April 10 = Girls on the Yard Day

Recently, Zachary took over as the O-Rep for the Midshipmen Action Group (MAG).  Today, we went to one of their events- it's called Girls on the Yard.  I don't know a ton about it but I had heard of an organization "Girls on the Run" so I'm guessing it's an extension of that.  It was female led and all the participants were female- the midship(wo)men led groups of girls in lots of different activities- one of which was running up and down stairs which made me thankful to be chasing two kids around instead.  But it looked like most of them were having fun- the rest were wishing they were chasing around kids with me- but it seemed like a really cool event and something I'll keep in mind for when Ms. Malia gets a little older.

August 25 = Reflection Day

I'll get to my reflection after I share some cute pictures- here's Malia eating her breakfast.  She used to hate bananas but I thought it'd be worth trying and sure enough, she ate a whole banana!

Then we went to Liam's speech and PT appointments.  His ST's last day is Thursday and we are so upset about it because she is so awesome and Liam does more for her than he will do for anyone!  So just in case something crazy happened Thursday, I went ahead and got a picture.

Joey obviously had a very stressful day:

And here's a funny story.  I was carrying a box downstairs from my latest Amazon delivery.  It was a big box so I put it to one side and reached out for the banister- well this is what the banister did in return:

Because I was carrying a large box, I wasn't able to catch myself and I fell down the stairs, bumping my head on each stair on the way down.  I'm definitely going to have a bruise on my lower back as well.  The good news is that it didn't fall on one of my children and that Zachary was able to tighten it so it should cause us any more problems!

And that brings me to my reflection.

I was looking for something on safari on my phone the other day and I noticed two bookmarks I had saved.  One is called "An Apology to My Firstborn Child" and the other is called "An Apology to my New Baby: A Toddler Rules Our House."  And they are right next to each other.  The surface level message of this is I found two articles that I found amusing or interesting and saved them so I could read them again or share them with someone later.  The deeper message here is I, like I'm pretty sure all other moms are, am too hard on myself!  So later, when I heard this song (which I've blogged about before), I smiled thinking of my two bookmarks apologizing to the two people I dedicate myself to 24/7.  The lyric I took away from it is this: "You are God, you are God, of all else I'm letting go."  Such a good lesson for me to learn and to work on every day- let go of the guilt that each kid doesn't get the same amount of attention each day; I love them both more than words can say so it'll all even out.  Let go of the to-do lists; If I dust today, great, if I don't, it'll still be there tomorrow.  God is God and in the grand scheme of things, that's enough!

August 6 = Big TV Night

Malia was eating her snack and I just thought she looked so cute so I had to take a picture- her shirt says "Hello Sunshine" and how appropriate is that?

 Then I wanted to show Matt something Liam did the other night- I wanted to see if he'd do it again, and sure enough he did.  Last Thursday in yoga, one of my two favorite instructors, Jenn, had us practice headstands and gave me some cues no other teacher has so I decided to practice at home the next night.  I was trying my new tips in the playroom while the kids were playing- I thought they'd be distracted but it was the funniest thing to them.  Liam came up to me and started kissing all over my face.  It was so funny and I have no idea what made him do that but sure enough, he did it again today.  Now I know how to get a kiss- just stand on my head!

 Then I asked Matt to get a picture of me and the babies- I'd been wanting him to get a picture of us with Zachary but we kept forgetting.

Matt left us right after lunch but Zachary got home soon after and we headed to the Academy to watch some of his plebes in a wrestling event.

Zachary sold me on going by telling me the place would be huge with not too many people but it would be loud and there would be stairs.

 On the way home we saw two deer- one was a baby- so pretty!

So we did our nighttime routine- baths, stories, everything- and then it was time to watch some tv.  Tonight was a big night in the television world.  There was the Republican debate and it was Jon Stewart's last episode as the host of The Daily Show.  We found a drinking game for watching the Republican debate which was the only way I was going to make it through.  

Surprisingly, we didn't get to drink that much- they weren't as predictable as Rolling Stone thought they'd be.  We made it through half and then decided to watch Big Brother which, when it was over, it was perfect timing for me to watch The Daily Show live- which I haven't done since high school- thanks DVR!  But I thought it was appropriate to watch this one live- I've been watching the show for so long (10 years) but not as long as he's been on (almost 17 years).

July 2 = Climb All The Stairs By Myself Day

Well Malia is now a stair climbing pro.  Liam stayed with her for the first half and then sped off:

 But she made it to the top!  Go Malia!

June 19 = Spaghetti w/ Eggplant Day

Climbing stairs is the go-to pastime in our house now

 Liam helped Daddy get dinner out of the oven- not really.

We tried eggplant for the first time a few weeks ago and we loved it- the kids especially loved it.  So we had it with our spaghetti tonight and Miss Malia tore it up.  Shocking.