Mother's Day Traditions

This past weekend was amazing weather for fishing so me and my partners in crime "wet some lines" as my dad says.  Even though it was supposed to be mommy's day, it turned out being daddy's day!

Our day started out with picture-perfect weather. Thank you Lord!

Beautiful day with a wonderful family!

This is pretty much what Liv's goals were for the day; 

1.  "Catch" grass with a pretty pink butterfly net 

2. Sneak pieces of the hotdog buns mom and dad bought for bait cuz we left the worms at home on Sunday. 

3.   Do whatever possible to not let THAT fish touch her.

Yes, my little flesh and blood is TERRIFIED of fish, worms, sometimes fishing poles if it has a fish on the end of it...

There may have been some traumatization that happened because of all of the fish that she had to run from...but in the end she resorted to finding safety in her chair.

As long as she was not touching the ground and nothing of hers was touching the ground then those pesky fish couldn't hop off the line and go bopping down to get her.  Please tell me she grows out of this?

Regardless of her fear, Ms. O's handy princess pole was a hit.  Here's one that was a perfect example of a big scary monster that she "caught" (Daddy cast out the line, felt a bite, handed to Ms. O who runs away leaving daddy to land the trophy).

Regardless of all the fish, because mommy brought her favorite yogurt the silver lining came through and Ms. O really did have a good time for the rest of the time.

Daddy had a shining jaw-dropping moment this weekend.  He caught a BEAST of a large-mouth bass.

It was a monster!

That is actually MY shoe, not Ms. O's.  It's a size 8.5!  The fish was 20" long, weighed roughly 5 lbs (our fish scale was older than me and completely sketchy). 

Even though I didn't catch the trophy fish, it was so much fun to see Justin bring it in, and Liv dashing to her chair.  I love family fishing days!

Mother's Day...and a two-year old.

I've been thinking back on this past Mother's Day and I remembering how blessed I am to be included into the category of mother.  Ms. O is a very special little lady.  Of course every parent knows that about their children but God allowed me and my husband to experience that reality in an extra special way.  We were told that it did not appear that we would be able to have children, but God had other plans.  It's a longer story that I will save for a different date, so for now I would like to take the time to talk about my special little Ms. O.  She's constantly reminding me that she is not the baby that I call her, "I'm a big girl momma!"  And she is TOTALLY two.  

She has this fetish lately, of washing her hands- ever since I bought her an extra tall kid step (LOVVVEE IKEA) that allows her to reach things out of reach like-a bathroom sink.  My husband knows this of me, but he will graciously not make fun of me for bing totally guilty of getting so distracted or caught up in a project, that I take on tunnel hearing.  On such an occasion I realized that the bathroom sink had been running for quite some time (More than likely I was immersed in photo editing).  After quickly telling Ms. O that her ceremonially washing experience was over, I didn't think anything of it.  When Justin came home he said, 'Uh honey what happened here?"  bringing to me our foam soap dispenser (I'm a creatively thrifty person, some would say super cheap, but I like to say creative/imaginative when it comes to saving money, you'll pick up on it when i explain how we 'make' our own foam soap later).  At first I didn't catch what was wrong until I looked closer and saw something that made me think of the old-school Sesame Street Song that goes, "One of these are not like the others"...

look really close....Do you see it?

That, my friends, is an eyeshadow applicator that my curious little lady found out out fits PERFECTLY into our foam soap dispenser.  Serves me right for leaving it on the counter.  This is a very very simple adventure that I have a feeling is only the beginning of the ride of our lives with this little mini-Christina lady.  Here's another picture from a few months back that proves my point.

...wait a minute...

I just realized something....both incidents involved a steady washing of hands...and, admittedly, a distracted mommy.  

Oh and in case your wondering her "gloves" are actually a boat-load of Desitin.  You are familiar with Desitin aren't you? The diaper-rash-soothing, water-repellent, can't-wash-off-except-with-an-economy-sized-bottle-of-Dawn-Desitin?  Yup, that's the stuff.  Oh, but how I love her and all the excitement she brings!

Happy belated Mother's Day!