Mother's Day Rule: Take More Pictures

It's been a goal of mine to get a picture of myself and my little people on Mother's day, however, both of them arrived at less than ideal times. Jo was 11 days before Mother's day 2012 and Maggie was 12 days after it in 2015. I've been a mother to my first new born one year, and hugely pregnant with the second another. This has made for some interesting or completely missing pictures. My collection is slightly spotty. <insert meta motherhood lesson> The bonus part of both girls arriving in May is that I have semi decent photos from that month if not from the day itself. 

Behold - my Mothers Day pictures so far

2012: Wet hair and 11 day old baby

Here's an example of the birthday thing working out for me. This is the Sunday before Mother's day that year  - Jo's birthday party 2013

2014, the outtakes this year are pretty hilarious.  I actually almost only put in the following picture from Jo's birthday - we both look much less ragged and you can see Jo's cast! Remember when Jo broke her leg? And I thought she was faking until she wouldn't put weight on it even when I offered her chocolate? #mum fail

2015: Here's the only picture I have of both of us that year around Mother's Day - unless you count the pictures of me with two babies, but on the actual day I only had one so this works.  We did a lot of snuggling in bed during my Maggie pregnancy...

And this might be my favorite of them all. I can't remember if I purposely had all us coordinating or not, but let's say I did and call this an even bigger win. 2016, you've done me proud

Mummy Rules: Take a Picture

I know, I know, I keep saying I need to write stuff down and take pictures. So here's my attempt. Easter 2016 in multiple posts even.
So over the weekend I found this dress in Jo's closet and I begged and pleaded with her to wear it so I could take some pictures of her in it. This is a dress I wore when I was little, and it was hand made by my Mum. I may as well have been asking Jo to wear sackcloth and ashes woven from the thorny stems of rose bushes. There was bribery and corruption galore involved in getting Jo to even put the dress on. "Just see if it fits, you can wear that other dress to church, I promise!" (I did follow through on that promise too, just for the record. This dress was only on her little body for about 30  minutes) I finally cajoled her into the dress and then down the stairs for a photoshoot. The problem being that Jo doesn't like to have her picture taken. Or rather she doesn't like to cooperate to have her picture taken. She doesn't object to being on camera, she just doesn't really care to listen to instructions. See dictionary definition: child.  She will do all in her power to avoid looking at the camera, smiling, standing in that spot you wanted etc. The downside being that she just prolongs the time it takes to get the picture and therefore has to listen to more instructions. It's a vicious cycle, my very on 3 year old Catch-22.
Still, it's pretty great to see her in the dress and I know one day I'll be so glad I captured this.

 OK, ok, so I already am.

Easter Rules: Hunt with Friends

We had so many Easter happenings this past weekend but I bet if you asked Jo she would tell you that having Rachel over to stay was the highlight of it all. It may in fact have been the highlight of Jo's year thus far.
Rachel's parents were celebrating their anniversary and I volunteered to take their little people so they could enjoy some down time. Since it's Easter this weekend our apartment complex was having an Easter egg hunt. I tried to get us all out the door in time but I had double the number of people I usually do, and let's be honest, I don't even make it out the door on time with two.

So, we eventually got ourselves organized and headed down to the hunt. Only to find it pretty much over. At least we thought it was until I found an untouched hidden area. Thinking I had found the jackpot I showed it to my charges and encouraged them to get to work.

 Pretty soon I was shown the error of my ways. An older gentleman approached and informed us (none too graciously) that we were egg hunting in the 6-10 year olds area. None of my entourage passed for 6 and this gentleman was obviously disgruntled with us. I redirected my charges and we moved back to the 1-5 year old area where we found some eggs and traded them for a prize. Does stuff like this happen with this same level of frequency to other people I wonder? It's a mystery for the ages. Maybe it does and no one is fessing up?

All was not lost though, we got some fun pictures (and contraband 6+ candy) and since the average age of the group (excluding me) is under 2 they thought it was the best hunt they've ever experienced. Plus, let's all remember that just having Rachel stay over was enough to make Jo's year. This whole egg hunt experience was just so much icing on the cake to her. Oh please be 3 forever. 

