heyMamas

Happy Mother's Day

I hope all the Mother's in the world who work tirelessly, day in and day out with almost no thanks at all.....had a chance yesterday to be doted on, even if it only lasted for five minutes and even if it was self induced doting.  

Happy Mother's Day!!

This was what I had to show for my Mother's Day before we headed out to two different back to back sporting events on two totally different parts of Long Island along with a side excursion to Ikea because that can't be a bad thing.

{Lily made me this tiny plant holder which says, "Mom, my love blooms for you..."  Precious.}

 

{This is the view from the top of the plant holder.} 

{Lily's card, which cracked me up for a few different reasons, the biggest being that she painted my nails red which would NEVER, EVER happen.} 

{Belle's card which I loved, especially the face to the side of the big heart with arms and legs.  What is that?}

{Lily gave me this amazing paper weight which gave me a laugh because do people even use paperweights any more?  Do people even have paper on their desks anymore??  I sure as shit don't.}

{And last but not least, Belle gave me this picture frame because Duh, I am the coolest Mom in the world.}

Much love to all your Mother's!  Rock on!!

Parent Teacher Conferences

It happens every time without fail, we head into the parent teacher conferences with Belle and Lily's teachers and when the teacher starts saying wonderful things about my girls, a giant lump begins to form in my throat. 

 

This lump and trying to keep it at bay, actually hurts.

 

What usually happens is, the lump sits in my throat and I try for the rest of the conference to not break down, and because I am concentrating so hard on not breaking down, I end up missing all of the wonderful comments and stories about their behavior in class.  

 

This time, I tried to stay in the moment, ignored the lump and absorbed everything the teacher said.

 

 

Belle, your teacher said you were a wonderful person and had no idea how beautiful you were inside and out.  She said you wrote a poem that day and the last line of the poem was... I am unstoppable.

 

You are so right.  You are unstoppable.  You need a TON of encouragement and prodding to get things started, but once you hit your stride, you are unstoppable.

 

 

Lily, your teacher said you exemplified excellence in just about everything you do. She told us stories of how everyone always wants to sit near you or be next to you and you always manage to accommodate everyone while hurting no one.

 

After both conferences, I met you guys out in the hallway and practically suffocated you with my hugs. I was so full of pride in that moment and vowed to myself the next time I got mad at you and thought you were rotten little eggs, I would remember all the beautiful things your teachers said about you both. 

 

I even promised manicures.

 

Barely Forty and Already Slacking

I haven't logged into blog {that rhymes}, since the day after I turned forty which was over two weeks ago.  I haven't checked any of my favorite blogs either except for one or two cheeky gossip blogs while eating lunch at work and have barely even read the news. 

First I was sick.  Really sick.  So sick I called in sick.  And I never do that, but it felt good and the three days that I just layed around in bed all day were actually really great.  The next few days after that, that I was still sick but didn't call in sick, were not so fun.  But I think I finally am starting to feel better.

Work has been crazy.  So crazy that I read my personal emails and am simply too tired to even respond to my friends.  This is not good.  

Whenever I think about just taking a long break from blogging and just enjoying my nights, I get an email from someone like Ela, who says she reads my blog religiously and then I feel compelled to keep going. 

Compelled and guilt for having started this as a love letter to my girls, and what would they think if I stopped after three years.....

Who knows what the future holds, but for now I will try to stay focused on my girls and continue to capture all the special and magical things they do so I can taunt them with them later in life!

And thanks Ela and everyone else that reads and enjoys my blog, for motivating me to get my ass in front of my computer when it would rather be laying face down in my bed.

Joining the Club

Welcome to the Club!!

I must have heard that phrase five times yesterday, all said by completely different people.  The club that I joined was the Forty Plus Club.

Mentally, leaving my thirties behind has not been the easiest transition, but I had a great day filled with tons of loving birthday wishes from family and friends and it was such an awesome feeling.

I don't remember anyone saying welcome to the club when I turned thirty, and I totally get it now.  There's something about turning forty, coming to grips with the fact that time is passing and you simply can't escape it, no matter how much you want to, because in your mind and your heart you are still only twenty-eight.

That's my number, twenty-eight.  That's how old I feel.  I was twenty-eight when I got married and that was a great age, and that's how old I feel. 

The welcome to the club thing, was like a light bulb that just went off for me yesterday. How could this light bulb feeling have happened so quickly?  That I can't tell you, but now I just get it.

I get that IT, is a rite of passage for every single person that has passed this milestone.  Every single person that feels twenty-eight, but the years say forty, and that is THE ONLY real proof that you are forty.

I haven't been asked how old I am yet, so I haven't had the chance to say forty and truthfully I need a little more time with this one before I fully embrace it, but I will get there.

One thing I have learned in my first forty years, is that getting older is weird, even if you do it gracefully and don't mind it, it is weird.  Your body changes, your face changes, spots begin to appear where they were never spots before, things sag, recovering from events is harder, cookies stay on your hips longer....

It is weird. 

One of my goals for the next decade is to slow down, to enjoy my life and where I am in it so I don't feel like it all went too fast, but rather at just the right speed.

Social Juggling

I would not be exaggerating if I told you that I spent half of my day yesterday organizing my girls social calendars.

 

Every Friday I have five or six entries listed on my Outlook calendar that give me a sneak peak into what lies ahead for that weekend. Belle usually has a lacrosse game, a soccer game and an extra lacrosse practice with a different team.  Lily has a soccer game and a lacrosse practice and each event is usually on the complete opposite end of the island, at the same time.  

 

This week, Drew and I started planning out how we could manage the logistics on Monday morning.  How does this happen when I only have two kids.  How on earth do people manage it with three or four kids?

 

And then, factor in the added pressures of scheduling playdates. 

 

I offered up either April 30th or May 13th as potential dates that could work for a sleepover to one of Belle's friends.  When I sent the email to her Mother I felt so foolish because it was further out than dates I use to plan business meetings. 

 

We are talking about two ten year olds here, and mine is fully booked on Friday and Saturday evenings until May 13th. Granted  some of those activities are family-related, but half of those are playdates or sleepovers with friends. 

 

There are weeks at a time that  Drew and I declare as playdate-free, but then I hear about all the other kids and the playdates and sleepovers they are having with each other and I feel pressure to keep up so that my girls remain in the loop.

 

I am not a pushover and I can certainly put my foot down when needed, but I have to admit that I don't want my girls to miss out socially, and I question whether that will that happen if they don't have as many playdates as other kids.

 

Do you remember when you were a kid and your group of friends had an experience that you missed out on and then they continued to talk about it like....remember that time when...... and you would say, what are you talking about?  And they would say, oh inside joke, or you had to be there.

 

Remember those phrases and how awful they left you feeling, I do.

 

Balance is key.

 

Balance is key and I am a firm believer in giving plenty of downtime to my girls so they can explore and create and think freely.  But finding the right balance is so hard and knowing what to skip and what not to skip can leave you second guessing yourself constantly. 

One thing I do know for sure is that if I put one sixteenth the amount of effort into my own social life as I do into my girls, I would be pretty freaking rocking.