Today Miss Tadpole turns twelve.

Twelve!  Can you believe it?  I know I can’t.  I’m sure Seymour can’t, either.  After all, she’s his first-born, his little girl.

The picture on the left is from Thanksgiving, when we were all so exhausted on the way home from Grandpa and Grandma’s house that the kids fell asleep and the grown-ups would have liked to.  She’s so big!

The picture on the right is from the year Seymour and I moved in together.  It was the first year we took the kids to Miracle on Main together, and I don’t know what she told Santa, but it was apparently pretty darn funny.  She’s so leetle!

I can’t believe how fast all our kids have grown – before I know it, they’ll be out of the house and I won’t know what to do with myself.  I’m not sure I’m ready for that yet.

P.S. I know I missed yesterday’s Photo Friday post, but with the holidays and the birthday and everything else that’s going on at the moment, I think I’m going to take a break from Photo Friday for the rest of the month.  But don’t worry – Photo Friday will return in 2015!

(c) 2014.  All rights reserved.

I can’t believe I missed this yesterday, but since I did, I guess I’ll post it today.

See, yesterday was my dad’s birthday.  He’d have been 80.  I really miss him, especially at this time of year.  Four years ago at Christmas, we told him he’d have to wait six months for his Christmas gift – a new grandson.  But he only made it three months before he passed away, so he never got to know the boys.  But he doted on Bubbles.

Bubbles was named for my dad, and he always said he had to stick around to corrupt him.  He couldn’t wait till Bubbles got big enough to teach him all about hobos and trains and girls and whatever other things he could think of to pass along (like incriminating stories of me, most likely).  I wish the boys could have known him, too – he’d have gotten such a kick out of them: Cricket is so matter-of-fact that it’s hilarious, and Thumper is a regular chip off the ol’ block.

Fun family memories are right this way…

Abdominal surgery is the pits. Recovery means relaxing and taking it easy, but those are both easier said than done when you have two toddlers running around the house at mach 10. Luckily, Miss Tadpole and Bubbles have been wonderful helpers. They’ve been Toddler Distractors and Chefs Supreme, and Miss Tadpole was even a Baby Shower Ambassador this morning.

Last night, she fixed supper by herself for the first time. Bubbles fixed dinner, a frozen pizza, but Miss Tadpole fixed up a pan of Hamburger Helper. I sat in the kitchen and supervised, and everything came out wonderfully. That’s the best-tasting Hamburger Helper I’ve had in quite a while, as a matter of fact.

I hope I’m feeling better soon so that the kids can return to being kids. But in the meantime, I am unbelievably proud of the way they’ve stepped up to help out while I’m recovering. 🙂

How do your kids make you proud?

(c) 2014. All rights reserved.