Gratitude Journal: In honor of 4 years with Zuzu

1.your keen sense of fashion and explanations for what “matches”

2. your ridiculously and suddenly rationale explanations for why we should do what you say

3. the way you love to run and jump around in boy fashion dressed in all girl fashion

4. your kindess to ones smaller then you

5. your shyness in new situations

6. when you burst from that shy shell to put yourself out there and try to make friends

7. that you are a momma and daddy’s girl all roled into one

8. your ability to be thrilled at the tiniest event or errand, “Yay!!!! It’s home day!” “Yay, we’re going to the market!”

9. that you prefer french salt, english scones, donuts, kefir, whole-milk plain yogurt, Kashi cereal, prime rib, pink gelatos, cereal bars, gummies, pops (lollies), quesadilla and little trees to just about anything else

10. your insistence that eating a popsicle will make any boo-boo better.

11. your need to wear band-aids as body art

12. your love of all things ordinary: the park, the market, the library, school, the doctor and dentist, tubby-time and weeknight restaurant treats

13. that you and your sister have matching laughs

14. how you like to have your and your sister’s outfits match

15. how easily you fell in love with the role of big sister

16. your funny interpretations of words like keep-saving, seat-cart, stister

17. your strawberry blonde hair

18. your knock-knock joke telling, story reading and brief but exuberant dance and singing recitals in our kitchen

19. your reminders of what a good girl you are! (Look, Momma: I don’t spill! I brushed my teeth! I pooped in the potty! I listened to my body! I listened to my teacher! I was a good friend! I colored on the paper! I didn’t have a fit!

20. your curious and kind nature

21. your exuberance

Gratitude Journal

1. cashmere sweaters

2. white chicken chili

3. park therapy

4. sleeping small ones

5. Mothership Wit

6.kindness

7. Home day!

8.The Daily Show online

9. apple pie fudge

10. first attempts at apple-picking of the season

11. apple slushies

12. Hubba-hubba lunch

13. meeting other kids in “the club” and not realizing it till they’re gone

14. happy Saturday adventures

15. baby shots

16. editing baby shots

17. snuggling baby between shots

18. waking up to the smell of warm good smells

19. watching Wonder pets

20. playing fetch with the baby

21. TV time with hubby

Gratitude Journal

1. Feeling grateful again

2. family

3. small smiles

4. birthday party invites!

5. pony rides

6. pony tails

7. calorie restriction

8. girls night out

9. precious new life

10. support

11. picture takin time

12. picture fixin time

13. the end of summer

14. fall festivities

15. party planning

16. cheerful souls

17. patience

18. parenting advice

19. seeing yourself in your kiddos

20. apple cake

21. Lovey

Gratitude Journal

1. a chatty baby

2. a chatty 3 year old

3. Smitten Kitchen’s artichoke-olive crostini

4. a baby eating the artichoke-olive crostini

5. bedtime

6. movies with Lovey after bedtime

7. a well polished packing list

8. a baby shower

9. babies to shower

10. therapeutic progress

11. quadraped on mommy with a laughing baby

12. up! down!

13. our itty-cat

14. a fairly clean house

15. left-over chicken

16. www and the blogs that connect us

17. the nightly, ” Hey mommy, when are you and daddy going to go lay down to sleep?” (the plotting begins…)

18. the baby squirrelling away pretties and what-nots (she pivots away from us with a look  of mischievious delight on her face when she realizes she has something that isn’t hers)

19. big-girl car-seats

20. big-girls holding hands in the car seats

21. seat-cars and keep-safings

Gratitude Journal

1. visiting relatives

2. big girl carseats all around

3. the baby exclaiming “Baby” when handed her baby

4. Family movie night complete with home-made kiddy cup combos

5.a little girl buzzing around

6.an image of Grandma Carrie- long lost but not long forgotten

7. a bridesmaid dress taken in

8. a basketful of handpicked, homegrown tomatoes

9. garden watering as a family

10. tiny flowers floating in the bird bath

11. little girls sleeping all night in their beds

12. waking up to a little girl sleeping but not in her bed

13. tomato onion cheddar pie

14. a little girl eating bites of egg & puffs with her big sister!

15. accepting the curls as they come

16. white-chocolate-macadamia-nut birthday cake

17. a little girls first time eating food (albeit puffs) at the Noodle restaurant with her family!

18. summer birthday parties

19. a big girl not being too shy

20.  a clean house

21. a Kai Lan sprinkler!

Gratitude Journal

1. Family to visit

2. Safe travels

3. a hotel to keep us overnight

4. an airline to pay for said hotel

5. nice people trying to make the best of an unpleasant situation

6. cheerful small ones who think this is all just part of the adventure

7. grandparents willing to change their plans to come get you

8. a Wall Drug donut along with free ice water and 5 cent coffee

9. perfect poo-poo timing on a long trip

10. airport carseats

11. a nice lady getting us grown ups coffee and yogurt for the baby while we wait

12. seeing the joyful spirit in your children

13. the delight on Zuzu’s face as she keeps trying to hold the little chick

14. the delight on the Quail’s face as she figures out she can crawl over to kiss mama

15. the delight on the Quail’s face as she figures out it’s cherry ice-cream in the bowl- not just plain yogurt!

