mother days

When one of your children is born just a few days before Mother's Day, it's pretty hard to top that! But this year, my sweet girls (and their fabulous Daddy) gave me one that was just terrific.

Leading up to Sunday, the girls would give me little hints about the crafts and surprises they were making at school and daycare, struggling to keep the secrets for nearly a week! The newly minted 4-year-old, Lady A, kept telling me that "Mother Days" was coming on Sunday, and it was so cute that I tried not to correct her too often!

Sunday morning began with the girls telling me I had to stay in bed, and I could hear all of the effort that was being put into my breakfast just one floor below. Perhaps Lady M was down there helping (or directing) Cal, but Lady A spent much of the prep time up in my room telling me exactly what breakfast I could expect - chocolate chip pancakes, bacon, strawberries, bananas and tea. When she got tired of me being in bed, she asked if I could come play Mouse Trap with her, and so I did - and hustled back to bed when I heard the others coming up the stairs with my special delivery.

With kids who are 4 & 6 I truly think the best part of Mother's Day is the homemade crafts. Lady M proudly gave me a handmade potted plant, paper flower and a necklace with three handmade charms: a star, a heart and a flower. Lady A gave me a variety of paper crafts including a big flower pot with a picture of her in it, a paper purse that had all of 'my favourite things' in it, and a handmade card. I loved each thing they made for me, and I love even more how excited they are to give it. I was even serenaded with a song that Lady M learned in school - listen/watch here!

These homemade gifts really are special. To this day, my dad still has a giant tie that my older brother made for him one Father's Day hanging in his walk-in closet. If I remember correctly, it's an acrostic poem that Greg wrote using Dad's name, Richard. Goes to show that these sweet crafts really do mean a lot! My brother is 36 after all...

As a quick aside since we are on the subject: I would be remiss not to mention that my Dad doesn't seem to have any of MY Father's Day creations adorning his closet. Might have to have a conversation with him about that. Maybe mum has some of my things hidden in her drawers, little gems she's been keeping safe since the 80's...

In any case, back to this year's crafts! Here are a few of the adorable items I received:

Lady A's gift bag for me

The inside of Lady A's card

Handmade charms by Lady M

My flower from Lady M in my office window 

The sweet note from Lady M

We spent the rest of the day together as a family, and had our usual Sunday adventures to the pool (kids swimming lessons) and the baseball diamond (adults softball game). It was a perfectly lovely Mother's Day made absolutely wonderful by the two little ladies who made me a mum, and my sweet husband too.

toothless wonder

At 6 1/2, Lady M has been waiting (not-so-) patiently to loose her first tooth. Approaching the end of grade one, she was frequently reminding us that she was the only kid in her class who hadn't lost a tooth, and to my knowledge, everyone else had lost at least two.

They have a tally posted in her classroom, and each time one of the 18 kids in her class bids adieu to another tooth, it is symbolically replaced with a tally mark. Sadly, and much to her dismay, Lady M, had contributed nothing to the 33 marks adorning that chart.

But all that changed on Monday afternoon...

When I went to pick Lady M up on Monday after school, she proudly displayed her bright smile, reached to her bottom tooth and began to wiggle it. Finally! She had a wiggly tooth, and an excitement that was palpable! Monday night, after Irish dance class, she spent the remainder of the evening with her fingers on those pearly whites, wiggling away, in the hopes that the tooth would come out. But no luck.

On Tuesday, Lady M headed off to school and I found myself wondering all day if she would have a gap in her teeth when I picked her up that night, but nope - still just a wiggler!

Driving home Tuesday night, Lady M asked if she could have a piece of gum, then thought better of it, saying "oh, maybe I shouldn't because of my tooth". To which I offered "or, it might help your tooth come out faster!", so in she popped the gum.

Minutes later, just before turning the final corner to our house, she exclaimed from the backseat "my tooth came out!!!". There in her hand was the tiniest little tooth, and buckled in her booster seat was the happiest little girl of all time.

Before bed that night, she thoughtfully bundled up her tooth in a paper towel, and tied it together with a yellow hair elastic! She wrote a nice note to the Toothfairy letting her know that she really wanted to keep her tooth, and tucked into her bed.

My toothless wonder woke up this morning, ran into our room to show us the $5 that the Toothfairy had left her, along with the precious little tooth.

Today she went to class, and proudly added her first tally mark to the class chart.

baby girl turns 4!

It's hard to believe that it's been four years since our littlest lady completed our family of four. All 9 pounds, 2 ounces of her came barrelling into this world at nine days overdue and she's provided us with smiles and laughter from that moment forward.

Four is a big age! Lady A is very chatty and full of stories, prints her name, her alphabet and lots of other words, sings along to her favourite songs (Uptown Funk!) and cares for her collection of babies with more love and affection than you could possibly imagine.

This week I even went and registered her for Junior Kindergarten. Despite how grown up she's seeming some days, it's hard to imagine dropping my baby off at school in September. Where has the time gone?

My cousin and I were joking last month about how every veteran parent wants to tell rookie parents this one thing: "it'll all go by in a flash"! And while you'll (hopefully) never hear those overused words pass my lips, it's very true. These four years have gone by in a blink.

Birthdays are big in my family; always have been. We love to celebrate them well, and most importantly, celebrate them on the actual day (right, Dad?!). Lady A's birthday fell on a Saturday this year which was a nice treat, so that afternoon our immediate family all went out to lunch together. Then we spent a nice evening at home, just the four of us. A chance to relax, and get ready for Sunday's "friend" party!

On Sunday Lady A had a group of friends to a local dance studio where they had an hour-long dance class, followed by lunch (chicken hot dogs, at her request!), cupcakes and then a few games and present opening to cap off the two-hour block. The theme of her party was The Octonauts, which is presently her favourite show (though seems to be in the process of being replaced by Sofia the First at the moment...

All of the celebrations made for a great (albeit tiring!) weekend. I think our little girl felt very special, and she is certainly adjusting well to her new position in life as a four year old.