Big Kids

Beth had her first solids yesterday! I could hardly believe how she was devouring everything, she ate the whole serving I fixed for her and opened her mouth every time I brought the spoon nearby. When I wasn't going fast enough for her, she was making grabs for the bowl to take care of herself - she's like Thomas's polar opposite when it comes to food.
Thomas started making some more friends today; we went to playgroup and met about a dozen more kids, about 4 of whom were all boys born within a month of Thomas. Apparently we're the only ones that are planning on preschool this fall - everyone else was feeling like their kids aren't ready yet and aren't planning on sending them to kindergarten when they turn 5 either. I couldn't believe it - I might not be ready for Thomas to be grown up enough to go off to school by himself, but that's just because I'm still in shock that he's not Beth's size still. I've gotten a lot more used to the idea lately, but it's still hard to realize he's as big as some of my preschool-aged swim lesson kids were back in the day. I love that he's growing up, but I wish time didn't pass so quickly! To be fair for the other kids though (and this isn't just my bias) he's a bit more advanced so maybe they really aren't ready for preschool.
Baby Peter has a new mommy - Beth has adopted him! I didn't think she'd be interested (Thomas likes him but does just as well ignoring his existence as he does playing with him) but she was ticked and he was nearby. I handed him to her and she played with him for a good 10 minutes before losing him (he's a pretty big baby doll, so I'm surprised she could support him for as long as she did). If I find it hard to believe that Thomas is growing up so fast, it's even more difficult that Beth is already old enough to play with dolls. I'm enormously proud of both my kids (what mother isn't?) but it makes me a little sad too! I never realized how true it is when women who have been moms for decades tell us newbies, "They grow up too fast!"

Play fountain

We went to meet several of the people in playgroup at a local play fountain today, but as we'd never been and never met any of the families that were supposed to be there, the "meet-up" part was less than successful. We were all there, but so was every other family in Columbus - it was so crowded! So, we never actually found the other people we were going to play with, but it was a lot of fun anyway. Thomas was kind of intimidated by all the kids, so hung back more than I had thought he would going in to it, but he ended up getting soaked and having a blast anyway.
We're headed for the zoo tomorrow to meet with some of the same people, but a) we've been there and know what to expect and b) we're going equipped with cell phone numbers! We're going to go earlier though, so I'm going to take Thomas to the park right now so he gets exhausted earlier, goes to bed earlier, and wakes up earlier.

PS - We're all finally healthy, for the time being!
PPS - I did take pics at the fountain, and I have a lot to post I know, which I promise will happen at some point!

We won the lottery ...

... but not the good kind involving a windfall of green. We've been down with an extremely nasty virus for the past week, the only redeeming factors being 1) Clay didn't get it! 2) Thomas got it first and was over it before anyone else started feeling symptoms and 3) We live close enough that my mom was able to come down and stay the night to take care of us. I guess I'm the one that got the sickest (fever was over 104 at one point and a week later my throat is still sore) but really, nothing is more miserable than a sick baby. I called in to the pediatrician's office and they wanted to see us, so I hauled my miserable sick self, Thomas's healthy but by now bored self, and Beth's very sad and pathetical sick self to the Dr. on Thursday. He thought it might be strep (imagine how well the throat swab went over) but turns out we've just all got another really nasty virus, and he's seen it a lot in the last couple weeks. So to relieve the symptoms of sore throat he tells me I can use children's benadryl and children's mylanta, mixed together and put in her mouth. The mylanta soothes it, the benadryl numbs it - I'm thinking this is great, and we leave the peds office as they are closing for the night. We head over to Meijer to pick up the mylanta (I have benadryl at home) and some groceries we need - get the groceries, but they don't have the mylanta. Ugh. So then I drag all of us across the street to Walmart where I'm informed that I'm the fourth person in 2 days to come looking for it and no, they don't have it and they can't get it. They suggest CVS, who tells me the same thing - you're the second person today to come looking for it and we don't have it, so sorry. Apparently our Dr. is sending everyone out for this and doesn't know that they quit making it. Grr.
My throat is only a little sore still (finally!) so hopefully today I can make some headway on all the nonsense there is to do around here - I'm absurdly behind after traveling to St. Louis, going to Girls' Weekend, then immediately getting sick - that's over 2 weeks of relying on my mom's overnight (she did some laundry and dishes for us, thank goodness) and Clay's spare time (which he has precious little of, I can't be thankful enough that it was all spent taking care of the stuff I couldn't do). So, I guess this is off for laundry!

Being Mommy

As I'm writing this, Thomas is avoiding Rest Time by eating Cheerios and counting them (I declined the invitation to join him). As I'm sitting here listening to him and holding a teether for Beth, I'm thinking about how fast the kids are growing. It seems like just yesterday that Thomas was using the Exersaucer and yelling "Bwaaaaaaaaa! Arrrrrrrr! Ahhhhhhhh!" at the top of his lungs, and here Beth is, Thomas having outgrown it nearly 2 years ago. By the way, Beth is the seventh kid to use this toy, Kelley recounted for me while we were visiting on our Girls' Weekend.
Girls' Weekend was fun as always; this was the 10th Annual so we were doing "The Power of Ten" as our theme. We didn't get to do all the activities Jill had planned for us (alas, because they were really cool) but we did do 2: Write 10 things you like about yourself (3 have to be physical attributes). The other was Write 10 Accomplishments you're proud of. It was cool because while we could have easily come up with things for each other, it was quite a bit harder (and more time-consuming!) to come up with stuff about ourselves. It was actually really empowering - I wish we had been able to do the other activity she had come up with too.
We also got to get a massage, my first ever - I can see why people who have the money keep a massage therapist on staff! I'm wondering what specific types of massage would help my headaches, I'm betting there's something out there. I am getting SO tired of using bottles of Excedrin!
Believe it or not, that little segue on the Girls' Weekend is actually related to the first paragraph ... being away from the kid(s) for the weekend (Beth joined us part of the time, she refused to take the bottle) really made me realize how much I would miss if I were working outside the home. I certainly wouldn't mind the extra cash that would be available, but I would miss so many of the cute, cool, and overall amazing advances my kids make each day. There is something really amazing about a life that is nothing more than POSSIBILITY, or BECOMING. Let me explain that, since I'm pretty sure that what I mean with the caps isn't obvious.
Neither of the kids has much life experience under the belt, they haven't made any real life-altering decisions, they have very little in the way of limitations (ie neither will ever be real royalty unless they marry into it). Everything that they will become in the future has yet to be decided; yet, in a way everything is being decided right now. Each new day shapes in some way what they will become, how their personalities grow, what experiences they will be open to in the future. It's kind of overwhelming what an impact I make on the future just by raising my kids. I love who they are already, so I guess I'm doing ok, even though some days are better than others.
The funny thing is, the same thoughts apply to my life as an adult ... sure, the little things every day shape me, but my whole life is ahead of me and I can do whatever I want with it. A lot of days I wonder if I really do want what I'm doing right now, but with every new thing my kids do that I like I become more certain that I wouldn't want to do anything else.
Are you doing what you want right now? If not, what's holding you back?