16. a smooth unassisted transition from sitting to lieing down

17. extra airplane cookies

18. a childhood favorite- home-made pizza

19. a childhood favorite- original scent Jergens lotion!

20. childhood pictures to browse through and remember and smile over

21. a baby crawling without support!

Gratitude Journal

1. easier nights

2. shared popsicles

3. good jobs

4. a singing 3 year old

5. a chortling 1 year old

6. weekends away

7. coming home again

8. a positive outlook

9. the ability to look for and see the good in the world

10. hand-me-down clothes

11. bubble machines keeping their word and making thousands of bubbles

12. Tussie Mussies

13. Sante Salute

14. Lilly Pulitzer for 2 year olds

15. cynicism

16. trying not to be so cynical

17.a first movie & popcorn night at home mit gummies liberally sprinkled

18. my own big-girl bed

19. sleeping children (in their own big-girl beds)

20. waking up to the 3 year old snuggled back in between us

21. birthday parties galore!

Gratitude: For Lovey on Father’s Day

1. your patience

2. your tenacity

3. your ability to remain non-judgmental and get the feel of people, places & experiences for what they are, not what someone tells you they are, or what one might pre-judge without really knowing

4. your thoughtful soul

5. your creativity

6.  your wackiness & deep appreciation for humor

7.  your renaissance spirit

8. your sentimentality

9. your genes

10. the pure trueness in you

11. your way with yeast: pie-crust, home-brew, donuts, beignets, fried pickles and bread alike,

12. your willingness to try anything and keep an open mind

13. your ability to read a manual and then do what it says

14. your kindness to all things living- be it a hop or geranium leaf, a kitty-cat, a firefly or our children

15. your love & earnest interest of all things that came before you be it a newspaper clipping, a wool shirt, a longboard, a deep fryer or 3, the Fairlane, your ancestors, your specs, a flour sifter or the Magic Chef

16. your thrill &  dive-into-I’m-researching-it-right-now attitude with all things that come into advance in our lives, the world and our future

17. your ability to predict where we are going in our lives with your appetite

18. your mechanical mind

11. your family

12. our family

13. your interest and perspective on the community, culture & world around us

14. your trueness to your friends & self

15. your ability to bend with what is needed at a given time, but still not break or lose yourself in the process

16. your culinary sensibility

17. your gentle, tender nature that nurtures our home, heart and family

18. the way music moves your soul

19.your strawberry locks that now don the heads of our little ones

20. your day-to-day, as well as future-minded sense of  and follow-through with responsibility to yourself and your family

21. my luckiness in getting to love and go through life with you.

Thank you- truely…I love you so…

Gratitude Journal

1. Capable surgeons

2. Caring Grammas

3. Warm thoughts from loving family and friends holding us fast  and staying vigilant through the long worry-filled nights

4. The Quail 2.o

5. Pink triangle boy & girl cakes

6. Gramma getting cuddle time

7. the presence of such determined and strong-willed children in my life & home

8. an awesome support system

9. Auntie’s sending characters of comfort

10. Uncles sending Texas brisket to keep us strong

11. A Quail rocking her scar

12. A fast friendship between a certain Gramma and Chula Cat

13. An understanding boss and work environment during a trying time

14. health insurance

15. The Daily Show & Colbert Report

16. infinitely cheerful children

17. Carolina Cremes

18. A speedier than anticipated recovery

19. A new chomper

20. A confident & self-reliant 3-year-old cheerfully showing Gramma through the days of our nest

21. A strong-spirited baby who inspite of having a pin-size opening through which to nourish herself for the past 15 months, Down syndrome which tends to produce smaller than average kiddos and a heart defect that frequently can produce failure to thrive, congestive heart failure and difficulty in growth; has miraculously managed to keep herself between the 25-50% in growth on the standard charts.

Blessings all around.

Gratitude Journal

1. more more signing

2. a giggling feverish baby

3. new baby shoes

4. sparkly pink summer sandals

5. ham croquettes!

6. greek yogurt

7. the smell of spring wafting indoors

8. Game on! Sorta….

9. 7 lbs gone!

10. our first peony!

11. training for a great new job

12. reconnecting with old co-workers

13. a supportive team

14. excellent pathology reports for family and friends

15. Award miles bringing loved ones closer

16. yellow cake with caramal and ganache

17. impossible dreams from 3 year olds

18. getting to hug my familyafter an absense

19. Sweet Cyrena helping to tend the nest

20. talking on the phone to Zuzu

21. a coconut donut gift