My First Mother's Day

I've always loved Mother's Day. The weather in Michigan is usually beginning to take a turn for the better, the sun is often shining and the trees and flowers are beginning to bloom. Couple all this beauty with a brunch and the giving of gifts to my mom and you have a rather splendid occasion. 

This year was even better as it was my first Mother's Day as a mom. OK, true enough, I was pregnant at this time last year. However, because we were not out of the baby closet, I wouldn't call last year my first Mother's Day, not in the least. 

First and foremost, I want to wish (once more!) a Happy Mother's Day to my mom, Jody. 

My mom getting sworn into office Dec 2011

Everyone says their mom is amazing, but I will seriously never understand how my mom did it. She raised two kids--one of whom was severely ill (my brother) and hospitalized for nearly two years in the beginning of his life--while working two jobs. She had no spouse, no child support and did it without any other form of monetary assistance. 

My mom was different from other moms. Fun, but not attempting to be our best friend. Teaching us to work hard, but to make sure to take a little time for leisure, too. Preaching that the world owes you nothing, but make sure to give to your fellow man. 

I have a deep respect and admiration for my mom. She was a fix-it mom, a pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps kind of mom. She was strict, but loving. She equipped me for life in the most perfectly balanced manner. And she did it by just being her. That's a pretty awesome feat and I love her for it. 

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!!

This Mother's Day was even better because I celebrated it as a mother. My brother Adam said something to my mother many years ago on Mother's Day when he asked her to do something for him. She replied to his request with "It's Mother's Day!" My brother said (jokingly, of course) "Yeah, so get to being a mother!"  This Mother's Day started out just this way--me "gettin' to being a mother". 

It has become somewhat of a tradition in our family to have the little kids present a craft of some sort to not only the mothers, but also the aunts, on Mother's Day. This started out because the aunts were highly envious of the adorable crafts the mothers were getting from my cutie pie nieces. My brother and sister-in-law were sweet enough to start including the aunts (muahaha). Of course, this came back to bite me in the butt as we now have to pass the tradition on. (Ha!)

So, with a wiggly and fussy nearly-five-month old, the crafting commenced. 

It was a little touch-and-go there for awhile, but we survived. The end products were adorable mugs for his aunts and GG. Jackson's fingerprints made a flower on each mug. Everyone loved them and I think it was the perfect gift for a family full of coffee drinkers. Cheers!

Jackson also made a special gift for his Grandma Jody. 

 This was touch-and-go as well as it was bottle time. We managed to eek out the required photos, though, to create this...

And my nieces managed to give me, once again, the absolute most perfect and adorable gift....

A framed magnetic picture of all of the kids on Easter. They embellished the frame with gold sparkles. Oh, they are just so FAB! :)

 We also had a lovely brunch with the entire family at my Aunt Margaret's house. The weather could not have been more perfect!

My aunt completely spoiled the family will all sorts of delicious breakfast dishes. I only snapped a few pictures as people were waiting impatiently to eat. (Not that I blame them one bit!)

Thanks, Auntie Marg!!

Next, it was my turn to open up my Mother's Day gift.

 After opening up a beautiful card with my little guy, I unwrapped my present and found this.

A photo album made for me containing the first 136 days of Jackson's life, day by day. Inside the cover was this note.

I absolutely LOVE this gift!! It's sentimental and something special I will always have to remember the early days with my buddy. 

I enjoyed looking through pictures from the very first days....

.....to much more recent days.

After all the gifts were unwrapped and the food was devoured, we all enjoyed a little family time, conversation, playing with the kids and enjoying the late spring breeze drifting in from my aunt's back patio door. 

I wish all of the mothers out there a very beautiful and decadent Mother's Day. 

Cheers,

Samara

Jackson Appreciates His Teacher

If you're able to follow along and read my blog, you should thank a teacher. If you are a nearly-five month old and cannot yet read, you should still thank a teacher! And that is just what our little guy did this week for Teacher and Staff Appreciation Week.

