See Jeff and Anna Run

Jeff and I did a 5K this past Saturday. It was Jeff's first one, and he seemed to have fun. It was my second official one, and I was happy to see that my time was a little better than last time. We had hoped to do better, but we had several things working against us. Mainly, I'd been laid up much of the week with a horrific toothache. Thankfully, I was MUCH better by race day, but I had lost a lot of sleep earlier in the week. I just didn't have the stamina and energy I'd been enjoying in the weeks leading up to the toothache. The race was also held later in the day than Jeff and I tend to run, so the sun was higher in the sky. This made for one hot run! We're still proud that we finished, though, and it was a really fun and different thing to do as a couple. My sister, Becca, also ran, so it was fun hanging out with her before and after the race. She's been at this a lot longer than we have, so we didn't stick together during the race. Anyway, I hope this is the first in a long line of races Jeff and I do together.

Melting My Heart

Sometime last night, Leah made her way into our room with her sleeping bag and spent the rest of the night, sleeping on our floor. When I woke up in the morning (Anna having already gotten out of bed), my little girl climbed into our bed and snuggled in, just holding me as tightly as she could. Talk about the best feeling in the world….

Anyway, given opportunities like this, I always make a specific point to tell my children how much I love them and how wonderful they are. This time, on a whim, I also posed a question: “Leah, why are you such a good girl?’

Her response: “Because you taught me to be.”

Wow. Just… wow.

Not Enough Dora to Go Around

A few days ago, Leah tore a page out of her Dora the Explorer coloring book and starting putting stickers on it. Somewhere along the line, this picture somehow wound up on my bedside table, and a scan (in case you hadn’t guessed) can be seen at right.


This morning, as I walked into my bedroom, I came upon Leah explaining the picture to her little brother. She was pointing out that there were three stickers featuring Dora. “That,” she explained, “is because there are three Doras: one regular Dora, and two robot Doras.”


And isn’t that just what the world needs?

Reflections

Nothing makes me feel better than the squeezy hugs and sloppy kisses my kids give me each day. There is nothing more sacred than the love and trust I see in their eyes. There is nothing more awesome nor more terrifying than being the center of an innocent child's world. I feel so blessed and privileged to be a mother to these special children. They are my world!

God Bless America!

We had a great time with family over the weekend. We had lots of goodies at Mawmaw and Pawpaw's house, including a birthday cake for my sister, Aubrey (her birthday is the 4th of July). The kids (and some of the adults!) had fun playing frisbee, bubbles, t-ball, and soccer. At dusk we all packed up in our vehicles and headed to a local church for a fireworks display. It was rather impressive, especially for a small operation. David eventually decided he'd rather sleep on Jeff's shoulder, though I'm not sure any sleepage actually ever occurred. Leah "oohed" and "awwed" over the fireworks. She commented on how colorful they were and mentioned that she liked purple the best because it was the most colorful. ;-) We all went home that evening smelling of sunscreen and bugspray! A good time was had by all.

A Day of Firsts

This past Saturday was a day filled with firsts. We started the day with a bus ride. I had heard the day before that the city bus service offers a trolley bus tour of key points of interest for free on Saturday mornings. In true JeffAnna fashion, it started out as an adventure. First, we weren't sure we were going to make it on time. We did, thankfully, arrive with 5 or so minutes to spare, but my Punctuality Senses were definitely tingling. About 10 minutes later I started getting a little nervous that I'd read the pickup time wrong. We were 5 minutes past the appointed time, and there was still no bus. :-/ Thankfully, someone pointed us in the right direction. It turned out the bus was picking up passengers on the next block because of road closures for another event later in the day. So, we all boarded the bus for David and Leah's first bus ride! We didn't get to hear much of what the tour guide was saying because the bus was so loud and he didn't have a microphone, but we all enjoyed the ride nonetheless.

The bus dropped us off for our next "first." This was the first time this season that we went to the Farmer's Market. We had a nice leisurely walk as we perused the vendors' offerings. We couldn't pass up some fresh apple turnovers or cashew brittle! Jeff picked up some homemade summer sausage (one of his favorites) as a sort of Father's Day gift from Anna. It felt nice to be out in the fresh air.

