Three Things I Love About Each of my Children, Right Now.

Jack:
1. They way he comes up to me randomly throughout the day and says "I love you mama!"
2. They way it takes him forever to lay out the most simple of plans; "I'm going to the kitchen to get a glass of water" can take upwards of 5 minutes to explain. But he is just so earnest and cute while doing it.
3. When he talks about what he is going to do "now that he's BIG".

Cate:
1. Her signature "scribble scrabble" drawing style; this is how she describes her pictures that consist of elaborate looping squiggles in many colors. When she first called them 'scribble scrabbles' I thought it was a pejorative term and that she was frustrated that she couldn't make anything else. Silly me. 'Scribble scrabble' is an ART.
2. Her dramatics. Actually it's kind of a love/hate thing. The weeping and wailing send me to the end of my tether, but at the same time they kind of crack me up. She certainly is a character.
3. When she pads into our room, eyes still full of sleep, and crawls into bed with me saying "Mama, I need to cuddle you". Ahhhhhhh.

Ava:
1. Her voice. It's part muppet, part helium tank. It makes me smile just to hear it.
2. Her awareness. Nothing gets past those blue eyes.
3. How proud she is of her accomplishments. I never want that to stop for her; I hope she will always be able to look at what she done and feel "Yes, I AM good at that!".

Danielle, Patron Saint of Cats

I don't know if there really is a patron saint for cats, but knowing the Catholics as I do I would not be surprised.  Nonetheless my friend Danielle now gets the honor as for the last 2 weeks she has been ftaking care of 3 of the sickest cats I have ever seen, and they are not even hers.  I'm talking "i.v. fluids" sick.  Her family is thinking about getting a pet so she thought it would be a great idea to foster some animals first to determine which type of pet would best suit their lifestyle.  The idea was to foster a cat and then a dog.  She contacted a cat rescue organization and it just so happened that they had 3 cats (a mother and two grown daughters) that needed to be placed *immediately*.  Three was more than she was bargaining for, but what the heck right?  So they bring them over and they promptly begin wretching, snarffling and dying.  

Let me repeat: she has been taking care of these animals for two weeks now.  While she gets ready for the Spring semester.  While her husband is out of town.

Quite simply I am amazed by this woman.  Her energy puts my feeble efforts to shame.  The cats are improving under her constant care, but man!  What a long row to hoe......so today's post is just a giant shout-out to Danielle for her hard work and huge heart.  You have earned your place in cat heaven.  

Why I Love My Friends, Reason #78,456

Brian is in Miami at the moment, and then next week he is gone again to San Diego.  Although it is getting easier to handle the kids on my own as they get older, it's still nice to have the company of another adult while I'm doing it.  So last week I put out an SOS to my girlfriends in an attempt to secure some grown-up company.....

Within 1 hour I had a dinner date for every night that Brian was gone and a playdate for the Saturday that he is away.  There are no words for how supported I feel by this wonderful community of friends.  

Fighting the Good Fight

I remember going to my friend's homes and offering to do the dishes after dinner, or clearing my plate, or just not writing obscenities on the walls, and my mother saying "why don't you do that at home?". 

I left the kids with Jenna the Brave (as she will hereafter be known) last night so as to get a little mommy R&R, and as I was driving back to retrieve them I got the following texts:

Text 1: Your kids r awesome!

Text 2: In fact they r so well behaved that its almost creepy.

When I arrived at her house she regaled me with stories about how they said "please" and "thank you" and complimented the food ("This is delicious!") and insisted on eating their snacks at the table.  So clearly she was watching some other set of triplets that happened to look like mine, because mine NEVER DO THIS AT HOME.  If I had a nickel for every time I have shouted at the top of my lungs "Eat at the table!!!" I would be writing this from a beach in France.

So here is my conclusion: all that yelling, talking to brick walls, admonitions falling on deaf ears?  Worth it!  They actually do take it all in; they just don't do it at home.  Which, in a way, is fine.  I'm not teaching them good manners and habits to make MY life better or easier (not that it wouldn't be nice).  I'm doing it to make THEIR lives better and easier.  So while I would love it if they would behave well and follow the rules all the time, I am buoyed up by the thought that even if they aren't perfect little angels at home they do a darn good impression when they are outside the confines of my watchful eye.  

Now if I could just get them to pick up their toys......