Things you only hear in a public restroom when DD and I are there!!!

Lucky you... I have decided that since this blog is the closest thing I'll probably ever have to a journal, I would like to record some memories that I am afraid I'll forget. So, today, I hope you'll indulge me a couple of funny stories on DD.

DD has a knack for saying very funny things. I'll concede that she is not the only 5 y-o to have that amazing gift. Nor is she the only one to have the most perfect (or NOT so perfect) timing when choosing to say her funny things. But crowded public bathrooms seem to be her favorite place to blurt out her interesting statements...

I'll go in chronological order...

DD was probably 2 y-o when she and I were in a local clothing store. One or both of us needed to use the restroom, so off we go. It was not a busy day in the store, so I indulged myself and used the large stall intended for wheelchair use. (y, I know that's tacky, but I did it anyway. I still do it a lot too. shame shame shame on me) Anyway... as we were taking our turns on the potty, she starts talking her head off about whatever is on her mind at the moment.

background info: she was all into superheroes at the time. AND at bedtime, we'd talk about what she wanted to be when she grew up. regular answers included: cooker-man, teacher, hair-fixer, computer-worker, mommy, super hero, farmer, horse-rider, etc., etc., etc.,

Back to the story...

So, DD is blabbing away in her 2 y-o voice about who-knows-what. Sometime during this monologue, another woman enters the restroom and uses another stall. I try to shush DD, thinking "it's only a matter of time before she says something I'll regret and have to apologize to the stranger on the other side of the partition." No luck on the shushing.

Suddenly,

(don't you like the way I'm working on my building suspense into my posts???)

Suddenly, DD stops mid-sentence. She turns to me - or looks up at me, depending on who's on the potty - and says, "Mommy, I've decided I don't want to be a mommy when I gwow up. I'm sowwy."

"You don't? Why not? Being a mommy is such a wonderful thing to be."

"Well, you see. I know that being a mommy is a vewwy special thing, but I just can't be a mommy AND a supuh-hewo too!"

"mmmmm"

And then from the other stall, "You can't argue with that!"

So, DD has given up on the dream of being a mommy. Super heroes are not a big goal now either. I think her thing right now is to have a farm and a garden and a bunch of horses and let someone else take care of it all.

Dang! If she isn't just like ME!!! ;-)



Tune in again soon for another Funny DD Public Bathroom Story!

"laughed as she came to my cradle, Oh, this child will be able"

She took her seat, a red crayon and got to work on her beautiful picture of Elmo.

"Bye, Mommy. I love you!"

And this was how I left her on her first day of kindergarten.

DH and I both took her. It was the only day we are allowed to walk her to her classroom.

The halls were filled with kindergarteners, parents, little brothers and/or sisters looking for their classrooms. DH had teased me about snapping pictures of DD on her first day of kindergarten. I was pleased to see many other parents snapping pictures of their little ones. (NahNeeNahNeeBooBoo)

I had forgotten DD's name tag, intended to assist the kiddos find their classrooms if they get a little lost. As I returned with the very valuable bumble bee name tag, I saw a friend from church with her little boy, also starting kindergarten today. Outside DD's classroom, where she sat in her seat contendedly working on her beautiful picture of Elmo, there was a hispanic little girl with her mother looking for her classroom. It appeared that neither the child nor the mother spoke English and the two teachers trying their darnedest didn't speak Spanish - or enough of it to understand what they were looking for.

I draped DD's name tag around her neck. She glaced up from her beautiful picture of Elmo to thank me. I got another kiss before being dismissed by her again. NOT by her teacher - Mrs Ward didn't mind my being there again at all. It was DD that was ready for me to go. (can you hear my heart breaking???)

As I walked the LONGEST walk of my life back to my Pimp-Mombile, I saw my friend from church holding her son in her lap in a full-on "don't leave me Mommy" embrace. She gave me the look of a mommy with a breaking heart.

