A few of my favorite things…

I want to write down a few of my favorite memories from the last couple of months…

A few weeks ago, Izzie and I were riding in the car when she politely told me, “mommy, I call you mommy right now…but, when I grow up I will call you Ms. Leanne.” I proceeded to tell her that I will always be “mommy” to her and she just wasn’t having it.  She is at the stage where the older kids are super cool and she wants to be just like them…so, she said, “Becky calls you Ms. Leanne and so will I.” Urg. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there :)

A while ago (maybe 6 months ago), I came in from grocery shopping and Zach informed me that Khai had made his first sentence.  Since Khai had not quite gotten the hang of attaching words together, I was really stoked to hear this great news.  I asked what his sentence was and was informed that he said, “Izzie hit me.” Nice.

I have always wanted to take a “real” road trip.  A trip where you just drive and take your time stopping all over the country.  I was telling my boys that I would love to do this for spring break…We would pick a destination and spend a week getting there.  They thought this was a great idea! Chase said, “let’s drive along the coast”. Jai said, “yeah, let’s go to Miami.” And Raymond chimed in and said, “no, y’all. Let’s drive to the Bahamas.” We all had a great laugh and have not let him live this one down. 

Izzie has been really bad lately about interrupting adult conversations.   We have been trying to teach her the correct way of getting someone’s attention . For instance, on Thursday she was trying to get an attendant at a boutiques attention by shouting, “Hey Lady!!”.  Well, we had some friends over yesterday and while the mom and I were in conversation, Iz came running in shouting, “mom, mom, MOOOOOMMMMMMM!” After a few minutes of trying to explain to her the correct way to interrupt, she ended up having to go to her room for some time out.   I went up there a couple of minutes later and we tried to talk through some things.  I explained “excuse me” for the hundredth time and asked if she understood and she said “no.” I explained it 2 more times and then gave up.  Well, last night she had her super cool cousin, Maddie, spend the night.  She and Maddie were coloring when I walked up to tell Izzie something.   Izzie looked at me and said, “Maddie and I are very busy mommy. You need to say excuse me to get my attention.” I just laughed and kissed her.  I love this girl and love that she now understands “excuse me.”

Last night at the football game, I waited in the parking lot for My cousin Haley and her family while Zach went on in with Khai and Jai. For the next couple of hours I had people coming up and telling me that they enjoyed Khai’s dance.  I had no clue what they were talking about. Later, Zach informed me that Khai took it upon himself to entertain the ENTIRE stands during the national anthem.  He danced around…singing, “shake your booty, shake your booty!”

Zach has been really into smoking chicken lately.  While he was filling up the charcoal grill, he dropped a handful of charcoal on the ground.  Later that day Izzie said, “daddy, look at all that poop over there.”  Zach said, “Izzie, that’s not poop, it’s charcoal.” She responded, “no daddy, I touched it…it is POOP!”

…here’s a picture of Hunter showing off the “poop”

There was a month or so, where my boys and I were going to Yoga together.  All the Yoga instructors know me by face, but don’t know where I live.  One day, Raymond walked into Yoga with me and Chase was a few steps behind.  The yoga instructor says, “is this your guy??” with googly eyes…and I reply, “no, this is my son.” She had a totally surprised look on her face, and said, “wow!” Chase then chimes in and says, “she had him when she was nine.”  She just said “oh” and turned around and walked away.  And we all had a good laugh.  Chase was really proud of himself…and I made sure to let my teacher know in private that I was his second momma. 

This one is not a funny one, but a heart warming one to me…

A week or so after Jai came to the ranch, we were leaving the gym and stopped by sonic for some drinks.   Chase and I were in the front 2 seats and Raymond and Jai were 2 rows back (since we had car seats in the 1st row).  Chase and I were in mid-conversation when I heard the two in the back whispering about “mom.” I was listening to Chase, but had a hard time not ease dropping into the backseat convo.  I heard Jai say, “man, she is a really great mom.” And Raymond replied, “yeah, if they had a reward for things like that…she would definitely win.” – I write this one down so I can remember this kind of memory on the really hard days that come fairly often in the life of a house mom.  On the days that I think they hate me…I’ll remember the award they gave me with this private conversation.

A few days later, Zach and the boys were rushing out the door to make a baseball game in ATL. As Raymond ran out the door, he yelled, “I love you mom.”  I said “I love you too” and then went into the living room and cried a few tears of joy.  In roughly 6 months here, this was the first time Raymond told me he loved me on his own (he will reply to me saying I love you).  It was a huge moment :)

:)