A beautiful day

Today was a beautiful day! Last night was the Super blood moon lunar eclipse. M and I sat on our back lawn watching the eclipse and talking about the heavens making for such a great night. This morning started with a cuddle with both my girls on my lap reading a book. 

After breakfast, Nama joined us for tea and crumpets (actually maple and brown sugar muffins we made yesterday). We always love when we get to see Nama. 

This was later followed by L's first movie at the theater (M's 3rd). We went to see Hotel Transylvania 2. 

I was nervous taking L to the theater with it being loud and dark. But she did surprisingly awesome! She was so excited watching the big screen. She danced to music on the previews, giggled and pointed when she saw a dog and cuddled Nama and sissy M for the first 20 minutes or so while she munched on her snack. I also thought she said 'mama' at one point. 

When she finished her snack she decided to sit with me. That's when she was done watching the movie and decided she wanted to climb! Luckily we had the whole row of chairs to my right and she was happy traversing them for maybe another 20 minutes or so. Even quietly looking up at the rows of seats behind us and waving to people she could see in the dim light. Then she wanted bigger things to climb... Like the wall at the end of the aisle. She grabbed onto that thing and was trying to hoist herself up except I was holding onto her. She let out a loud scream in protest. I could no longer keep her happy romping over the seats. So I decided not to try to keep her there when she wanted to roam. She and I left the movie early but I was glad she did pretty good and seemed to have fun. 

I kept prodding her to say 'mama' and she kind of seemed to be testing me by stringing 'mamamama' together and when I would turn to her she'd smile coyly. 

Later, after picking up a somewhat grumpy M from Nama's house and returning home, I was playing peek-a-boo with L while changing her diaper and I said 'where's mama?' And when I uncovered my eyes she said 'hi mama!' With a big smile!

The evening ended with my pre bedtime snuggle time with M. As usual, M was stalling a bit by chatting and she said 'my eyes are sparkly, right mama?' Something I tell her often. 

'Yes they are'

'How did they get like that?'

'That's just the way they are love'

'Maybe when God was making me the Angels came and put sparkles in my eyes.'

'I think that's exactly how it happened lovey '

I almost cried. 

What a perfect way to end such a beautiful day. 

Another day

I love days like this. It makes me feel so grateful that I have the opportunity to stay home with my little loves. The reason I have that opportunity? My husband. Though this year has been tough on us we're getting better at talking about things and trying to work together :)... (sometimes not trying as hard as we should) but it is because he is working so hard that I am able to stay home.

Today we had breakfast and saw daddy off to work. We listened to some music, did some laundry and  had our morning snack while the little one napped and we played Legos :)

After morning nap, we headed to the library. I packed us a lunch and a blanket. We had a lovely picnic on the lawn. The weather was perfect, not too hot and nice in the shade. M ran up and down the hill while L and I finished munching.

I love going to the library! I always have. Books are like magic, and I get excited to pick interesting and fun books for the girls. Even though I don't always get a lot of time to look because M wants to play on one of the computers and L just gets a kick out of crawling away from me around the next bookcase. But it's still fun. Today we ended up with 6 books. I try to get at least one book that shows a different culture or group so that M will see that others live differently. Last time that book was Mama Panya's Pancakes by Mary and Rich Chamberlain. It shows the life of a mother and son in a Kenyan village. I really liked it because it included a recipe for the pancakes as well as some Kiswahili words.

We got home and I read one of the books to the girls and put L down for her nap. M and I pretended we were on an adventure to seek out the magic crowns of Arendelle (Frozen of course) before it was time for her to have quiet time.

Now I took the chance to write a quick blog before it's time to play again. :)

Today is also the two year anniversary of Diana's death. It's  hard to believe it's been two years. It seems like it was so recent. I know Marc misses his mom every single day, I would feel the same if it were my mom. I pray she's watching over us all and giving us little inspirations each day. I know she would love to play pretend with the girls. It would make her smile.

L;s 1st Birthday

It's a question we as parents will ask (when we have the moment to sit down and think about it) 'Where does the time go?!' I know where it goes. It goes with the worry of naps and sleeping, of teething and eating, of tummy troubles and diaper rashes. It comes in the rush of trying to bathe one child while the baby cries in her chair... But then, it morphs into both taking a bath together. We also see it in the rolling over, the sitting, the crawling and standing. The babbling and waving and first words. Today our little L turns 1! This year truly seems like more of a blur than it had with her big sister! I can probably contribute a lot of that to her sleep issues and thus my lack of sleep and worry over it.

But my how she has grown! She's so spunky! I have since dubbed her my trouble child! After her infamous roll down the stairs at 6 months she started learning how to crawl and from then on she has gotten into everything! With M, we never really had to "baby-proof" the house just with the basics, but with L... give her an inch... I find her with something in her mouth or climbing a chair and onto the table (the toddler table), pulling things off of tables and chairs, trying to climb into the bathtub to play in the water, or scoot under a baby gate and today climbing up the stairs! Oh yeah... we're going to have our hands full with her! I have to watch her like a hawk! And all that and she still has yet to walk! But I think that's not too far off and then we're really in trouble!

She may not be much of a talker yet, but boy she can tell you what she wants with a point and a grunt! But she's also quite the cuddler under the right circumstances. She'll give hugs and kisses and she loves her big sister so much that she gets excited when we go into her room to wake her up. My favorite thing is to hear them laughing together. They are so alike but they are also so different. I'm so excited to see them grow together. 

Saturday we will have her birthday party. I know they'll both have fun because daddy has been working so hard to get the back yard ready. We are putting turf in because we had grubs destroy our lawn over the past two years. At least now the girls will have a place to play outside (in decent whether). So it will be doubly celebratory!

Happy Birthday little sunshine.