Those Perfectly Ordinary Days

I saw a video a few years ago called "The Gift of an Ordinary Day" by Katrina Kenison. It made me cry because of it's absolute truth. We photograph things. We record video. We document on Facebook and other social media outlets. But most of us forget to stop and recognize the precise perfection of those ordinary days and moments.

Every year around Mother's Day, I remember this video. And with the power of the internet, I get to re-watch it every year. It still makes me cry. And I still post it to my Facebook account to share it with my mama friends. There isn't a mother in the world who can't appreciate the message of appreciating those ordinary days.

I try to capture you in a camera in so many moments, Izzi. But my most favorite memories are the times when we are just being our snuggly selves, or our most silly beings. Those are the snippets of time when I can't grab a camera because there isn't one nearby, and I don't even care. I have these memories in my head, but I wish we could have a life-long videographer standing by, just so we could re-live it one day together (like we do with your baby videos, because those are FUN!)

I won't forget the early morning snuggles before school. Or the "just because" kisses and hugs I get from you when I'm least expecting them. Or the surprise post-it notes on my bathroom mirror telling me I'm the *M*A*M*E* (Most Awesome Mom Ever).

I'll also remember the look on your face when you are 'forced' to eat asparagus (or broccoli or peas or some other green thing that you "HATE") and realize that it's not so bad, when we sit down every night for our family dinner. And you know that it's healthy and that you SHOULD eat it, so you just get over your bad self and do it.

Mommy loves you so much, Bean. And you still call me Mommy at 8 years old, which is a miracle. I know you refer to me as your "Mom" with your friends, but you still call me Mommy when it's just you and I. It's a fleeting moment in time, I know. And I know your friends are using "Mom" with their own mothers. And I also know you still call me "Mommy" because you understand it makes me happy. And for that, you are an amazing daughter who is way too mature for her age.

I love you, bean sprout, baby cakes, little bean, Izzi-licious. (I'm just making stuff up here, we don't really call you most of these things.)

LOVE, Mommy, xoxo

Halloween VII

I'm so glad I bought that Elsa dress a few weeks ago, planning ahead for Halloween. So proud of myself. But no! What does Isabelle want to be for Halloween? Charlotte. As in Charlotte's Web.

I melt over the fact that she LOVED our experience reading the book together. But she doesn't understand that Charlotte is a character from a book published in 1952 which was turned into a cartoon character in 1973. Nobody wants to be Charlotte in 2014! Rightly so, there are no spider costumes for 6 year olds right now.

So, this year, we are reverting to the time of the olden days, when I was a kid. It's the homemade costume year. Probably her last. But, as I'm not a crafty gal, I've recruited Mom-Mom SuSu (Susan DiSabatino) to help us out (aka, do all the work) so that Isabelle can be the most beautiful spider creeping and crawling her way around our neighborhood next month.

Even when I asked her to change her mind because I was so afraid of spiders, she sweetly said, "but Mommy, Charlotte was the best friend that anyone could ever ask for, and I want to be that kind of best friend all the time."

Charlotte? You win, girl.

Back to School Milestones

Last year, when Izzi started Kindergarten, it was a year of firsts. Every single thing seemed new and exciting. On the first day of First Grade this year, I thought I might be more emotional but I was more excited this year than anything else. This was BIG girl school, not a practice run for what's to come.

During orientation with the new teacher, she explained that the first week of school, we were welcome to walk the kids into the classroom to help them get acclimated but by week 2, we were strongly urged to let our kids walk into the classroom on their own. Of course, some parents probably haven't been able to let that happen yet but we were already at this place last year so it didn't take Iz long to acclimate this year. In fact, she wouldn't even LET us come into the classroom on the first day. She kindly blocked me with her hand when I went to follow behind her into the classroom. She told me, "No, Mommy, I can do it."

A week later and I wanted to fast-track the drop-off process to get to the place we were at the end of last year. I would walk her into the school building but let her walk the long halls to her classroom on her own. It pained me to watch her turn the corner where I couldn't see her any longer, but I slowly adjusted, even if she was adjusting leaps and bounds ahead of schedule.

We started just our second week of First Grade yesterday. I drove her to school and only walked her inside the school walls and let her meander to class on her own. She did great. I did too. Only one lonely tear slid down my cheek but thankfully I had my big sunglasses that day so nary a person probably noticed.

Today, we took it a step further and we did the car drop-off line for the first time. This is where you pull up into a special drop-off car lane and some 5th grader opens the door for your kid, helps them out with their bookbag, and closes the door for them making sure they make it to the sidewalk safely which will usher them into their institute of learning.

I had to plan this just right because when I typically walk her in, we linger for a few moments and give a few extra hugs, some "kissing hands" (if you haven't read the joyous book "The Kissing Hand" by Audrey Penn, it's a must for any parent and child who is starting school for the first time. In the car drop-off line though, there is no lingering allowed. They are militant in their expediency to keep the line moving. And I get that, but I'm not giving up my kissing hands just yet. So we have a system already in place. As soon as I turn into the parking lot, she is allowed to take off her seat belt (since we're moving at a snail's pace in a line of cars anyway). She can stand up and we can start our lingering moments then. We hold hands, she gives me a kiss on my cheek, I give her one back. And then when the car comes to a stop, I get to give her my usual drop-off bear hug and of course, our kissing hands. Then she's yanked out of the car by a 10-year-old and whisked off to start her day.

