mom brain

                                                                                                 Sara made that cake!
Last Thursday morning I said to Rory, "tonight when the kids go to bed I need to go to Target to get Kirby and Josie's birthday presents for their party tomorrow."

So all day long I worked on my Target List: more milk, cream, cereal, baby wipes..."

When I got to Target I looked at my list and wondered why I didn't just send Rory to get this stuff. I got it quickly, and came home.

Friday morning I woke up and it hit me. I had gone to Target to get birthday presents for Kirby and Josie. But I hadn't written that on the list, and therefore I was giftless.

I called Lisa and asked what Josie wanted and she bailed me out and said she had an hour glass for Josie that could be from us. I could pay her $10 at the party and she'd throw it in a gift bag for me.

Then I called Sara and asked what Kirby still needed on his list. And she mentioned that she was going to Half Price Books next and would get him a reading light from us and I could give her $10 at the party.

Ah, Grace. It's such a good thing.

I told them both how I had actually gone to Target to get them their gifts. And that the effort should count for something. They agreed and I was so grateful for awesome sister-in-laws.

And so then at the birthday party, Kyle and Lisa watched our kids so Rory and I could go down the water slides a few times and putz in the lazy river. It was awesome. At the end of the night Sara came back to the lawn chairs with her teeth chattering saying she was going down each water slide one more time with Kirby and Toby and did anyone want to join her? It was cold and no one took her up on her offer. But she was doing it for her boys.

I told Rory, "Sara deserves the Mother of the Ward Ayear."

"The what?" he said.

"The Mother of the Ward Ayear."

And then I heard myself. Mom brain. "The Mother of the Year Award!"

4 weeks and 10 minutes old

4 weeks ago, we were just meeting Elsie Rebecca. At this moment, she was 10 minute old. What a sweet memory.

On Sunday I dressed Elsie in an outfit I wore when I was her age. My mom did an awesome job at saving her favorite of my outfits and now I get to put my little girl in them, 31 years later.

the county fair

Saturday was a pretty perfect day. We planned on going to the fair for just an hour or two, and ended up staying half the day. We watched the 4H champion animals auctioned off, shared a bag of mini donuts, watched Ivar eat corn, saw all of the farm animals, took in the arts and crafts building, caught the tractor parade (!!) watched some young girls ride their horses through an obstacle course, and one of us cried hard when it was time to say buh bye to the cows.

...we had to get a picture of the ladies with the pink tractor. :)

the whole blog truth

I've mentioned this before.

Blogs are never the whole truth. There are lots of reasons for this...but today I'll focus on just one: I tend to blog based on pictures I have taken. And I only get the camera out for moments I would like to remember. Days like Saturday are filled with great pictures: a blissful day at the Dakota County Fair filled with tractors, corn-on-the-cob, cows and very, very happy children.

But days like yesterday, a run-of-the-mill Monday, the camera never comes out. No pictures are taken and the day goes by unrecorded.

But Monday happened and was just as much a part of my life as Saturday was. So today I am going to record it in words.

My Monday really began early Sunday morning with Rory and I both wide awake with an upset Elsie from 1-3 am. We were trying to figure out what I ate, why she was so gassy and were pleased by the Olympic reruns to help distract us from our upset baby.

Sunday night had a similar wakeful time, leaving me completely wiped out by the time Monday morning came around.

My plan from the moment I got out bed was to keep my pajamas on and to wear my glasses so that I would be ready to take a nap when my kids did.

Why that is the recipe for a train wreck day, I will never know. But it always is, isn't it? Because Ivar never napped. And at 7 pm, I finally resolved that the nap was not going to happen for me either.

The day never really started. I was putting out little fires here and there, tending to a crabby boy and a don't-put-me-down baby girl. We moved from room to room, leaving messes in each one. And finally the day was over.

Did I take pictures of any of this? No. Because my family wasn't quite what you would consider photogenic. But if you want to take a mental snap shot, you can picture me with my long bangs I am trying to grow out, stuck in my eyes all day. With big dark circles under my eyes and a nursing bra that had a broken clip on one side and tank top covered in spit up. And the odds are very good I am popping a donut hole in my mouth.

Obviously that picture isn't going on the blog. (Well, maybe just the donut holes...yum.)

Just keep this in mind as you read my blog, or anyone else's, or as you look at perfect facebook pictures, witty and clever twitter updates and everything else we throw out there to project ourselves as nothing less than perfect.

Ivar discovers corn on the cob

Turns out he likes corn. A lot. He ate two ears on this park bench at the Dakota County Fair. A very happy and full-of-laughter moment for all of us.