No longer momma...

Ever since my children have been able to talk I've been "Momma" to them.

Mr. even calls me "Momma."

I always thought I'd be a "mommy" but I was a "Momma" to them.

My daughter called me "Momma" first and then my son.

They call Mr. "Dadda" - not daddy - "Dadda."

A sad thing happened over the weekend.

A very sad, sad thing.

Somehow I became... MOM.

How'd that happen?

Overnight - I stopped being Momma and started being "MOM."

I noticed my daughter was calling Mr. "Dad" instead of Dadda first and then she turned to me and said, "Mom, gjhfgoseierytshgjlsfglsdhgooartaehsd."

I didn't hear what she said to me after she called me, "Mom."

I think I might have yelled at her when she called me that. I think I might have said, "I am NOT "MOM" I am Momma! Got it?!"

My baby girl is growing up and it's a very sad thing.

Bug is still my bug-a-boo though... he still calls me Momma - but for how long?

Will he start with the MOM soon too?

How could I have let this happen?

Where did the last 8 1/2 years go?

Where'd my sweet baby girl go?

And who is this big girl calling me MOM?

What's next? Boooyyyysss?????

Nooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!

Going public again...

on Monday!

I have my babies home with me. Lilly missed me - it was the first thing she said to me. She is so sweet. The first thing Michael said to me was, "why didn't you leave money in my store account so I could get a snack." He's so six.

But I still think he missed me and they both said they had a great time! They are exhausted for sure. They have a swim meet tomorrow AM bright and early so they will be in bed nice and early but the best part about it is they are going to be in bed at home and I can sneak in for extra kisses before I go to bed :)

Date night was very nice last night. We went somewhere local where the dress is casual so this is what I wore.

New shoes - do you like?

And this is what I wore to pick the kids up from camp!

Who has fun plans for this weekend??!

This is ridiculous!

Is it possible that I am worrying myself sick over the kids being at camp?
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Mr. and I are supposed to go out for dinner tonight. I am not even in the mood. Give me some chocolate and a good movie and I'd be happy. As much as I enjoy a break from being the mom/maid/teacher I can't help worrying about them. Lilly is so shy and quiet and sweet and Michael is so full of energy but still just six and they are both so used to being with one of us all the time. It's harder than I thought - obviously! I know they are fine and this is really good for them.
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Mr. just brought me a glass of wine. Oh, brother. Now he's in the shower - and singing. Lord, please give me strength. I have a feeling I am going to be expected to perform like a rock star tonight. Oy vey! I better perk up!

Men and women are SO different - aren't we?

Retail Therapy.

Not even retail therapy is helping me tonight. I shopped. I found a great Lilly P dress at Marshalls on clearance for $69. I found a pair of Lucky Brand white jeans that fit awesome for $29! I found a pair of pink jeweled sandals at Nordstroms. But I am still sad as sad can be.

I dropped the kids off at their first ever sleep away camp and I can't stop thinking about them. Every time I stop and think about something else thoughts of them come rushing back to me.

Are they ok? It rained this afternoon - are they warm enough? Do they miss me and will they be OK when it's time to go to bed without a kiss from me or daddy? Should I have insisted that bug sleep on the bottom bunk and not the top bunk like he wanted to? Should I have made him get his battery operated fan back from the kid he gave it to because he had two fans and the other little boy had none? Did I leave enough money on their camp account for snacks tomorrow night? Will bug lose his new water shoes - I saw them outside as I was leaving. Will he drink too much at dinner and wet his bed because he's so darn tired from the long day? Will baby girl meet new friends? Will she be too shy? Is she sad to be away from our dog, Holly? Is she going to sleep OK? Will she wake up and be confused? Will she like anything at the dining hall to eat? Will she eat her fruits and vegetables if they offer them? Will bug? Will they take care of each other? Are they too young? What am I going to do tomorrow morning without them? Bug is 6 - he needs his mommy and baby girl is a sensitive 8 year old who needs me even more. What the hell was I thinking?

AAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For the record bug told me to leave and I didn't need to come back to say good bye again because I had already been back 3 times. I kept thinking of one more thing I wanted to tell him and one more reason to kiss him good bye. He was excited beyond word! Baby girl gave me a great big hug and told me she loved me and then turned to her little friend. It's only 2 nights. I know THEY will be OK.

