Achievement Calendar

While pregnant with Emiline, I made what I call an Achievement Calendar. I was worried that I wouldn't take enough pictures, write enough notes, scrapbook or blog enough about my second child. So I made a calendar 18 months long that was pretty and went with the decor in the girls' room. Each page has a quote about babies or parenting and a space for a 4x6 picture. It's all prettied up, of course and then the calendar part is left wide open, leaving me space to write all the cute things and milestones, etc of my second born. Well, I wish I'd done it for Jane! Tonight I added the last few months of pictures and took some time to read through the calendar and reminisce on my baby turned toddler. It was a pretty nice night.

The last few days have been... um, well, difficult. I don't know what my deal is exactly, I have plenty of external reasons to feel all dumpy (lost jobs, etc), but I have plenty of internal ones not to. At any rate, I've not been myself. My kids have been sick all week and more needy, and Thursday I did my own sort of therapy: creating. In particular, banging out Halloween costumes and other craft projects that had been at a stand still. It was good for me, but I'm pretty sure my kids picked up on my distraction. Today was a particularly frustrating, exhausting, and anxiety causing day. But I got the kids (mostly) fed, more or less bathed, and even picked up their room, then to bed with moderate crying. When things died down, I happened to have the house to myself. So I drank my Raspberry Leaf Tea, listened to Pandora, and finished up a few organizational and pretty projects, including the calendar.

It was such a great moment for me to reflect on the joy my children bring me. Updating the calendar with things like "sat on the pew at church with a hymnal and "sang" so seriously and intently" or "while getting dressed, ran off before I got your shirt on. You said "no shirt, Mommy, I don't like it" or "I asked what you were doing and you said 'teasing Jane'" or "says the cutest 'I Love You' [lub loo]"

And then I think about Jane's joy when I took the time yesterday to lay down with her during quiet time. She kept rolling over and hugging me and patting my face and saying things like "today is the best day ever!" all because I was right there with her. I feel it so keenly, small children NEED their moms, or at least mine do. And I'm glad I'm able to be there for them right now.