Feel good things

We are so close to moving into our new house! Just two more weeks! Wait... TWO more weeks?! I haven't started to pack a thing, I have no extra days off of work, and between now and then we'll celebrate two birthdays, an anniversary, and probably buy a car. And then we will move to a new house where we are already formulating lots of exciting endeavors and projects. Lots of time consuming, very involved projects. That will take... years.

Those of you that know me well know that these things cause me no stress. And when I'm feeling this kind of "no stress" I'm completely full of patience and serenity, making me the mom I always hope to be. So I'm never short-tempered, frustrated, and completely impatient with my husband and children. Yeah, right. Which, of course, makes me feel worse and behave worse and then feel even worse. I know that we all go through this, but it never makes it any easier when it happens. And then sometimes I find a quote, poem, or blog that speaks to me. It reaches me deep in my soul and makes me feel like it will all be ok... that I will be ok. So I'll print it off and put it in my "book of feel good things". When I do this, I'll look at my other "feel good things" and then, well, I'll feel good! It's amazing the power that words can have! So read here for some "feel good things"...

Spring Break

For some reason, when all 3 kids are home, the volume in our house increases 10 fold! If one is gone, it doesn't matter which one, the noise level is reasonable. For this reason, I've been slightly dreading the summer. I love summer, pool time, relaxing with the kids. But thinking about everyday, all day, being overfilled with noise, I was feeling a little overwhelmed. Sierra and Laurel had spring break last week so I got a little taste of what summer will be like... and it wasn't too bad! I'm sure we'll be outside a lot, but I think as the novelty of all of them being together wears off a bit, so does the noise level. Yay!! We did manage to do a few fun things. A friend from work has a sheep farm and has recently lambed almost 100 babies! Wow! We were able to make it out to her beautiful property and bottle feed a couple of the babies. We explored the ground, petted the horse and dogs, and fed the mama lambs gingersnaps. Yes, gingersnaps... who knew!

Brad was off one day and we took the kids to Bounce and Play. Of course the big girls loved it and not surprisingly, so did Cadence! Once we went down the big slide with her she was ready to do it all by herself. She is a daredevil! On a more subdued note, Sierra, Laurel, and I went to a friend's pottery studio. The girls had been there before and started a project. Unfortunately our friend was called away and they weren't able to finish... so they finally completed their plates. More exciting, they were able to use the pottery wheel. Wow, much more challenging than I anticipated, but we all had a lot of fun!

Maybe summer won't be so bad after all!

C-ville

Way back when I first met Brad, way out in California, he talked about Charlottesville. What a great town it was and how there was this cool little area called "The Downtown Mall". Who knew I'd be walking there one day with our youngest daughter! It's one of our favorite places to go... yummy places to eat, lots of fun stores to browse (and occasionally buy something!), outdoor vendors and street performers on most corners. It really doesn't matter who you are or where you came from, everyone fits in on the Downtown Mall. No one seems out of place. It epitomizes what I love about C-ville, the diversity!

Cadence and I headed down that way today. The weather was perfect and I had a coupon to use at one of my favorite stores. After a major score at Jean Theory, we headed to Marco and Luca's for a hot bun snack, then around the corner for a chai latte for me. Cadence loves to just run down there. She's not one to be contained or carried much, and it safe enough to give her room to roam a bit. She loves to look at her reflection in the store windows and dance when she hears music that moves her! The fabulous couch outside the artist co-op is full of intricate, fun pieces for her to point out. We ended the trip with a stop at the amazing Capellino's Cupcakes. I thought I'd restrain myself a bit so we opted for just an icing shot, sans cupcake (real restraint, huh?!) Then I saw the chocolate caramel cookies with sea salt! Y-U-M-M-Y!! I've been on a huge salted caramel kick, and this was beyond delicious! All in all, it was a very good day with my little girl!

April Fool's Day!

