A Birth Story

Mothers love to share their "birth stories" -- if you think about it, they are somewhere between a story of going to battle and winning the lottery... I have two, and one of them occurred 5 years ago today! I was pregnant with my youngest -- eight days past my due date. My husband had been off of work for two days and was getting ready to go into work when we decided that I should call the doctor because I was feeling a little "funky." I called my ob and he had me come in to the office. My husband and my daughter went with me and we arranged for my mother to meet us there, just in case! The doctor checked my progress and sent me right next door to the hospital. We said goodbye to Mom and my girlie (the only one at that point!) and drove two minutes around the corner to the hospital. I remember when I had my eldest, we got there at 9:00pm and it was dark (winter) and they had us go through the emergency room entrance. This time it was summer, 12:00pm and we went through an entrance in the back. I felt like I waited FOREVER for my husband to park the car, and I stood there in this entryway with 2 hospital workers hanging out on a break or something. No one offered me a wheelchair to sit in (unlike with my eldest daughter, where they met me at the door and whisked me off in one). I was beginning to think I might give birth in the entrance there waiting for my husband... I vaguely remember calling my friend Chrissy while I was waiting, and letting her know that I was at the hospital. Finally my husband came in and we went upstairs. I was so far along at that point that it was too late for an epidural. My doctor arrived, I pushed a little, and voila -- at 1:34pm my youngest daughter was born! It was such a strange experience compared to when I had my first daughter -- the length of time (I got to the hospital at 9pm and had her at 5am), the time of day (literally the difference between night and day), the people -- with our first daughter, my mother, father and stepmother were all waiting (from 11 - 5!) for their first grandchild to arrive. This time, my dad and stepmother were out of town and my mom was waiting at home with the big sister-to-be. It was so different, but a really amazing experience, feeling like it was just my husband and me.

Finally, our family is complete!

Happy 5th Birthday, Sweet Girl! We can't imagine our lives without you!

5th Birthday Frenzy

Where have I been lately, you may be asking? Well, here... Just not here on my poor, neglected blog! The past few weeks have been a blur of the end of 4th grade for my eldest, the start of summer, my busiest time of the year at work (which has involved bringing home work to do after the kids are in bed), trying to get the yard in shape, getting ready for visits from family this summer (which we love!) -- you name it! I've been feeling so frazzled the past few weeks that the invitation to my youngest's family birthday party was an e-mail sent out 7 days before the party (which is happening this Sunday...)!! Mother of the year... I guess I should be glad that I remembered to send a note out at all! We are having a family party on the 10th and her first "friends" party on the 30th -- spreading it out a little. (Better than 2 parties in one day, which was my initial idea -- what was I thinking?) My littlest one has also been to two birthday parties for friends from preschool, with two more coming up in the next week and a half! It's an exciting time for her, and we are looking forward to reciprocating with a birthday pool party (her choice) with a Disney's Tangled theme. I'm still working out the details -- like getting to the party store to find Tangled invitations! But, we're plugging along on the yard work, we had to get a new pool liner so the pool is looking party perfect, and her party will be followed by a visit from Nana and the New Hampshire relatives to celebrate my own 40th (yikes...) -- so we'll kind of kill two birds with one stone (that's a terrible expression) with the party prep! I have a long, long to-do list -- wish me luck!

Flag Day

I was so busy yesterday, that I missed posting this on time, but I still wanted to share! Monday, at work, I received an e-mail from a gentleman that is a retired fire fighter and he is on the local chamber of commerce board with my boss. He told me in the e-mail, “Don’t forget, tomorrow is Flag Day!” And I wrote him back thanking him for the reminder and telling him that my patriotic decorations are up from Memorial Day to September 11th. I wore my flag pin to work and made sure that my girls both had their red, white & blue on today (even my little one who was only hanging out at home with Grandpa today!). I realized though, that I am missing the biggest part of my usual Flag Day celebration – the Flag Day celebration at our elementary school! For the past four years, as my eldest attended elementary school (now she’s in the middle school, as our town calls the 4 – 6 grade schools), her little school always hosted a wonderful event for parents to come to, where the kids educated us on the flag through speeches and songs. Back in December, before Christmas, I had said to my daughter, “Oh! It doesn’t quite feel like Christmas without going to your annual holiday sing-a-long at school!” And my girl said, “It’s ok, Mommy, you’ll get to go again next year!” When her sister is in kindergarten… I realized yesterday that I feel the same way about Flag Day! This year, my eldest is in middle school and they were still celebrating – the 6th grade band was going to play the National Anthem and they were all going to sing “You’re a Grand Ol’ Flag” I believe. But I guess when you’re a “big” kid, the school doesn’t invite Mom and Dad!

