Category Archives: Raising a girl

Valentine’s Day

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2019 shaped up to be quite the little Valentine’s Day with my loves. From homemade valentine’s for the kids to hand out in class to our own little celebration at home, it was definitely one for the books.

While I recognize the exploited nature of days like Valentine’s Day, I still absolutely love the day. Why wouldn’t one embrace a day that literally exists as a reminder to spread love and kindness to the special people in our lives? Really, who doesn’t need a reminder?

So of course, I have to go over the top.

On Valentine’s Day, I woke up VERY early to make heart-shaped french toast with berries before my 6am workout. I hung up Charlotte’s homemade Valentines on the window and put their Valentine’s Day gifts up on the counter. Everything was set.

When I got home from my workout, the kiddos were in a blissful state. So happy with their breakfast and SO pumped to open their gifts.

Charlotte had been oogling this absurdly soft teddy bear named Puffles for weeks. She’d asked for it many a time and the answer had been no. SO… of course, I had to get her the damn bear for Vday… because she just loved the stupid thing. AND, a pair of stuffy slippers.

Hem got a light-up book, a wind-up dinosaur and a pull-back monster truck.

However, my favorite gift of the morning (besides my new leggings from hubby), were the socks I got for Marky! SO funny!

The kids spread love all day with their Valentines.

I also made chocolate covered popcorn with V-day sprinkles with little tags that said, “You Make My Heart POP”… but of course, in the fun of it all, I forgot to take a pic (although you can see it in the picture of Mark’s socks!)!

Then, at dinner, they got their favorite meal, which is noodles with fake butter. Seriously… favorite meal. AND, Marky and I got our favorite meal: RAMEN!!!

It was just such a good day. It might not seem like much, but there was just so much happiness oozing all over the place.

 

CharlotteISMs

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As C&H get older, it seems as if their word quota for any given day has increased. They are constantly talking, and with that, comes some pretty hilarious/ridiculous moments.

Here are a few of Charlotte’s recent gems…

  • “My tummy says if I eat anything else it will B-splode” (read: explode)
  • Charlotte got sent to bed early one night due to the fact that she did NOT want to listen. After a minute in her room, she comes to the kitchen and demands fresh water. Wearily, I get her the water. “With icecubes,” barks the princess. This is where I decide to draw the line. With fire in her tiny eyes, she looks at me and says, “I’m gonna punch you in the stomach in the morning…”
    Mommy: <blank stares as C walks away>
    5 minutes later she’s back…
    C: “Sorry I said I was going to punch you in the stomach. I wouldn’t do that.”
    M: <hugs C>
    C: “Hopefully I don’t forget not to punch you in the stomach in the morning…”
    M: Uhhhhhh
  • Charlotte came up with a game the other night… Henry had to close his eyes, put any number of fingers up in the air and guess how many fingers he was holding up… He won… EVERY TIME.
  • Charlotte calls mommy and daddy on the phone from Grandma’s house and has full convo while RUNNING nonstop around the house.img_1203-animation
  • Charlotte snuck one of her new toys on the bus and let her friend “borrow” it… back in December. She has yet to see said toy. This morning she decided she wanted to write her friend, Henry, a note to remind him to return it to her… which ended up looking a bit like a ransom note.img_1285
  • Mommy: “Mommy gets to go to Charlotte, the city!”
    C: “Is that where I was born??”
  • Charlotte learns how to do jumping jacks…

     

  • C: “Hemery, wanna color with me?”
    H: “No..”
    C: “We can draw some H’s!!!”
    H: “Okay!!”

  • She’s the spunkiest little love. Full of personality, full of spice, full of SWEETNESS, full of love.

The Shweetie

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Yesterday, probably an hour or more after Charlotte got home from school, she told me, “today I cried on the bus because I missed you.”

The backstory: Charlotte and Henry go to the same school in the morning and then Charlotte takes the bus to her afternoon public school 4k program. Henry is picked up by either my MIL, my parents or me. Yesterday, when I picked up H, we saw Charlotte (which hasn’t happened since this new schedule has started). She was packing up her stuff and getting ready to wait for the bus. We smooched her, gave big hugs and waved goodbye.