For the past few years I've had fun playing a food related April Fool's Day trick on Sierra & Laurel. I think it's cruel and unusual to present food as something sweet when it's really not (I could never eat the "cupcake" that turns out to be meatloaf and mashed potatoes), so I usually opt for the opposite. This year was "Chicken Pot Pie". Both of my girls dislike it, so I knew they'd be hesitant to dig in... as you will see! Here it is...

The pie consisted of pie crust, vanilla pudding, starburst (corn & carrots), mike & ikes (green beans), bananas (potatoes), and dried fruit (chicken). Topped off with another pie crust.

I rushed the kids in after school saying that they had to hurry and eat because we had to run errands. These are the faces that followed when I said it was chicken pot pie. Nice...

Sierra was starting to get a little skeptical wondering why it was cold.

And then she finally tastes it...!

Despite the fact that Laurel was already going through the trouble of picking out the "peas and green beans", she happily ate them all when she realized it was all candy!

Genetics?!

I may not share a single chromosome with my daughter, but I swear there are some genetics at work here! We were getting ready to walk out of the house the other day and Cadence glanced at the "shoe rug". She noticed that one of the shoes wasn't on the rug, so she deviated from her path out the door to go back and put the shoe on the rug. As she turned and started to head back out she noticed that one shoe was on it's side. Again, stopped in her tracks to place the shoe right side up! Call it Type A, anal retentive, OCD... whatever it is, she IS my daughter!









They have to be "just right"!













And the girl likes to clean too! Can't wait til she can handle a vacuum!

Ponderings

I don't know how the conversation evolved tonight, but the girls and I sat at the dinner table and we were talking about Sierra and Laurels' behaviors while I was pregnant. Sierra was a mover and shaker and occupied every inch of space she could, all the while searching for more. It seemed that she got the hiccups everyday and continued to for about two months after she was born. Laurel was a much more subtle and quiet child as she grew inside me. I LOVED feeling them move, even when it made me uncomfortable, and almost felt a bit robbed of this experience with Laurel because she was such a chill little fetus. I had horrible sciatica and Brad says I wasn't the most pleasant pregnant mama, but I look back on those 18 months with only good, wistful thoughts. I loved it! How can you not feel complete awe when you consider that a whole, entire human being grew inside of you?!

Then I looked at Cadence. Did she move, punch, and kick her mama as she grew? Did her mom love to watch her belly ripple as Cadence changed position? Did Cadence get the hiccups? I suddenly felt so sad for her that she will never be able to ask these questions. Granted, these aren't life altering answers that will change her life, but she will never know. One day, as she grows a whole, entire human being inside of her, this fact won't be lost on her. She will never know about her earliest days and there is nothing that will change this. It doesn't matter how much we love and support her, she will always have a void.

Before and after

This is my girl.... goofy as they get! I think her motto must be "If I made you laugh my job is done!" She truly gets joy from cracking herself and others up. This was the activity that brought down her wall in China and continues to warm our hearts to this day!

On another note, particularly of interest to parents of children with cleft palates is her "before" and "after" picture below. Cadence had a VERY significant cleft palate. As kids grow, if they aren't repaired, their cleft continues to grow. She got along pretty well despite it all. She never had any issues eating or drinking and obviously was growing well when we met her. Obviously her speech isn't where it should be, but there's a few factors behind that. Her cleft palate extended through her gumline and you could see up to the top of one of her nares. Quite interesting to look at with one of her many belly laughs!







BEFORE








You can get a general idea of how things looked pre-op....















AFTER

















And here's a good look now. She's had one surgery in November for her cleft palate and one in January for her cleft lip. She does have a small fistula (hole) just behind the gumline that the doctor constructed. It's about the size of an eraser and we haven't met with him yet to see if we will do anything about it before her hard palate repair when she's older. It doesn't seem to cause her any problems so far.

Just wanted to share this with someone who might be standing in our shoes 6 months ago. It's always nice to see what the outcome will be!