May 28
Everyone,
I’ve had several people ask me what the title of the book that my MIL sent me. 
It’s called “A Mother’s Book of Secrets” by Linda Eyre and Shawni Eyre Pothier. The subtitle (which I’ve just now read) is- Keys to Making Motherhood Memorable, Meaningful, and Magnificent. It’s a collection of essays from a grandma and a mom. I’ve only read the first 2 or 3, but one has stuck with me for a few days. It’s called Trenches Don’t Last. It’s all about being in the moment and enjoying whatever moment you are in. Whether it be the baby moment, the teenage moment, anything.
They quote another essay by Anna Quindlen, “The biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make…I did not live in the moment enough. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. 
I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and getting it done a little less.” I’ve thought a lot about this today. About how I am always rushing Butterfly to get to the next thing when all she wants to do is talk to me or be with me or play with me. I thought about it as I picked up Pirate for the 100th time today after he just asked to be put down. I thought about it when Professor crawled into my lap and gave me his killer smile and lightly pointed at my nose and said, “Oooo.” (We’ve been working on body parts. Nooose.)
I do feel like I am in a big rush to get to the next thing. I do feel like there are a lot responsibilities that need to get done. 
But I think that laundry and cleaning and food prep/clean up are small things. They will always be there. But my responsibility as a mother to these cute cute kids, should be my priority in my mind. I feel like the days go better when I get into what Butterfly is doing that day, or have 15 minutes of ball passing with Pirate, or push cooking lids around the kitchen with Professor (his new favorite thing).
This essay was a good reminder of the important things. Because all too soon they will no longer be pushing pan lids around my house or pretending to be dogs in Soot’s kennel. 
It also reminded me I ought to take more videos of them because then they can see what it was like right now.
So expect some videos in the near future, and also some stories from Butterfly. I’d like to document what they are doing a little more on here.
Safire
PS- Pictures by Lolli, of course. (Well, not the one of Butterfly.) It’s so much fun having a friend who loves to take pictures. 
Safireall 3 kids, motherhood
Aug 26
Everyone,
I was just reading a post over at Arwen/Elizabeth about the things that motherhood have given her. She got me thinking about what motherhood has given me. So here is a list.
1. Tough feet and the ability to step on small sharp toys. When it first started to happen, I would hop up and down and moan a little because ouch! Those things hurt! Now, I just look down to see what I stepped on and move it out of the walk way. Hopefully it didn’t break.
2. The ability to watch the same episodes of tv over and over and over without complaining. There are only 2 shows I let Butterfly watch on tv. And I have seen all of them at least 3 times. Is it sad when I am excited when the commercials say that there is going to be a new episode?
3. The ability to read books out loud to Butterfly in the dark. She wakes up at an awful hour of 6am. It’s not light out yet. I barely have enough energy to help her climb into bed with us and peer at the book she has thrown on my head. I don’t even put on my glasses. I just start and she turns the pages. It’s only because I have so many of them memorized. Want to hear “Go, Dogs. Go!” or perhaps “The Alphabet Book”? Because I can recite them at a moments notice.
4. The ability to negotiate. Butterfly has her own opinions. She is very very loud about them. She has been since probably day 3. This is when she would go from content to squalling in .002 seconds. It was especially hard in the middle of the night when she slept right next to my ear. The one nice thing about this is that she is just as easily calmed down. She can go from squalling to content in about .2 seconds. You just have to know just what to say and when to say it.
5. The ability to function on very little sleep. I don’t know why we got a early bird and a night owl. Last night Butterfly did not fall asleep until close to 10pm, and was up again at 6am. I can’t sleep while she is reciting Nemo in her bedroom. Juice is so not a morning person. He rolls over and does his best to hide under his pillow when she gets up so early. He says it’s just because I am so much better at fighting the breakfast battle. I know it’s really because he’s cranky when he doesn’t sleep in in the morning.
6. The ability to listen about other peoples kids and actually be interested. That’s because I want my turn to brag about Butterfly. And I want the people I brag to to be a little interested in my amazing child. So I force myself to be interested in their child. And you know what? I actually do get interested in the other children. It makes me a better friend to their mom, and hopefully they are a little interested in my wonderful toddler. When she was a baby I could not wait to skip over their kid stories to inject one of my own. But now, I listen, wait my turn, and ask questions for more clarifications.
I guess what this all boils down to is patience. Juice has this endless fountain of patience. I do not. But motherhood is teaching this to me one hard little step at a time. From trying to get pregnant with Butterfly for 3 years, celebrating her baby-ness (the good and the bad, I was so happy to just have a baby!) and now enjoying the blossoming Independence of a 2 year old. I’m digging my well of patience slowly. Patience isn’t bad, right?
Safire
Safireinfertility, motherhood, patience
It’s called “A Mother’s Book of Secrets” by Linda Eyre and Shawni Eyre Pothier. The subtitle (which I’ve just now read) is- Keys to Making Motherhood Memorable, Meaningful, and Magnificent. It’s a collection of essays from a grandma and a mom. I’ve only read the first 2 or 3, but one has stuck with me for a few days. It’s called Trenches Don’t Last. It’s all about being in the moment and enjoying whatever moment you are in. Whether it be the baby moment, the teenage moment, anything.
I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and getting it done a little less.” I’ve thought a lot about this today. About how I am always rushing Butterfly to get to the next thing when all she wants to do is talk to me or be with me or play with me. I thought about it as I picked up Pirate for the 100th time today after he just asked to be put down. I thought about it when Professor crawled into my lap and gave me his killer smile and lightly pointed at my nose and said, “Oooo.” (We’ve been working on body parts. Nooose.)
But I think that laundry and cleaning and food prep/clean up are small things. They will always be there. But my responsibility as a mother to these cute cute kids, should be my priority in my mind. I feel like the days go better when I get into what Butterfly is doing that day, or have 15 minutes of ball passing with Pirate, or push cooking lids around the kitchen with Professor (his new favorite thing).
It also reminded me I ought to take more videos of them because then they can see what it was like right now.