My 35th Birthday

Did you know that I'm 35 now? Crazy, huh?! Not that I think 35 is old, it's just that I still feel like I'm in my mid-twenties. One thing that tells me my calculations are correct is the fact that I finally feel like I'm getting better at this mom-thing, not that I know all the answers, but I've experienced many situations and mothering challenges, and now I can say, "Okay, I've done this before, and I can do it again!"

Potty training, for example. I felt motivated last week after talking to my sister and discovering her 2 1/2-year-old is being potty trained. I told Austin about, and he didn't care one bit. Instead of doing what I usually do, asking him, "Do you want to go potty now?" to which is usually a negative, I said, "No more diapers, you're going potty!" What do you know, it worked! He's been wearing undies since last week and I'm still together to talk about it! I still have to set the timer, but we're making progress.

It was similar with weaning Erik last month. I decided we were done, and cut out his nursing before nap and bedtime (we had to do one more each after a few days so I wouldn't burst), but he did well and now he's sleeping through the night!

I guess being 35 means I'm getting more confident in my abilities as a mother and enjoying the good as well as the bad. And I can really say now that I am. My girls have gotten so big so fast that I know that time does fly and these days with kids crying at my feet while I make dinner, fighting over a toy, being sick on my birthday, and poopy diapers will be over before I know it and then I'll have more disturbing mothering issues to deal with!

Okay, enough with that. Obviously, being home the past 5 days, with the exception of church, with sick Karissa has made me think a lot. I still had a nice birthday, better than I thought it was going to be, considering the way the day went on Monday. 


Erik was really interested in the lighting of the candles.

My friend whose son I watch 3 days a week, brought these lovely cupcakes from Just Baked. Samoa, carrot cake, salted caramel, red velvet, strawberry, and cookies 'n creme. They made the party! The kids had the pizza Jason had picked up the day before from Aldi (take 'n bake) and Jason brought home Panera Bread sandwiches for us. Then I got to taste-test each of these beauties with the fam. I liked the strawberry best. Jason and Victoria though strawberry and carrot cake were best. Karissa ate some of the salted caramel and Austin had some strawberry.

What a candle-blowing team! How do you like Austin's undies?

Victoria suggested playing Spoons later, which we did and it made my day that they wanted to play one of my favorite card games.

Here's to another year!