And There Was the Memory

This past weekend Andrew went to Houston for the Sweet Sixteen. By Sunday evening I was feeling pretty drained. Usually if A is gone for the weekend he is always home by Sunday afternoon, but the second game was Sunday so he was getting home after bedtime. I was sitting at dinner feeling a bit sorry for myself when somehow we got into this game of high fiving each other and making it sound like our hands were exploding when we did it. The girls LOVED it. Even Lila was laughing and shrieking in delight.

And in that moment I had my memory. I still wished I could be the one to escape more often, (because absence really does make the heart grow fonder--or at least more patient) but I had gotten my reward for being the one to stay.

LBD at 15 Months: 10 Things I Love About You

1. You get cuter every day. Rosy cheeks, big grin.

2. You still only have two bottom teeth.

3. You know what you want. Yes you do. You will point to things, nod aggressively, shake your head no. You are actually pretty good at communicating your needs.

4. You are fearless. You will climb up ANYTHING. Join in everything. Everything looks fun to you.

5. You see a dog and start saying "Ruff Ruff." You chase dogs you just to see if you can pet them. (No, of course I don't actually care that you like dogs. I just like watching you like them).

6. You love the "Brown Bear" book and you will start humming the tune when you pick up the book.

7. You snuggle when you are tired.

8. You will happily flip through books in your bed before and after naps. You are really easy going about sleeping for the most part. I can put you in your bed and you will happily play until you go to sleep. (And you sleep until at least 6:30 most mornings!)

9. You are determined to try to find a way to pick up 3 things with two hands. The daily dilemma of how to do that frustrates you to no end.

10. You yell "DaDA! DaDA!" when the door opens at night.

In Like a Lion...

Make no bones about it, February sucked. Really, truly sucked. January wasn't a picnic, but February kicked my ass here and back again. Terrible weather (rain, clouds, rain, cold, rain, wind, clouds, blah), sick sick sick (C missed 10 days of school in a row, I felt like ass for about 10 days), combined with Andrew being gone at the peak of illness. It has just made me bitter. And that bitterness just snowballed into a general malaise that I am having trouble kicking (ask my hardworking husband, whose patience on this malaise is understandably running a bit thin).

Now for those of you who don't want to hear me bitch, I apologize. I try to make this blog a relatively honest snapshot of our life, and we just happen to be in the blaaahs these days. And it never really is as bad as I make it sound I am sure. But if I didn't write about the lows I wouldn't be able to stomach my own blog.

So here is hoping that March goes out like a Lamb. Because if it ends up going out like a b*tch...

My attempt at a picture of the 3 of them. This is sort of representative of how February went...

Oh Canada

Team Dodson LOVED the Olympics. It could not have come at a better time, between sickness, bad weather, an absent Andrew, and just the general ho-hums. We watched races, made Julia Mancuso crowns, and learned the words to "Oh Canada."

(There was some confusion when they watched the biathlon and I explained that the racers were shooting at a target. After a minute C says "I don't see a Target there!" and I realized she thought I meant the store. But all in all some great times were had).

And God bless the Olympics because female athletes get as much attention as the men. I realize how much it sucks for little girls when they are watching sports and it is always men playing. We'll watch football or baseball and they will say "Do girls play baseball? Do girls play football?" (How can we expect our girls to play sports when they don't see themselves in the role models?) So seeing so many female role models was awesome. We even acted out a few races.

We'll miss you Canada. Thanks for the memories.