Sunday, August 25, 2013

Sleepover milestone. Check.

Tulip was invited to and attended her first sleepover.  She, I mean I, I mean Luna did just fine.

Actually, whatever trepidation I thought Tulip might have was nonexistent.  I, on the other hand, had great pause as to whether my daughter who only just finished Kindergarten was ready to sleep in another house...without ME.  But the real drama was not from Tulip's mama, but from her baby sister.  Oh my but was Luna sad that Tulip was leaving the house at 4:00 in the afternoon and wouldn't be coming home that night.  She started weeping on the couch as Tulip packed her backpack.

"You know, Luna is really sad that you won't be sleeping in your room tonight," I told her and okay maybe I was projecting a little bit.

"Oh..." Tulip said knowingly and finished packing her outfit for the next day.  She went to find her sister and offer her some solace.  "Luna, what if we each draw a picture for each other and we can tuck them under our pillows tonight."  Total brilliance.

Problem solved except that mama now had a fresh batch of tears welling up in the corner of her eyes.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Back to work

Returning to work after spending the whole summer with my kids is tough.  But it's not so bad when this happens:

"Good morning, Mama," Luna says.

I drop my mascara right in the sink and drop myself right onto the bathroom floor so she can crawl into my lap.

"You look like a happy girl this morning," I say.  And I smell her hair.

"That's because I had a funny dream."

"What did you dream about?"

She caresses my arm while she searches her sleepy mind.  Then she tells me about a funny clown and unicorns and hot dogs.

"That does sound like a funny dream," I tell her.

"Mama?"

"Yes?"

"Do you want to make paper butterflies with me?"  I taught her how to do this over the summer and she has made 6,338 paper butterflies so far.

"Oh, Mama has to go to work today."

"That's okay." Her caress turns into a pat, pat on my arm and she is up out of my lap.


Monday, August 12, 2013

You know you're the mother of three when...

You know you are the mother of three when you find yourself telling your youngest child to just go outside and pee in the grass real quick because all of the toilets in the house are currently being occupied.

Saturday, August 3, 2013

The Talk

Well, Luna and I finally had the talk last month.  I knew the day was coming and though I thought I would dread it, it really wasn't that bad.

Luna stopped nursing.  For good.  Not just for a few days.

I practiced (or should I say my children practiced) self-weaning.  Needless to say, Luna took the longest to wean.  It got to the point when she was nearing her 4th birthday that I would ask her if there was even any milk in there.  She'd nod, all eyelashes and latched on lips, yanking my breast up and down.  She said, "The milk goes into my stomach and then there is a little hole in my stomach so the milk goes..." and then she traced a swirly pattern all over her body while making some sort of "whoowhoowhoo" noise.

Okay, then.

Sometimes she wouldn't nurse for two, three days and I would think, "This is it."  But then she'd ask for mama-milk before bed and she would assure me that there was still milk in there.

Then, one month after her 4th birthday, I realized one day that she hadn't nursed in, like, four days.  Or was it five?  She asked for mama-milk one night and I could tell.  She popped off and I said, "Let me guess.  There is no more mama-milk."  She kind of shrugged, and made some funny faces.  I started to tell her that she will always be my baby, and even if there wasn't any mama-milk she could always snuggle me, and...well, I probably babbled a bit more and I'm pretty sure Luna realized that this talk was more for me than for her because she made some more funny faces, kissed me and went too bed.