Our son's school (daycare) is amazing. Well in advance, they sent a newsletter out to families discussing the upcoming special week for the staff. The newsletter gave a rundown of all the events they had planned so parents could have the opportunity to contribute to these pre-planned activities. They also gave the alternative suggestion of doing something personal for your child's teacher and classroom assistants, along with the advice of checking out the Pinterest board they have online for ideas. 

I'd love to be the parent that has some homemade goodies all prepared and beautifully packaged for the teachers and classroom assistants each day of this week, but at the moment, this is just not my reality. Perhaps when school is over, I will realize that dream. ;-) With that said, I opted for one special gift on one day for the ladies who take such good care of him.

For the classroom assistants and the other classroom teacher (Jackson has an assigned teacher, but the other teacher does help out when needed), we picked up WoodWick-style candles. 

The little cream colored pouches hanging off of the candles contained gift certificates to Starbucks. The candles contained a note for the ladies....

We wanted to get something a little bigger for Jackson's teacher. If the child were well fed, clean and taken care of adequately, his teacher's job would be done, frankly. However, our son's teacher treats him like he is a relative of hers. She calls us anytime anything seems even remotely off with Jackson and notices EVERYTHING about him, even when we may miss something. That woman is ON IT. 

What's more important, she really loves what she does and has been doing it for years. I'm sure I'm biased, but from her verbal and written reports about our son's daily happenings, I think they have a special little bond. She thinks he's an old soul and I have to agree and am pleased with how perceptive and in tune she is with our child.

So, for his teacher's gift, we decided to design a little flower pot. 

To tell you it is difficult to get a squirmy, owly baby's handprint on a pot is an understatement. So, the handprint appears to be in slow motion, or, a blur. 

Attached to one of the branches of the plant was this note.

Here is the final product!

 Along with the plant, we treated his teacher to a spa visit. Instead of assigning a specific service, we just left it open as a gift certificate.

Jackson's gifts were a hit and his teacher especially loved the pot and was stunned apparently with the  spa gift. I feel every hard working woman deserves a break, but if you take care of children for a living, you deserve to be spoiled.

Be sure to thank a teacher (or anyone who assists in the teaching process) this week. They deserve it!! 

Cheers,

Samara 

Second Wedding Anniversary

Thomas and I recently celebrated our second wedding anniversary. We'd planned on staying in town this year and doing something low key. Thomas planned the evening (this was the weekend before our actual anniversary) and each stop that night was a surprise for me. 

It was our first evening away from our little guy together. Previously, I was away from him one night for a women's church conference and Thomas had been away one night for work. "Grandma No No" (my mom) was sweet enough to watch him. We reluctantly dropped him off at my mom's and headed to the first surprise stop--The Knight Cap.

The Knight Cap is one of my favorite restaurants in Lansing. The food is good, but the service and ambience are what make it really special. One unfortunate piece of news I have to report is that the legendary Mr. Ricque no longer works there. He really made a visit to the Knight Cap special. (You can read my totally non expert review of the Knight Cap--including a little about Mr. Ricque here.) 

I'm sure the recent college grads at the table next to us were internally rolling their eyes at this overaged hipster taking a picture of her plate of food, but I care not! I wanted to share how delicious my anniversary dinner plate looked with you all. 

After our delectable meal, Thomas and I headed home for a spell as we apparently had time between activity one and activity two. It was strange being home without the baby. I tried to not think about missing him and just enjoy the one-on-one time with Thomas. 

Speaking of overaged hipsters... 

Our next surprise stop was the movie theater. Thomas remembered my saying "Oh, I want to see that!" when the previews for "The Other Woman" came on. What a guy. Enduring a chick flick for his gal. Daw. 

We ended the evening with going to the place we met for the first time a little over four years ago--Tavern On the Square. We make sure to go there every year, right around the time we met (and now, right around our anniversary)to have a Guinness just as we did the first time we met. I didn't get a picture of our beers this year the way I usually do, so I'll share a few pictures that we took at TOTS on our wedding day. 

