Mother's Day past and present

May 2011

getting both to look at the camera is rare

travel mug & coffee!





May 2009 baby dedication day & Mother's day

Micah 2005 with some of my favorite treats

I know I missed posting last week and didn't keep my word of posting at least once a week...maybe I'll make up for it this week. I thought it would be fun to post pictures of past mother's day (the boys' first mother's day pics and this year). The last one of Micah "holding" my treats is so cute. We had to prop him up for the pic. Wayne found some of my favorite treats; cream of wheat was expensive in San Francisco, so we didn't buy it much!

In 2009, I think I'm wearing my Mother's Day gift. It was baby dedication day at our church. This year, I got a nice Starbuck's travel mug and one of my favorite Starbuck's coffee blends, Gold Coast. It's in two plastic containers because Micah immediately carried the bag of coffee off, threw it on the ground, and it busted. Those bags are usually a little sturdier than that. I think it spilled about $1.50 worth of coffee!

I tried to get a picture with both of them, and you see what came of it. And just ignore that weird pose of the one with Gabriel and me. I was trying to hold on to him and keep my balance, thus the strange angle of my arm against the tree. You probably wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't pointed it out!

We missed celebrating Mother's Day with either of our mothers. For now, UAFS has commencement on Mother's Day weekend, and that is Wayne's big responsiblity so we cannot travel on that weekend. I had a good Mother's Day. It was so cute to watch Gabriel. He was so excited to bring me my gift that morning, though I think he thought he was going to get a "presinent" because Wayne kept coaching him "Don't open it, Gabriel. Just take it to Mommy."

I will say these are challenging days with Gabriel being in the trying twos (I hate to say terrible), with temper tantrums, and really wanting to assert his will. Micah has been doing much better with his behavior, but is very much in a don't-want-to-be-around-Gabriel stage. It makes life challenging because Gabriel can be a little attention hog and if Micah is sitting with one of us and Gabriel comes near, he will just go away. Micah really enjoys one on one attention and it's just not easy to do that right now.

Even with the challenges, I'm so thankful for my boys and love them more than I can say. One of my dearest friends in the world has been pregnant twice and miscarried both times, the second one was lost in the 2nd trimester. She has not been able to get pregnant again. I interacted with two families over the weekend who have both lost a child in the last year. One was a 2 year old boy with leukemia and the other was a 5 year old girl who died suddenly from brain cancer that they didn't even know was there. It certainly gives me perspective to think "Yes, some moments and days are frustrating and very draining with my boys, but at least I have them and I need to treasure these days no matter how difficult."