The breaking heart is a paradox.
+She is proud of her baby reaching this new stage of growth and development.
-She wishes her baby would just cuddle up and let her hold her for hours.
+She is excited to see all the new changes in her baby.
-She wishes her baby wouldn't change at all.
+She is excited to see her baby develop a new level of independence and maturity.
-She wants her baby to remain a baby. (Who needs a "big girl" after all???)

I now wonder why it seems that my baby (ahem, big girl) doesn't need me anymore and the other mommies are still needed by their babies. This is just not fair.

I was telling DH last night that I never thought this day would arrive. Not in the way that I thought one of us wouldn't live this long. But in the way that it seemed so unbelievably far away in the daily busy-ness of life with my baby (yes, BABY!) In the same way that I thought I'd never reach 35 y-o or our 14th wedding anniversary or have a niece that is wearing a bra and shaving her legs!

A quick tangent about DH:

If you don't know him very closely, you would never guess that he is nothing but a gruff, deer-hunting, outdoors kind of guy. He plays that part very well and is proud of it too. It's his badge of honor. He knows that people either really like or really don't like him - and that has been his goal.

The truth is that behind that grizzly bear exterior is Winnie the Pooh. He is a very tender-hearted, loving, doting, affectionate husband and dad. He's one of the best dads I know - even when compared to my own. He tries his best to be the tough guy with DD. We fuss occasionally when he says I don't follow-through with my promised punishments, and then he will step in and spoil her to the Nth degree when I'm trying to be the disciplinarian he dreams of. (Yes, it makes me mad. But my anger is dissipated by the memory of him crying at her birth and how he stroked her soft, newborn skin as she screamed for 30 minutes after her first bath.)

So, last week, as he and I discussed MY unwelcomed task of taking DD to her first day of kindergarten. He made it clear that he would not be able to escort her with me but would definitely would be the one to pick her up that afternoon. (the big tooty made it clear that he would not be able to handle the heartbreak of leaving her) Wellllll... we talked again and he had a look on his face that said he would be there that first morning.

So, DH was one of the proud minority of daddies taking their babies to their first day of kindergarten. Did I say that he was proud to do it? He loves the attention he gets for being the attentive and involved dad that he is.

And I am sooooo very thankful for that quality in DH's character. Yup, I got me a keeper, all right. DD has a wonderful daddy.

Thank you, Lord, for my little family.

I've got friends in low places

Well, I've got them all over, really. But I wanted to tell you about a friend and what she did for me. To be honest, before today, I wouldn't have applied the official term "friend" with all its connotations and the inferences you might draw when it is used (salute to Dr Villaume). I actually barely know her. She's a couple of years older than I and went to a different high school. Not sure if she went to college and where. I've "known" her for several years on this very basic, non-intimate way. When DD attended Vacation Bible School with a friend, this "friend" was one of her teachers.

It was during that week of VBS that I learned that she is expecting her first child, due in December (I think.) It was that week that we began sharing that I am pg, so DD got to tell her and the other teachers - but made them promise to keep it a secret.

(DD's understanding of secret is that it's something you don't tell anyone - unless you whisper very softly!!!)

On the last night of that VBS, I congratulated Karen on her pg. She started to say "Congratulations to you too" but stopped, remembering it was a secret. I shared my news and she confessed to knowing already. (wink wink)

We discussed the little miseries of the first trimester and she said that her nausea, etc was improving. I commented that mine was just beginning and was much more intense than during my 1st pg.

That was it. That was our first bonding moment as pg gals, soon-to-be-friends.

About 2 weeks ago, I met Karen at the local Wal-Mart. It's comforting to know that even the very wealthy of our area (NOT me) shop at Wal-Mart too. You can tell her clothes are not Old Glory brand, though. I told her how cute she was looking (the TRUTH. It's very very important to tell all pg gals they're cute, even if they're a little on the not-cute-pg side. Cute ones and not all feel like brahma bulls -with retroverted humps!)

