Unnerving

You know what's icky? Having peed underwear.

You know what's worse? If it's someone else's pee.

Ah, the joys of being a newborn's mommy.

If you don't have anything nice to say... please don't grasp at straws!

Piano playing today did not go well. I practiced this week and got semi okay at the songs I was supposed to be playing today. Then I second guessed myself and decided to play the simplified versions, without ever having practiced them. I am not a fantastic sight reader. Okay... I suck.
I got a few very interesting compliments when Relief Society was over.
#1: "I love listening to you play. It's so great when people have to stretch themselves for a calling. You're going to learn so much."
#2: "Thank you for playing. I love listening to you. You're so brave. You just always keep going. It gives me hope that I could learn to play the piano."
What I heard, "I'm trying to be encouraging, but that was just awful."
Thanks.
I hear ya.

Simple Joys

Who knew that such tiny things could bring such great amounts of happiness? My boys needed new shoes. I ended up at Walmart one day.

Regular Tennis Shoes= $10

Awesome Lightning McQueen/Spiderman Tennis Shoes= $15

Sure it cost me $10 extra dollars between the two of them, but those shoes may have made me the coolest mom ever. They have barely left feet since purchased. During nap time, they get tucked in with the little boys that own them.

Who knew that buying shoes could do the job of clothing children as well as providing them with toys?

Two birds, meet my stone!

Gratitude.

I felt the need for some kind of spiritual... connection today. Uplifting isn't the right word, and neither is fulfillment. In fact it is due to the uplifting I've felt recently that I was searching for it. If that makes any kind of sense.
Kyle and I fasted this month for something that we needed help with. We've fasted before as a family, but I haven't been able to in a long time, since I was pregnant. I am not sure I've really appreciated the blessings of a fast before. We were answered so quickly and so thoroughly that I wondered why we don't fast every Sunday. We were blessed in a way that was so obviously heaven sent one couldn't help but be amazed and grateful.
We are a very blessed family. All our children are healthy, they are well behaved and beautiful. We love where we live. Our new ward has been extremely welcoming and those relationships are quickly becoming great friendships. We both have callings that allow us the opportunity to serve and (especially me) to learn. We love each other in a way that neither of us expected or understood when we got married. We have great extended families that love and care about our well being. Kyle has a job at which he excels. The list goes on and on... There are a hundred more ways in which we are blessed. That is just a molecule in the ice of the tip of my iceburg. I'm not trying to brag... I'm just feeling very grateful today.

You've Changed

Kyle and I have always had a certain way of parenting. Our babies learned to cry it out from an early age and no child has ever slept in our bed. When Caleb was 6 weeks old and not sleeping through the night, he got a little shove in the right direction. It included turning on fans and any other forms of white noise so that we didn't hear him cry at night. It may seem mean, but within one week he figured out how to sleep on Mommy and Daddy hours.
A couple of nights ago Kyle and I are laying in bed long past little boy bed time. I tell him, "I miss Levi."
He says, "Well, go get him!" I was shocked. I had felt myself going soft, but I never thought in a hundred years it would happen to Kyle.
I confronted him, "You would let Levi sleep in our bed every night wouldn't you?"
"I totally would. I just want to cuddle him."
I guess it's true that you change the more kids you have. I just didn't think it would happen so soon. I thought maybe when they were teenagers or something. Nope. Kyle and I are now officially soft as marshmallows!