Metal Meredith

As usual, I am spending a good several hours of alone on Mother’s Day. Not because I am being punished, but because this is part of my gift. Hooray!

This morning, I was greeted with a gaggle of little gifts and Vivienne requesting to make me a special breakfast. Instead, Vivienne and I both cooked Coconut Encrusted French Toast. We had so much fun cooking together. She was very impressed with what she had made.

A funny thing has been happening lately. For every day that Vivienne is a turd to her little brother, there is a day when she plays with him by chasing him around, helping him slide or push his truck. She has started helping him into her baby stroller and then pushing him around the house. He loves it! Last weekend, she spent a good 20 minutes pulling him in the wagon around the back yard. I am not sure what the change is that has helped this occur, but I am not complaining.

I know better than to wish for siblings that never fight or are ridiculously close. I do hope for siblings that enjoy each other more than not. Her recent actions lead me to think that maybe there is hope that they will spend a brief period playing together before Henry gets too unruly or Vivienne gets too sophisticated. She is almost a Kindergartner, you know.

Although I am so wonderfully happy to have my kids, I am giddy at the prospect of having my computer back by the middle of this week. That is possibly the best gift of all today. Although, sitting her in the quiet would be a very close second.

We dyed eggs this morning after checking in on our Easter loot. I think we have created a new tradition by having the Easter bunny bring us dyeing kits for the eggs in our baskets. That way, we don’t have 2 dozen eggs sitting around for a long time AND we have something to do that makes this day special for us.

Nothing too exciting here. Vivienne is on day 6 of her recovery and she is doing ok. Not 100%, I would say 75, maybe. We are having a quiet Easter with just us 4. Henry is walking up a storm and making us laugh all the time with his need to carry things as he walks around the house. He is also very fond of Vivienne’s kazoo.

All in all, I hope everyone enjoys this day the way that makes them happiest.

I am SO GLAD that Christmas is over.

But, I am SO GLAD that we were able to enjoy it.

The tree is down. All signs of Christmas are gone with the small exception of those outside lights and the wreath on the door. Next up is Henry’s first birthday (geez, help me through that) and then Vivienne resumes school, also known as “The Day the Angels Sing”. 

We have been spoiled and spoiled some more at Christmas every year that my sister and I can remember. If it wasn’t my parents who were going overboard, it was my grandparents. We are really lucky that way. When discussing the past Christmases with my sister last night, I realized that there are only a handful of gifts I can recall in the 35 years of Christmases that I remember.

I can tell you events at most, people at most and even some things my sister got. However, I can’t remember but a handful of the gifts I received over the years.

This Christmas, Phil and I tried to keep our immediate family low key. Santa brought only a few things and Phil and I did pretty good limiting our gifts to more manageable amounts.

Before the kids got up, I spent a few minutes alone downstairs. This is how it looked:

By the time my Mom came and unloaded their cars (yes, they brought two cars and yes, it took 3 people 6 trips to get it all inside), it looked like this:

See what I mean? It is a bit ridiculous. My mom likes to add to the silliness by saying “What?” every time you point out how she went overboard. It is not 8pm and everyone is gone. Oh, how I am looking forward to a day alone with just us 4 tomorrow. We had a great time with all of the family. However, the house is still full of crap and looks just like this:

It is blurry but you get the gist.

Merry Christmas everyone!