What's Important....

I attended a Mother's Day tea at my daughter's pre-school where I was presented with a cute little card sporting flowers made from her footprints, a paper flower with her picture in the middle and a potted flower.



Noah stumbled off the bus today toting a top secret bag that he wanted me to help him carry, wanted me to know to be careful because it was breakable but didn't want me to know what was in it until Sunday. Then, he decided I should open the card. I told him I would just wait until Sunday and he insisted I open it right away.

Inside, was a list of things about "My Mother" and he filled in the blanks with words to describe me and things about me. Here is the content of Noah's card (with my comments in red):

Five Words to Describe My Mother are:

1. funny (Yeah! I am so glad he thinks I am funny. I thought only I thought I was funny.)

2.blue eyes (at least he knows what color eyes I have now. I wrote a whole post a couple of years ago about how he thought I had brown eyes)

3.Nice (Well, okay- "stinkin' awesome" would have been better, but I am glad to know he thinks I am a nice person)
4. Dyed red hair (ummm.... welll..... d'oh!)

5.Vanilla ice cream hater (it's true- and it's funny that he made note of it)

Four Things My Mom Does Best are:

1. makes mac and cheese (I fear that his teacher thinks I whip up boxes of Kraft with great frequency. The truth is, I make homemade macaroni and cheese that Noah LOVES. Honestly, I do.)

2.play Zumba (okay- he's reaching here. I only just started Zumba. Seriously, I've only been to the class twice. Perhaps he is talking about Zumba on the Wii since he said "play Zumba" but I only ever end up getting mad at the Zumba instructor on the Wii and wishing fat rolls and awkward NON-Latin hips on her.)

3.helping with homework (I am so glad he still thinks I am good at it. The reality is I jump on Facebook a lot for help with my second grader's homework. It's HARD, y'all! I have a bachelor's degree and I have trouble with his homework. I'm going to need a PhD to get him through 8th grade and after that, he is on his own)

4. helping with Zoe (Well, "practice makes perfect" and I get A LOT of practice "helping with Zoe".)

Two of My Mom's Favorite Things to Do are:

1.read books

2. take Zoe and I places

(I will forgive him the "dyed red hair" comment for not writing "take a nap", "yell" or "Facebook/computer" here.)

My Mom Really Likes it When:

Zoe and I are nice to each other. (This one is spot on.)

Two Things I Want to Tell My Mom are:

1. Get me some more Legos!

2.Get me some more Legos! (Where's the "I love you"? "Happy Mother's Day"? Yeah... show me some love, Dude and you might get some more Legos!)

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

Mother's Day Cards and Gifts

Warning: this post is picture-heavy.

A few weeks ago, I posted a couple of pictures from a recent photo shoot. Well, I didn't post the best ones because I had them printed in various portrait sizes and sent them along with handmade cards to the family for Mother's Day.

First, here are the cards I made for my stepmom, my mom, my grandmother, my sister and my sister-in-law:

Now, here are the photos that made the cut and were printed and sent as gifts:

Random Riches

On this Mother's Day, this is going to be a sort of random blog- with little snippets of things I wanted to share that are totally unrelated to each other. But, really, all the randomness ties together in the fact that each little snippet is a gem that comes together in the richness that is my life.

First, a Noah-ism.

One day last week, Noah got off the bus and in the biggest drawl I've ever heard, said, " I want some aaayyyyyeeess crayme" (ice cream). Now, let me first say this- most people don't know that I am southern when they first meet me. Upon conversing with me for a bit, inevitably a "y'all" or a bit of a drawl slips out, but I've been gone from Texas for almost twelve years. Ten of which have been living in New Jersey. The drawl is almost gone. Almost. So, how then, can my six-year-old pick up a drawl? I decided to ask.

"Son, you sound like you are from Texas or something. What's that all about?"

The response?

" Weeeellll..." (insert eye roll here) "... I WAS born from the stomach of someone from Texas. So, what do you expect?"

Oh, right. That explains it. "Texan" is like a virus.. it seeps to your insides and sticks there... forever. And comes out at random times... in your offspring.

Mystery solved.

On Friday, Noah came home from school with a cute little Mother's Day card and a Dixie cup with a flower and a spider plant in it. The card had an adorable little poem that they all copied from the board.

Now, here is where the gem comes in. My son loved this gift, but he felt he should make me a card with a little poem in his own words. Later Friday evening, he presented me with a handmade card, made entirely on his own with no prompting from anyone. He had carefully colored it with pictures of all the things I like and then penned on the inside:

"Happy Mother's Day. I love you as fast as a dog and as much as a cat, you will be my Mommy."

I'm tearing up just writing it. That is the sweetest thing I think he could have done. It makes no sense, but I know exactly what he was getting at. Since the beginning of time, poets have been trying to put into words the feeling of love. It can't be done. All of the best metaphors in the world still cannot accurately describe love. And my son was trying his best, with use of metaphor, to describe how much he loves his mom. And that moves me to tears. What a beautiful sentiment. And, I'm silently awed by my child and excited that he might love to write like his mother.

And finally, I bring you to the wealth of laughter I have in my house. My daughter is hilarious. She's like the court jester around here, always trying to get a laugh. So, here are a few of her "gems" from this week:

We were watching a television show that involved teenagers and there was a typical teenage love drama going on. I looked at DJ and said, " Ahh... teenagers and drama." Zoe was sitting between us and interjected, " TEENAGERS? GO AWAY TEENAGERS!" And we laughed. And then she said, " I'm scared teenagers." At which point I told her I would remind her of this conversation in ten years.

Yesterday was a beautiful day. It was eighty-three degrees outside and I was helping Zoe get dressed. I had her clothes on and was preoccupied with her brother for a minute when she showed up wearing this:

I gently informed her that the last I checked, it was not snowing outside. She was pretty upset that I vetoed her outfit but then she finally gave up and skipped off to the other room, only to return in this:

Much more appropriate. Pick your battles. I already went to bat over the snow boots, I didn't feel like fighting over this one. So, this is how she left the house.

And lastly, did you ever realized that sometimes having kids is like having cats? I have a running list of the similarities, but this little gem was a new addition:

In case you can't make out what you are looking at, this is a two-year-old rump sticking out of a container that she usually keeps her toys in. She had folded herself in half and was playing around in it like a cat.

I hope your Mother's Day is filled with as many riches as mine.

Happy Mother's Day!