba, hi, and byebye.
What seems like yesterday when this tiny baby came into our lives... today stands a rambunctious little person capable of great things.

Happy Birthday, Delilah. I promise not to blink to miss anything. I'm sure it won't go by too fast for you, but it already is going by too fast for me.

                                                                     Delilah Eileen

The Small Stuff

We all have bad days.
I feel like sometimes the bad days are really bad.
And when I mean a bad day, I mean when the kids have trashed the house, I need to do so many household chores, no one is bathed, I haven't even gotten out of my pajamas, the kids won't eat and are yelling and being clingy, someone peed on something or threw up on me.... and the list goes on.
These are the days when I really just want to go sit in the bath tub and take a mommy time out for myself.
Does anyone else ever feel like they need a time out for themselves?
When this happens I just have to take some deep breaths and count to ten and recompose myself.
Sometimes that doesn't always work.
When it doesn't, I just keep on keeping on... and keep on doing what I need to do in order to make it through the day in one piece.
Often I tag my husband when he gets home. You know, Tag! You're it! So that I may retire somewhere for 5 minutes of me time, whatever that may be.

Last week I was having a particularly bad day. My husband was on a business trip and had been gone for two days; with the prospect of impending snow canceling traveling looming over our heads. Turns out, his flight got cancelled and he was unable to come home. Awesome. Now to explain to my 4 and 2.5 year old daughters that even though I promised Daddy was coming home tonight, now he isn't. Parent Fail.

But that's not the point here.
That was a bad day, and I had no one to tag to get a peaceful moment to myself. It was starting to build up a little bit. At one point I sat down on the floor in my daughter's room and I'm sure was staring blankly off into space. One would not put their shoes on, the other wouldn't put her socks on and one was screaming bloody murder because one pushed her.
My middle child took this opportunity to come sit on my lap and smoosh my face towards hers. ( She does this now so that she can make sure you're looking at her when she talks to you )
She smooshed my face with her little hands and looked right into my eyes and said : "Mommy, be happy."
I smiled, and laughed. I so wasn't in a place to do that at that moment, but I did. Those teeny little hands and those adorable chipmunk cheeks! She smiled the biggest smile and I smiled even harder.
Then, after she was done smiling at me, she turned back around and did it again. This time she said : "Mommy, I Yike You."
My heart hurts right now even talking about it. Every ounce of tension and anxiety that had been building up inside of me went away at that exact moment.
I gave her a huge hug and said "Mommy yikes you, too Georgia. I love you."
It was something really small that made such a huge impact.
Yep. Maybe it wasn't such a bad day after all.

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The girls, waiting for Daddy to come home!