Mother's Day

It was a great day today. My sweetie made me breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and was basically Martha all day so that I had the luxury of being Mary. I took some time to myself to reflect on this job/duty/calling/blessing I have of being a mom. While motherhood is challenging and every single day I have moments I wish I could escape it, there are also moments I can't help but smile and laugh. Thankfully the latter moments are generally more numerous. I can't think of another job out there this demanding (yes, Tim, even more than banking)! It is unglamorous, mundane, and downright dirty. Your bosses can be quite rude and snotty. You don't get sick days and there is no workman's comp. And yet, it is noble, heavenly, and incredibly fulfilling. No other job on Earth offers eternal benefits.

Fairly recently somebody told me I looked happy. I didn't realize at the time just what a compliment that is. How many people can say that they are truly happy? The kind of happiness that lasts, the kind that is earned through hard work--blood, sweat, and tears? Blood shed in childbirth, in nursing your newborn until your nipples bleed, in smashing your finger while folding a stroller, in burning your arm baking your husband's birthday cake. Sweat shed in childbirth, in cooking dinner in your non-air-conditioned apartment, in carrying a toddler on your hip and an infant in the other hand up the stairs only to take 3 more trips up the stairs with the groceries, in trying to burn off the baby weight and toddler frustration while you exercise, and in sleeping snuggled up to your sweetie. Tears shed in--again--childbirth, in seeing your baby's face for the first time, in latching her on again and again onto the aforementioned bleeding nipples, in feeling guilty for just wanting to sleep instead of deal with those kids, in sorrow when your husband doesn't get the score he needs on that test, in loneliness on a Friday night when he's still at work and all you want is to be able to cry in his arms instead of crying to him on the phone. It's only because of the blood, sweat and tears you've shed for the ones you love that you can experience the kind of perfect, enduring, incandescent happiness that illuminates your life day in and day out.

What a grand design by our Father in Heaven. He knew, as only a parent could, that it's only through the blackest of sorrows that you have enough contrast to appreciate the brightest of joys! Here are my joys:

London wanted to make sure Eden had a toy to keep her company for the ride. What a sweetie :)
Here is the lovely dinner Tim made:

Strollerobics!

Many of you have heard me talk about my strollerobics class...well we made the small time with a spot on ABC's "A View from the Bay"! Click on "Related Article" and watch for the clips with me, London and Eden.

A Sunday Afternoon

Some people think Sunday dinner is all about a roast with mashed potatoes and all the fixin's. Here at the Jacobson household, we tend to do a little more resting on the sabbath and therefore our dinners turn out to be less succulent, but no less fun. When Tim works late during the week, studies on Saturdays, and attends church meetings half the day on Sundays, Sunday evenings are the most quality family time we get all week. We'd rather spend the time outside than in the kitchen. Usually we take a long walk around our neighborhood or along the bay enjoying the CA weather we pay a premium for. A couple Sundays ago, we took a picnic dinner of cheese, crackers, grapes, and pistachios to a park. Watching your husband make your girls giggle, chasing London on the lawn, waving to people passing in their boats...I think this should be our Sunday dinner tradition.

Here's what you get when you try to get your three favorite people to smile and look at the camera at the same time:

Another Photo Shoot

Here are the girls in their Easter dresses. This time I actually purchased a few and didn't just get the freebie! I bought #1, #2, and #5. Why does Eden's head look bigger than London's in #4? Who knows the photographer to ask for at the Hillsdale Picture People? I thought the dude we got was a dork.

It's never too early to wear mom jeans

Cart Wars

Today I went to the grocery store. Some of you may have noticed the cart with the toddler car on the front end of it. Apparently they need to supply more of these carts because I've only had the good fortune of getting it once and I go to the store at least once a week. London thinks riding in the car cart is the coolest, so I was stoked when I pulled into the parking lot today and saw the car cart empty and waiting. I got out of the car and--could it be? Some other lady was taking the cart!! She was by herself. Surely she didn't need the car cart for herself, and I wasn't going to give it up that easily, so I left my kids in the car with the doors wide open and ran after her to ask for it. "I'm sorry," she said. "My son is coming and this is the only way I can get my shopping done." I was miffed, but figured, she got to it first, so oh well.

BUT THEN--you won't believe this--as I'm walking up with Eden in her car seat in one hand and London on the other hip, loading them into the regular cart, her man strolls up with her son! What the heck? That's the only way you can get your shopping done? How about you leave the dude at home with the kid and come by yourself? Save the prized car cart for single moms with 2 kids like me! With Eden in the front part and London sprawled out in the rear, I hardly had room for my groceries! I know she saw me as I was loading my kids up, and if the roles were reversed, I would have been the bigger woman and given up the car cart to the woman in need. (And if I didn't, then Tim certainly would have insisted she have it, because he's definitely the bigger man!)

BUT WAIT! It gets worse. We kept passing each other in the aisles, and I noticed she had her own cart with the groceries and her man was just pushing the kid around in the other one, as if it were an amusement park ride! As it turns out, we ended up checking out at the same time, and I noticed that her kid was asking her to buy him some Thomas the Train book and she was trying to talk him out of it, while my sweet baby was smiling and cooing at me and the bagger was telling London what an angel she was. So I guess the moral of the story is I'd rather have MY kids in the regular old cart than have a kid who requires the car cart and a man who isn't very manly any day. After all, London didn't even mind being surrounded by cereal and lettuce. Can you really complain about that?

Easter

Here are pictures from our Easter week! London joined her friends at our playgroup for an egg hunt. The hunting stopped abruptly and turned into eating when the kids discovered the candy inside the eggs. Some eggs contained Gerber puffs as well as candy. The puffs were discarded on the lawn. Saturday morning we attempted to take family portraits for Easter. It wasn't our best shoot, but we salvaged a few decent shots. Later that afternoon we went to Pacifica beach and watched people attempt to catch crabs and the seals that prevented them from doing so. Sunday we went to church and then Cousin Maret kindly hosted us and Abuelo (Grandpa for those of you who don't hablar espanol) for Easter dinner and egg hunt. It was an Easter miracle when Maret found out we had not yet viewed the deleted scenes from Waiting for Guffman and she was there to witness the screening!