Double Bonus

This morning.... you get a double bonus post because my mom sent me this & you need to enjoy it too.



Happy Wednesday!  O-H

Last Night

Last night, Finnegan asked me to rock him to sleep.

I should preface this by saying that I never get chosen over Daddy for bedtime stories & rocking.  Ever.

It's ok with me that he has a special time with Dave, the evenings are usually when I am catching up on blogging & gettting through my Reader and spacing out in front of the tv & picking up, often simultaniously.  I get him all day, we have naptime together to snuggle and talk and read stories.

But last night, he picked ME!  I felt like the cool kid in school chosen first for a team.  I walked in there with a smile on my face giving a little triumphant skip in my step. 

It rarely happens.  Ahem.

So, I am sitting there rocking him and feeling him snuggle up as tight as he could get to me, bookie in between his head & my shoulder.

All I could think in that moment is REMEMBER. 

I wanted to hold that moment, that feeling in my head forever.  It seems with every blink he grows into a young man.  One year.  Two Years.  Three years.  Soon he will be sixteen and we will 'hate' each other and he'll be too cool to give his Mama hugs in front of other people, if at all.  And I want to keep this in my memory to get me through those times.   

Of Finn, curled up, snuggling his head onto my shoulder, my arms wrapped tightly around him, the glider squeaking its telltale squeek, babbling incessantly about silly things, readjusting slightly so he can be closer to me, smelling less like a baby and more like a boy.  Choosing his Mama.  In that moment, I could think of nowhere I'd rather be.

And when he's grown and has children of his own, maybe he'll read this and snuggle his little boy a bit tighter and feel the same way.

Maybe You Think I Am Who I'm Not?

I am fantastic at a few things.

• I can cook.  I don't use Cream of XYZ to make sauces or canned vegetables and I don't follow recipes, but people like coming to dinner.  Often.  I can even bake, though not nearly as well as I cook. 
• I can throw a party.  It is something I love, whether it's a small playdate lunch, drinking on our front porch, or a wedding for 300.  I won't do it professionally though because it's not fun when I am not emotionally invested in the guest of honor or when they are an asshat and I still have to deal with them. 
• Quitting smoking.  It took me 57 tries to get it right, but it's been 4+ years smoke free.  It is a great source of pride for me.
• Honesty.  Don't ask me things because  I will tell you the truth whether that is the answer you're looking for or not.  To avoid being pissed at me giving an answer you don't want to hear?  Don't ask.  And almost everytime you ask me if you're too needy, spending stupidly, dating emotionally unavailable and/or people too young for you, being stalker-esque or being rude, I will likely answer yes... but, you probably already knew that before you asked. 
• Marrying well.  I most assuredly chose a man better than myself & who works so insanely hard for his family that I feel like a slacker most of the time.  The dude liked me and I tried to pawn him off for 6 months.  It turns out that he perservered, won me over, then took pity on me and decided to spend the next 75 years by my side. 
• Appreciating what I have and who I am.

I am good-ish at a few things.

• Voicing my opinion, though I very much need to work on listening before I open my mouth.
• Being a mom.  Finn is {mostly} normal and doesn't {often} fight with his friends, he's surprisingly well adjusted for a three year old.  He was pooping on the potty a month before turing two and peeing on the potty without accident a month after turning two. That is despite people that ran their mouth non-stop to anyone that would listen that SURELY it was an anomoly and he would regress.  I do want to tear my hair out when he is insane and I'm not always good with the consistency and I'm not one of those parents that has every minute of every day planned out.  Unless by planned out I mean staying in our pjs all day reading books & playing cars.  He is kind to his pets, he loves to read, he is a snuggler, and amazes me daily.  Oh, and one more thing... some days he thinks he is Lightening McQueen.  So, um, there is that.
• Money.  Our cars are paid off, our mortgage is purposefully well below our means, & I understand the value of compound interest, so we won't be eating dog food in our 80s.  I'm impulsive though and don't always think before I buy.  There is always room for improvement and we need to get back budgeting.
• Travel despite dragging along the man who is, without a doubt, an international incident waiting to happen.  I didn't add myself to the fantastic category here because I'm super awful at the navigation part.  But international incident man makes up for my serious lack of knowing where the fuck I am and steers us in the right direction.  {See why marrying well is in the fantastic category?}

Things that will elude me for the rest of my life because I suck.

• Cleaning.  Organizing.  Paperwork.  I get on top of this stuff and then get woefully behind.  On top, behind, on top, behind... sounds good if we're talking about sex, not so much if you're talking about laundry mountains and piles of mail.  Don't get me wrong, if you come to my house it will be clean, unless you show up unexpectedly or are in the "inner sanctum" and I let you see it when a tornado has hit.
• Dieting/Exercise.  I am not a size 2, nor will I ever be, but I will tell you how cute you are if you're a size 2 {and very much mean it} and then eat a cheeseburger and be ok with that.
• I swear.  Like a sailor sometimes most days.  I'm not even sure why because I have a decent vocabulary aside from the four letter variety.
• Sleep.  I am in bed WAY too late on a regular basis & I nap when Finn does.  Often.   
• Wearing clothes other than pj pants, yoga pants, or colors other than black.  And while we're at it, I'll throw in a side of "I wear Crocs and love them," to add to your reading pleasure.  They are hideous, yes, but they are comfortable.

Your turn to tell me who YOU are...  Whether it's your first visit or your hundredth, I'd love to hear one thing you're fantastic at, one thing you're pretty good at, and one thing you aren't so good with.

Random Acts of Kindness.

I promise this is the last post about my random acts of kindness birthday.  What I didn't tell you is that Elise followed us around with a flip to record the day for a project that she did at school.  It is done now & we wanted to share it with you. 



Thank you {again} to all of you that participated in my day, even from afar, even if we've never met, even if you never shared your RAOK story here, or if you support my lunacy daily by reading.  You are awesome.

If you're new here, welcome to my little corner of the web.  You can find the following posts explaining just what happened...  I hope you'll stick around and have a look.
The Inspiration
The Giveaway
Free Printable Random Acts of Kindness Cards
The 34 Random Acts of Kindness
The Random Acts of Kindness Party

Get out there and do something nice for someone.

Linking to Friday Favorites, Favorite Things Friday & I'm Lovin' It.