Beauty

This morning I looked at Jewel while we were waiting outside to get on the bus and felt such a bittersweet feeling. This is my baby or should I say this was my baby. This morning she picked out her own clothes, did her hair all by herself and was genuinely excited about going to school to see her friends. When did she grow up so much? When did she stop depending on me for absolutely everything? It truly seems like yesterday that I had my 8 pound 2 ounce preemie 5 weeks early and they whisked her away from me, and I stood by her isolette and was afraid of touching her, becoming attached to her, losing her and John had to tell me to touch my own baby. This morning I looked at her and saw a beautiful little girl yet such a little warrior that battles apraxia every moment of her speaking life.

It's what time?

We have 3 alarm clocks in our bedroom. Strange huh? But we have our reasons. We like alarm clocks with fancy gadgets. I have one on my side of the bed with an alarm set for me and of course has an Ipod dock. My alarm is set so I get up to make breakfast for John, and his lunch, and I won't lie, to make sure he gets up every morning too. John has 2 alarm clocks on his side of the bed. One is a clock that shines the time on the ceiling. That alarm is set to ring the same time every morning with a standard annoying beep. Then he has another clock that has 3 alarms. One alarm is set to turn on the TV. Another is set with my saying Yoohoo honey wake up. Another is either a fog horn or a rooster I forget which. So essentially we have 5 different alarms going off in our room every morning. They start going off at 5am. They are all set a few minutes apart from one another and are kind of staggered to annoy the heck out of us so we just, you know, get up. Well this morning I hear John say, wait honey, it's 6:30, I leave by now right, as I hear my alarm beeping in my ear. I swat at my alarm, look at the clock, think for a second, because eosmetimes in his sleepyiness he is a bit confused and think holy crap you should have left like a half hour ago. We somehow slept through my clock beeping for an hour, he shut off 3 of his, we never heard the TV go on, and something just happened to wake him up at 6:30. Nice, huh. Well no biggie, he'd be a bit late. Buttttttt.......his co-worker waits for him in the commuter lot in the mornings, and.....he gets there 5:30 to geta spot, so on an ordinary day this guy is sitting there 30-45 minutes for John, but today he was already sitting there for an hour when we were just rolling out of bed. WHOOPS! So the moral of the sory is you can never have to many alarm clocks. I am not sure what in the world happenes this morning, but I am thinking I may be on the hunt for a bigger, louder alarm clock in the near future.

Harvest

Yesterday I picked Amber up from school early to go to an appointment. On the way there she is usually good for talking. Well really who am I fooling, when is she not good for talking. But I tend to hear things out of her during this time that gets lost in the noise of the rest of the family at other times. Yesterday I heard something from her that I wish got lost in that noise. She started talking about harvesting. Telling me now a days we only harvest for fun, like when we harvest our pumpkins for Halloween. Okay so far what's the big deal, right? It gets better girls and boys.

She then asks me to tell her what harvesting was really like. Huh? You know a lot about harvesting, right, mom? Like when you had to harvest everything. No, I don't Amber. Well way back when you were a kid they didn't have stores to buy all your food in so you harvested everything, right? WHAT? How old do you think I am Amber? 45. No I am not 45. I was quiet for a few minutes. Then I told her people who are 45 did not harvest either unless they lived on farms and what makes you think I am 45 anyway? Daddy told me. Well Daddy was kidding. No he wasn't, I asked is she 35, he said no, I said 40, no, 41, no, 42, no, 43, no, 44, no, 45, ding ding ding.

My husband. I have to love him, my only other choice, is to strangle him. I am 32, by the way.

The Climb

So yesterday we climbed the Barnegat Lighthouse. Beautiful. I have climbed Cape May's years ago and I do not recall the feelings I am having today. Now there was a warning sign, which I did read. Yes it was strenuous, yes I climbed it with my inhaler in hand, yes my legs felt quite jell-o like along the way, my thighs literally were quivering like they did when I was in labor. Never in my wildest dreams did I think today I would wake up and need pain relief. Did the sign say anything about waking up the following day and wishing you legs would fall off because that might be less painful then the burning and muscle aches you are feeling. I really had no indication I would feel this way yesterday. We even walked the rail trail last night, no issues. But today. Oh my, this is terrible. A lesson was learned though. I am extremely, undeniably out of shape and it is affecting my life. This lesson was both painful physically and mentally, but maybe I will start to do something about it.

Happy Birthday Jewel

April 1st, 5 years ago today.

The first 2 1/2 years of her life were spent like this:

One of the many lessons she has taught me.
Jewel has grown into her name perfectly.

Her 1st picture as a 5 year old. Up hours too early and sick. But always our Princess.

~~Happy Birthday Foofer~~

We love you

April Fool's

Hope you enjoy your lunch today honey.