365 Days of my Life: Going from a very happy momma, to a very sick momma.

This is going to probably take the rest of the energy I have for tonight, and then I am heading back to bed. I have no idea what truck hit me last night, but hopefully my antibodies obtained a license plate number and will destroy it.

Anyhow, the rest of yesterday went incredibly amazing. The kiddos acted like angels in the mall, and they of course had fun with their friends. One thing I did learn at the mall, Carter does NOT appreciate sharing his mommy with a younger baby. He was highly offended that I was holding a baby, rather than him. I did have a very comical conversation with Pierce on the way home...and we have been having a lot of them lately. It went along the lines of this:

Pierce: I want to do Halloween mommy
Me: Halloween only comes once a year, just like Santa.
Pierce: where is Santa?
Me: at the North Pole making lots of toys for you.
Pierce: well, I don't want lots of toys. He needs to make me lots of hot dogs.

I have no idea where he comes up with this stuff, but I absolutely love it. It keeps me on my toes to know that somewhere along the way we are going t have one of those conversations during the day, and you never know when. It also brings me such happiness and the largest sense of pride that he is able to make such large connections now. I mean we are talking stuff he does today he connects with other things he did months ago.

Upon our arrival at home, of course the boys demanded we do fife and drum time. Although lately it has been fife and cymbal time. They are both really starting to get into it now. Pierce yells his commands (mostly march time, march!), and Carter climbs into his walker and uses that so he can march and keep up with us. As of yesterday, he even march time marches too! It cracked me up to see this little person in his walker marching up and down.

Then I went to work. It started off fine, and around 8 pm I suddenly became so ill, I honestly had no idea how I was going to drive home. It has been a long time since I have been this sick, but I am so incredibly drained and achy, that I actually asked Dan to call out today so he could help. He took one look at me, and agreed that I could not do it on my own today. And I need to give him some serious credit. He took care of the kids all night, never once asked for help, and even made me breakfast in bed. Then he did all of the errands I was supposed to run today, including getting Pierce ready for school and taking him. THANK YOU DAN! I owe you!

I did finally roll out of bed around 2 pm. And the whole reason I did, was based on a request from Carter standing next to my bed going, "Momma, Mommmmmaaaaaa." I figured I should be more than grateful for the rest I obtained, and I honestly missed my kiddos and doing stuff with them. So, Carter got to hug his momma, and then took off like I was no longer needed to play with something in the house. Pierce, however, reminded me he likes "to do fun things with momma." So we made some lavender scented, yellow play dough with cornstarch. The link to the blog that I found it on is here:

http://messypreschoolers.blogspot.com/2011/07/no-four-playdough.html

Pierce loved helping make it, but decided as I was cooking the play dough that he would rather just throw cornstarch up in the air and announce it was snowing inside too. (We are having a bit of a nor easter as I type this). Carter joined in on the fun, and loved touching it. Honestly, I loved it. It was so darn silky, how could I resist?

And then from there, the boys helped clean up and we ventured outside to play in all of that awesome white stuff that is falling from the sky. This is the first year that Pierce has not been intimidated with the snow, and the first year that Carter can actually play in it. Dan pulled both of the kids up the driveway on his own, and I followed so I could enjoy the first snow fall with them. Pierce LOVED helping daddy shovel (we had bought him a kid size shovel last year), and to my surprise, Carter loved CRAWLING in the snow. Not walking, but crawling. Everywhere. He has now been dubbed Polar Bear. He was rolling in it, pretending to slide on his butt and yelling wee too. It was hilarious. Pierce also had a blast sledding down our driveway, and was disappointed when he did not go fast enough. Yup, that is my Pierce.

It was extremely cold and windy, so we only stayed outside for about 30 minutes. That is when I wrestled what felt like two hungry alligators inside, to undress them and make them warm up near the wood stove. From that point on we have just been catching up on clean up, cooking dinner, and trying to avoid meltdowns from two amazing kids that never napped today. :)

I am now completely ready for bed, and am headed back in that direction. While a part of me misses that dependence of a newborn, and I find myself questioning if our family is complete, it is days like today when I can say yes without hesitation. Listening to the two of them problem solve, talk to each other, play with each other, and telling each other I love you is the sweetest thing ever. I honestly makes my eyes a bit misty, and fills my heart with such joy. It is their pure innocence that is worn on their sleeves, and is shown to the whole world. It has certainly reawakened my senses, and hopefully they are helping others awaken as well with every passing smile and hi. I'm relearning a lot about simple acts of kindness, the power of a hug, and the elation that a smile can give you. Thank you boys for teaching me something every day. I really, honestly, appreciate it. And never stop learning yourselves. The world is your classroom...how are you going to use it?