Yay day!

It’s been a few weeks since we’ve celebrated a yay day around here. The sun is shining and it’s two weeks until our Bar Harbor vacation, which are two things worth celebrating all on their own right, but I have more!

My bliss right now comes from the fact that I’ve been able to spend a lot of time with the boys recently, and I think we’re all the better for it. We’re in a phase where they’re generally a lot of fun to be around (when they aren’t bickering like an old married couple, that is!) and I am constantly tickled by their expanding world views.

Kerry and I took the boys to Westfest on the weekend while Beloved attended a weekend-long seminar, and Tristan recounted his encounter with a life-sized Lunar Jim and Clifford the Big Red Dog with some enthusiasm. “But,” Tristan concluded with a worldly sigh, “it wasn’t the real Lunar Jim.”

“How do you know it wasn’t the real Lunar Jim?” I asked.

“Well, Mom, because I looked at his back and it had a big zipper on it.” Remind me not to let him get too close to Santa Clause this Christmas!

Later that day, Tristan also decided he needed to make a craft, but he was quite secretive about what it was. He asked me to cut a large circle out of a piece of paper, and returned a few moments later with what he called a CBC frisbee; sure enough, he had made an impressive approximation on his ‘frisbee’ of the exploding cabbage that is the current CBC logo – freehand, using only the image in his head for reference. Be still my patriotic, mothercorp-loving heart!

Yesterday after a bath, Beloved was helping Simon put on his jammies when Simon observed that his fingers were “fancy”. It took us a minute to figure out he meant they were wrinkled from the tub.

So my joy is simply that I love my boys, and they love me, and with that everything else in life is golden.

Care to share what’s making the sun shine on you today?

We definitely need a Yay Day!

Whaddya think, peeps? We’re long overdue for a Yay Day around here.

If you haven’t been by on Yay Day before, the rules are simple. Leave a comment with something that makes you happy today, or something that makes you proud, or something that makes you smile. Celebrate the small victories in life – and the big ones, too! For once, you’re allowed to brag to your heart’s content.

Given my emotional instability of the past week or so, I’m feeling surprisingly happy today, and that alone is a reason to celebrate. And the boys, those boys who were in one of ‘those’ testing phases, the relentless and exhausting testing phases? Apparently they’re done. They’ve been just lovely little creatures for the past 30 hours or so, and I’ve been thoroughly enjoying simply being with them.

Hmmm, which came first – the relaxed and contented mommy or the relaxed and contented boys?

Regardless, here’s my contribution to Yay Day: the simple pleasure of a sprinkler and a warm summer evening.

(That’s a soccer game in the background. One of the occupational hazzards of living across the street from a park – the invasion of the minivan-driving soccer parents three nights a week!)

Your turn! What is making you happy today?

Yay day – again!

I’m feeling joyous today. Simply happy. I’m having trouble suppressing a smile. The sun is shining, the first of our family summer vacations is next week, I’m going for a pedicure with my mom tomorrow night. Life is good.

You seemed to really enjoy the last time we shared our happy thoughts, so let’s do it again. Here’s how I described it last time, in case you missed it:

I’d like to know what’s going on in your life today that makes you happy. What’s worthy of commentary? What are you proud of? Why do you (or someone you know) deserve a pat on the back? Share an anecdote of how life is good in your little corner of the universe right about now.

Mine is small, but I’m very pleased. Simon is officially sootherless. Yay! You know what, it was so easy. The day after I posted about it last week, Simon again forgot to ask for his soother at bedtime. The next night, when he asked for it I told him we didn’t know where it was. He asked me to look in the usual spot where it ends up when we take it away in the morning and are to lazy to put it away properly in his room, and I lifted him up to show him it wasn’t there. I told him we’d look for it the next day. The next night, we couldn’t find it either. (Because it was hiding in my jewellery box, of all places.)

He never shed a tear, and did not once wake up looking for it. On the weekend, Beloved took the boys to Toys R Us and got him a special treat to compensate for his lost soothers – an Incredibles bubble blower that Simon has had his eye on for some time. And that was it! Simon asked for the soother last night, and Beloved reminded him that he’s a big boy now and doesn’t need a soother anymore, to which Simon replied, “Oh. Okay.” And that was it!

Okay, now it’s your turn. Brag, share, boast, celebrate. Big things or small things. What’s good in your life today?

Yay day

Back in the day, before I had all things bloggy (and Facebook-y) to satisfy my online urges, I spent a lot of time on bulletin boards – in particular, on IVF Connections.

One feature I always liked was the brag thread, where people would talk about how baby rolled over for the first time, or ate her first cheerio, or slept more than two hours in a row. Sometimes it was something major like ‘we just bought a new house’, or ‘I just earned my dream job’, but sometimes it was as simple as ‘I managed to take a shower and feed the kids breakfast before the schoolbus arrived this morning.’

We don’t do enough bragging, in my humble opinion. We need to speak up more often about the simple joys and subtle victories in our daily lives. Want to play along?

I’d like to know what’s going on in your life today that makes you happy. What’s worthy of commentary? What are you proud of? Why do you (or someone you know) deserve a pat on the back? Share an anecdote of how life is good in your little corner of the universe right about now.

Here’s a simple one for me: my pants are too big. I have had to give up many, many pairs of pants in my life because they were too small, but aside from maternity clothes I don’t think I’ve actually had to stop wearing a pair of pants because they were too large – and I’m not averse to wearing baggy, oversize clothes either! But the pants I bought just after Christmas to accomodate my burgeoning butt are no longer fit for public consumption. I knew they were getting looser, but I’ve been trying to keep them in circulation until the weather improved enough to transition into my spring pants. After two colleagues pointed out (with great kindness) that they were more than a wee bit saggy in the butt, I’ve had to face the truth. The pants are too big.

Yay me! I’ve only lost about 6 pounds in total, but I’m getting there.

Edited to add: another thing that makes me happy – I just found out that Loukia nominated me for one of the Blogger’s Choice Awards!

My site was nominated for Best Parenting Blog!

Thanks Loukia! And if you happen to feel like wandering over there and voting for me (you have to sign up to do it – what a pain!), then make sure you vote for Marla while you’re at it!

And now – what about you?