My Real Job

Since Arden was a baby I have been working "part-time" for the company I worked at before I became a mom. "Part-time" used to mean around 20 hours a week, but it seems that the hours I work are getting so small lately that it should have another name like "teeny little-time" or "almost no-time." Most days of the week I am struggling to fit in an hour or two of work during that wonderful part of afternoon known as nap time.

On Tuesdays I get to do a little imitation of my former, pre-mommy self and head into the office for the morning. I put on my "work clothes," get into a car that doesn't have three car seats and take a nice, peaceful drive down the freeway. Then I spend a few hours talking with adults or sitting alone in my office working with no distractions. It is kind of a nice break from my every day reality. But sometimes it is still hard.

This morning Dax was the only one awake before I left. As I got myself ready, he kept saying things like, "Mom, please don't go away!" or "Mom, I want come with you!" I reminded him that I would be back before naptime to sing him a lullaby. He gave me such a sweet little hug goodbye that it tugged on my heart a little to leave him walk out the door. I knew he was going to be fine with Preston and my sister Val (who my kids like more than me) watching over him, but it was still hard for me to leave this little guy, even just for a few hours.

Work was pretty quiet this morning, and I found myself counting down the hours until I could get back to my "real job." My part-time job is fine, and I am glad to have it. But my REAL job title is "Mom." At my real job, pay is horrible. The hours are brutal, and there is no such thing as time off. The tasks seem neverending. But the benefits....they are unbelievable! What other job could offer such perks? Here are just a few small examples:

I get to watch my beautiful Arden twirl around in whatever fancy dress she changes into during the course of the day:

Arden has a soccer game today, and I am so excited to go and and cheer for her as she runs around in her cute pink uniform!

I get to see Corbie and Dax working together to build a tower of blocks:

And then laughing hysterically as all of their hard work falls to the floor:

I get to watch these three beautiful people learn and grow a little every day. They have taught me so much and brought me so much happiness. I love my job!! I am one lucky girl.

And the Oscar Goes To....

Dax has such an expressive little face, I think he may turn out to be an actor someday. Here he is doing his "sad face"

Just breaks your heart, doesn't it? But don't worry, here he is, 5 seconds later, giving me his "happy face:"Next, I tried to get him to give me a "mad face," but this looks to me more like "really confused face:"

We'll have to work on that one.

Colorful Arden

I have been trying to blog about some of the everyday things that go on around here that don't seem very exciting or important, but that I know I will want to be able to remember in years to come. For example, Arden loves to color things. For the last few months, she has been coloring things in a very interesting way. She is really good at staying in the lines and all of that stuff, but she doesn't use the colors you would expect. She doesn't color trees green or apples red. She uses AS MANY COLORS as she can find. Here are some examples I found lying around the kitchen the other day:

Pretty much everything she colors lately gets a minimum of five or six colors.

I LOVE it.

Laundry Day is a Sad, Sad, Day

This is the routine we go through every Monday, which is the dreaded day of laundry at my house. I try to sneak Corbie's favorite fuzzy purple blankie into the washing machine without her noticing. More often than not, her "blankie sixth sense" brings her running and she catches me in the act. This is what follows:

Stage 1: Anger. "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU ARE WASHING MY BLANKIE! YOU ARE A CRUEL, CRUEL WOMAN! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME!?!?!? I THOUGHT YOU LOVED ME!!"

Phase 2: Waiting. "Is it done yet? Is it done yet? Is it done yet?"

Phase 3: Grudging Thanks: "Yes, Mom, my blankie is soft, clean, warm and smells like a spring breeze. But if you think I am ever going to let you near it again, you are out of your mind."

See you next week, blankie.

The Lip Gloss Incident

Soooooo pretty!

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Preston brought this to me the other day. I had been upstairs putting Dax in his jammies, and Preston was downstairs with the girls. Cora waited until Preston was busy helping Arden sound out some words, and she softly snuck off to the kitchen. She climed up on a chair, then from the chair to the desk. She then stood up on the desk and reached up and grabbed a little tub of my lip gloss off a shelf.

When Preston found her, she smiled at him and laughed like she knew she just looked soooooo beautiful in her lip gloss. He sternly told her "NO! NO!," and you can tell from the picture above that she feels really bad about what she has done. Little stinker :-)

She was a little more contrite after a time-out, but I think I will have to find a new hiding place for my lip gloss just in case.

Arden's 5th Birthday

Arden is FIVE! I know that every time she has a birthday I say I can't believe how old she is, but it is always true. Every time. She has grown up so much this last year. I couldn't be prouder of the big girl that my baby is growing up into. Isn't she beautiful?

(But every now and then, it would be nice to push the rewind button and spend a little time snuggling with this:Arden at three months

Arden was so excited for her birthday this year. She wanted to invite every single kid she has ever known to her birthday party, but I am not that nice of a mom, so I only let her invite seven kids. It is so hard, because I don't want any of her friends (or their moms!) to be offended by not being invited, but I think that ten kids (seven friends plus my three) was my absolute limit this year. Arden loved having her friends over, and I hope the kids had fun too.

Arden wanted a Tangled party, so we found some plates and napkins, and Preston found a Tangled cake for her. I was a slacker this year and didn't make a cake myself, but I DID make cupcakes for her to take to preschool on her birthday, so that counts, right?

After the party, Dax and Cora took a nap, and then Arden decided she wanted to go to "The Rolls Place" (a.k.a. Texas Roadhouse) for dinner. She calls it the rolls place because all of the kids eat about four rolls while we wait for our food, and then by the time it comes, they are too full of rolls to eat any of it. This time we ordered ONE kids meal for all three them to all share, and they still didn't even come close to finishing it. But lots of rolls and peanuts were eaten by all, along with a pretty good portion of Grandpa's steak. (thanks Dad!)

I asked Arden a few questions so we could remember what 5-year-old Arden was like:

• What is your favorite color? "Red. My new favorite color is green, but red is my real favorite color." (huh?)
• What is your favorite song? "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." (Arden things this song never ends...when she gets to the last "how I wonder what you are," she just jumps right back into "up above the world so high" over and over...and over. Cora also loves to sing that song the same way.
• What is your favorite movie? "Despicable Me." (Arden and Dax quote that movie all day)
• What is your favorite activity? "Play with my friends."
• If you could be any animal, which one would you be? "A bear because they they're furry."
• What is your favorite food? "Chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese."
• What do you want to be when you grow up? "A mom."
• How old is your mom? "Eleven?"
• How old is your dad? "Twelve."
• What do you see yourself doing in 10 years? "Playing with Cora and Dax."
• If you had a million dollars, what would you buy? "I would buy some flowers and take them to Grandma's house. I would get me some binoculars too. And shoes."
• Who is your favorite person? "Daniel and Brynn" (her best friends)
• What is your favorite treat? "Cookies and cake. Chocolate chip with some kind of sprinkles on it." (she is obsessed with sprinkles)

So there you have it. Arden is officially a "big kid."