Foreign Service Rules: Borrow a Pet

I think we can safely declare our little clan to be animal lovers. Jo for the longest time would tell people I was growing a purple kitten instead of a baby sister for her. We had a dog when Jo was little and, in hindsight, he was the best. I wish Jo had memories of him other than what I've told her. He was a great dog for a baby.
So, here we find ourselves without a pet and joining the Foreign Service and therefore committing ourselves for the near future to not having a pet. You are more than welcome to have a pet in the Foreign Service and in fact many of our colleagues in the same position are already in possession of pets. We just don't want the extra hassle, heartbreak and budget headaches. However, a solution presents itself:

 Dog sitting! Since we are dog lovers (some of us can even extend our love to cats) this is a gig we are totally up for. Meet Tanq, who we met in the elevator (I am always doing that thing where I talk to the dog and not the owner - much like people do with my girls. I absolutely understand it - kids and dogs are just inherently easier to talk to then real grown-up sized humans. How will I talk to people in pubic places when my children are grown???) and then jumped at the chance to dog sit when his owner threw it out on the class listserv.

And while Tanq does appreciate a cuddle (especially when his smallest groupie is on the move) it turns out his most favourite bed of all is freshly folded laundry.

 

No complaints from me, it just means I don't have to put it away, right?

Maggie Rules: Follow Mummy's Example

There is picture evidence, out there in the universe, of my childhood propensity to put food on my head.  Specifically eggs and beans. Today we have the picture evidence (besides all those pregnancy and hospital pictures) that Maggie is indeed my daughter.

Maggie's chosen medium is weetabix. Why are babies with food on their face so ridiculously cute??

Moving Rules: Know where you are going

So we joined the Foreign Service. However, there's a catch. The government is smart. They give you a job, pay to move you out to DC, put your stuff in storage for you, pay your rent and then give you a list of places they might send you. You get to weigh in on that list and then later they tell you where you're going for the next two years.
Our list had eight locations (for each of the eight Facility Managers (FM) in the class) and we got to list them from first to last preference.
So now we are almost done with a week of second guessing, worrying and wondering (ok, so mostly we are just wondering, not really worrying) and all the speculation will end on Tuesday (pronounced Choose-day or Twos-day depending on who you ask) when we go to Flag Day.
Flag Day proceeds thus: Everyone gathers to an auditorium and the names of class members are read along with their assignment and they're given the flag of their assigned country. Luckily for us, the list is read alphabetically so we will be the first FM to receive an assignment. I don't think the stress of having all the places I want to go given to other people would be fun! There will be no suspense.
So, here's to Tuesday and finally being able to answer the 'where are you going?!' question! I have prepared my texting fingers!
Haste the day!

And, because I don't believe in jinxing, here's my personal first choice

PERU!!!!!!! 

Moving Rules: Take a Break

As of this morning, one quarter of our family has headed off on the journey to Virginia. Meanwhile I am safely ensconcsed on my sister's couch with two sleeping babies in the bedrooms (still calling J a baby at 3.5 years, should probably get over that) and I will probably follow suit very shortly. 

The house was packed, cleaned and locked up by us for the last time yesterday. It was a good little house for our almost three years there, even though it desperately needed new windows. And carpet. And paint. And bathroom. And kitchen. Baby J did so much growing there (learned to walk, potty trained, moved into a twin bed, got herself a baby sister) and it was the only home #2 had ever known. I shall miss the memories in that house, we made lots of good ones.

This morning we sent Adam off with a car packed to the gills (not sure how it's all going to fit in the tiny VA apartment....) and the girls and I were delivered safely, and just a little sadly, to Ogden. Fear not though, I have decided what we have here is a mini vacation! We will see the sights (Treehouse Museum I'm looking at you!) and roundly enjoy ourselves before boarding a flight for DC on Monday morning. Carpe Diem!