Back to last night… I instantly stopped what I was doing – sorry, Hem for leaving you mid diaper change – and scooped up my baby girl. She hugged me so tight and I got this flood of nostalgia and warm fuzzy feelings. She acts like such a big kid sometimes, I forget. I forget that she’s still just a baby, that I’m “that person” to her, everything. It reminded me of being young. I totally remember feeling like that… when my mom came to visit me at summer camp one year, I BURST into tears when I saw her. All of a sudden, I realized how much I had missed her.

My baby.

Also, since we are talking about my girl, I need to get this down in the books… the other day, I was helping C solve a big issue. It was “wear your brewers outfit” day at school, but C was already dressed in a lovely dress (what does one do in sich a predicament?!?). I suggested that she wear her dress in the morning with Nana and then change into her Brewers dress before going to school in the afternoon. Perfect! Success. I then reminded her that the next day would be jammie day at school.

She looked at me, put her arms out and demanded a hug. While she hugged me (so tight), she said something along the lines of, “thank you so much for always knowing what I need and what I need to do and helping me with everything!”

For any mother reading this, you know… my jaw hit the ground. YOU MEAN… YOU ACTUALLY NOTICE?!?!?!?!

Momma life isn’t always easy. The juggling, the hustling, the remembering, the being present while maintaining an entire family’s world… it felt pretty darn good to have my sweet little 4 year old notice how hard I work to make her life as special and meaningful and great as possible.

Thanks for noticing, little bunny. Xo

Summer Carnival

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Our summer has been packed full of activity and last night was no exception. Despite being a crazy day, our evening was a perfect summer night. Mark’s sister & her kiddos are in town, so last night we all headed to a local summer carnival.

It was complete with a gymnastics(ish) show, a bounce house (my nemesis), food trucks and even a train ride! Just another great evening with the fam!

Miss C

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Caught some great photos of Charlotte watching the baby monitor, waiting for her “bruddy” bestie to wake up this morning…

This afternoon, C came with me to pick up Henry from school. When he saw her, he grabbed her and said “Charwe, i miss you today!” And gave big huggies.

They walked out hand in hand.

Such sweet little loves.

Summer Lovin’

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We have been having the best time this summer. The weather has been hot, sunny and perfect for playing. And, only having an afternoon nap to work around (instead of multiple naps) has made it so easy to fill our days with amazingly fun summer activities.

This week/weekend was no expection! We even got some kidless time with friends, and the kiddos had their forst non-family babysitter!

Js championship baseball game

Impromptu pool day

Summerfest

Dinner picnic & a movie on the deck

Queen B

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For whatever reason, Charlotte seems to replace the first letter of quite a few words with a “b”… when in doubt, tack on a b!

I’m not going to lie, I find it pretty darn adorable.

Bchantress – Enchantress

Bchanted – Enchanted

Bfraid – Afraid

Bttach – Attach

Bmember – Remember

Bgina – Vagina (thanks for the reminder, nan!)

Another funny word enunciation… yose… aka those. Love yose.

101

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Today, in honor of Pop and what would have been his 101st birthday, we went to dinner at his favorite restaurant… Nan even ordered his favorite meal.

While the kids made fine dining a bit of a joke, they redeemed themselves during our post-dinner ice cream stop!

Most importantly, the whole experience would have really been something to Pop. He would have just melted over the kiddos. He was something special… hopefully, smiling down at our messy attempt to honor him.

Oh How I Love the 4th

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We had such a blast yesterday… despite the intense humidity and heat. We paraded in the morning, visited with some friends, then took the crazed kiddos home for nap.

Check out Hem’s dance moves! That boy loves to wiggle his rump! Haha

After all of the sun, we decided to switch up the plans from taking the kids to a party after nap to letting them nap late while I went to the party briefly with my neighbor.

The party was great, right on Lake Michigan! It would have been amazing for the kids and I started feeling guilty about changing the plans… until it started monsooning! My friend and I made it back to the car with only mild dampness, but the ride back home was a bit crazy.

I was happy to get home to the kiddos who were watching the Lion King!

Thankfully, the storm blew over and we were able to execute the final part of the plan: late night sparklers and smores with the kids. We had a great time!

Magic.