Buggin’ out

First off, Happy belated Mother’s Day to all the mamas in my life. Especially my own. Because on my third-ever mother’s day as a mother, I’m starting to fully grasp how totally frustrating and absolutely wonderful this job can be. And now that I live with a two-year old, and can’t really imagine life with a teenager being THAT much worse than this, I also want to apologize to my Mom for some of that irrational, hysterical behavior I inflicted during my awkward years. Like the time in seventh-grade when I threw myself on the floor, sobbing, and refused to go to school because MY HAIR WOULDN’T GO. And no amount of LA Looks product would keep it right, and I threw one of the biggest fits in the history of the world. And, Mom, I can honestly say right now that, I. AM. SORRY. Because yesterday Taylor threw that exact same size fit over Ruby eating a piece of her popcorn, and it left me laying on the ground, yoga breathing and shaking my head in disbelief. So, once again Mom, I’m very sorry for that. I owe you a bottle of wine and some Golden Flakes.

My Mother’s Day weekend was awesome. Yes, I pretty much got a full weekend of wonderfulness and fun. It started Saturday morning with Josiah’s birthday party. Taylor’s beau turns two this week, and Kelley and Jaime hosted their little man a birthday bug-hunt party at the Arboretum. It was a perfect set-up for a kiddo-celebration, with a certified nature expert showing all the adults and toddlers different kinds of bugs, and then taking everyone outside to flip over rocks to find and collect itty-bitty creatures.

Even though it was technically a bug hunt, T and Jo had more fun gathering leaves. Another reason why they are a perfect match.

And instead of the traditional birthday cake, Kelley made everyone their own, individual dirt cups, which is a cool whip-pudding-oreo cookie concoction that is just heavenly. It was the hit of the party.

And after stuffing our girl full of sugar, we tried to take a tour of the bonsai exhibit at the Arboretum. But her energy level made her a bit of a liability. Next time we’ll bring the stroller. Luckily Chris and I were both there to take turns lugging her squirmy-self through the gardens on the way back to the car.

The rest of the weekend was spent working outside in our gardens, going to Mother’s Day brunch at the Country Club, watching America’s Next Top Model reruns and breaking-in my new running shoes. Yep, I’m a blessed Momma. And that fortunate feeling had me over the moon until late Sunday afternoon when it was confirmed that I would have to serve Jury Duty this afternoon. Barf. Don’t get me wrong, I’m perfectly fine fulfilling my civic duty at somepoint when my kids are in school. But being a SAHM and Chris having a super-busy start to the week, we were in a bit of a pickle as far as Taylor Duty was concerned.

Lucky for us, we are surrounded by such wonderful friends that all offered to jump-in and help. And we took advantage of it, and Taylor had her first-ever naptime sleepover today at the Scully house. And after spending three hours reading back-issues of Southern Living and Bon Appetite and marking a new high-score in Tetris, the clerk announced that the trial was cancelled, I was released from duty and got back to Paige’s in time to check out T’s new manicure and watch her and Elliot have a dance party in their living room. She was having so much fun she was almost bummed that I had come back to pick her up. Looks like I’m gonna have to step-up the fun this week. After a weekend of bug hunts, sugar-rushes and sparkly fingernails, I’ve got my work cut out for me. Good thing I’ve got so many strong, creative, amazing mothers around to inspire me.