Tonight, she told me, "Do you know what they apparently sang at the elementary school flag day yesterday? Bruce Springsteen's song 'America!'" I said, "Do you mean, 'Born in the USA?'" And she said, "No, 'America!'" I said, "Hum a few bars of that..." "No way!" she said. So I said, "Does it go, "We're coming to America, we're coming to America, today?" And she said, "Yep!" I told her, "Honey, that's Neil Diamond's song, and he's quite different from Bruce Springsteen!" I'll have to tell her father, who's a big "Boss" fan, that one! ;)

Memorial Day

While my poor husband has had to work all weekend, I have been fortunate enough to be home with my girls for the past five days, and we have had a pretty busy weekend! Yesterday was our Memorial Day celebration, with my eldest daughter marching in the town's annual parade with her Girl Scout troop, and my youngest and I camped out in front of the town hall watching the parade. This is the 5th time my girl has marched in this particular parade (in her 10 short years!). I thought this year's was the best that I've seen -- some years it feels VERY long and there are an inordinate number of regular cars driving through with politicians' signs followed by politicians walking behind. This year there were just a few of those, more marching bands, which was nice -- and they were really quite good! And while I always see some nice moments honoring veterans, I got a different feeling from it this year. There was a car driven by a veteran that stopped a few yards from us and the driver (in his uniform) got out of the car in the middle of the parade to walk over and salute another veteran who was watching from the side of the parade route. It was very touching!

It was just my little girlie and I watching this year, and she was wonderfully well-behaved! She sat on my lap for most of the parade, and I took the opportunity to tell her as much as I knew about every group that walked by. We talked about the national anthem and how everyone stands to show respect while it is being performed. And I learned something myself at this parade. While one of the fire companies was coming through in their trucks, someone near us yelled to a driver to have them blow their horn (which I had worried about, because my girl does NOT like loud noises!) and the driver said, "Not at this parade - this is a quiet parade." And I thought about that and realized that while I pull out all of the flags and red, white & blue for both Memorial Day and 4th of July, and I generally have a similar feeling about both holidays -- patriotism, honoring our military, honoring our country -- these are very different holidays. Memorial Day is a time to reflect on those serving our country and those who have been lost while serving to protect us. And the 4th of July is still a time for reflection and patriotism and honoring our country and our military, but it's a celebration of the birth of our country and that's the time for fireworks and parties. I'll have to make sure that my girls understand the difference.

Paper Chain American Flag Craft

In preparation for Memorial Day (tomorrow), Flag Day (in June) and the 4th of July, my girls and I spent some time yesterday working on a cute and fun American flag craft. I actually got this idea walking out of work last week -- I work at an agency that provides services for individuals with developmental disabilities -- one of the groups in day services created an American flag out of paper chains and had it hanging in the window. I thought it was so great that I took the girls out the next day to buy paper and glue sticks so that we could make our own!

Here's what you will need:

- Red, white and blue construction paper (I got a huge pack of multi-colored paper from Walmart for about $4.00)
- Glue sticks
- Scissors
- Tape
- Little helping hands (if they are willing!)

Start by holding the paper horizontally and cutting it into 1" wide strips. Then, start making the paper chain -- put some glue on one end of a strip of paper and glue it to the opposite end to form a circle. Then put another strip of paper through the first circle and glue the end into a circle. Follow that process to complete your chain.

To complete a flag like mine (although you can adjust the number of links to suit the size you want), you will need:

- 4 chains of 6 blue links and 7 red links in each chain
- 3 chains of 6 blue links and 7 white links in each chain
- 3 chains of red with 13 links in each chain
- 3 chains of white with 13 links in each chain


Once you have all of your paper chains put together, you are ready to hang them on a window! I made sure to look at an actual flag so that I would have the right number and order of stripes! I ended up putting a piece of clear tape through each of the "flat" loops in the chain to tape them to the windows. It took a little bit of time, but it looks super cute! (Although -- please do not be like me and hang it so that it is facing the right way INSIDE the house... Apparently it looks like a distress signal on the outside... Guess what I'll be doing later!)

This was a great, easy craft project that both of my girls enjoyed doing. The chains were so easy to make that my 10-year-old made a rainbow chain that she draped upstairs in her bedroom, and the girls want us to make paper chains for the Christmas tree this year.