My Favorite Things

This has been a "My Favorite Things" weekend.  In fact, it's almost as if Dave decided that my Mother's Day gift this year was going to be him giving me a weekend filled with all of my favorite things!  When he came home from work Friday night, he brought a movie.  And we had an amazing date night, just sitting together and watching the new Chronicles of Narnia movie.  When we were dating, we used to read Chronicles of Narnia together on Sunday nights.  And whenever we traveled, we listened to it on tape in the car.  That has ALWAYS been one of my FAVORITE things.

Saturday we went for a LONG walk.  We walked everywhere we needed to go that day.  And when we came home, we put the kids down to bed and cleaned the ENTIRE house to have everything ready for a nice, relaxing Sabbath!  Once we got everything clean, we had a laundry party/movie night.  We washed and folded and put away all but one load of laundry.  And we watched a few episodes of "The Ghost Whisperer" - a show I used to watch all the time at my mom's while I was literally FLAT in bed (on the sofa that was my bed) sick with Brianna.  He had never seen it -- and it was fun to see some episodes "where it all began."  It was also nice to NOT have him rushing off to do something that NEEDED to be done, returning home exhausted and not interested in doing anything more than going to bed.  AND working TOGETHER - doing laundry or sorting through boxes or cleaning or cooking or whatever - is also one of my favorite things!

Because the laundry took a long time to completely pull together, Dave fell asleep on the sofa Saturday night.  At least, I thought he stayed out on the sofa because he was too tired to get to bed.  But in reality, he had plans for Sunday morning.  He got up at 5:00 this morning and made me CINNAMON ROLLS - which definitely top the list of my favorite things (if you get a good one - but you already know my feelings on THAT topic).  And he did pretty well with the recipe he chose.  It wasn't the BEST, but it was far from the worst!  In fact, we ate an entire pan today . . . and I decided to let what happens in Mother's Day stay in Mother's Day and NOT count those additional sugar calories for the week!  When the kids woke up, he kidnapped them and got them to help him finish his job for mom.  And then he got them all dressed in their Sunday clothes and came into the room (where he had kindly requested I stay put until he came to get me) to present me with breakfast "in bed."  The kids were SO excited!  I could tell they had a LOT of fun cooking me breakfast with Daddy.  And those moments are some of my FAVORITE things.  He also got me a very small bag of a licorice mix you can buy in bulk at WinCo that has always been a favorite/temptation for me.  Like I said, it was a small bag -- and the kids loved it as much as I did and even got most of the colors right when they requested some of them.

I did Abby's hair as I ate my cinnamon roll breakfast.  Just as I was finishing, Dave came into the room.  Her eyes BEAMED up at him as she simply said, "DADDY?!?!?" anticipating that he would tell her how pretty she looked with her hair done.  And Daddy sure did rise to the occasion.  He said, "ABBY!  I thought you were so pretty this morning when we got your dress on but now . . . with your hair done . . . you are just so BEAUTIFUL!!!  Come here, give me a hug!"  And she beamed and she twirled and she ran into his arms and gave him a hug that even I felt just watching it!  And those moments - moments when I know that my daughter has a daddy who treats her like a PRINCESS and teaches her every day that she is beautiful, irreplaceable, the apple of his eye, and everything in the world to him - those moments are among my favorite things.  Because in those moments my daughter is learning how she should be treated and gaining the confidence that will help her find an eternal companion who treats her the same.  Isaac coming for "his turn" of Mommy doing hair and his big, thankful hug after I comply with some hairspray or even a butterfly clip temporarily in his hair is another favorite thing! ;-D

After church we ALL took a nap - also a pastime that has been MISSING in my life as of late.  I woke from my nap to the sound of Isaac, not calling me to come and get him, but singing at the TOP of his lungs so I would KNOW it was time to come and get him.  The song, sung under the door and echoing down the hallway to my room, went something like this: "Twinkle, twinkle, e, f, g, la, la, la, la, what you AAAAAARE!!!"  And then he moved away from the door and continued to sing a song that went something like this, "I yuv you; you yuv me; hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, yuv me TOOOOOOOOOO!"  Hearing my children sing is one of my VERY favorite things!

Once everyone was awake, Dave made dinner.  Now, we would have had kebabs - another favorite thing - but that would have required one of us to go to the grocery store last night instead of enjoying the night together.  So we opted instead for his homemade spaghetti sauce over cooked shrimp with some Romano cheese on top and a mixed green salad on the side (hey - had to make up for the cinnamon rolls somewhere, right?).  It's always been one of my favorite meals and doesn't take long to throw together.  Consequently, the kids didn't fight us clear through dinner!  And a meal without fighting kids to get them to eat is DEFINITELY a favorite thing.

While Dave cooked, I went back and laid on my bed to feed Brianna.  Soon Abby and Isaac joined me, playing in my quilt, hiding from each other, playfully wrestling each other, giggling that contagious giggle that they get right before they hit their too-tired-to-sleep point.  But it was fun tonight because, as I lay there feeding Brianna, Brianna started kicking her feet at the sound.  And Isaac, who originally came out fully loaded to yell at her to stop kicking him, saw her face and simply asked her not to kick him.  However, when she saw him peek out from under the blanket to tell her to stop, she thought he was playing peek-a-boo with her and started just giggling like crazy!  And Isaac's annoyance literally melted away as the two of them had a hide-and-seek-and-tag-each-other giggle fest!  It is SOOOO much fun to see my kids playing together, hear them laughing together, watch them working together.  And to see their infant sister be included as ALL THREE of them CELEBRATED EACH OTHER tonight -- oh, it was a tender mommy moment.  And I KNOW it will continue to be one of my favorite things!

We got them to bed and played a game of Quiddler - also one of my favorite things!  And though he was over 40 points ahead of me going into the LAST hand - well, he got a whopper hand dealt to him and so did I.  I managed to beat HIM by over 40 points!  And, I'm not gonna lie - that's also one of my favorite things! ;-D  And, hey - it's only at Quiddler that I EVER beat him, so I have to take what I can get!

In the midst of all of this, Dave surprised me by telling me that he took Monday and Tuesday off so we could go hiking/camping.  That tops my list of top ten favorite things, for sure!  And if we can find a safe place to go, we're escaping this crazy city life and taking a much-needed break.  We probably won't stay the night . . . the weather took a turn and Brianna is too young still for really cold/roughing it camping.  But if we can build a fire and do tin foil dinner and smores with the kids at the end of a day hike . . . it will be HEAVEN to me!


Oh - and I can't forget to add that Brianna said "Ma-ma-ma-ma" for the FIRST time today!  And hearing my kids say Mama -- most of the time, at least -- is DEFINITELY one of my FAVORITE things!  Hearing it for the first time from her -- PRICELESS!!!

Happy Mother's Day everyone!