God Bless America, Land That I Love

Today, on the 10th anniversary of the horrific attacks on our country, I remember my fellow Americans who lost their lives because of those attacks, as well as their families and friends who live on without them. I honor those on Flight 93 who said, "Let's roll," and then did, saving countless lives while giving their own to do it. And I salute the police officers, firefighters, medical personnel, and all the others who gave (and continue to give) so selflessly to help others. I will never forget!

God bless America, land that I love!

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Reason For A Spare Dress

Petunia has been saying so many funny things lately that I can't recall them all at will. Thankfully, some of them pop into my head later on. I was putting laundry in the washing machine when I remembered this little jewel...

When I picked Petunia up from school a couple of days ago, she was wearing a "spare" dress. I asked her what happened to the one she had on earlier. Her response? "It got jello-ed."


Bwahahaha

That's Good To Know

This evening Petunia and I were in the living room.  I was flipping channels and stopped on a Jeff Foxworthy special from 1998.  I watched a portion of it and Jeff was talking about the fact that he'd been married to his wife long enough to have learned a few things. He said, "If she ain't happy, I ain't happy."

Petunia was playing with some toys and I thought she wasn't paying attention to the TV.  I was wrong.  After Jeff made his statement, Petunia stopped what she was doing, repeated what she had just heard, and then said to herself, "Got it. That's good to know."

When I die, there will be no need for an autopsy.  Just let the authorities know the cause of death was suffocation from holding in laughter.

When bedtime rolled around, Petunia told me (as usual) that she wasn't tired.  I left the room to brush my teeth and returned to this sight...

Yep, she was fast asleep.  Thankfully she didn't wake up when I carried her to her bed.  Silly girl!

Tiny Dancer

Today was Petunia's first ballet class.  She has talked about learning ballet for over a year, but, for various reasons, I didn't register her until this year.  I found a nearby studio that offers ballet (or, in this case, pre-ballet) as an individual class, rather than combining it with tap and/or jazz.  Petunia has been very specific about wanting to take "just ballet, Mom."

After waiting for so long to go to dance class, she surprised herself by becoming a little nervous when the time came for her to walk into the studio.  The ballet mistress immediately came over to put her at ease, which allowed me to leave the room without Petunia having a meltdown.  Poor little thing didn't know anyone in this class, but we were both very happy to meet another little Vietnamese girl and her mom.  Both girls were excited to see someone with an appearance similar to her own, and both moms were excited to see their daughters excited.

I'm not certain how things are going to go from here, but I sincerely hope Petunia falls in love with actually learning ballet as much as she loves the idea of learning ballet.  If she does, she's going to do very well. 

Here's my tiny dancer before heading off to ballet class...

 The pose was her idea, as was the scrunched-up face.  She was preparing herself for the flash.  Super.

Still posing, but trying to keep her eyes open while shielding them from the flash by tilting her head downward.  Funny girl!

Sisters, Brothers, And Flower Power

Every 2 or 3 days, Petunia will ask me for a dog.  She wants a small dog, not a big one.  It needs to be a girl and it needs to be black.  She wants one "just like Cloudy Boy was, but a girl one instead of a boy one.  And her name needs to be Flower Power."  (Just for the record, the jury's still out on the name.)

I keep telling her that we'll get a dog when she gets to big school, because she has to be big enough to help me take care of it.  (A mom can dream, right?)

