Memories...

Boxes
Wow would I really LOVE a vacation! I am up to here in boxes right now. I keep taking sugar free popsicle breaks, but I still feel like I would love to leave this house and have a mini vacation.

The kids are so excited. My mom came by to visit earlier today, and the kids were hopping and jumping all over the place. She asked who would they miss the most. They said, "Daddy". She was really hinting at herself!! So she asked them again, and they all said, "Tricky-Woo!". Finally she said, "anyone else you will miss?" and I whispered to them - (grandmommy), so they shouted "Grandmommy" and leaped up and hugged her. She was really happy she was second to her dog! LOL

Memories
As I have been going through things, I have really re-lived some of my favorite memories.
When Ravi was 3 and 4, we did "school" using the Brighter Visions program. As I looked through all of the books, I saw how he had learned so many things. Even where he wrote his name for the very first time. I was (and still am) so proud of my son. Even tho he has to go to school now, I know, and the teacher has said, that his rich language has come from having someone at home to talk to all day. The kids in his class who have spent their entire lives in a day care, can barely speak.

At least I was able to stay home with the girls until they were 3 years old, and again at 4. So far, they only spent exactly one year in day care. Since then, they have been in Mothers Day Out, which is a wonderful program, focused on the child instead of punitive treatment for kids who naturally act out at age 4. From the first day in Mothers Day Out, my girls were so happy. I regret putting them in daycare, but at the time it was my only option.


Today I gave away some of my Compleat Mother magazines and a nursing booklet and cassette tape, written and recorded by Dr. Sears. : -(
It reminded me of the days while lazily nursing Lakshmi on the bed while reading Compleat Mother or looking eye to eye at my little one. Oh the wonderful days I have spent in this house, loving the kids and nurturing them to the point where they are now great little kids.

That was a gift in itself to be able to do that, to stay home and even tho I felt most days that I got nothing at all done, I actually did, and it was much more important than washing dishes or even homeschooling. While I leave this house with joy...preparing to move forward in my life, I do leave behind all the memories, the tiny crunched up peices of cherios, drops of breastmilk, tears of sadness and happiness, burning candles in the bedroom, memories of love making, spilled wine and champaign, dust bunnies, adoption plans, hearing for the first time the pitter patter of tiny foot steps on the wood floor, late nights watching "Mad About You", especially the episode where they thought they were pregnant and weren't, and the one where they had their baby". Behind will be all the hopes and expectations, the growth chart on the hall way wall, and all the birthday parties in our beautiful dining room, with kids running around the house, blowing out the candles and carrying three beautiful children across the threshold of this tiny cottage house.

Here is to the years behind us, AND to the years ahead!

Jyotsna