The Enduring Ouchie

Do you remember a couple weeks ago when I posted about the nasty fall T had while I was spying on him at daycare? 

 

Well, this particular ouchie will not go away. At least three times a day I am reminded of this particular, (now nonexistent) ouchie. I am usually forced to rub and/or kiss the spot on his knee to make it feel better. And if he doesn’t feel like walking somewhere, (usually when I have my arms slam full of stuff) he grabs it, and says, “ouccchhiiee. Heep (help) heep (help)”

Last Friday, he even got a new ouchie on his elbow. They said he didn’t cry, but he scraped it up pretty badly. He has paid absolutely zero attention to the current ouchie, but still marvels in the one that is now quickly disappearing into nothing. He also got bit by a mosquito or ant (I can’t tell) on his leg, not a word about that. I even pushed down on it and asked him if it hurt, he said, “nooooo” like I was silly for asking him!

I joke that he can be a little Johnny dramatic at times, but I am just wondering, will this ouchie go to kindergarten with him? Alas, I only half joke/roll my eyes at him, because a part of me loves that I am the one that can make ouchie’s feel better. I know a day is coming soon when he won’t come running to me, demanding hugs and kisses.

Until then--I will joke, roll my eyes and love every. last. second. of. it. Happy Tuesday, Y’all!

Oreck Winner!!

I am so excited about my Oreck winner. Seriously y'all, it couldn't have been won by a better, more deserving person.

Y'all are going to think I am crazy, but I actually said a quick a prayer before generating the number, because I wanted it to go to someone who could really use it. And this girl, deserves it more than most!

For some reason my screenshot wasn't working.. So, I took I picture with my phone! :)

My sweet friend, Heather! She had her preemie a couple months after I had mine. We became instant friends through the power of blogging and needing preemie/NICU support.

B is the sweetest little guy ever, and if you don't follow along with her on her journey, you need to. Her strenght and grace while raising a child with special needs is remarkable! I am so proud to call her a  blogging friend! We are totally going to meet one day so I can call her IRL friend, too!

Her comment....

Heather (Live.Love.Laugh.) said...

I have wanted one of these for a while now. I love that's it's a great chemical free way to clean floors. With us trying to be so green these are perfect!! I like them on FB too.

Congrats, Heather!! Email me and we will get the ball rolling on getting this sweet Oreck your way!

Mother's Day..

Mothers come in all shapes and sizes; different parenting styles, different ways of dressing their kids. But one thing remains true for mothers, you love your little one(s) and no matter what, that love will always shine through.

 Mother’s Day is a time to remember where you came from. When you are a parent yourself--you really, really seem to get the countless sacrifices your parents make for you.  I think every parent has a new found respect for their own once their own bundle of joy arrives.

 We spent our Mother’s Day with both of our families. We both realize how fortunate we are that we have both still have our parents. And BTB still has his grandparents. We had lunch with BTB’s family and dinner with my family.

 Do you want to know the fastest and best way to get to an Italian mom’s heart on Mother’s Day? Feed her noodles! That’s what we did with my family last night for Mother’s Day.

 I didn’t take a single picture from the weekend! What is wrong with me? We really had a great day. And my two boys pampered me with gifts and food. Two things that make me happy!

 Did y’all do anything exciting on Mother’s Day? Get any good gifts?

Giveaway winner announced later today! :)

Motherhood is a Job??

As Mother’s Day is fast approaching, I have been thinking a lot about what motherhood means to me.

Being a mommy is the greatest experience of my life. I hate calling it a “job.”

Job, to me makes it seem more like a chore. A responsibility we all must take on because we have to. That is just not the case with being someone's mommy. 

My job is something I do during the day, Monday through Friday-- to help ensure our family can enjoy doing extra things financially. My child is a gift from God. The Lord blessed me with the opportunity to raise His child here on earth.

I take this responsibility very seriously. I pray constantly that the Lord is preparing a wife for Timothy. I pray constantly that BTB and I can raise Timothy in Godly way. I also pray that Timothy will be the kind of man his father is.

 As we get ready to focus our attentions on moms this weekend. I just have sit back and thank my hubs. I couldn’t be the mommy I am, without him being the husband he is. (No, I am not saying all this to get a big Mother’s Day gift! Although…)

I am thankful everyday that I have BTB to help with Timothy. I cannot even fathom doing it alone.

This morning, T woke up and wanted his sippy. I gave it to him and we watched TV together. He laid his precious head on his mommy, and let me love on him and play with his hair. I could’ve made him get up so I could get ready.

