really quite lucky indeed

I am thankful for Derek.
he is the kind of dad that takes his daughter to serve dinner at the senior citizens center on Thanksgiving, reads princess books at bedtime & makes the effort to make max's peanut butter graham cracker snack just the way he likes it with one corner of the cracker left empty so he has a clean place to hold it. he is the kind of husband that leaves me with an emptied dishwasher in the morning, smiles when I decide to paint another wall or rearrange 17 pieces of furniture late at night & sends me on my merry little way when a sister suggests a late night movie.



I am thankful for Lily.
she is great. she is just such a great human. she loves giving her earned money away to people that need it. she loves writing letters that tell how much she loves people. she is the big sister every little boy should dream of having. she makes up fake homework for herself because she loves reading and writing and learning and wants to be an author, like today. i've heard from her (boy) friend that she is a pro at playing imagine and smart and cool at talking. her teacher said that the class was coming up with all the different ways to add 2 numbers to 10 and Lily was the only one that came up with writing all the numbers 0 to 10 in a list and then all the numbers 10 to 0 to add to them and so she got to explain it to the class. whenever the f a m i l y song comes on tv she always always comes and finds me so we can do the dance where we spread out (even if you're far away) and then run together and hug (or if I see you every day).



I am thankful for Max.

I mean look at him. even with the two-year-old-ness and the fits and the biting (oh, max) and the late afternoon accidental naps that results in more fits...he is truly a joy. before I was a momma I really never thought I'd have a boy and I really never knew what a fantastic thing it was. well blessing upon blessing. thank you for max. he is my cuddlebird. we are rarely not within arms reach of eachother when we are both home during the day. we build trains and destroy cities and paint dinosaurs and glue buttons and throw leaves and dance to the monster song and the tron song and watch bubble guppies. I mostly love how instead of "another" he uses the word "else". want an else show or an else snack because you're don't hungry cheese.

oh but there's more.

I am thankful for the exact friends that my children have. of course they are forming who they are at this point in their lives. we talk about each of them in our bedtime stores (often driving multicolored trains or running from silly monsters). though often through trail and error or learning by mistakes....they teach us about kindness and forgiveness and taking turns and compromise and patience and creativity and fun and not biting.

I'm thankful for the exact friends that I have. that they do awesome things with their talents that I could never do. and they are always 100% up for any adventure (kids in tow) that will possibly involve good-natured trespassing or driving straight down mountains or lots and lots of peanut butter cups because someone in the back seat just won't stop screaming or the worst display of yoga you've ever seen (I don't think you're supposed to fall over as much as I do ha ha). friends that serve and serve and serve and keep making those amazing chicken croissants for baby showers or waking up at 6 am with me to pass out vegetables or watch my own children and treat them as they do their own.

I am thankful for my sisters. and that I'm the old almost-30-year-old one but I still get to go to dumb telepathic werewolf movies with them at midnight and give them ridiculous princess braids. and when I have boy/dating/life/college advice they listen and actually make it seem like they're buying it so I must know what I'm talking about. and I'm thankful for the cousin across the street that might just as well be the bonus sister. and I'm thankful that all of these people just love love love on my children and spend oodles of time showing them that they do and being their nannies. thankful that grandma will play save-the-airplane and watch the sodor bridge crumble for the 17th time and not mind the fruit rollup fingerprints all over her ipad. and grandpa will laugh at lily's knock knock jokes and perfect her sourdough pancake cooking skills with her every sunday.

I'm also thankful for lots of other dumb stuff. but I think that's a good place to end.