My Baby is No Longer a Baby

So it's lil' Rylan's b-day today. He's 4 BIG years old. He and I went shopping for cupcakes for his class and cake mix for his special cake this evening. He has been my closest friend the last almost-5 years. We do everything together and I love it. Not that I didn't ever want my other boys, but Rylan came to us when I needed him to fill my emptiness. After the miscarriage, I wanted nothing more than to be pregnant and 5 months later, he was an answer to prayer. He still fills my emptiness...like when it's too quiet in the house, you can count on him to sing a cute song (opera style is his genre at this moment) or make noise. When I want to nap and be lazy, he requires me to get up from my sloth-like state to fulfill his basic needs of food and butt wiping. He gives me kisses, says that he loves me, and tells me that I am beautiful when Jerrod's not there to do his husbandly job.

As every parent knows, each child has their own personality. It is amazing to see the differences of all three of my boys and know that they are still from the same gene pool. Aside from just how much they look like each other, they are soo very different. What a challenge that God has put in our hands to raise these children into God-fearing, life-embracing, respectful men. There is no greater honor than to be a mother to these boys and to wake up each morning knowing that they have great respect for our job as parents. Jerrod and I see it in the way they respond to discipline: one of the many forms that our love comes in...and they get that.

We are far from perfect parents. We were never called to be "perfect". Our boys are not "perfect" and that is what makes them so perfect in my eyes. They are perfectly loved and they love me perfectly.

Boy do I get emotional on birthdays.

Simple Things

It was a simple day. What I mean by that is that is that it was, well, boring on most accounts, but lovely in my book. A school holiday for Bryson and Cayden. I set the alarm for 8 AM, just in case life didn't wake me up any earlier: Simple. Bryson spent the night at a friend's so he wasn't even under my control until after lunch: Simple. Cayden went to work with Rylan and me. He colored and read at a desk in the back: Simple. Jerrod greeted us at home with his feather duster and apron....not really, but he had cleaned up the mess that I neglected to touch in the morning before leaving. He makes my job, honestly, simple. The boys played soccer in the front yard while I hand sewed Christmas gifts: Simple. No one in the soccer carpool but Cayden so I drove him alone: Simple. Arrived home to a warm family dinner: Simple. And now I wait for that simple homemade granola to finish baking in the oven as I listen to the new John Mayer album, not so simple, but calming. I'll take it. For all those days that are not so simple.....354 of them a year, I am so grateful for these 24 hours of simplicity.

Voodoo

I made that trip to the chiropractor/nutritionalist yesterday and I am not sure if it's a Pygmalion effect, but I am feeling pretty darn swell at this point. I, according to this DC, was out of allignment and I also have allergies to egg and white bleached flour. Western medicine has not been so successful for me so a little Chinese creativity is worth dipping into, especially if it gets rid of my migraines. It was so nice to wake up this morning without haze around my head. It was great to take on work and 3 boys without being slammed by pain in the mid-afternoon. I felt happy. I felt productive. I felt like taking my boys to Trader Joe's to get food to fill our fridge. I even felt like washing my car. I am a new me and I really look forward to waking up tomorrow and doing it all again.

Some of the advice that I got yesterday included: Eat organic, eat more vegetables, don't use your cell phone, stay away from the Halloween candy, brown rice is your friend (yes, and my aunt says that it will make you poop....A LOT), wild fish vs. farmed is better for you,.... All of the things that I already knew, but you know, I wasn't resisting change this time. It wasn't enough that I knew that baked goods and bread were not the way to go when losing weight. It took a person of this profession to get me to make a change in my lifestyle. I guess that if I knew that I was allergic to white flour before, I would have avoided it. I had this crazy thought...yeah a crazy one, this lady is taking on the great feat of decreasing American obesity one person at a time. I imagine her in her kitchen AKA "laboratory" haunched over, rubbing her hands together, cracking a crooked smile, and cackling over her brew of natural supplements.

So, the moral of this story is: A pain-free mom is a better mom and Trader Joe's is your best bet for great organic, white flour-free goodies! (Way to go Savory Thin Mini Edamame Crackers!) We thoroughly enjoyed the brown rice spaghetti this evening. Even with the side salad of organic baby spinach and wild salmon.