 But in that moment, I knew I was exactly where I needed to be. Not rushing around to get ready and actually getting to work on time. I needed to be a mommy. Love my child. Because a short hour  later, I would be rushing into his daycare to leave him for the day. To go to—my job!

Is motherhood hard? Certainly!  But the reward of hearing “MOMMY!!” or a sticky hug and kiss or even a sweet, genuine smile (because a toddler knows no other) makes every moment of hard, worth it.

We have a saying in my office:

When your “get to” turns to “got to” you've lost your gratitude.

I keep that in mind as I go through my life as mother, as well.

Sweet feet this morning, while hanging with mommy!

Motivation...

Bloggers, Are there days where your motivation and or brain will not allow you to blog?

My mind the last couple of days has been mess of work, life and other details that I could just not find the motivation to string together sentences of coherent thoughts.

 Three reasons my brain is tizzy right now:

·         One of Timothy’s teachers has moved on to another position. And we are so sad, because we love her. She is super sweet and easy to talk to about anything we needed regarding T. And she loves T! So this has been hard on us.

·         I am in desperate need of groceries. How many days in a row can you send your child to school with a turkey hotdog? We are going on three. (EEEK!) At least tomorrow is pizza day!

·         I haven’t been on a date with my husband in… seriously, I don’t remember. I just sat here for a few minutes trying to remember. It would take me rolling through some blog posts to refresh my memory on that one.

These three items alone or together are not life altering events, but they make things a little more complicated in our little world. And, the third reason..  It's totally selfish, but I seriously don’t care. I want to spend time with my hubby.

Eating dinner at a restaurant. It doesn’t have to be a fancy place, (although, I would prefer a nice sushi date) just a meal. The two of us. Not, throwing whole pieces of food down our throats to get the heck out of dodge before our son melts. Not,  stopping to make sure T has juice or toy. Just us. At dinner.

My hope for a renewed since of motivation is to have some fun. Can someone come and have fun with me?

Family Recipe

My sweet friend and former co-worker Steph, posted her MIL’s homemade pizza dough a while back on her blog. I had my grandmothers pizza dough recipe, but was excited to see what Steph put in hers, versus my grandma’s.

They are similar, but have a few different techniques and ingredients.  Y’all know me in the kitchen, I am going to do it my way. Combining, not measuring and making it up as I go along. This dough was no different! I made last week, one night while BTB worked late.

We made our homemade pizzas last Friday night. It was really yummy and made my house smell like my grandparents house.

When you grow up with Italians in your family, you just learn how to make dough and a great red sauce. My next adventure in the land of homemade Italian will be homemade noodles.

I just need to convince someone to buy the noodle attachment for my KitchenAid Stand Mixer. (Hint-Hint-Wink-Wink to anyone who wants to buy that for me!)  

 I giggled as I looked at Twitter Friday night. Everyone and their uncle made pizza or had pizza delivered. That used to be Friday night tradition when I was growing up.

Pizza and TGIF-TV and I was a happy little middle-schooler!

And believe it or not, T likes homemade pizza, too! He is the worst eater, but pizza is one of the few things his picky palate likes.

 What kind of family recipes do y’all have and can’t live without?

**Be sure to keep an eye on Steph’s blog. She does a fantastic job documenting their lives and she will sometime share some great recipes. She is a great cook!**

The Unplugged Zone

Yesterday morning BTB and made a commitment to being unplugged. We did use our iPhones for music—but that’s it. 
 

We have both been so busy and so “plugged” in to technology, I think we both felt like we needed to not only spend an entire day being present for Timothy, but also for us, as well.

In my current role at work, my “peak” time is just gearing up. And while BTB’s work will not be as hectic in the next few months, he still has a ton of work responsibilities during the summer.

 When I was growing up, this time of the year was so exciting. The ending of another school year, the anticipation of fun summer had in store and not having a schedule or school to attend.

Yesterday was kind of our version of a lazy spring/summer day. We got up around 8, I made a big Sunday breakfast for us. T spent the morning in his room playing with his choo-choo’s, as we watched Sunday morning news.

 We then all changed clothes and headed outside to play in T’s baby pool, get our garden ready for the summer and just be a family enjoying our time together. I think recently we have started appreciating “our time” more than ever before.

We even stayed outside through T’s nap. He slept on our swing while BTB and sat there and talked about anything and everything under sun. I won’t lie, there was a couple of times I wanted to snap a picture and post it to Twitter or FB, but I didn’t.

He fell asleep, sitting straight up!

He loves Esso!

Our day wasn’t about showing off our family, it was about being a family—and it was perfect! I pray for many more weekend afternoons like it.