Will I? I thought I would enjoy tonight - a "night off" from "life." It's not as fun as I thought it would be.

I MISS MY BABIES!!!

Becasue I am still in shock...

I am still in shock that David Cook won the American Idol last night and therefore I am speachless this morning. Here are a few photos of my babies when they were babies!

First Communion Photos FINALLY

Yeah... I know... it's about time I posted pictures of baby girl's first communion, right? She had a special blessing the weekend Mr.'s family was in town which explains why she has a veil in some of the pictures and the flower headband in others - it was our compromise because she HATED the flower headband and was dying for the veil.

Michael and his 6 year old triplet cousins had a lot of fun the night before with the nerf guns and while he was spared an injury to his eye he was left with a "beauty mark" on his cheek that is now healing nicely.

Yeah... yeah... I know what someone out there is thinking... "can't believe she'd allow her child to play with guns... tsk.. tsk.." Who knew nerf guns could be so dangerous...

Oh, what a night part 2

So two weeks ago when I was trying to decided if I was crazy or not to invite 9 girls to my daughter's birthday party all I could think was the night was going to be pure hell for me. I was thinking by midnight I was going to turn into an annoyed mother and start yelling at the girls to go to bed out of my own need for sleep. I was thinking I was going to hate the night. I just knew that I would wake up the next morning and vow to never ever do this again ever.


Even as the first girl arrived at 6PM and the second not 10 minutes later I was thinking this is just the beginning and I have 15 hours of hell to go. Once all 10 girls were in the house - all screaming and running in socks slipping on our hardwood - I knew I was in hell. I managed to get the girls to calm down long enough to get the rules out. No running in the house. No socks on the steps to the upstairs (hardwood steps and socks = injuries). No jumping on the furniture. And every one has to be nice. And as I was walking upstairs - thanking the stars that we had a finished basement - I was still thinking of MY pain.


It wasn't until about 8:30 - after (make-your-own) pizzas and after cake - that I realized having 10 girls for a slumber party wasn't going to be painful for ME - it was going to be hard on HER. "Her" as in my daughter. As I listened upstairs to her trying to make sure everyone was having a good time at her party and making sure everyone was following the rules (not jumping on the furniture) I realized being hostess to 10 eight year olds at the young age of 8 is a lot to ask.

I ended up hanging out on the sidelines of the party. Sometimes on the step just listening and other times on the couch downstairs trying not to act like a 37 year old mother of two. I danced. I laughed. I drank water from the little mini water bottles. I snacked on pretzels. I channelled my inner 8 year old here and there so take the pressure off of baby girl. They played Avril Lavinge's GirlFriend song (clean version of course) about 60 times. They danced. Laughed. Told Stories. Had fun. We all had fun. And then around 11:30 I could tell baby girl was done. She was shushing the girls a little too much and all she wanted to do was go to sleep. I brought her up to the family room with me and settled her on to one of the couches. About 40 minutes later, just as I was getting all of the girls into their "beds," I heard a paniced "MOMMA!" come from the family room.

And then the long night began.

I went from the couch where I was going to sleep to baby girl's couch to the basement to tell the girls it was time to stop talking and go to sleep from midnight until about 1 AM. When the last girl finally gave it up, I was thankful that I could focus on baby girl. Around 5 AM she was sleeping fitfully and I was starting to dose off myself and then aroung 6 AM the girls started to make noise - I quickly put a stop to that and got them to sleep another hour.

By 7AM they were up ready to eat and that's when Mr. was called to action. He was on pancake duty. I carried baby girl up to our room and kicked Mr.'s butt out of bed. By 9:15 all of the girl's had gone home. I explained to all of the parents that baby girl had gotten sick and apologized in advance if their daughter came down with it too. The parents were great - they all basically told me not to worry about it - if they didn't get whatever this was from baby girl they'd get it from someone at school soon enough. Kudos to all of the cool moms out there!

So in summary - the party was a success until about 11:30. It's such a sad story that baby girl got sick on her first big slumber party. But the other girls had fun and I am sure it will be the talk of the class today. I think baby girl will forever blame her brother for getting her sick on her big party. And bug will go along his merry little way oblivious to this fact.

Will I ever have another slumber party this big? You bet I will! Because it's not about me - it's about her. And it's always fun to be the star for a night. It was all about her Friday night!