Success

We planted a garden this spring.  And it has been a struggle keeping it alive.  We can't figure out if we're not watering enough or watering too much.  Every time one of our plants flowers, the flower drops off a few days later.  They start looking yellow and then the leaves start to wilt in the heat.  We were starting to lose hope.  Until...

Yes, friends, that is a tomato.  It may be the only tomato we get, but hey, I count it as SUCCESS.  I think I'll name him...  Timmy.

Baby Daredevil

Brielle seems to be training for a career as a stunt woman.  This week she has managed to:

Eat a fly.  See earlier post.

Crawl out of her crib.  Don't ask me how she did it; I still can't figure it out.  At 6:30 Monday morning, we heard a big thump followed by Brielle wailing.  We rushed upstairs.  Mark was faster than me, and beat me to her room.  He came out carrying Brielle and told me, "She was on the floor."  Somehow she had managed to get over the top of her crib and drop to the floor.  Luckily, no bumps or bruises.

Fall down the stairs.  First, I guess we should say that she learned to climb the stairs.  She crawls up the first four stairs and that's as far as she gets.  She was only on the second stair, so thankfully she didn't have far to fall.

Split her lip.  Two minutes after she fell down the stairs, she was playing in the kitchen.  In her attempt to grab the hand towel from the stove handle, she lost her balance, fell against the vent at the bottom of the stove, scraped her top gum up and split her lip.  I about fainted when I saw all that blood gushing from her mouth.  It ended up looking worse that it actually was.

Where was I for all these accidents you ask?  I promise that I'm an attentive mother, and I wasn't more than a few feet away for most of these.  She's just too fast for me to catch all the time!

Real Mothers

Real Mothers don't eat quiche; they don't have time to make it.
Real Mothers know that their kitchen utensils are probably in the sandbox.
Real Mothers often have sticky floors, filthy ovens and happy kids.
Real Mothers know that dried playdough doesn't come out of shag carpets.
Real Mothers don't want to know what the vacuum just sucked up.
Real Mothers sometimes ask "why me?" and get their answer when a little voice says,
"because I love you best".
Real Mothers know that a child's growth is not measure by height or years or grade . . .
it is marked by the progression of Mama to Mommy to Mom.

I read this yesterday, and felt so much better about the piles of laundry on the floor, my kitchen floor that desperately needs to be mopped, and the toys scattered all over my house.  It means that my child is happy!  I'm thankful to be a mom, and doubly thankful for a mom who taught and loved me.  Happy Mother's Day!

I Don't Know Why She Swallowed a Fly

Well, it was bound to happen one of these days.  I knew that one day when my back was turned, Brielle would find something on the floor that would look interesting.  And she would wonder what it tasted like.  So she would put it in her mouth.  And after a few minutes, I would notice and fish it out.  I just didn't think that today would be the day.  And I didn't think the morsel of choice would be... a FLY!  (GROSS!!!!!!)  I was thoroughly disgusted.  I don't even know how or where she found it.  She couldn't pick one of the brownie crumbs or the blade of grass lying on the mat by the back door.  Nope.  She went for the nastiest thing she could find.  An hour later, I'm still gagging.

On the other hand, kudos to my child for being coordinated enough to put the thing in her mouth by herself...

Trip to the Pool

Today was Brielle's first trip to the pool.  She LOVED it!  She had so much fun splashing around in the little fountains and baby pool.  She didn't even care when the water sprayed right in her face.  I think the pool will be a popular hang-out for us this summer.