Gratitude Adjustment

I am having a bummer morning. Nothing in particular is going wrong - I just feel kind of bummed out. It's not exactly the day that I want to spend my day, so I am going to take a cue from my friend Angela who does Gratitude Mondays and focus on what I am grateful for today instead.

Last night on Facebook a friend of mine posted a status that read, "My greatest accomplishments call me "Mommy." I almost cried when I read it. It's so true. My kids are BY FAR my greatest accomplishment. Above all else, they are my purpose for being here. I know I've said it before, but I feel like I was incomplete before becoming a mother. Yes, yes, I know, it's very Jerry Maguire, "You complete me,"-esque but it's true.

Gracie is growing like a freaking weed. I didn't really notice before I had Kairi how quickly Gracie is growing. The day Kairi was born I remember laying in bed with Gracie and looking at her hands and feet. They looked monstrously big - so much bigger than they had just the day before.

She's really coming into her own too since school has started. Every week she learns a new letter. Each letter has a character, a story/song, and a hand movement. The first week she learned the letter "P." P is for Polly Panda, and Polly Panda paints purple P's, pizza pans and porcupines. Her motion is moving your hand up and down like you are painting a fence. (Think Karate Kid, "Up and down.") During the hand motion, she says "Puh, puh, puh."

A few weeks ago at the end of the week Gracie came home with her folder full of the various projects she's worked on. The letter that week was "M." That night, she worked hard on tracing and practicing drawing her M's. One of the assignments sent home was a piece of paper with a bunch of letters scrambled all over the page, and she was to circle all the M's and draw X's through all the P's. She did that as well as recognized each letter that she had been learning between the two, and some that she hadn't learned in class. She's also begun using these letters throughout her days out of school. She is learning so much. She will ask what a certain word starts with, or if I say a word she will say "That starts with O!" It's so neat watching her grow.

Kairi is growing fast too. I can't believe it - it's been almost 7 months since she was born. Wow! A week ago Friday she started saying "Momma" (and my heart melted!) My mother was here to witness it. It was very cool. Last night the girls and I were in the kitchen while I was baking a cake and Gracie and I were talking about Jason. All of a sudden, Kairi looks up and starts saying "Dah-ee Dah-ee Dah-ee!" over and over. (Think "Daddy" minus the d's in the middle.) That was very cool too.

She is also doing a lot physically. She is really beginning to be able to support herself sitting up. She's been kind of sitting up for a little over a month, but it's more like she's kind of folded in on herself. And she's begun inchworm crawling. She will scoot forward with her legs (as if she is crawling regularly) then throw her body forward and land flat against the floor. She rights herself and starts again. It's very funny to see her doing this.

Anyway, I think that will conclude my "gratitude adjustment" for today. I am feeling much better now.