lessons from kids...

a new walk we have been doing... up a little mountain. check out that view!!! (it's about a mile from our house...)

new casts yesterday... we have been upgraded to colored fiberglass over the plaster!! it was so fun to pick a color. i restrained myself from the AWESOME pink! james was not a fan of casting yesterday... it broke my heart... (well, a lot yesterday broke my heart, but more on that later...)

my two babies! i love them...

and she loves her brother... i did stop her from smothering him, eventually!!

helping daddy push, then realizing that she could actually ride on it! who needs a sit-n-stand!

visiting with auntie sony in san clemente! so fun that she drove down to visit!!

nora sat down the other day to "chat" with james...

at a birthday party the other night. we may have to have one for nora now, as she keeps talking about birthday parties!!!

it's not too late is it? her birthday was only a month ago!!!

eating lunch at the pool... where she loves to swim "all by myself"!!

just a beautiful girl!!

playing in nora's house after dinner!!! daddy and his kids...

okay, so i love to travel. and i was pretty good at it for awhile. i got my carry-on pretty small, and loved being so fast and efficient. and with kids, well, you just aren't. i mean, you have to unload the breastmilk, the juice, the thing that keeps all that cold, the computer, the dvd player, james' bar and shoes, nora's shoes (and they don't appreciate how hard it is to get a kid into shoes!!), the stroller folded up, or rolled through the special security, then survive without it while walking through, the 14 bags you brought "just in case" for the airplane, which includes the 45 dvd's, 10 books (because that's all you could carry, along with two kids and everything else), snacks, bribes, suckers, candy, lunch...

then, while they are wiping down your breastmilk, because it might contain something horrendous, you watch a woman walk through security carrying an open (and more than 3 oz) water bottle. but my breastmilk might be harmful!!

then, when they go to board the plane... i have elite boarding privileges... it comes from flying so much. and sometimes, we are upgraded to first class. all of those groups board before kids. so, they call them, and i go up to board, and they look at me like, "we haven't called kids yet...", and a lot of times, get really snotty and say it. well... i'm not an idiot. i did hear the boarding group you called. i did come under the correct one.

and then, on top of all that, instead of being this calm, cool, collected woman, i think i look frazzled and harried the whole time. i don't like that part! i want to look like the mom who has it all together... so it works on your pride a bit. and, i can usually be a little proud when all the people who gave me dirty looks at the beginning of the flight look at me at the end and remark how wonderfully behaved my children were! (and they say it with such shock... well, nora has flown about 50,000 miles in her little life... i would expect that she travel well!!)

alright, that's my only lesson, because i hear nora. when i went to put her down for her nap, she told me she wasn't tired. i told her she didn't have to sleep, just stay in her room. and she's done it. but, now she's at the door, and i can hear her on the monitor. so, i think we'll snuggle. because we can. and because the floor can get mopped another time. same for those dishes! (okay, that's another lesson... the dishes went unwashed today... great poem if you haven't read it! all about taking the time for your kids, because that's what matters in the end!!! not an obsessively cleaned house. not even my blog post!!!)