Progress Abounds

I'm sitting here in the kitchen with my 3 year old...it's early -- on 6:13 am. She woke up early because she is night potty training and recognized she had to go...whoeee....she was DRY this morning!!! Wowzer......this just makes my day.

Anyway, here we are, just one daughter and I. I'm looking at her and say: "You are so stinking cute!" Her facial expressions just crack me up....she is so animated. So I go on to get her more OJ after discovering her favorite "new" cereal (Peanut Butter Captain Crunch), she puts her little hand on my arm, rubs it up and down, and says: "Mommy...you always take care of me...." Ahhhh....priceless. This is why, at 46, I have four kids under the age of 10!

And yesterday.....hmmmmmm...yesterday. A day of many first was yesterday. Hubby's almost 84 year old aunt lives near us in a skilled nursing facility (oh...how I hate that politically correct name). Aunt Dottie is just a hoot.....never married, traveled extensively...my husband calls her "Grumpy," I call her "Trouble." She is funny...I just wish I had more time to spend with her.

I regressed,,,,,,we took her to lunch yesterday with the rest of the family. You know, blending a family has it's challenges. And I'm not just talking about adoption here! Across the table from me sat my husband's ex-wife. It's not the first time we've been together socially....we've had her over our house a few times on Christmas Eve and even spent the day together with my husband the day my step-daughter gave birth to her daughter 18 months ago. Why not???? She's my step-kids' Mom; she raised them. I really hate that word "step-fill in the blank. I'm not my step-kids Mom....I never have been. Two were adults when we met; the other was 15. Although I'm closer to my youngest step-son, only because I've spent more time with him than the other two.

At first, the whole "step-Mom" thing was really awkward and uncomfortable. I'm not saying it's perfect now, but I think we are all getting there. My heart breaks for them; how difficult it must be to see their Dad with someone other than their Mom. Since I've never experienced this, I can't truly understand how difficult this must be for them. Yet, for the most part, they've really handled it quite well.

And how cool it was to see my girls play with my husband's 18 month old granddaughter AND my son playing with my husband's 7 year old (a little less than a month apart in age) grandson! And this one just blows me away....my step-daughter just tells me very matter of factly at the restaurant that she's totally OK with him spending the night at her house. At first, I was concerned about whether Big S was ready for it; if he felt secure enough with us to spend the night somewhere else? I wish I had the finesse that my step-daughter has.....I had her ask him if he was OK with it....to give him the finally say in case he wasn't comfortable with it. And ta-day.......my son spent the night with my step-daughter last night! My husband ran over there later to drop off clean clothes, PJs and a toothbrush and reported back that he was having the time of his life! Progress!!!!!

And while Big S was out and about behaving like a normal, well-adjusted 7 year old, we took the girls on the boat. At the end of the season last year, we bought a two person float to tow behind the boat. We intentionally didn't put additional air in it yesterday so it wouldn't go too fast. So, both girls got in it (I wish I had my camera); we went over the hand gestures: thumbs up = OK; horizontal movement of the hand = STOP! If you could have seen them....I lip-read them saying "faster.....faster!" And the reason they wanted to get out: was the debris from the trees that was sticking to their legs, not how fast we were pulling them!

As I watched them, I realized that these moments are exactly what life is about......I hope they look back, years from now, and remember these moments. I know I will.