A good day

I don't often post without a picture, but today was one of those days I want to remember, especially when the next day rolls around that I'm not wanting to remember so clearly.

First, we had a good old-fashioned dose of sibling rivalry at our house yesterday, coupled with fatigue and lots of together time (yesterday was a school holiday for Sarah), leaving Mom (me) exhausted and wondering why my sweet daughters insist on fighting so much lately. This is a fairly new dynamic for the girls, and the way I'm handling it is clearly not effective (any advice is VERY welcome!). Days like yesterday chip away at my mommy-confidence and strengthen my desperate desire to raise girls that are not only sisters but truly good friends. Well, today was the sunshine behind the clouds of yesterday. They played together, shared without my constant reminders and laughed together ... the kind of belly-laughing that makes you laugh just because you hear it. Oh, it was music to my ears! In my short journey of motherhood I've learned that when there's a challenging day/week/month, don't give up hope because something good and rewarding is around the corner. Now if I can only remember that when the next round of squabbling starts!

The other highlight from today was what I refer to as my "paycheck." At dinner tonight, Julia reached over and touched my arm and said, "You're a beautiful mom." It was the most angelic thing she's ever said to me (believe me, there have been plenty of un-angelic things too! :) I wouldn't trade any monetary amount, job title or corner office for those sweet words spoken by one of my kids. I've been a stay-at-home-mom for over five years and can say with all sincerety that I wouldn't rather be doing any other job than the one I'm doing right now. Words of affirmation are definitely one of my top love languages, and Julia spoke to my heart tonight, and I'm feeling very loved!

Cowboy breakfast

My good friend who is originally from Chicago claims that the way us Texans dress up and celebrate rodeo time is a little reminiscent of the way of the rest of the world dresses up for Halloween, but hey, in Texas we do things big, right? I love this time of year because even though I'll never be a cowgirl, it's fun to participate in all the festivities. Julia's school had a cowboy breakfast, complete with an adorable background for picture-taking, but my little cowgirl had that fake, forced "smile" in all the pictures I took indoors. Luckily this one outside turned out okay.

Princess tea-party

Sarah was recently invited to a tea-party birthday party and was it ever cute! The girls got to choose their own dress and shoes, have their nails painted, hair done with glitter and they were served real tea in china cups. They even showed them how to hold their pinky finger out when they picked up the tea cup and served them cucumber sandwiches. The hit of the tea party was the sugar cubes they were allowed to stir in the tea. I'm thinking these pictures of Sarah provide a good idea of what she'll look like in about 10 years when she's wearing "real" make-up ... watch out boys!

The big-girl bed

We finally took Julia's crib down a few weeks ago and she moved into her "big-girl bed." We had been in no rush to make this transition because this kid loved her crib! She never tried once to climb out and she slept like a baby. But it was definitely time. And although the event was exciting for her, I have to admit I was a little bit sad. I don't remember being sad when Sarah moved out of the crib, but I think since Julia is the "baby" it represents such a milestone to take the crib down that's been a focal piece of furniture in our house now for the the last 5+ years.

We had been talking to Julia about how she could move to the big bed sometime soon, and one night as I was rocking her, she told me, "I sleep in big girl bed!" So, I tucked her in the big bed and you would have thought I was throwing her an elaborate party ... she kept saying "Excited! I excited!" Several weeks later she's still enthusiastic about her new sleeping arrangements. She wants all the pillows, blankets and stuffed animals she can find right by her.

(For the first few nights, she woke up with quite a birds' nest in her hair!)

Playing catch-up

Well, I'm not proving to be the most consistent blogger so far, but I'm not giving up yet. Since I haven't posted since before Christmas, I'll inlcude some pictures from the holidays, which were wonderful! We have such amazing families that all make a point to get together at Christmas, which adds to the joy of the season. Santa brought a trampoline for the girls this year ... and a couple of orange dum-dums for Julia!