Just a warm body

I've recently been savoring all the time I've been able to have with Hannah during the day. It will only be a few more months before she starts kindergarten and we will no longer have our sweet mommy-Hannah time all day. She's already informed me that she will NOT cry on the first day of kindergarten the way Jonah did. I believe her. She's independent like that.

But she has her tender moments too. She loves to be cuddled and held, hugged and kissed. So today I gave her a huge hug and mentioned to her that I was really going to miss all the time we get to spend together once she starts school. She nudged into my arms a little closer and squeezed real tight. Then She said, "Yeah. I'm going to miss your warm body."

So I'm just a warm body I guess.

Nothing along the lines of "I'm going to miss all the time we spend together or the games we play or grocery shopping or cooking or playing "cleaning fairies" or watching Barbie movies or going to the park..." or any of that stuff. Nope. She's just going to miss my warm body.

But I'll take that. And I'll frequently remind her that for as long as I live, she will always have this momma's warm body whenever she needs it.

...

Even after she starts kindergarten.

It's times like these I'm thankful for a husband with gifts that are different than mine

Hannah decided she wanted to learn how to play the piano two days ago. We were driving home from Mimi and Gramp's house late Saturday night and she proclaimed that she wanted to learn to play. "Right now," she said. Or at least as soon as we got home. She wanted daddy to get out the keyboard at 10:30 pm. In her brain, he could get it out, teach her to play and she would be the best pianist ever in the entire world...all before 10:47 pm. He promised he would teach her the next day. She accepted that. No doubt, she went to sleep dreaming about her new found love of the piano.

She woke up the next morning demanding her first lesson. It would have to wait until after church. She was a bit put out, but again, willing to be patient.

After lunch, Joey decided to not only teach Hannah the piano, but Jonah the guitar. While Joey sat in the other room with Jonah teaching him the four basic chords on the guitar, Hannah and I sat at the piano.

I had a few piano lessons as a kid (before my teacher most likely informed my parents that I was simply not cut out for piano - I just didn't get it.) I remembered two things from my piano history: Middle C and Heart and Soul. (I guess I technically remember learning the first few lines of Jessica's Theme from The Man from Snowy River, because I was pretty sure if I learned that song, I would be transported to the olden days and some horse-ridin' mountain man would ride up and sweep me off my feet. I forgot how to play her theme, but as it turns out - I got much better than a horse-ridin' mountain man in the end.) Oh, the memories. I digress.

So Joey is in the other room teaching Jonah guitar and I am sitting at the piano with Hannah, wondering, once again, why I was never gifted in the area of music. I decided to do what any other ungifted pianist would do - play Heart and Soul and attempt to trick the world (or at least my 5 year old daughter) that I can actually play something on this contraption called a piano.

She liked my song, but luckily Joey came in to rescue her from my piano idiocy. It was at this point that I just sat back and enjoyed the scene - or music - one might say.

Then I thanked the Lord for blessing me with a husband with gifts that are unique to him. Gifts that are different than mine. Gifts that bless my soul. Gifts that allow him to TEACH our kids something they would have no chance of learning from me. I love that man and his many gifts. Our kids are blessed to have him as a daddy.

Then I took pictures of the many gifts.

Tickle Me Tuesday

A random assortment of moments that made me laugh...

Jonah was really worried about his dad last week when he realized that there won't be any toothaches in heaven. He is pretty sure Joey will be out of a job in heaven.

I avoided Wal-Mart for at least a week. I inadvertently stole a bottle of top coat nail polish. (It's a long story.) Anyway, I set things right and paid for it when I finally went back a week later, but I was pretty sure for about a week that the next time I walked into Wal-Mart, the sirens were going to go off and I would be taken to jail for something I really didn't know I did. Joey teased me all week making it very clear that he was well aware he was married to a thief and saying things like, "well, we'll just see if you make it into heaven now..." I will.

Both our kids learned to ride bikes without training wheels with little help from Joey or myself. I thought it was a fluke with Jonah when he just took off riding without training wheels a few years ago. But last week, Hannah did the same thing. She told us she was ready to ride without training wheels so we took them off. Then she took off. I seem to remember learning how to ride a bike being a bigger deal than that. Not to mention the scraped knees and bruised elbows back in my day. Not my kids. But I can't get too proud or puffed up about it because their skills seem to be limited to bike riding alone. We took them roller skating last weekend and (I might be exaggerating, but) they are the worst roller skaters on the planet. Seriously, they can hardly stand without falling down. It's hilarious and sad at the same time.

