Tubes and Treats

Ella turned 3 on Monday, February 9th. What a big day for a big girl! Mark popped in the video of the day she was born, and it all came rushing back. I loved having my mom in town for that delivery. There is just something about seeing your mom right after having a baby that is so.....complete. Ella was such a beautiful newborn. Little rosebud lips and all. She is such source of love and laughter in our family.
Maggie had her ear tubes placed this week. Poor kid has had so many ear infections. Wednesday morning we needed to be at the surgery center at 6:45 a.m. It was going to be a hectic morning already, complicated by the fact that Ella woke up at 4:00 calling me up to snuggle saying she "felt hungry" (warning: Ella said this before the last time she threw up) and then threw up (see "warning"). At one point during the morning I just remember holding a trash can for Ella to puke in and holding Maggie on my hip trying to dress her for her trip to the OR while Mark was in the shower. Always a little jolting as a prent seeing your child go through anesthesia, but I tried to put it in perspective the this wasn't cardiac surgery. She did great. So did I (FYI).
One night at the end of a very long day Ella this week told me I looked pretty. I think it was because I was wearing chino's and a brown shirt instead of the usual terry jogging suit or Creighton T-shirt. SO I picked her up and held her and said "Oh Ella , that is so nice,....I like to hear that". She looked at me and said "You have a very, very, very, very pretty nose." The irony is that I have never liked my nose, which made me just laugh. I think it goes back to 6th grade. A boy broke up with me through a friend of his telling me at the swimming pool (doesn't this sounds like a 6th grade break-up?)and his friend just said "Ryan wants to break up with you because he thinks your nose is too big". My grandma also once told me that she really liked my hair-cut...."it made my nose look smaller.". Put that on the list of things not to say to a pre-pubescent girl!
Reece is excited for Valentine's Day. She made a mailbox for the cards that she gets and wrote out all of her Valentine's. She has started reading the last 3 weeks, and has just taken off...amazing. I guess we are getting to the point where Mark and I will have to stop spelling out
words like, " I-C-E-C-R-E-A-M, C-H-I-N-E-S-E-F-O-O-D--T-A-K-E-O-U-T-T-R-I-P-W-I-T-H-O-U-T-K-I-D-S-" , and other words.
I love Valentine's Day..... even during those years in my 20's when I didn't have a significant other I loved it. I knew He was out there. I always have had so much love in my life from my mom and dad, sisters, friends. I tried to focus on Valentime's Day on all of the love that I had in my life and the romantic love that I would have someday. If I wallowed in self-pity on Valentine's Day then, that I would regret wasting away that day later in life when I was with my One True Valentine. Yes it sucked working at Deglman Dormatory front desk for 2 years on Valentine's Day and seeing the flower and candy literally POUR in the door of this all-girls dorm and listening to the squeals of delighted freshman waifs come to claim their treasures. But I got over it. Really.
I love my Valentine, Mark. He is my every dream come true and then some. XOX