Birthday Girl!

Maya's birthday yesterday was wonderful!  She woke up all cheerful, I held her close and sang her happy birthday.  I gave her a little hello kitty dressed up as a devil as a little birthday morning treat, and also because she had slept so well the night before (5 stickers on her reward chart!).  She loved the warmth and attention.  She got to have a special breakfast - whatever she wanted.  She chose a waffle.  Or as she said, "vaffle."  Love my eastern-european kid.

I only stayed at work for a few hours, but left to go bring little mini-muffins to Maya's school.  She didn't know I was coming.  It was such a treat to walk into her class and see her with her birthday crown on!

She was so excited.  She helped me pass out muffins to all of her friends.  Then we put a candle in hers and everyone sang "Happy Birthday" and "Yom Huledet Sameach."  Ahhh, love Valley Beth Shalom.

Afterwards I read one of Maya's favorite stories to the whole class.  We read "Teddy is Polite", and when the kids saw that the characters were teddy bears, they couldn't stop talking about their own Teddy Bears.  Such discussion!  Such excitement!

It was really a sweet, sweet day.  In  the evening we all (Maya, Ethan, Daddy and I) had dinner out on our new porch swing, and Maya got another fruit tart with a candle.  We sang and had the best little time.  Later on Uncle Brad, Aunt Shelley, and Alana and Jeremy came over to wish her a happy birthday and brought her some new clothes.  She was so happy!  This girl loves clothes.

She got so many phone calls, messages, hugs and love.  Seriously, what a lucky 3 year old!  Next weekend she has the most amazing birthday party planned.  I hope she is loving this as much as I am.

At night before she went to bed, she said, "You are the best mommy ever."  Totally unprompted!  Tears started to well up in my eyes.  She then went on to say "Mommy, you are my best friend."  I mean, come on!  Who put her up to saying that??

I love my girl.  She is the bees knees.  I feel like the luckiest mama in the world that she's mine.

Maya, 3 years old

Dear my sweet little Maya-le,

I feel so full of emotion the night before your 3rd birthday. 3 years - wow! I think of you when you were just a little thing and I think to who you are now, and it is an incredible testament to this thing called life what a beautiful little soul you are and how much you have brought, and how much you have to bring, to this world.

This is an incredible age, because you really start to understand the world around you. You understand that some things work in your favor, and sometimes things don't. You start to learn that everything has consequences, both positive and negative. This is an amazing thing to experience as your mommy! There is so much I want to show you and teach you.

Lately you are asking about everything. You want a watch. You want earrings. You sing songs all the time. You are learning words in Hebrew at school - echad, shtaim, shalosh... yeladim. You love shabbat and making challah at school. You love lighting the candles on shabbat, and sometimes you even ask us to light the candles on the other nights. You love to laugh and be silly, and you have a lot of emotion.

You absolutely love school and your friends. You talk about them all the time! You love seeing friends at My Gym and at dance class. You've become such an incredible swimmer. Full on swimming before your 3rd birthday! I never would have thought.

You love Ethan, even if you sometimes feel confused by your feelings. You make sure he understands what is yours is yours and you don't like it when he takes your things, but you also rush to give him something else to play with. If we're out and about and he's not with us, you express how much you miss him.

Being your mommy is the most incredible experience of my life. It's full of so many emotions - joy, excitement, passion, concern, but the strongest emotion of all, the one that I feel vibrating in my bones, is love. You are my baby and I absolutely adore you. From here today, until forever.

Love,

Mommy

Savoring and capturing each moment

Things have been so fun and enjoyable with the kids. Our lives have been so full and fun. Last weekend Mark was out of town for work. I had all these "grand plans" for Thursday -- take Ethan to his audition at the agency, work-out, do some work, and then on Friday I was going to focus on me. Do some shopping (I am in desperate need of a few new threads), check out sunglasses, bras, etc. Well I woke up on Thursday morning - Mark had already left - and when I saw Amelia I knew immediately something was wrong. She said she was sick.

Fuckshitahhhshit. By brain started to race and I knew what this meant. "Go home" I told her. Poor thing, she was sick. You can't care for children when you're sick. So I got Maya and Ethan ready and drove to Maya's school. We came home and I put Ethan down for a nap. He slept for a grand total of 30 minutes and then we got ready and went to Osbrink - the agency that Dana coordinated. Ethan did great! They all held him and he smiled for everyone. Such a charmer. Of course the moment we got in the car he whined the whole ride home. But they want to sign him! Too funny. I have to go get him a work permit and take some shots. Too fun.

On Friday we took Maya to school, and then Ethan and I went to visit Jen in Santa Monica. It was a beautiful day! Then we came home, just hung out, opened the doors and windows, and then Ethan took a beautiful long nap. I ended up having to wake him up in order to go get Maya. She had her first dance class on Friday and I really wanted to check it out. We didn't make it. Oh well. This Friday!

On Saturday Kristy arrived and it was so good to have her. Seriously, phew. Spending 48 hours alone with my kids was so wonderful. I never am alone with them. And it was so nice also getting some alone time with Ethan. I had so much of that with Maya when she was a baby, but I never got that with Ethan. He is such a sweet adorable thing. Maya is also growing so beautifully. She is so sweet and lovable. She is speaking so much now, and so well. I had a "parent-teacher conference" with Miss Liz and Miss Arosha at her school and they spoke so highly of her. They said how nice and mellow she is, that she's a bit shy but is expressing herself more and more, and that she's so "girly" -- really likes to play with the dolls. As if we don't already know that! But it was nice to hear how well behaved she is.

On Saturday Maya and I went to a playdate at Stephanie and Vaughn's house. They live in a beautiful neighborhood in Woodland Hills off Topanga Canyon Blvd. Really nice! Their house was also beautiful. I loved that they had a separate playroom (a former den) for Vaughn. It made me even more aware of what a toy-mess our living room had become. So we got back from that playdate and I was motivated to rearrange! Thank goodness for Kristy; she totally put it together and it looks so great!

It was just oh, so nice. I love the time that I have with my kids. It feels so right, so healthy, to be with them. I love that I have my work during the week and then I have my kids on the weekend. These are just good, happy days.