Generations

What a spectacular weekend filled with car buying, prom-dress shopping, first-time concert goers, random videos and lots and lots of laughs (not to mention lots and lots and lots of macaroni and cheese consumed after 11pm)! 

We also laughed about classic family stories, had dinner with good friends, shared many old memories and made plenty of new ones. 

But I did discover that I'm no longer young enough to stay up to the wee hours of the morning. 

Thank goodness for naptime!

Endless

possibilities are what we wish for our children. Endless memories are what we strive to create.

Diagnosis

January 2009

Molly was diagnosed with unilateral conductive hearing loss. In layman's terms: hearing loss in one ear due to a malfunction between the ear canal and the middle ear. In some children this is caused by compacted wax or a foreign object obstructing the canal. We have another assessment in March and depending on how well she fails, we will discuss surgery. 

Mike's more positive than me. I find myself wanting to throw a pity party for myself, not really myself, but for my daughter. Wanting to call everyone I know and go over every.single.last detail for them to offer words of encouragement. In truth, everyone else is right; I'm wrong. Of the possible diagnoses, this is the one we prayed for - the fixable one. It could be worse. We've witnessed worse. 

I will stop feeling sorry for us. Eventually.

Just Like You

Before putting on her jammies, Molly surveyed what I was wearing. She made sure she picked out jammies that had pants, brought down her crocs, and asked for a zip up sweatshirt. She attempted to watch her show with sunglasses on but they didn't last long. When I slipped off one of my crocs while sitting on the couch, hers came off too - when I shifted and sat criss-cross-applesauce, Molly was soon mirroring me.

She was so proud of herself and announced, "Mama I wanna be just like you!"

Oh Molly, honey, I often think I wanna be just like YOU! I want to have the confidence to stand up to peer pressure in every.single.instance. I want to openly admit my fears without worrying about being judged. I want to take my time without a care about a schedule - realizing that being in the moment is much more important than being on time. I want your zest for knowledge!

And in 10 years, when you slam your bedroom door while screaming (or muttering if you know whats good for you) how much you hate me I'm going to march right up to your room and make you read this post.  And I hope that when you're missing your mama you'll come back here and remember how much I adore you!

Weekend with Theodore

Molly got to bring home Theodore, the class bear, for the weekend. Upon reading Theodore's journal we learned that a classmate's dog attempted to eat him, he went to an OSU hockey game, he helped decorate a Christmas tree, and he was stolen by a classmate's little sister. Nowhere in the journal could I find that he was puked on. Maybe because Molly was the first to puke on the class bear or maybe I'm not the only mom who chose NOT to write about such an incident in the journal. I guess only Theodore knows!

Be Careful what you Wish For

I was moping around this weekend feeling grumpy that I had to go back to work on Monday when I should have been thankful for the two weeks I got off to spend with my family. Well, I didn't have to go back to work on Monday and I'm only going for a half day today because Molly has Influenza A. The smiley girl in the picture has been morphed into a hacking, grumpy, nasty, pukey unrecognizable child. I hate to admit it but I'm counting the minutes until Mike comes to relieve me so I can go (run and never look back) into work for the afternoon.

Celebrating, celebrating, and celebrating some more

I was ever so gently reminded by a loyal reader who is also a dear friend that I haven't updated lately. We've had 3 Christmases, lots of baking, two of Molly's 4 - yes F O U R - birthday parties, evenings with friends, and days sledding since my last post. Here are some collages to detail what's been keeping me from the computer.

 Preparing for Santa's arrival - choosing the very best cookies and putting on boots to throw out the reindeer food complete with sprinkles!

 Christmas morning was filled with smiles, happiness, and granted dreams.

Time with our families was by far the best gift of the season.

 Sledding with friends!

 First of FOUR parties - this one was in Lima with the grandparents and a Candy Land cake.

We spent the morning swimming with friends for Molly's second birthday party followed by lunch at McDonald's and a Barbie cake.

 And the last day of the kids' Christmas break (I still get a few more days ) kicked off with a tea party complete with glass slipper cookies!

*mvh I hope this post suffices*