Mother's Day

Well, here it is. My second Mother's Day. I have heard many touching and inspirational things in the last week, so I thought I would share some of my favorites:

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I never knew how much love my heart could hold until someone called me "mommy"

When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child. - Sophia Loren

Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own. ~Aristotle

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie. ~Tenneva Jordan

All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his. ~Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, 1895

A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest. ~Irish Proverb

God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers. ~Jewish Proverb

There is only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it. ~Chinese Proverb

*****

It's true what everyone says that you just don't know what your own mother did for you until you become a mother yourself. And you hope that over time you can learn to become as good a mother as your own was, and still is today.

Ol' Lonely

So I know why the Maytag repairman is so lonely. It's because he doesn't have a job. And not because Maytag appliances don't break down or because of the economy...
Our Maytag Quiet Series dishwasher has not been so quiet lately. About a week ago it started making a very loud rattling noise during the rinse cycle. I thought maybe there was something stuck somewhere so I called my friend whose husband happens to be a plumber (how convenient) and he was able to make some suggestions, but this is not really a plumbing issue. So today I called Maytag (which is actually owned by Whirlpool now) and after going through the usual was finally able to talk to someone. After describing the issue and additionally holding the phone right up to the dishwasher so that the CSR could hear for himself, I was told that "this is normal". The representative told me that if I referred to my manual I would see that a "humming" sound is normal. I explained that it is not a "humming" sound, but rather a "rattling" sound, and he said "yes, a humming or a grinding sound is normal." WHAAAT?? I was flabbergasted. And I still am. I'm actually afraid to run the dishwasher because the noise is so alarming. I can't run it in the evening because it would keep me awake at night, that's how loud it is. And I'm being told that this is normal? Unfortunately our warranty expired a month ago (why does that always happen?) and I don't want a repairman to come out just to get paid to tell me that "this is normal". Although I think it is rather unlikely that I can... I might just have to try to fix it myself.

How does YOUR garden grow?

So this year I have decided to grow my own garden. I planted my seeds in a Jiffy Greenhouse on April 18 and within a few days (yes, days!) I was already seeing sprouts. I decided to do only easy plants this year just to see how it goes and then if I have success I might get more adventurous next year. My plans this year are for lettuce, corn, cucumber, peppers, peas, chrysanthemums and sunflowers.
Luckily, my wonderful husband has had a worm compost on the go for a couple of years now, and although I was originally horrified at the idea, it is now going to be a huge asset for my new garden. (I was mostly horrified because he wanted to keep it in the house - thankfully we agreed that the garage would be the best home for them.)
Today I had the pleasure of sorting through the worm bin to find some good soil so that I could transplant some of my seedlings into bigger pots. The roots on the corn are getting very long and I don't want them to overtake the rest of the greenhouse. I'm sure some of the little wriggly worms ended up in my pots, but they are going into the garden soon so I don't think it will be an issue.
Check out my peas, cucumber and peppers:











Now if I can only keep my two-year old's curious little hands away it might just be a success...

C is for Crazy hair, Crawling... and Constipation

Oh the wonderful life of a mom to two girls... especially two girls who have a mix of my poker straight hair and my wonderful husband's very curly hair. I always had an interest in hair growing up, even had aspirations to become a hairstylist but nothing prepared me for the craziness facing me each morning.
I've tried de-frizzing shampoo, de-frizzing serum, gel, hairspray (using this on a two year old comes with a certain amount of guilt, I feel a bit like a pageant mom at times). I've tried wide combs, narrow combs, brushes, I've even tried to blow dry it while brushing it (on the cool setting of course). Nothing really works. Most of the time I end up putting it in pigtails, but trying to section hair down the middle in a straight line is nearly impossible. Usually I have to bribe her with getting to play at the kitchen sink or watch a video on the computer so that she will sit still long enough for me to make it look half decent. Today I tried a single ponytail even though it's not quite long enough... and at the end of the day, when the ponytail came out out, my sweet beautiful girl looks like she just stuck her finger in a socket:

But at least she's happy. :)

To crawl or not to crawl... I've really been encouraging my eight month old daughter to crawl but I'm wondering if I'll regret it when she does. With the older one, crawling was a wonderful thing; she could go where she wanted and since she's an independent girl anyway, she would crawl and play with toys, read books and keep herself busy for hours. Now that I have two of them I'm not sure if I will be able to turn my back for a second without worrying that the older one is going to push her, or try to pick her up by the head, or do a many number of things that she already does when I am only a few feet away. I'm less afraid of the walking stage because then at least she will be on a more even playing field with her older sister.
She's doing really well though, she goes up on all fours and rocks back and forth, and she will wiggle her way backwards, but no forward motion yet... I think it is only a matter of weeks.
As for constipation, I'll leave you with this: "A kiwi a day keeps the constipation away". My mom's miracle cure for when my daughter has to go, but her bum says no.