Gratitudes 12/31/2013 and Reminder about the Gratitude Challenge

It is a cold New Year's Eve here in Upstate New York. My back is killing me today. I threw it out around this time last year and it clearly decided to give me an anniversary reminder. So I'm living on Motrin and Tylenol and sitting with my back against the heating pad, trying to stay comfortable LOL.

But I remain grateful.

Today I am grate*full...

1. for naps.

2. for the imaginations of my two older children. Rachael (the 4-month-old) got a puzzle for Christmas that has these little figures of animals. Of course, she's too little to play with it without assistance, but they do different things like rattle or squeak, or whistle, or there's this little butterfly that has soft wings that she can touch. The "puzzle" is a little tray that all the animals fit on. Marc (the 2 1/2 year old) calls it "cookies" because we had been baking cookies on Christmas Eve and it kind of looks like the cookie tray. So he takes it, puts it on a shelf that he calls "the oven" and bakes them. Then he'll take them off the shelf and say "You gotta blow on them, Mommy, they really hot!"

3. Melanie (the five-year-old) and Marc got these little puzzles that are like those play mats. Melanie has been taking the two puzzles (one is Disney princess and one is Doc McStuffins) and making all kinds of stuff...little houses for her dolls, little paths that she calls "the sidewalk..." She is so creative, and clearly shows spatial ability that I don't possess. She gets that from her father.

4. That Rachael fell asleep without being held tonight.

5. That Marc is running around tooting a horn and screaming at the top of his lungs, "HAPPY NEW YEAR!" I'm not sure he has any idea what it means, and he didn't take the nap I told him to, so I doubt he'll make it until midnight, but OMG he's being cute, albeit slightly annoying, right now. He'll be grown-up and out of the house in the blink of an eye...trying to remember this as every time he blows a noisemaker, my nerves jangle a little bit :)

The gratitude challenge starts TOMORROW! Sign up at 365gratitudes@gmail.com or post in the comments!

Love~
Elizabeth