Tuesday, January 31, 2012

.....the core......

....yesterday was a day I watched her and acknowledged I have a little girl.....not a toddler, but a new four year old who is exercising her own independence, asserting what she likes and what she doesn't and coming into her own, just as God has intended for her.....


.....she hasn't taken the tap shoes off since yesterday.....

....again, as noted before, our neighbors who live below us are counting the days until our apartment sells......



....time will tell if this is just a new activity or a passion that has been sparked because I have never seen her so head over heels about practicing her new trade......



....and when she isn't tapping and clicking away on our hard wood floors, she is experimenting with some new styles......Daddy has had three weeks of travel on his schedule and on his last trip the girls awoke to new knee socks under their pillows as a token that they were thought of at some airport in a distant place.......


.....and since then, Elsie has also decided to add some flair to her feet because she will no longer wear shoes that make a pair......she wants to mismatch.....and she calls herself, Miss Mismatch......proudly......


.....Callie, on the other hand, sleeps, eats and plays in either a princess costume or the red hand me down tutu that used to be Elsie's......I have to pry it off her for bedtime and I stretched the truth when I told her that her teachers will not allow children to bring toys into class and that her school categorizes tutus as toys.....

....it's kind of true....

....she will not wear a dress that does not spin like a princess.....she rips off jeans.....won't wear leggings that aren't pink or purple and she boycotts any dress or skirt that has a slim cut....she has gone from rocker/tomboy style to enchanted girly girl over night and I am having to carve more time out of our day to plan for negotiations on the wardrobe......I usually let her run with most of her ideas.....

....she is my budding spirited, zealous, funny and extraordinary love child....there is no one like her.....


.....and so we usually look like this on most days.....


....and I say it out loud at least once a week that as fun as girls have been, God blessed me so fully when he gave me a son.....because sometimes on challenging wardrobe days, it's so nice to know the road ahead with Brody will be a totally different path.....


....my man was digging the train station at FAO Swartz on the last wet and rainy day we had.....and as a first time Momma of a boy, I learned all about the difference between going the Thomas the Train route or the Chuggington route....apparently, it's a big decision on what toy trains you select for your boy.....who knew?.....

....but what I do know is that no matter what, anytime I set out with a friend on a mission to get out of the apartment, opposed to sitting inside on a cold, rainy day; I feel like a rockstar......the kids had off of school on Friday for a teacher planning day and Julie and I decided to set out to the toy store since the weather was going to be dreadful.....and when the rain started blowing sideways, we each stared out our windows and resisted the urge to send a text canceling.....

....I'm so glad we stuck with the plan, even through most of us were soaked before we even arrived.....when kids are in a toy store, anything goes.....especially one of the greatest toy stores.....ever.


.....just a little play date at a place tourists wait hours to enter during Christmastime.....I'm not taking anything for granted on these final months in the city.....






....and despite all of the moving parts right now, I am also feeling very present....


.....and a lot of it has to do with sleep....it's been 9.5 months, but we are finally at a place where we are sleeping for 10 hour clips....I would have never believed anyone who would have told me it would take as long as I was pregnant to get my baby to sleep through the night.....clearly, my girls spoiled me....


....but I would do it a million times over....

....and I came to this blog tonight with only a small group of pictures....I had no clear message in my mind  to write, but I can't help but feel so very much at home with this post.....as the whole reason I started this blog was to capture every moment because I knew they were passing faster than I could catch.....I wanted to remember everything.....

....and I have certainly been very emotional since announcing the move and the reality sets in....I can well up in an instant just watching my children at a park that we have been to 1000 times because I always want to remember how much we love that particular park and how much joy it has brought my girls.....and although I swallow large lumps in my throat daily because the end is near, I also appreciate the rawness of feeling so much.....it's the exact emotion that inspired me to blog and it is a powerful surge of determination and drive to suck these moments dry......


....a wise women with three grown boys watched Stefan and me at a birthday party this weekend.....it was a party of mostly adults, but we chased after our children, ensuring sticky hands were kept to ourselves and pretty glass bowls and vases were only looked at, not touched.....she lovingly watched us and acknowledged the work that this party was causing for us; since most guests enjoyed gourmet olives and spread brie during their adult conversations with each other.....but she said something that resounded with me as we watched our three young children sit in a circle and laugh at each other....she said, it's a lot of work in the phase with three young children, but the greatest thing about this phase is that they are all yours right now.....you aren't sharing them with anyone or anything and all they want and need is you.....

.....Amen, wise woman....and thank you for acknowledging that it is hard....because it is.....really hard....but it's the beauty of this time we will remember in our wise old days.....and her comment leads me back to the core of this blog....


....savoring every minute of this wild and wonderful ride....