Oh the Bliss!

New Glasses for me, woohoo! This girl has a smile that will break hearts across America someday. Oh Ben, you are so fun. Dirty, silly, messy loads of fun. Is purple her color or what? No cavities and and new glasses! Yippee for me! I was dreading going to the dentist... I thought for sure I'd have cavities. If I have less than 5 I'll be happy is what I thought walking in the door. But look at me! Cavity free! I took Addison with me, something I would've never dreamt of doing with my 0-60 boy. She showed off her adorable self to everyone, staying sweet and content the entire time. Man I love this little girl.

Addison is asleep in her very own room. I miss her already.

POLISHING MEMORIES I have no time to sweep the floor. The piano collects dust like never before. The wastebaskets are full; there are marks on the wall. The telephone’s ringing - - - can’t take any calls. I’m sitting here rocking my tiny new son. Closing my eyes to the days work not done. I know from experience the future becomes past. These moments are treasures; I want them to last. Long after he’s grown I’ll sit in this chair and feel the soft touch of his baby fine hair. I’ll rock by this window till the first star appears, polishing the memories of my childbearing years. ~Patricia W. Hiscock This poem has been framed and sitting on my parent's piano for, I dunno, 15 years at least. There was a few years there, believe it or not, that I dabbled in the fine art of piano playing. I think I realized, however, that piano playing wasn't for me when I'd play in recitals not to show off what I had learned but for the creme puffs my teacher served afterwards. It wasn't that...

Here's a throw back to the Guest Speaker bit from the days of old. My sweet friend Ali is here tonight hanging with me and the kids while Mark is away for the weekend. So far we've had a very productive day. It's very nice being friends with an OCD case. (She told me I could write that.) We've done 5 loads of laundry, cleaned out the play room, re-did Ben's room and picked up everything that's been sitting around oh, forever. We've decided that I need a little bit more of her in me and she needs a little/A LOT of me in her. (Again, she told me I could write that.) Honestly though, Ali is dear to my heart. A faithful, kind, and generous friend whom I'm so thankful I've gotten to know much better over the last year or so. She LOVES our kids and they know it. It warms my hear to see her with them. I am extremely thankful for her friendship. So, without further ado... Ali's Thankful list... ~ the Fitzpatrick family. (hee hee, that's me) ~ church ...

... she writes me notes like this one... "every time you say to me, "Mom you'd be so proud of me....." (about something you have done or are doing)..... In my mind I am thinking, "My dear, sweet daughter, I ALREADY AM SO PROUD OF YOU!!!" And I am proud of her, too.

There is a spot on the female body which only appears after child birth that I'll refer to as the ARB or Automatic Rocking Button. The ARB allows a mother to sit with a crying, fussing, sickly or simply a cuddly baby for extended periods of time and rock, back and forth, back and forth, keeping a steady pace and rhythm while both child and mother are sound asleep. Addison abuses my ARB.

I forgot D. I did it, it was my fault. I'm sure every mother at one point forgets their child's blanket, bear, pacifier etc. right? We went to a friend's house, a place Ben had never been, with the intention of putting him to bed there. Easy enough, we've done it a thousand times before in various locations and we've never had a problem, but (and this is a big 'but') we've always had D. We didn't realize D's absence until bedtime, of course, and I sort of panicked. I was ready to drive home and get it, but Mark was confident Ben would be fine, he is, after all, a grade A sleeper. Lorin offered us a makeshift D. Yeah right, I thought, she obviously doesn't know the gravity D holds in Ben's life. I took it anyway, just to be nice. We did everything as normal. Pjs on, cup of milk, sing a song, say a prayer and put him in the pack-n-play. All was calm until his head hit the pillow. This is it, I thought, his entire sense of security stems fro...

(Stop me if I've written this before...) At the risk of jinxing this phenomenon (because I'll take good parking karma when I can get it) I have to share this somewhat frustrating/somewhat fantastic fact of my life: Where is the only parking spot when I have my kids with me at Trader Joe's? The furthest spot from the store, of course. Where is the only parking spot when I DON'T have my kids? Front row, every time. Every. Time. It kills me.

Besides Christ raising from the dead, and I'm not making small of that by any means, but besides his raising I think I found the other major reason for the season... Easter DRESSES! Nana and Papa Dan made a lovely addition, and a lovely breakfast, for our Easter morning. Favorite picture to date, I think. Oh no she didn't - OH YES I DID! How could I resist? Didi and Gma made a lovely addition, and a lovely dinner, for our Easter evening! This weekend was wonderful. We went to a fantastic Good Friday service at Mariners then we had my parents, Carrie and the kids and the Caruanas over for dinner. The thought that kept running through my head as I reflected on what Christ did on the cross was 'he did this for ME. And if I were the only one, he'd still do it for ME.' A sobering thought crossed my mind during the church service; if i were the only one on earth then I would've been the one to nail Jesus to the cross. As I thought about that it's as if I felt...

Cold and flu season officially ended on the last day of March, why is it that both Ben and I are sick NOW? Ooh, but I'm so thankful for these things... ~ Keri Stock's blog. ~ strawberry muffins I made, and they actually turned out pretty good. That's encouraging because my last few muffin attempts have been pathetic. ~my happy, healthy 11 lb 8 oz, 24" baby girl who is, as of yesterday, 2 MONTHS OLD! ~ time with my dad on Sunday. It was especially nice because he sat in the "baby" lobby with Addsion so Mark and I could go into the service. And boy, that was such a gift because the worship was AWESOME! I was so thankful to be able to really hear it and enjoy it live. (As opposed to on a tv screen in a BIG room with LOTS of babies. Not a good combo for this self-diagnosed ADD girl.) ~ a fantastic walk with Carrie and the kids. She is an inspiration because her heart is so sweet and constantly striving to show Jesus, I love that about her. ~ Joanna being in town ...