Next, we took the kids to the local university Memorial Union. Along the way, they enjoyed another first—a very echoey walk through the underground tunnels from the parking garage to the Union. By "echoey" I mean that David and Leah took turns saying "echo!" to see just how much echo there was down there. Just as we were entering the Union, Jeff had an idea for another first later in the day. The Union has a bowling alley in it, and the kids had never been bowling before. ;-)

We walked around the Union for a few minutes taking note of what had changed (which was a decent amount!) since the last time Jeff and I had been there. We settled on a little shop we were somewhat familiar with for lunch. As we dined on our hamburgers and chicken fingers, I realized that none of had socks on. Why was this important? Well, we were pretty sure we'd have to have socks to wear those attractive bowling shoes. :-P

We had a big decision to make: Drive all the way home and get our own socks or drive to the local Wal-Mart to buy some new socks. It was a tough decision, but in the end, we decided to drive home for our own socks. We figured that way we could check at home for any coupons and call around to the various bowling alleys around town for the best deal.

We did get a pretty good deal for the bowling in the end, so all was good. On the way in, however, Leah announced that she hated bowling and didn't want to go. This is the way of the four-year-old. Almost daily we hear how she dislikes this or that thing that she's never tried. We gently remind her that she couldn't possibly know if she likes this thing or that thing because she's never tried! Anyway, it turns out she LOVES bowling. We had the place to ourselves, which made me feel a lot better since I S-T-I-N-K at bowling and get easily embarrassed about it. Leah even beat me once. After two games of bowling, the kids were more than ready for a rest and so were mommy and daddy.

We really enjoyed all the firsts. That is one of the fun things about being a parent: getting to see something for the first time again through your child's eyes.

Adventures in Garage Sale-ing

What's crazier than trying to run a garage sale with two preschoolers? Not much! LOL!

Seriously, we did have a good time doing our garage sale last Friday and Saturday, but I do think I earned a badge in Heat & Humidity Survival and Leah earned her badge in Young Sales-Laydship with the lemonade (and cookie and freezer pop) stand. David earned new pins for a badge he already earned long ago: New and Creative Ways to Make Your Mother's Heart Stop. This mostly had to do with him messing with things he had no business messing with and doing all he could to make sure said item made it almost into the road with him on it/in it. That's David!

Little kids amaze me in their ability to get excited about just about anything. The kids were thrilled to do their lemonade stand, including all of the steps to get it set up and going (they're good cookie baggers). Several people asked them what they were going to spend their money on. This question was generally met with a "deer in the headlights" stare. I'm not sure it had ever occurred to them that they'd get anything out of the stand beyond the joy of serving their customers.

As I mentioned above, Leah was quite the little sales lady. She had no qualms about asking our customers if they would like any cookies or lemonade. After a while, however, she got a little discouraged at hearing so many "no, thanks" (I was a little surprised so many people could resist my sweetheart….), so she got a little too aggressive in her approach for my liking. It was totally cute, but I chose to use it as a lesson in social skills. She took to following people down the driveway and asking if they were sure that they didn't want any lemonade. I'm sure people recognized that she's 4-and-a-half and cut her some slack for that, but I don't want to raise an obnoxious, pushy person, so I gently stepped in. I told her it was fine to ask people once if they'd like anything from the stand, but she needed to wait until they were at least in the vicinity of the stand to ask. Being the intelligent child that she is, she caught on right away. She didn't return to sweetly asking people if they'd like something, though. She took a more manipulative approach; when anyone cared to glance at her or came close to the stand, she'd make sure she said loudly enough to be heard, "Boy, that lemonade sure looks good" or "Man, it's hot out here. I'm thirsty!" or "Cookies are a good treat on a hot day." I couldn't help but giggle. I figured she'd had enough of a social lesson for the day, so I let it slide.

In the end, we did make a little money, and we got rid of some things that have been sitting around for a while, including our air hockey table. We were thrilled to sell it to some friends from church since we know their grandsons will really enjoy playing with it. As I like to tell everyone, it had been relegated to a laundry folding table here. :-/ I cried like a baby after a couple of ladies (one obviously in the third trimester of her pregnancy) bought the kids' Intellitainer (kind of like an exersaucer). I just had to keep reminding myself that we weren't getting rid of it because there will be no more babies in our home. The kids had just worn out the electronic part of it, and it was silly to keep it if we could have something just as good that would take up less space. *sigh*

The weekend would not have been complete if we hadn't taken some time to peruse the other garage sales in the neighborhood. As such, I'm not sure we didn't actually increase the number of toys in our home, but maybe the kids will at least play more with the items they acquired than they did with the things we passed on to someone else. ;-)