Giving thanks for my biggest little blessings

(I just found this unpublished Thansksgiving post....better late than never!)

It's funny...how Thanksgiving takes on a whole new meaning once you have kids. We spent Thanksgiving Day in Columbus, away from my family in Youngstown. And while it was a nice and relaxing day, I missed all of the action. The running from my mom's house to my dad's side of the family. Watching my mom bustle around the kitchen, preparing way more food than we'd ever need...taking on aggressive and challenging recipes, constantly lamenting that the turkey wouldn't be done in time.

But being away from my extended family oddly made me think more this year about what I'm thankful for. And of course, I immediately thought about our two little girls. How blessed and fortunate we are that they are such healthy, sweet, happy little girls. And then I started thinking about last year. And how much they've grown and changed in just a year.



Case in point.

Chris and I tell the girls we love them all the time.

And I do mean, all the time.

We tell them when they wake up in the morning. Every time they do something sweet, funny or adorable...which ends up being several times a day. Every time we leave the house, and of course every night at bedtime.

So it shouldn't have surprised me when, a week or so ago, Ella started telling me "I love you, Mommy," all by herself, throughout the day, even when I hadn't just said it myself.

And she says it so sweetly and so sincerely....often walking over to me, holding my face in between her little hands, puckering up and kissing me, very carefully, in a very specific and intentional location...usually my forehead, cheek or lips.

Sometimes she even adds a 'really...' "I really lub you, Mommy. You know dat?"

She reminds me every day that she's a little person, not a baby....and she's developing such an amazing personality. One with so much depth and sweetness. And she's only 2 and a half.

She's developing so quickly. The other day, I found her turning the pages of a book, reciting what was happening on each page -- based not just on the images, but also on her memory of the handful of times I'd read her the story before.

I know these experiences may be common among pre-schoolers. But they're all new and beautiful and wonderful to me. And I savor every one.


And Kate. Oh, Kate. She's so stinking cute. Our doctor warned me that her speech might not develop as quickly as Ella's. And that's understandable. I still can't believe how developed Ella's vocabulary is...her knowledge of idioms and large or unusual words, in exactly the right context.
Oddly, I'm almost happy Kate's language skills are developing a little more slowly. It allows me to feel like I'm keeping her 'small' for a longer period of time.

"Ap-paw" (apple); "Bankie and binkie" (blankie and binkie). "Boppy" (for her second favorite stuffed animal, puppy)...many animal sounds....Daddy, Mommy, Nana, "Ma," "Gam" and if she tries very hard, "Gam-ma," for Grandma. She's starting to repeat more words intelligibly, but mostly, she wanders around speaking her own Kate gibberish that we absolutely adore.


We affectionately call her 'destructo,' because her favorite pasttime is dis-assembling and otherwise destroying things. 10 times a day, she empties my tupperware cupboard onto the floor. In the playroom, she takes every single item she can find (wooden playfood, bracelets, play people)...and immediately takes it to the exact opposite location in the playroom. She throws all of her food on the floor; but won't let us feed her.

Yes, I do get frustrated from time to time. Like when I spend an hour scrubbing the floor only to see Kate smash peas all over it, ten minutes later. But mostly, I'm very aware that these moments are fleeting and that I'll all to soon be lamenting that my chattering Kate is speaking in full sentences, telling me she loves me out of the blue, reading stories aloud and walking herself to time out.

So this past Thanksgiving -- like all those to come -- I'm most grateful for the gift of being part of these beautiful, fleeting moments in the lives of these blessed, darling little girls.