A Mother Never Forgets

Every morning, before I leave for work, I stop in Isabella’s room to give her a good-bye kiss and hug, wishing her a great day and telling her how much I’ll miss her. She always asks me to pick her up and she hugs me. She never wants me to leave. I love that tradition we have.

But none of that happened this morning.

She was up a little earlier than usual, cutting in to CJ’s shower time. So in order to still sneak in a quick washing, he set up the portable DVD player in her room with Elmo’s World on it. He didn’t start it though, just left it on the menu screen so that I could start it after saying my good-byes.

I went in and the first thing she said was “Elmo’s on mommy!” Oh goodie.

I asked her for a kiss and she said “NOOOOO!!!” and ran to the opposite side of the crib. I walked to that side and asked for a hug. “NOOOOO!!” and she ran away again.

Fine. I asked if she wanted Elmo and she exclaimed, “OK!” So I pushed play and then leaned in to give her a kiss on the cheek, at which point she batted me away.

WTF?! I’ve been replaced by a little red monster who can only refer to himself in the third person!

No worries. I’ll remember this the first time she asks to borrow the car, stay out late, go on a date, needs some money or wants to buy that really cute pair of jeans. I’ll look at her, scream “NOOOOO!!” and run to the opposite side of the room.

Because believe you me, I have the memory of an elephant (just ask CJ) and I’m not afraid to use it!

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Wake Up!

For months now, Isabella has enjoyed this fun little game called “wake up!” It’s simple really. All you do is pretend to sleep (actually you don’t have to pretend – you can really be asleep) and she will run up and yell “WAKE UP!” in a really high pitched loud voice! She thinks it’s the funniest thing ever!

She also enjoys it in reverse. Only, when we yell “wake up” to her, we also tickle her. Double whammy!

Tonight we were playing that game on the bed and I grabbed my camera to take a pic of her after I yanked off a pillow and yelled “wake up!” When the flash went off she said “The sun’s inside mama”. I explained to her the whole concept of ‘flash’ on a camera and then she asked for more. “More flash mama!”

Here is the series of pics I took:

surprise

surprise2

surprise3

surprise4

We both had so much fun!

By the way, just a few weeks ago she started switching between calling me “mommy” and “mama”. For some reason when she says mama it’s like so totally adorable and just melts my heart each time. She can pretty much have anything she wants when she says it.

“Oobie please mama?” Yes of course!

“Can I run with scissors mama?” Sure!

“Can I play with this knife mama?” Anything for you sweetie!

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Chances Are

I thought I’d take a break from writing about our vacation to talk about chances, fate and destiny.

You know, a light-weight topic.

I was inspired by this post from Caitlin at Healthy Tipping Point. She talks about all the different paths our lives could have taken if only one thing or another had been different. She was inspired by the movie “The Adjustment Bureau“. There was also a movie with Gwyneth Paltrow that touched on this called “Sliding Doors

To be honest with you, this topic fascinates me and I think about it quite a lot. There are so many things that happen in life of which I had NEVER expected. My college roommate used to say “If you’d asked me to bet that ____ would happen, I’d have lost the best!”

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Here’s one small example –  3 years ago I was drafted on a co-ed volleyball team. I knew no one on the team. One of the gals was also named Sara and was new to the city. We got along well on the court but didn’t hang out much otherwise. I was honestly quite jealous of her because she’s a great player and has a magnetic personality that draws people to her. I wanted to BE her! When that session was over we went our separate ways on to different teams. The next summer I ran in to her at a pick up volleyball game and it just so happened I needed a new gal for Team Trader. She joined the team, we started hanging out and now we’re close friends! Had I bet on that 3 years ago, I would have lost money!

I often times think “what if” this or that had been different. What if I had gone out for the high school volleyball team? I wanted to but was chicken and never did. If I had, I might have become a great player and gotten a college scholorship. Maybe I would have gone on to play in the Olympics! But then again I would have had much different friends in school, gone to a different college and my life would be totally different. Would it still have been a good life? Probably. But I wouldn’t have met CJ and I wouldn’t have Isabella.

Or would I? If something is truly “meant to be”, would CJ and I have found each other anyway? I guess we’ll never know!

As it turned out, I met CJ at a social event. He was at the door greeting people and I was there with my current boyfriend. He actually made a comment out how “hot” CJ was and no wonder I wanted to come to the event. My ex and I broke up shortly after that. Then I started attending support groups to help me work through some emotions about it and CJ was there. We became friends. Later, my friend Jason invited me to a pick up volleyball game and CJ showed up. We started hanging out and a year later I asked him out. The rest is history.

What if I hadn’t gone to the support group? What if I had told Jason “no” to the volleyball game? What if I hadn’t had the courage to ask CJ out?

What I do know is that I don’t regret any past decisions in my life. Some were good, some were bad. But all of them led me to the place I’m at today, which is a pretty good one. I have an amazing husband, a beautiful daughter, an awesome dog, a successful career, and a loving family. No I’m not a millionaire or an Olympic gold medalist but I don’t need to be. My life is perfect the way it is.

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A Nice Fall Scene

Apparently Isabella is a nature lover. She wants to be outside all the time. She looks out the window and watches birds. When we play outside, she hugs the trees. Course, she also throws things at my flowers so who knows.

The other day, I was changing her diaper and she was staring at my arm. All of a sudden she said “leaves”. Um, what’s that sweetheart? I didn’t know if she wanted me to leave or had seen leaves somewhere or got in to CJ’s sage.

She said it again, “Leaves on there mommy.”

Leaves where Munchkin?

“Right there!!” and she pointed to my arm. That’s when it hit me: she thought the freckles on my arms were leaves. And then she said this:

“Mommy has leaves and grass on her arm.”

That’s right, she equates my arm hair to grass.

I guess I am Mother Earth. At least in her eyes.

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A year later