A big shout out

And I mean BIG... to my brother and his wife. Congratulations! Us Millers may be scrappy, but we have some big genes behind us. I worked in the NICU before Bekah was born and I joked around that if I had a 7 pound baby, I would feel like it was a 3 month old. Then I delivered a 3 month old. Jokes was definitely on me. Come to find out that both my dad and husband were over 10 pound babies (although I had the record at 10 lb 13 oz.). "Had the record." Us Millers can also be over-achievers, too, and apparently Jared and Tonya went over and beyond. As in, beyond 11 pounds. Samuel Andrew Miller was born last Sunday at 11 pounds, 2 ounces. So I pass the trophy to you, Jared and Tony. Congratulations. And may you always keep the family record for the biggest baby! I doubt anybody else wants it, but I may be wrong... I have been wrong before :) (Celeste?)p.s. My favorite comment was Tonya's doctor. He said that normally, he tells his C-section patients not to lift anything over 10 pounds... but in her case, he would make an exception.
p.p.s. Rob's mom's comment about it was that I can no longer blame the Franklin genes.

Big date with a Little girl

Fun day and free day too. Does it get any better? We spent about 4 hours at the Rec center swimming during Woods Cross free day:) Bekah was so proud to practice her swimming over and over. She is really getting good. It is so cute. Uncle Richie, Aunt Caroline and their kids also came, and so the three kids had tons of fun running around. I had a chance to swim laps, too, which was great. I love swimming. You feel so long and lean, stretching out, reaching for each stroke. Sorry. random.

Tonight, Bekah and I went on a date. Kyle wasn't up to staying out late (we weren't up to it, either) so he stayed home and played hot wheels with Dad. He is such a daddy's boy. Bekah and I went to see a play at a local high school (another freebie). It was a city drama group presenting High School Musical. Bekah LOVED it! She was completely captivated the whole time. It does crack me up what she notices, though. I have no idea if she even got the plot line, for when Dad asked about it when we got home, she told him about how they gave people flowers at the end and something about putting something white on a girl's head? She sang some of the songs on the way home, though. Anyway, it was so much fun doing something special with just my daughter. We needed some bonding time.

barely too late

15 seconds. Actually, probably 10. That's all it would have taken. I looked at my watch, then stood up and said, "it's time to go to the class..." But alas, too late.

And in those 10 seconds, it was just enough time for Bekah to fall off of a stand and bang her head. Well, her teeth actually. So now, at age 4, she has 2 loose tooth, and we will find out in the next 6-8 weeks weather or not she will actually lose her front teeth.

Thank goodness, I had a good friend at the Discovery Gateway with me, who took Kyle so that I could run Bekah to the dentist. Here is what floors me... Bekah had a mouthful of blood, yet she did not get any on her dress. It happened that another woman was right there with tissue, and Bekah kept it in her mouth. This is the girl who can stain her clothes with one bite, and yet bleeding a ton, she just happened to not get one drop on herself. Woah! Also, for the last week, she has been way too whiney. Maybe it's because Rob's out of town this week and we were gone last week. I don't know, but it's been driving me crazy. Yet since a couple minutes after her injury, my sweet little girl has not whined or cried. Not on the ride to the dentist, while holding a wet tissue in her mouth. Not in the dentist office. Not even at home with her fat swollen lip and swollen teeth. Oh bless my sweet girl!

I'm hoping that she won't lose her teeth. One of the teeth was already turning brown from a previous chip 2 years ago. Oh goodness. Bless her heart.

my favorite mother's day moment

9:20 am. I have been awake for over 2 hours listening to the kids playing in the other room. But here come the patter of feet in a mad dash up the stairs. This is my favorite part of Mother's Day.

With a bang, the door bursts open, and 2 gleeful children (and a very cute man) spill into the room and onto my bed, singing and shouting, "Happy Mother's Day!" The very cute guy (getting cuter by the minute) is holding breakfast while at the same time helping my son carry in orange juice without spilling. Breakfast in bed. :)

It's not the breakfast that I love so much, although I admit that bacon is one of my 4 favorite food groups. It's the perfection of it all. Snuggling in bed all alone, just resting. And then, when the moment is just right, having all the love and happiness of a 3 and 4 year old poured all over me. Feeling true joy for the little box my daughter made out of popsicle sticks and the coupon books I helped my kids make. All for me. Isn't being a mother glorious?

The ending of an era

My little errand buddy. This week is the last real week of Bekah's preschool for the school year. We still have the zoo trip and graduation, but that's it. And today, as I was running errands with Kyle, holding hands as we crossed parking lots and listening to his chatter, I realized that this is it... our last errand day just together. Next year he and Bekah will both be in preschool together, and after that, more kids hopefully.

So this is it. There may be a day here or there, but my regular date with Kyle is ending. He is growing up.

Am I seriously sitting here crying? He is only going to start preschool for goodness sake! But it's preschool now and before I know it, he'll be leaving for college. Man, I'm really going to be a wreck then.

I love to see my children getting older. I love to see them learning, growing, and doing things on their own. They have such wonderful, big spirits inside of them. But it kills me a little, too. Rebekah and Kyle, if you ever read this years down the road, know that this night in May, I am going to fall asleep thinking about how much I love you.

Just a couple musings

So I just did analytics.google.com (or something like that), and I found at that some people actually do read my blog. Hmm... now I need to say something worthwhile. Almost anything worthwhile to say, I end up saying to everyone I know (I'm that quiet, reserved type), so by the time I get to sit down at night and type, I'm done. Dang it. I write really great, witty, and super enlightening blogs in my head, though. Really.

A couple thoughts. I drove down to visit my grandmother last week. Both nights I was there, we spent the evening after kids were in bed just sitting and talking. As she told story after story, it was like I saw my grandmother become a girl, teenager, and young mother. Like I was getting to see her real soul... not just the grandmother role. I wonder if 50 years from now, I will get a chance to share my soul with my own grand-daughter... let her see that even though there are 50 years difference in age, we are so very the same.

My son is going to have surgery again. This will be his second surgery, and he just turned 3. He is having his adenoids and tonsils out because of sleep apnea... which sounds like a common enough procedure, but there is like a 2 week recovery from it. So here is one of my concerns: am I somehow to blame? I have hyperemesis when pregnant and end up taking a lot of meds and getting IVs for 9 months. And although all of those medications are approved for pregnancy, it makes me wonder. None of the cousins, and only 1 of all of the second cousins has had any health problems. Yet both of my kids had funky problems as babies. Not horribly funky, like aplastic heart or microcephaly, but funky enough to require hospitalization. Before you jump in defending, realize that no, I am not trying to point fingers or give myself a guilt trip. It is what it is.
As Rob and I are starting to think about having another baby, I am just thinking, wondering if there is something I can do better for this next one. Probably not... pregnancy for me has been about survival... but if there is something. Hmm.

Although, for the record, I'll take what the Lord gives me with a smile. HE has been so good to me.