Such a brave girl, there was no crying today on this big "first" step. And Izzi didn't cry either...

Generation Gaps

Isabelle started to get into video games about two years ago when Santa brought us a Wii for our family. We played it rabidly for about a year but have since slacked off on using it much. We were talking about firing it up recently after dinner one night and Ed & I started to tell her about the video games we played as kids. She loves to hear stories about what we did for fun growing up.

We just so happen to own an Atari 2600 joystick simulator game that you plug into your TV and play about 10 of the old classic games like Pong, Adventure, Breakout and Millipede. So we told Iz to try Adventure which is a game sort of like Brave where you have to get your guy through a castle to pick up keys and fight off a dragon and return the treasure at the end. She was very excited. Until we turned it on. LOL.

She was so confused looking at the screen. Ed and I couldn't help but laugh at a) the ridiculous-ness that the graphics were in 1980 and b) the look on Isabelle's face and how she literally could not even figure out where to begin.

So Ed told her "OK, you have to just start moving your guy and you'll find stuff you have to pickup".

Iz: Daddy, there is no GUY on the screen

Ed: Sure, he's right here (pointing at the TV screen).

Iz: Daddy, that's just a brown square.

Ed: Yea, well that's how they made our "guys" back then.

Iz: OOOOOK, so how do I move my square?

Ed: It's a "guy"

Iz: How do I move my GUY, then?

Ed: Just move your joystick.

Iz: What in the world is a joystick?

It went on like this for 20 minutes. It was comical and scary that such an easy game couldn't be figured out by our technologically experienced almost-first-grader.

So then we finally start remembering how to play and get around the castle. We eventually meet the almighty green dragon!!! Iz started laughing.

Iz: THAT'S the DRAGON? HAHAHAHAHA, he's not scary AT all. He actually looks more like a green amoeba.

Me: How do you know what an amoeba is?

Iz: Cuz we learned about them in school and they have no shape. And that dragon definitely has NO shape.

Lord help us! She's already smarter than us.

A Week of Firsts

Isabelle is going through another growth spurt. Her emotions are all over the place, she cries at the drop of a hat, and she's accomplishing new things every day.

Just this weekend, we were swimming over at Mom-Mom SuSu's house and she finally let Ed teach her how to swim underwater without holding her nose. This was a big feat for sure, we've been working on it for the two years since we moved to Florida. The kid can swim like a fish, she can dive down for rings on the bottom of the deep end, and she finally mastered a pretty decent cannonball (even though she can't create much of a splash since she's so small). But this past weekend, she stopped holding her nose and now can jump in, swim, and dive underwater without holding her nose.

Then on Monday, she was able to yo-yo for the first time. She can get it rolling up and down about 4-5 times before it finally peters out. Hey, I think that's probably more than I can do.

And finally, she told us she was R-E-A-D-Y to get those training wheels off of her bike. I knew she'd eventually come around to it so we haven't pushed it. We tried to take them off a few months ago and just was NOT prepared or confident enough to give it an honest try so we put the trainers back on her bike and figured we'd wait until she made up her own mind. That was yesterday. We don't have the benefit of hills in Florida so we had to settle for the grass field in our local park. The grass is super short, almost like a putting green so it's pretty easy to pedal on it. It took her about 10 minutes and then she finally just got it. She wasn't confident enough to give it a try on the sidewalk or pavement yesterday, but we'll go up to the park each day after dinner and let her practice a few minutes. I think it should only take her a few days before she's ready for the open sidewalk and we'll go back to riding bikes to school (or Rec Center Summer Camp in a few weeks).

So this has been a BIG week for our little girl. She's growing so fast and she continues to amaze us every day. Kindergarten wraps up here in just 3 weeks, I can't believe the school year is already over. What a fast, fun year it's been. Looking forward to a fun eventful summer, starting with a summer vacation in Maryland the day after school lets out for 10 days.

The Sky is Falling!

Well, maybe not the sky, but Isabelle's teeth sure are. Less than a month later and we have six teeth gone now. Her bottom two came out with her adult teeth already grown in. The other 4 have no adult teeth in sight and I'm not sure she has the room anyway. She's very proud of herself, all grown up.

Thisth is Getting Interesthting

Isabelle went to bed one night this week and after about 30 minutes, came running and crying out of her room. Her mouth was full of blood and she was inconsolable. She went straight to Daddy and said, "TAKE IT OUTTTTTT!"

Iz has been sporting a pretty major snaggle tooth for weeks now. Her 4th loose tooth was one of her largest, one of her upper central incisors. She was taking a drink from her metal water bottle in the dark and must have hit it just the right way to give it a good knock and now she finally was prepared to let Ed yank it for her, after weeks of refusal.

So, now we have a listhpy Isthabelle in the house who is constantly playing with her gap tooth with her tongue. Now we're really in the awkward years for pictures.