Hay Happens and Hay's Happen

Celebrating Mother’s Day. It’s my fifth one as a mom, and it sure is special. I also get to celebrate MY mom. The beauty of motherhood is truly, as Pastor Jamie said, filled with imparting grace/kindness and knowledge to our children.

Often, I feel like I could do better, but again, as he mentioned, I am marked by God, and He will fill in the gaps. I shall have sincere faith throughout so I can guide Tatum. Thank you, mom for being that rock for me!!!

We arrived early for church and Tot took pictures of me with her baby. I love being the Grandma.

Then my guy showed up and took our pic. Can you tell I can’t get enough of her? I wish I would have gotten a picture with my handsome man. But alas….

She joined us for the singing and it was incredible. The men all dressed up in black suits sang a serenade to us ladies; HELLO! It was “We believe” by NewsBoyz. So goosebumpy!! Men singing and playing instruments….a wonderful gift.

Anyway, after service, we posed and Doug clicked again.

After we got home, I made brunch for us all. My dear mom’s back was hurting so she couldn’t attend church, but she was ready to eat and be with us. Hooray!!

Doug prepared the gifts with Tatum. He went ALL out to make us feels special.

He also played with her while I got everything ready. Tot tired him out I’m sure.

She cuted him to death for sure, and I pretty sure he doesn’t mind.

She also took him out on her bike, and I should say she is almost ready for the pedals!!!

GO TOT!

The rest of the morning, she sang for us, danced, and made us laugh.

Doug gave me the sweetest card EVER (well, I don’t know if ever because he’s given me so many amazing cards),

and just look at this pic?

Wowza wowzy!!!

I got to spend the day with my bumby, my beautiful mom, my little snuggles, and my love.
Could I be more blessed? XO

 

They’ve got it all backwards. I think I should be the one singing to Tatum. You see, I GET to be her mommy. That in and of itself is a reason to celebrate.

Well, Paradise For Tots thinks otherwise, and they prepared the kids beautifully for this big Mother’s Day celebration on Friday.

Each one of the students came out individually and ushered us (Tatum came out and grabbed my arm) into the classroom and to our lovely decorated place at a beautified table.

All was ready!
They sang, “You are my sunshine…you’ll never know MOM how much I love you….”

Then some crawdad song about taking me down to the pool with a pole and a line or some jazz like that (sounds fun to me!), and finally a song which we all teared up ending with a flower gift.

Melty melt melt.

I got to take my bumby home literally in a pot.

Now that is a celebration!

So, you know what I did?
I made her her very own computer. She’s been dying to work with me, so I cut, pasted, pasted and cut, and voila.

I said, VOILA!

Now, we can work side by side. I’m working on making a thank you note.

I love you sweet Tot. I can’t wait till Sunday!
XOXO

Little hints of maturity abound onto Tatum every single day. They are not about her being able to write her numbers more neatly

Or her ability to organize her shoes (which she did out of pure delight without asking)

No, they are glimpses into her heart.

You see, we chat A LOT about what it’s like to have responsibilities or to exude kindness, or to be a light in a tough world. It is not just theory for us; we live it. (Well, we try). I show my humanness to her often as I probably apologize daily for an oops on my part. I’m very transparent with her in my parenting; (I don’t mean in the  what’s of parenting, but in the “why’s”…why I make certain decisions or why I don’t back down on vital issues. )

I want her to see my heart.

Well this is when I see fruit; she wants to do chores because she WANTS responsibilities. She WANTS to do right and please.

Just last night she cleaned her room just for fun.

It is pure joy to watch her! Today, I had to take a second look to see how much she has grown. I love you Tatum Isabella Knight!

I love it when Tatum and I have a chat about new opportunities to grow and she wakes me up with surprises.

We are learning the concept of addition and subtraction in much more than just numbers. She sees when she adds responsibilities to her day, life is good!

She awakened early before 6am this morning only to come get me to show me her bed and room.

It’s a hard bed to make, hence I have made it every morning. But, now, she is going to do it! And she did so well.

She had the trash bag ready

And her desk all clean!

 

She then played with her National Geographic animals: Red Panda, Sloth Bear, Otter and Red-eyed tree frog.

I surprised her then with new sprinkles for her oatmeal. (Stars!)

For my little shining star!

On the way to school, we do addition and subtraction problems. I asked her, what is Tatum + Mommy? She said: That equals lots of hugs. *Melt*

It was only 9:35am, and Paradise For Tots gave me THE CALL. “Please come pick up Tatum; she is throwing up.”
OK, she had NO sign of any stomach issue in the morning, so I was a bit shocked.

I mean look at this little cherub the night before:

Alas, we headed home and she rested while I worked. She read books, played with her dolls, and relaxed. It was a joy to be with her all morning. I actually got more done than I usually do! So, blessings all around.

I had to head to school so Doug kindly came early.

She miraculously came back to life. Doug has this power, ya know.

Cotikins was feeling blue from lack of attention so……

 

 

And so, you may wonder, was she better on Friday? Back to her old self. Her sparkly little shining self.

Tatum and I headed to the Dr. on Wednesday to check her knee. She has a couple little warts on there, and I wondered about having them removed.

First we waited….

and then got her weight and height. (32.8 lbs and 38 inches).

She then always plays Dr.

The Dr. recommended to leave them alone, so hooray, we did. And so…we’ll keep an eye on them!

Tuesday, our fun day, is always a surprise! Today, we would add to our chart:
Bring cookies to the firemen and say THANK YOU!

So, we decided to draw a schoolhouse (since they protect us in school!).

We then pasted our pictures and our thank you notes onto the bag o’cookies!

Off to the firehouse headquarters.

When we got there, the front desk called for Maria (she is admin for the fire chief). She came out and was so excited about our gift, she called the fire chief, Eric, to come out.

They took pics and so did I. Then they gave Tatum a few little gifts like a hat, nightlight, pencils, and ruler. Again, we did not expect such kindness! We did this for the policemen at Christmas.

 

Such a fun day to celebrate others and kindness.