Thomas did manage to get an artsy shot of the scene, though. 

On our actual anniversary, we exchanged gifts. The second anniversary is the cotton year. We both, funnily enough, picked up robes for one another. 

Thomas totally wins the present award, though. My bumbling, absent-minded professor of a husband managed to pick up the most beautiful champagne colored, Turkish cotton Oscar de la Renta robe. This robe feels like flopping onto clouds and being served champagne. Yes, it is that pretty of a feeling. 

When the sun went down, we opened up the bottle of Shiraz we picked up in Rome while on our honeymoon. Our original plan was to drink it on our first wedding anniversary, but those plans were put on hold when we found out I was pregnant with Jackson. 

The wine was worth the wait.

We lit the chiminea on our deck and toasted to two years of friendship and love while sipping the most delicious glass...es....of wine. 

I drank to many more years of wedded bliss, discovery, teamwork, laughs and love. 

Cheers,

Samara

Five on Friday

I don't know what your week was like, but mine was full of deadlines and other stressors. 

I seriously just finished some nonsense assignment that our prof threw at us at the last minute. I think the assignment was created to buy him time to finish creating the final exam he was supposed to have ready by now, but I digress.

Who is ready to say "Goodbye work week, hello weekEND"? Raise your hand high for this week's Five on Friday!

1. Favorite Month

May has always been one of my favorite months. Not just because it's my birthday month, but because my two favorite seasons in Michigan are spring and fall, so basically any of the spring and fall months are good in my books. However, May contains my birthday and now, Mother's Day and our wedding anniversary. (OK, May always contained Mother's Day, but I can now enjoy it as a mother.)

2. Ice Cream Teether

Jackson is officially teething. He has been drooling and eating his fists for weeks (months, even), but wasn't teething. We'd bought a few different kinds of teethers and he hadn't really cared for them. I show up to daycare one day to pick him up and see him happily lying there, sucking on and swinging this cute teether. The handles are small and the chew area is large so babies can independently soothe themselves. His daycare always knows best with this kind of stuff. So, of course, we promptly ordered some of these teethers to have at home.

3. Low-Fat Dessert

Some time ago, I posted a low-fat strawberry dessert recipe. Well, my husband walked in tonight with these crêpes, so I had to switch up the recipe. Oh my. It was delicious!! And even fewer Weight Watchers points than the dessert shells in the previous recipe. ONE Weight Watcher point, people! 

4. Jackson Is On A Roll

So, unless you are a SAHM (stay-at-home mom), you probably miss many "firsts". And honestly, even SAHM's can be a victim of this as you are not sitting, staring at your baby for hours on end each day. But, when we miss a first because it happened while the baby was at daycare, it's still a first for us because it's the first time we're seeing it and doesn't bother me at all like I thought it might. 

I felt no loss in excitement tonight when my husband and I patiently watched our crabby son (to be fair, this was during the "witching hour" (the couple hour timeframe before bed) ever so slowly roll from his stomach to his back while on his colorful baby "gym". 

I'd privately thought that maybe I didn't have enough of a goofy parent factor within me to get excited about this milestone, but nope, I proved that I am a full-fledged nerd in this regard. I happily clapped and gave my excited praises through a big, stupid smile that seemed permanently stuck to my face. What a night! Mom is so proud of you, Jackson!

5. Approaching Two Years 

It's true what they say, that after a certain age, life just barrels ahead and the years seem to add up in the blink of an eye. The time goes even faster when your'e, ahem, older AND in love. 

It's hard to believe that I met my Thomas four years ago and that we are now approaching our second wedding anniversary. (Official date is May 5th, but we are celebrating tomorrow evening.) Last year, I was newly pregnant and nauseous around the clock. As a result, we had a very laid-back wedding anniversary out of town. We plan on staying in town this year and having an evening out.

I am such a fortunate lady to have someone at my side who is truly my best friend. I can't imagine traveling this road called life with anyone else but my T-Mo.

Cheers,

Samara