Yesterday was about as nice a birthday as one could ask for. I woke up to the sound of Audrey singing pleasantly in her crib, and then the frantic pitterpatter of Emily sprinting into my room, shouting "Mom! It's your birthday!!!" We ate scrambed eggs and toast for breakfast, then I went for a 2-mile run, and showered. By the time I was through with that, Travis had cleaned up all of the kitchen and most of the toys. Emily helped me make an angel food cake in the afternoon, which turned out super tasty! This was my first try doing one from scratch, and my stand mixer made it SO easy. It was the first time I had ever had it cranked up to full speed, and man can that thing go! Emily didn't like how noisy it was, of course, but she sure liked licking the batter off of everything. I don't have any qualms letting her do that, since she only consumes about half of it and the rest goes on her face and hands and clothes. Anyway, I made a delicious supper and we ate the cake, and then put the kids in bed. Emily told me, as I was tucking her in, that we should've had people come over to celebrate my birthday, "like Jenny, and ... LOTSA people." I told her I spent the day with my favorite people, and that's all I needed to be really happy. "maybe another time..." isn't she sweet? Then Travis opened up a bottle of wine and I ate the sour patch kids he bought for me, and we watched some "Sunny in Philadelphia" episodes on DVD, and laughed ourselves silly. See? wasn't that a great day??
This afternoon, I'll be going to see the Des Moines Symphony, because I got a sweet deal on Groupon and the music looks like it'll be awesome - Shoshtakovich and Rachmaninoff. Yay! And tomorrow, Travis is taking the day off to attend a 15-minute hearing about the assessed value of our house for property taxes. Then we'll take the kids to the zoo, and hopefully get a few things planted in our garden in teh afternoon.
Audrey continues to crack me up with her expressive faces and babble. Still no definite words that I can decipher, but I sure understand what she's telling me. The other day, I was doing something silly in the kitchen while she and Emily were having their snack. I looked over at Audrey, and she said (my interpretation) "Mom, you're weird, don't do that anymore" while shaking her head, very seriously. Travis likes to ask her conflicting questions and laugh when she nods "yes" to everything he says.
And one of the great things about yesterday was seeing how many caring things Emily did throughout the day. It's fun to be able to recognize those things for her, and point out that she probably feels good because she did such a nice thing. Then, today I asked her how she felt when she look at Audrey crying after pushing her out of her way, and she said "not good." I am hoping that long-term this will do better for us than time-outs, although that option is still on the table for now. It's really remarkable how much there is to learn when growing up. It's nice for me to remember that it's a HUGE undertaking for little tiny people to tackle!
Speaking of that, Trav brought home a book from the library titled, "Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me)." It was definitely out of character, I thought, but then he explained that he wanted to understand the topic in order to be an advantage at work (recovering from a failed project, dealing with people you disagree with, etc.) And then it made total sense, of course. It was good for me to read, too, to get a better understanding of some of the crazy stuff that's been going on in my extended family lately. I've been mulling over and over the way that Trav summed it up: "If you're going to do something because you're angry and you feel justified, then you're about to make a mistake." There was also a section about how different cultures approach learning differently, from an emphasis on getting everything right with no mistakes instead of allowing children to make as many mistakes as it takes for them to understand the right way. I might research that particular topic more, since I think my personality (or my upbringing?) tends towards the first, with getting it all right, no mistakes, and my kids might benefit from some of the other approach. It's interesting, anyway.
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