To all the baby mammas, baby mamma's mammas

That's my Mom in the middle. My Aunt next to her. They're both great.


My lovely Mother in Law, Kaye




Madeline's precious friends. Rebekah is Bo Peep's Mommy





I haven't posted much here since Halloween. Because I have been worn out. Thanksgiving is coming but feels like a more laid back "holiday" than Halloween. Next year we are doing Halloween. Period. Not Trunk or Treat, MDO Halloween Party, Saturday Halloween and Sunday Halloween. It was too much. My the time Sunday Halloween rolled around the kids didn't care. Madeline wasn't going to wear her wig, Tucker was sick of Elmo and both of them just wanted to eat their candy!

Preparation for Halloween takes effort for moms. We are the ones who care if the kids look cute. Perhaps I need to re-evaluate my expectations because my kids' only expectation is candy.

So here I want to post the phone call I made to my friend Rebekah after a particularly difficult day and I dedicate this post to all the moms out there...

Ring Ring

Rebekah: Hello?

Me: Hi, I need to tell you something and if your husband and children already tell you all of this then I am happy for you, truly, truly, happy but just in case they don't- or haven't yet- I want to tell you THANK YOU.

Thank you for always looking great. At church, at trunk or treat, whenever I get to see you you look great. You are clean, well put together, your hair is clean, you smell good, and I know how hard all of that is to accomplish. Thank you. I notice that you always look great.

I appreciate all of the effort that it took to make your kids look so incredibly precious tonight. I don't know how hard it was to get your kids dressed up in their costumes but for me it was like herding cats. Mean screaming cats. Thank you for sharing your precious children with me. I really enjoyed seeing them and they looked wonderful. They always do. They are always clean. Their hair is always brushed. Their outfits are so carefully picked out with care and love. They are polite, sweet, and wonderful and I love seeing them.

Rebekah: (Laughing) No, no one told me that tonight, thank you. I feel the same about you and your kids.

Me: Thanks. I needed that. I'm depressed tonight. It's hard to be a mom. There is a lot of work and very little thanks sometimes.


Our conversation continued for a while but you get the gist...Thank you. Thank you to all of you wonderful mothers out there who care. Thank you to my mother. I know I was exactly like Madeline and although she is the love of my life she is also my biggest challenge in life at times. I am tested every day to do the right thing. I know I did the same to my mom- so thanks mom. Thank you thank you thank you. To my mother in law- I didn't know you when your children were small but I see the care and effort you put into their lives as adults and I admire you. Thank you. Thank you for baking coconut cream pies and frying okra for Tyler because I don't know how (and don't take the time to learn). Thank you for hosting and feeding us every other Sunday and loading and unloading the dishwasher at least twice during our visits.

I am so blessed that I have the ability to buy my kids Halloween costumes and that we live in a community that hosts so many events for kids. I know I am blessed. I thank God for all the opportunities I have and the wonderful life I have. I don't mean to sound unappreciative or burdened by any of it...I just want to say thanks to all of the moms that perhaps don't hear the thanks they should. I pray that I do a good enough job that when M is 33 she might take a minute to say, "thank you."

Tucker the bully

So, Tucker has finally realized that he is big enough to 1. defend himself against his sister's "love"
2. beat her up for all of the "love" she has given him for the last 21 months.

Madeline really does love Tucker. She worries about him, wants desperately to hold him/ help with him/ take care of him. One of her little friends has a brother who is the same age as Tucker but he is smaller. Madeline's friend can pick up and hold her baby brother still. And he lets her. I think Madeline wishes she could treat Tucker like her baby. Tucker has never been much on being babied. He has always been too curious and strong to be babied.

All this leading to this-

Tuesday night Tyler had a budget meeting that would run late so I hung out with the kids staying up a little later than normal and letting Madeline eat waffles in the living room. First, Tucker stole her milk. Madeline rushed him and got it back and stuck it up high on the back of the couch so he couldn't reach it. Then he ate her waffle. It was in her lap and he just kept running over, stealing bites, and running off laughing and stuffing his mouth. Then she had to go potty. I won't get too descriptive here but she was literally defenseless with her pants down and Tucker went walking into the bathroom (I thought just because he wanted to be with her) and hit her in the face (twice) with his transformer. She started crying and Tucker ran past me as I ran in. I comforted her, calmed her down, and told Tucker to come back in and apologize. He told her he was "sawy" and kissed her on her welps. I told Madeline I would take his transformer away and take other toys away if he ever hit her on purpose again. That made her feel better- that he would have to be accountable- and we went back into the living room to join Tucker.

We found him kicked back on the couch, all by himself, looking very proud, and drinking Madeline's milk.