My 2016 Mother's Day Gift: Day 1

It's almost Mother's Day of 2016. Leading up to this day God always shows me things about motherhood. The enemy throws in doubts and sarcasm but just as quickly God twists it to the truth. Example: I think "Mother's Day. Hm. Just one day to celebrate all the freaking crap I do around here? Should be more like a year long celebration if you ask me." Then a few moments later I hop on life sucking Facebook and my mom has tagged me in a sweet post about a couple that is walking down the beach with two young children, toys everywhere, sand everywhere and the young mom hears an old man tell his wife "those were the days" She continues to ponder on how THESE are the days. So as I rock Aubrey to sleep just begging for some time in my day to just sit still I think about the highlights of the day, which in fact may also be exhausting highlights of the ups and downs of raising a 2 1/2 year old (Bennett) and a 10 month old (Aubrey). And instead of rolling my eyes, letting my heart beat of out my chest in mommy awe and letting these sweet moments of today be lost in memories I decided to spend some time using the blog for what I set out for it to be in the first place...
A place for me to dump memories of our life so that when I'm an old gray headed empty nester I can go back and giggle, cry and read the sweet times when I thought I would pull my hair out or turn into the biggest pile of mommy-mush on the planet. So here's a sneak peek into our day today... (It's been a long one) Ha!

It started off with hearing the sweet chatter of Aubrey in her crib through the monitor around 6:50. I dozed in and out for the next 10 minutes then got up, make my spark and got her and Bennett out of bed. We came downstairs and had breakfast then got ready and got out the door to the gym. Brandon had a breakfast meeting so it was all me getting the kids ready, packing the diaper bag, my gym bag, getting me ready and getting in the car. The whole 'getting ready process took about 30 minutes. When we were walking out the door to get in the car I was thinking "Sweet Jesus! I needed my pre workout mix just for that. Warm up: check!"

Bennett was the EASIEST baby, aside from his reflux, ever. My mom used to tell me that Bennett was the happiest easiest baby ever! And I'm like "Ok Nana.. Of course you're saying that.. You're Nana." Then comes Aubrey. The sweetest, snuggliest, chunkiest little angel. But behind the sweetness is... DRAMA. My heavens. Will not sleep through the night, has had 5 ear infections, can not ever be away from me: except for the sweet teenager in the nursery at church, my MIL and my mom. So.. That leads me to the first hiccup of our day. I decided to 'test out' the nursery at the gym. We get there, all seems well. Bennett runs right in and starts playing. And then... I hand Aubrey off and the melt down begins. I blow kisses and take off to workout. I get a 5 min warm up run in, then 2 chest exercises in, I pick up my phone and start texting to Brandon.. "YAY! Through my warm up and they haven't came out from..." I look up mid text and here comes a worker from the nursery. "Hey so, Aubrey is still crying and she just won't calm down..." So I smile, say "Ok, no worries! We can head out." As soon as I take her she stops crying. We walk out to the car, in the pouring rain, buckle them in and we head home.

We get home and play. I chase Aubrey around as she looks back and squeals and crawls super fast. At one point she lets go of me and stood up by herself- then realized what she was doing and plopped down on her butt. About an hour later I put Aubrey down for a nap. Which is a process. She squirms, squeals, cries and refuses the bottle for what felt like an hour- was probably 10 minutes, she finally took it and went to sleep. Has the ear infection returned? (Eye roll and palm to forehead) I hope not!

Bennett and I go downstairs and we have lunch together. Brandon is doing some work so we are enjoying our time together. We are looking out of our kitchen windows.. We have a beautiful view. Back deck, lots of trees and greenery, a big field and it's raining. Then the conversation starts from my sweet 2 1/2 year old chatter box.

B: "Mama it's raining out theeeeyruh!"
Me: "It is buddy you're right!"
B: "Mama there's a bird house. And a nest and birds. And there's eggs."
Me: "Oh yeah?"
B: "Yeap! Mama there's birds out theeeeyruh! Mama what's the bird doin?"
Me: "idk buddy just hanging out"
B: "Yeap. Mama maybe we go see papa later?"
Me: "Haha yeah maybe later this week bud."

Bennett is obsessed with his papa. That papa statement came way out of left field. Always does and I love it. The day continued on with countless requests for juice, "sumpin else mama", diaper changes, Aubrey eating dog food, Bennett not listening and testing me, Aubrey crawling into the fire place, Aubrey finding the tiniest most random pieces of I don't even know what out of the carpet to put in her mouth and so on.

For dinner Bennett had a turkey sandwich with honey mustard on it and requested ketchup for dipping and I said, "whatever if you will eat it..." accompanied with "bodatoes" (tomatoes). And milk. I fed Aubrey a jar of apples and bananas. She loves bananas. Meanwhile Bennett circled the table countless times on his bike saying, "That's aubreys bananas, Mama!"

When we were playing before bed Bennett got out his dinosaurs. He attempted to put one on top of the other and this is the conversation we had...
B: "mama put the dinosaur on its shoulder".
Me: "oh! Ok like this? Like a piggy back ride? Ok, here.. Where are the going?"
B: "In the jungle, Mama!"
Me: "Ok.. Where's the jungle?"
 B: "Riiiight theeeeyruh!" And points under Aubrey's play table.

I tend to find myself baffled at his imagination. He's growing and learning so much. I know it's from the people he's around, but also what he sees in books and on his tv shows. It's moments like these that wash away the not-so-fun parts of my day. The gym trip, the testing.. These raw, hilarious moments remind me of his age and what being a mom is about but also.. What being a kid is about. I hope to write a post everyday this week reflecting on our days as a Mother's Day gift to myself because in 5 years, 10 years, 30 years these moments will be gone and I know I will cherish these tiny details.