I fear my kids inherited my complete non-athleticism. We took them to play tennis as a family the other night and I heard Jonah telling Hannah that she needed to hit the ball with her "tennis bat." *sigh*

There is hope. Jonah started soccer this year and had his first game last weekend. His team won. Maybe the boy got some of his dad's sports genes after all. Go team!

Jonah looks so adorable and cute in his little shin guards and soccer cleats.

Joey and I made a quick little getaway to Minnesota a couple weekends ago. Joey surprised me with this trip for my birthday. It's been an unusually cold and snowy winter in Oklahoma, so naturally Minnesota was a refreshingly warm getaway spot. (Hahaha! Just kidding! But I do think the cold played a factor in the ridiculously good deal he got on our tickets.) We didn't take the kids and for a few seconds we felt really bad about it because we spent most our time at the Mall of America where there is a super fun indoor amusement park that the kids would have loved. However, they would not have loved the two to three hours we spent in Urban Outfitters which just might be the coolest store in that entire mall. When we got home, Hannah found the map of the Mall of America and studied it for a few days. She kept saying, "I found this map, but I'm just not sure what it means yet." We didn't have the heart to tell her the truth. Below is a picture I took of part of the indoor park.

Minnesota is full of really nice people, don't cha know. Some of them (particularly the ones that work at Teavana) are so nice that they make a girl feel super cool if she compliments their free tea samples. Even cooler if she expresses interest in buying some of their fancy loose leaf teas as a gift for her sweet mothers. They sure made me feel like I was the bomb-diggity when I actually picked out some teas to buy. Then they mixed up my teas and told me the price. I died, but they were still acting uber cool about it. So I left Minnesota with my extremely overpriced but super yummy tea all neatly mixed up in a tin and packed in my suitcase. Would you believe I arrived in Oklahoma with that extremely overpriced super yummy tea ALL OVER my dirty laundry and shoes stuffed in my suitcase? Stupid tin. Blerg. Joey decided to try to salvage it. He kept saying it was fine because half the teas in that store had labels on them that stated that tea was "monkey picked" (whatever that means) so it really wasn't that much worse that our tea touched my dirty socks. *sigh* (The gift teas for our mothers did not spill, by the way.)

One of my new year resolutions was to learn to wear, walk and enjoy heels. I think I've succeeded because I actually prefer heels with my jeans now days. ....but... ummm... my feet hurt.

Hannah has always had an advanced palette when it comes to food. She tells me her favorite food right now is fish. Then she tries to lord it over Jonah and tell him that she is smarter than him because she loves fish and fish is "brain food." It's just too bad McDonald's doesn't offer their filet-o-fish as part of a happy meal. She is more than willing to forgo the toy in order to get her fish. It's rather unlike a five year old. Another favorite food (of our whole family) is edamame sprinkled with a little sea salt. The first time I had edamame, I actually tried to eat the pod it came in. Silly me. Don't cha know, that's not how you eat it.

fin~

Pancakes anyone?

Jonah burst into our bedroom this morning exclaiming that he needed a skillet so he could make pancakes for Hannah. Apparently, Hannah informed him that she was starving and needed pancakes for breakfast, so he decided to take it on himself to make them for her. What a sweet brother, right?

Joey shut the idea down and told Jonah he needed to get dressed for school instead. A little while later, I found myself in the kitchen looking at this:

The boy got out everything he thought he needed for pancakes. The line-up: milk, sugar, one egg, Bisquick, flour (which is actually fish batter mix that he thought was flour), and a pot. I can see why he ran into the room asking for a skillet. He must have realized that pot wasn't going to cut it. I just love how he lined them up on the counter, don't you? Ha! I also love how he is desperately trying to read the instructions in this photo. Very determined, that boy.

Anyway, I navigated around this one by promising that I would let him help me make a yummy breakfast for dinner tonight.

P.S. - Note to self: Teach Jonah how to properly make pancakes without using fish batter.

P.S.S. - Another note to self: Clean the footprints off the counter top (I just realized the only way a four foot tall boy can reach the Bisquick in our house is by standing on the counter top.)

P.S.S.S. - Final note to self: Give Jonah an extra hug today. He deserves it after that sweet "tickle" moment. Love you, son.