Green, Parks, Cleats

We saw several firsts this weekend.

I found the first shoots of green in my flower beds. Our tulips and hyacinths are coming up. Yay!! The first sign of spring. I planted the bulbs last fall, soon after we moved into this house. Some of the tulip bulbs came from a give away my best friend Julie and I did at a conference for the March of Dimes back in October. We gave away tulip bulbs and the poem about Holland. Most parents of special needs kids know that poem.

One of the other moms who attended the conference posted her bloomed tulips on Facebook last week. I love that these flowers are reminding these amazing mothers of their blessing and/or angels.

The girls and I also took our first trip to the park for the season. We love the park. Each year since Olivia's first spring, our park visits have marked how much she's grown and changed.

Our first spring, obviously, O was still in the stroller and she and I just followed a four year old Alyssa around the park, where she ran and jumped and climbed and slid and swung.

I was sure that first spring that the next spring would be so very different. I wondered how I'd managed to very mobile children.

I didn't have to worry about that. The next spring, Olivia was still strapped in the stroller. She wasn't even quite crawling yet.

But the spring after that? Well, we still took the stoller because though Olivia was just starting to toddle, she tired quickly and easily.

Last spring? She was on her feet with a mind of her own. But...she still got tired and she was still very off-balance. She walked around after Alyssa but needed help climbing and refused to even try the slide.

By the fall? Our park trips were very different. She ran, she slid, she swung. And I was trying to keep track of two very mobile children. Just as I'd imagined years before.

Yesterday was much of the same. They both wanted to go in differend driection. They had their own ideas of the best area of the park, and of course, they were on different ends.

And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Finally, we bought Alyssa her first pair of soccer cleats yesterday. She was so excited she didn't even care that we had to get them from the boys' section of the shoe store. She'd worn them almost constantly since yesterday afternoon.

She and I even went outside this morning, in the 40 degree weather, to run around after the soccer ball. I know, that is total proof of my amazing mothering. Not only do I dislike running, I really hate running in the cold. And as far as I'm concerned, anything below 50 degrees is cold.

But the joy on her face as she attempted to keep the ball from me? Worth the running and the cold.

This weekend goes into the archives as one for the good guys.