Favorite Foto Friday - The silver lining of rain storms in May

Addy's parents got her a playhouse for her birthday and set it up over the weekend. We were over there a few days ago checking it out when it started to rain and Aunt Sandy thought the best thing to do was to take shelter inside the little house. We all crammed in there - 3 little kids, me & a pregnant woman - to wait out the storm. When what started out as a fine mist turned into a full-out downpour, we realized a playhouse w/glass-less windows and a leaky roof probably wasn't the dryest of places we could've chosen to hide. By the time the rain had stopped, the kids were pretty wet and there didn't seem any point in preventing them from jumping in the puddles and standing under the gutter to take a "rain shower"....

...and after every last drop of rain had fallen from the rooftop and we had to strip off all their soaking wet clothes, there didn't seem to be any reason not to let them run naked through the house.

(No "nakey-party" pictures will be posted here, I wouldn't want those out for all the world to see. I'm saving them to use exclusively for embarassment in front of future girlfriends.").

We arrived home the same time as Daddy and he laughed when he saw his boys - soaking wet, & wearing nothing but oversized T-shirts we stole from Aunt Sandy. Then he shook his head and sighed that Mommy was raising a bunch of Bohemian hippies.

And there's the silver lining of rain in May. It reminds me that underneath my suburban-living, SUV-driving, Baby-Gap shopping, Barney-watching lifestyle, I am still the kind of mom who wants her kids to run naked and play in the rain. Guess there's a little Bohemian hippy in us all, no matter how many J Crew sweaters we own.

Favorite Foto Friday - My boys

Its been a long week (more on that later), but I wanted to post these adorable pictures of my boys (all 3 of them). Aren't they handsome???

Mom Mondays - Out the Window

Structure is very important to me. Always has been. I'm big on lists, schedules, long-term plans & the hour-by-hour forecast on weather.com. If I was a little more prone to staying on top of the housework and a little less prone to napping I would definitely identify myself as "Type A". I guess maybe I'm an A- or something...

When I 1st became a Mom, I found it really frustrating when things didn't go my way. After all, I had quit my job to stay-at-home full-time, being a Mom was my job, so any deviation from the plan was clearly due to some failure on my part to do my job well. I just could not understand why I couldn't get things to work out exactly the way they were supposed to all the time. Looking back on it now, I just want to give myself a hug, a big glass of wine and a huge chill pill.

What I've learned is that every detail of children's days cannot be "managed". Not because I'm somehow failing as a Mother, but b/c my kids are their own little people w/their own ideas and plans and needs and sometimes those don't fit into my own...AND THAT'S OKAY.

There are going to be days when you're 20 mins late no matter how early you start getting ready.

There are going to be days when your 2 year old refuses to eat anything except string cheese for breakfast no matter how many exciting ways you cut up their pancakes.

There are going to be days when your 15 month old ruins not 1, not 2, but 3 outfits while learning to spoon-feed himself.

And there are going to be days, like today, when your son is just not ready to go to bed (even after 2 hours of trying to get him to close his eyes) and instead of being mad and frustrated, you are going to let your little boy win one battle and instead invite him to a picnic on the family room floor w/you and Daddy....

Yes, he stayed up 3 hours passed his bedtime. Yes, he got crumbs all over the floor. But he also made you laugh and that's worth throwing the schedule out the window for. At least for 1 night.

FFF - April Showers Bring May Flowers

I see the silver lining with that one, but so far I can't find anything positive to say about all these rainy May days.

Somehow I've convinced the children that pulling their chairs up to the window and watching the rain is actually a fun game.

I can just picture them, 6o years from now, sitting together on someone's front porch swing, listening to their grandchildren complain about not having anything fun to do. They'll smile at each other and then one of them will say "You think you have it bad! When we were little, our crazy Mother made us sit around watching the rain!".

I guess its a compliment?

For the past several days, Andy has been telling me "Mommy Beautiful!" when he 1st sees me in the morning.

The two other things he routinely proclaims as beautiful are -

Diggers.....and disposable diaper bags.
Apparently in my son's ranking system, my attractiveness measures up to construction equipment and poop accessories...I guess in the eyes of a two year old boy that's something to be proud of :)