Happy Birthday

Olivia turned seven on Wednesday. My daugter chose to bring homemade chocolate covered strawberries for her classmates. Gotta love it. It was an extra special day because it was also "Muffins for Mom" day for her class. They sang to us and read little tidbits about their moms into a microphone. It was so awesome. No tears were shed (ha ha). I also ate lunch with her at school. That was fun and surprisingly not as loud as usual. But really the lunch visit mostly consisted of us parading all around school handing out the strawberries to all her teachers and the administration. She loved it. Happy birthday, Olivia!!!

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Meg says to George the other day, "Is four a lot?"

George: "Well, that depends. If you have four ice cream cones, well that's a lot. But if you have four blueberries, that's not very many."

Meg: "I couldn't have four ice cream cones. I would need two more hands. Unless I was an octopus."

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We're getting to move back in our house next Friday. I am excited on so many levels. I am incredibly excited to live in this amazing "new" place. I am also incredibly excited to:

1. stop schlepping groceries, trash, recycling, baby junk, children up two flights of stairs.

2. stop cooking in a tiny kitchen

3. stop sleeping in the rental bed we have which I believe has caused me MAJOR back pain.

4. stop answering the kids when they ask which house I am talking about. OUR REAL HOUSE!!!

This list really could go on and on. There are a few things I will miss. The nice maintenance manager downstairs (and his wife and daughter) are expecting a baby in July. The mother's water broke too early and she's in the hospital. I don't know them well but I will have a hard time not knowing what the outcome is. I will have to stop by the office at some point to check in on them. In the meantime, I will just have to pray for them. I will also wonder about that the kids we've met who live here. There a quite a few of them. They are nice kids and have played well with mine over the last few months. It's just sort of weird walking away but I've never really met their parents and my kids haven't become such good friends with these kiddos that we'd really arrange play dates.

We've made it through. It wasn't that hard, really. It was only in the last few weeks that I have become a bit grouchy with the whole situation. But now it's almost over and the excitement is overwhelming.

Bugs

People keep telling me to put bricks on Olivia's head. She is getting so tall. I am having a really hard time with her upcoming birthday. She turns seven on May 6th. SEVEN?? How is that possible? Really? Just yesterday, she looked like this.




Now she is big. But not exactly. Tonight when it was teeth brushing time - a time of day when I am usually thinking, "How quickly can I get these kids in bed?" - she stops and emerges in the bathroom with a bowl. She fills it with water and places a growing bug in it. In that moment, I really didn't think much about it except why was she choosing to fuss with that thing right now when I am trying to check "Brush Teeth" off the list. She left it there for the night. I think most of this went down without any commentary from her.

Meg was next in line. She noticed the bug and wondered what it was. I told her that Olivia was growing a bug/caterpillar thing. She said, "Oh. Into a butterfly." I told her it wasn't going to grow into a butterfly because it was a toy but that this one would just grow big in water. Again, I didn't think much of it in the moment.

It's quiet now and I am doing what I do most evenings as I wait for them to fall asleep. I am catching up on all the blogs I read each day. Most of these blogs are other moms chronicling their days with children (one, multiple, healthy, sick, etc.) They are more eloquent than I am but we still share lots in common which is obviously why I love reading them so much. As I was reflecting on some of their posts, it occurred to me that maybe Olivia is going to be seven soon but she's still so young. (Right??!!) She still loves silly toys and silly stories and Three Stooges-style antics. She still will find excitement in a growy bug from the toy bin at George's office and you bet I will be trying to figure out a way to keep that up for as long as I can.



The whole thing just really struck me because she is on the verge of being bigger but not being bigger. She acts like a little diva listening and dancing to Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers, etc. but then she also loves learning the cute little kiddie songs in music class and performing them for me. I think she could definitely stand to have a cupful of innocence poured down her throat while she's asleep but since that's not possible I guess I will have to settle for a growy bug in my bathroom.

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Update:
I just got done cleaning the kitchen. I found the plastic wrapper and instructions for the Gro Insect.

Take out of water and it will shrink to original size. It can be used over and over.

If only.