Memories For Sale

Today I participated in the neighborhood garage sale. One of my items was the bath tub that I have used to bathe both of my baby girls. Avery outgrew it last week, so I went ahead and stuck it in there.

It sold for $3 and I had to fight back the tears as it walked away.

Five Months

Dear Avery,

Today, you are five months old. When your sister Ryleigh was born, I immediately wrote her a letter to let her know exactly the way her birth made me feel. I continued to write her letters once a month for several months after her birth with the intention having proof that I love her very, very much when she someday becomes a teenager and totally hates my guts because I’m totally lame and totally don’t understand…totally. This is the first letter that I have been able to write to you, despite my purest intentions each passing month, because, well….damn, two kids are a lot of work.

So, allow me to bear my soul for a moment. When I was pregnant with you, I wondered almost every day how it was ever going to be possible for me to love you, to totally dig you and cherish you as much as I do Ryleigh. I mean, everyone told me that I would love you just as much as I do Ryleigh, but I just couldn’t see how. I imagined that perhaps half of the love that I have for Ryleigh would break off and somehow attach itself to you. When I was engaged to your father, I read this book about relationships and marriage. It spoke about how we all have “love banks” designated to each person in our lives. As each person does a good thing for us, we make deposits into their bank and when they fail us, we make a withdrawal. When you were born, Ryleigh’s love bank did not split down the middle and attach half of itself to you. A whole new bank was created in your name and in it was placed a fortune the immediately began generating interest at an astronomical rate. My heart doubled in size and as I held you and your sister close to me the night of your birth. I just could not believe how much I had been blessed with such an incredible family; my supportive husband and beautiful girls.

Life with you in it has been amazingly rewarding and fulfilling. You are such an easy baby. At first, you only wanted to sleep in my arms or on my chest. You were a natural nurser from the very beginning and close to mamma is where you wanted to stay. Around 2 ½ months you magically began sleeping in your own bed and you are now up to 10+ hours a night of straight through the night sleeping. I know from your sister that this may not stay this way, but it sure is nice while it’s here.

While the two of you are bound to have your ups, downs and in betweens, your sister is very connected to you right now. She loves to make you laugh and loves to let you pull her hair. She insists on giving you hugs and kisses each morning, each night and as much as possible in between. She helps me change your diapers and give you a bath. She’s very anxious to begin to feed you, while I’m perfectly happy not having to grind up your food yet. Ryleigh lets everyone know that she is YOUR big sister and has shown very little jealously towards you. She’s an excellent big sister and the two of you are so lucky to have each other.

It’s late and I’m off to bed. I can’t wait to see you in the morning. To see you smile at me when I go to pick you up. Your smile could melt the ice caps. It just makes the whole world seem like a better place. Tomorrow we’re off to get you and your sister’s pictures made together. I hope that someday you can look at those pictures, read this letter and maybe understand just a fraction of the total happiness that I am feeling right now.

Love, mama

Grossology

I was changing one of Avery's many daily diapers today. As soon as I got the diaper off, she commenced peeing on the table. My philosophy when a girl does this is to let her finish. So, I'm standing there, letting her pee on the table and herself. Then, just as the faucet began to close, she let out one of her not-so-dainty toots. The force was so great that it actually caused the pee to squirt up in the air and yes, on my face.

I have been peed on by a handful of baby boys. The most memorable was compliments of my now 8th grader cousin Haesten. I was giving him a bath when I felt warm "water" landing all over my body. I looked down and he was holding his wee-wee just letting me have it, smiling like a, well, a little boy. However, never have I been peed on in such a way that defies gravity by a baby girl.

Avery's got mad skills....yo.

Five

On Saturday Jeramy and I celebrated our Five Year Anniversary. I think that we celebrated in the best way possible. After making breakfast for the family, we set out for the Children's Museum. Ryleigh and Avery both had a blast. Ryleigh got to do face painting and everything else while Avery got to sit in the toddler area and stare at the bubble maker. We've totally gotta get one of those for the house. After the museum we grabbed a bite at Rice Village and then headed back home. That evening we cooked out on the grill and just enjoyed the family time.

During dinner we realized the following stats: 5 years, 4 homes, 2 kids, 5 jobs (between the both of us), 2 cars and tons of living, loving and laughing. I would like to think that things are calming down, but I know us much better than that. The next five years might just be crazier than the first five.

Learnin'

Tonight I was doing some work on the computer, which is upstairs, while Ryleigh was watching cartoons, downstairs. Suddenly, I heard a loud pop, followed by a slight crash. I ran over to the railing to see what happened. Ryleigh assured me that she was fine. She went on to demonstrate exactly what had caused all the noise. Apparently, for some reason, she hooked the end of her newly acquired jump robe around the knobs of our armoire in the living room. I can only figure that she then, for some reasone, leaned upon the jump rope until the rope broke away from then handle, thus saving my armoire knob from an untimely demise.

This incident took me back to a moment in time when I thought it was a great idea to tie a rope to the handle on the cover of the fish aquarium. The other end was tied to something else and a quilt was thrown over the newly stretched rope, creating a wall for my fort in the living room. This was brilliant and worked great, until the weight of the quilt, or someone pulling on it, I really can't remember, caused the cover to be tugged off the aquarium. The cover was made of glass and crashed into the fireplace, breaking in half. I don't remember my parents screaming and yelling at me, but I do remember wondering why I just couldn't see that one coming. It was a real growing experience.

Once this story flashed through my extremely tired brain, I just couldn't get too angry with Ryleigh. I explained to her that was not a great idea and when she asked why I told her that she could break mommy's armoire. To that she replied, and the jump rope? My immediate though was to tell her that the armoire cost much, much more than the jump rope. Infinitely more, in fact, because the jump rope was free and free times infinity still does not equal what took me a year to pay for the armoire. As these words began to roll out of my mouth, I stopped myself before the word cost. I was struck by the fact that her idea of value on these two items had nothing to do with money, but with a simple affection for a toy that was given to her at the children's museum last weekend. I just smiled, knodded and agreed with her. Yes, and the jump rope, let's get that fixed so that you can keep playing with it.