Well, today she threw me a curve ball.  Our conversation went like this:

P:  Mom, I've been thinking, and I realized (new favorite word) that I don't really want a dog.
M:  You don't?  Really?
P:  No, ma'am.  I changed my mind.
M:  That's not a problem.  If you don't want a dog, that's fine with me.
P:  Mom, I need to tell you something and it's very important.  I don't want a dog because I want a baby instead.
M:  You want another baby?  You already have so many.
P:  Mom, you're so silly!  I want a real baby.
M:  Okay, sure.  When you're a grown-up, you can have a real baby.
P:  Nooooo,  I want to have a new baby at our house now.
M:  And how are you going to have a baby?
P:  I'm not.  I'm just a little girl. You can have one.
M:  I don't think that's going to happen, honey.
P:  Why not?  I know exactly what we need to do.  All we have to do is go back to Vietnam, and go to that place where I lived, and tell the people that we need another baby to bring home with us.  There are so many little babies who want families to love.
M:  That would be nice, wouldn't it?  Having a little brother or sister to play with...
P:  No brother!  Just a sister.  Well, maybe a sister and a brother, but if we can get only one, I want a sister.  Maybe I could have a whole bunch of sisters!
M:  It would be great if you had brothers and sisters, but sometimes families have only one child... like our family does.
P:  We could try, Mom.  Just try your best, okay?
M:  Petunia, our family is exactly how it should be.  But, even if we wanted to adopt another baby from Vietnam, we can't right now.  No one in America can adopt a baby from Vietnam at the moment.  It's against the rules.
P:  It's against the rules?  *silence*  That isn't a good rule.  It's not fair.  Who can change it?
M:  It's kind of complicated, but it would be a group of people who would have to change that rule.  But I really need you to understand that our family is going to have only one very special child.
P:  That's me, huh?
M:  That's you.  And I love our family just like it is.
P:  Yeah, we make a good team.  *silence*   Soooo, maybe we can just get a dog after all.

My brain hurts.

Garden Fashionista

We were going outside to water the tomato plants, but Petunia said she needed "just a minute, please."  She came out of her room like this...

Tie-dye dress... check
Diamond headband... check
Sparkly necklace... check
Snowboots... um, yeah... check
Super, silly girl... CHECK!

Tomato Plants And The Disappearing Shorts

I FINALLY got the tomato plants into the ground, and I'm really excited that there are little yellow flowers on them already. I'd like to say that Petunia helped get all the weeds out of the bed, but she didn't. Believe it or not, she spent her time relocating earthworms from one section of soil to another. She was telling them not to be afraid and asking them what they thought of their new homes. hahaha

Oh, and I'm not sure what happened to her shorts. All of a sudden I noticed she didn't have them on, but I never got a clear explanation from her. Crazy girl!

Happy Mother's Day

It's on this special day that I say Happy Mother's Day to all the moms and moms-to-be out there, especially to my sisters-in-law, niece, and very special friends (you know who you are).  I love you all!

To my mom, thank you, thank you, thank you for all the unconditional love and support.  I'm eternally grateful and I know I'm extremely blessed to have you as my mother.  I shudder to think where I would be without you.

Becoming a mom has been a dream come true.  Being a mom to my sweet and spicy girl is absolutely the very best gig I've ever had.  Petunia has taught me so many things over the past few years.  Some have been wonderful lessons and validation that I'm not a complete failure as a mom.  Some have caused me to take a long, hard look in the mirror and see a mom I don't want to be.  Those moments are difficult but necessary.  I'm trying to set a positive example for Petunia, and learning from one's mistakes, not to mention admitting you made them, is one of the things I want her to learn. 

I'm working on finding a nice balance in all aspects of my life.  I need it and so does Petunia.  Those years of nearly no sleep took a toll on me and, while I know I have it easy compared to some, the lack of sleep did negatively impact me and my life.  And that negativity had to have impacted Petunia as well, so I'm doing my best to find the balance one step at a time.   We'll both be better off because of it.

I love being a mom and, in particular, I love being Petunia's mom.  She's a treasure and will always be my biggest blessing.  My cup runneth over... still!

I love her to pieces!  (Poor little darling just cannot go without sunglasses.  She tried for the photo, though.)

 About two minutes before I snapped this photo, she said, "But I'm not tired.  It will take FOREVER to go to sleep."  Dramatic, much?

She still sleeps with her eyes partially open.  I keep hoping that it's just a phase. 

A mom-to-be right outside our back door. 

We're keeping an eye on her and I must say that she's a good mom already.