She asked how my pg was going, ie the nausea. I had a moment of weakness and told her that the nausea was minor compared to the migraines. I HOPE I didn't moan on forever about my pitiful condition (at least it seems pitiful to me), but I told her about having to go to the ER for medication for the pain and vomiting and about being able to work 3 days/week (at best). She didn't turn really glassy-eyed, so maybe I was brief.

She said she'd pray for me. I replied, very sincerely, "Thank you, I really need it," sniffed and tried to not start crying over my intense self-pity.

Well, Karen pulled up next to my new van (aka the Pimp-Mombile) as I was leaving DH's office. I don't know if she knew I was there or what, but she pulled up to say hello and ask how I'm doing.

Tangent warning:

To be very honest and transparent here, I am slightly intimidated by Karen. Not because SHE is intimidating in her personality, she's actually very friendly and sweet. I suppose it's knowing that she is independently wealthy and always seems to have just left the salon with her perfectly coifed hair and perfect makeup and always freshly ironed linen pants (even in this unHOLY heat and at the end of a long day of this unHOLY heat) and manicured and pedicured nails. And knowing that her house is probably magazine cover clean (because she has HELP or maybe because she has TIME - of which I have NEITHER!) But I am intimidated. She is soooo many things I am not. And, for the most part, I'm ok with that. But still, there is this thing with our culture that forces us to compare us to each other and realize our differences and equate those differences with inadequacies and failures on our part. And as much as I wish it weren't true, I'm a victim of that particular peer pressure.

(tires screeching as we return from that tangent)...

So, when Karen pulls into the parking lot in her new Lexus SUV (of which I am not intimidated or jealous. I am seriously in LOVE with my tricked-out dream van), I was surprised and assumed she was there to order a $8000 mahogany and copper door unit or something.

Nope. She just rolls down her window and asks how I'm doing.

"What did the MRI show?"

(Only NOW am I realizing that I've had NO chance to tell her about the brain MRI from last week. How did she know?) Joking: "They didn't find anything." (DH loves that joke way too much.) "Actually it was normal, so there's no defects in my head causing the migraines. It's probably hormones."

"How are you doing?"

"Pretty good. Today's a good day, so far."

"I'm glad. After we talked in Wal-Mart that day, I went home and got down on my knees for you. I went to our church Prayer Share Time and told them how sick you've been and how we all really needed to pray for you. And we did."

Almost in tears, I'm so touched: "Thank you. You have no idea how much that means to me, REALLY."

"I've had migraines and know how bad they make you feel. I just am glad you're doing better."

I thanked her several more times as I helpfully pulled a loose hair from her perfect hair.

And she left in her big, hunking Lexus. But not before she commented on my new ride and how cool it is that DD can push a button and close the sliding doors. Of course, I pointed out that the keyless remote opens and closes the side doors and the rear door too.

As I left DH's office and drove on to my own job, I was singing along with Martina (I'm sooo much better than she is when I'm in the car alone). "At last" was the song. I looked up at the blue skies and was struck by their beauty and their Maker. I realized what had just happened between Karen and myself and began to cry like only a pregnant woman can.

There are many of you readers (and I question the sanity and time management skills of those whom I don't know) who have also prayed for me over the past few weeks as I've lamented the not-so-glorious part of this pregnancy (see Whining post). To you I want to tell you that your prayers have truly made a difference in my health and sanity and frame of mind and PEACE of mind.

Thank you and God Bless you for the love in your heart.

Did I mention that I have a cool new van? heehee

Shutter-bug time.

Here are some "recent" pictures from our trip to Dauphin Island. Ok, so we went over the weekend before the 4th of July and that makes them not-so-recent. This is my first chance to post them. So shut up.


Well, I had more pictures to upload, but blogger is being a pain in the keester today. I guess I'll have to show you the rest on another post at another time.