Three Mother's Days Of Joy

Mother's Day is a blessing to me with such a sweet girl in my life. Every year I find myself thinking about my friends and family who have lost children, as well as those who want to be a mother but for some reason aren't. This day is often hard for them, and it was only a few years ago that I dreaded Mother's Day, unsure how to celebrate others when I myself ached to be a mother. This is my second Mother's Day with Ellie, third if you count being pregnant with her. I had such a great day with my little family. We took pictures in the same spot as last year in our front yard. We had to include one with Baby Sister:

We had a super yummy brunch at one of our favorite places in town. Then we headed to the outdoor mall where Ellie played and we had smoothies, "enjoying" the 97 degree weather.

Next, we went to a place where Ellie and Michael made me a mug for Mother's Day. Not only did Ellie do a great job painting, she was also super patient for the two hours we were there, coloring and drawing and just hanging out well past her nap time.

One thing we know about Ellie is she's never been a fan of paint on her hands. I've tried numerous projects where I paint her hand or dip her hand in cement, and every time she knows what's coming and starts crying before the process even starts. She doesn't like to have "stuff" on her hands. I was a little worried about how she would react today but wanted her hand print on my mug. She did well, I think because a stranger was there to help.

Although, by the end of the process she looked at daddy and wasn't too happy anymore:

We won a drawing while we were there and won two more little tea cups, so we painted those as well to match my mug. We painted "Ellie Grace" on one and "Baby Girl" on the second since we STILL don't have a name picked out for this little one. I was tempted to put "Ruby" in quotes because our niece Isabelle has decided that's her cousin's name, and it would be funny to document that, but we couldn't commit to that. Yes, we are still waiting for inspiration for the name of our new little girl. We ended the family day with dinner at a local vegetarian Indian restaurant, and it was delicious.

All day today I've been impressed with how happy and patient my little one is. She ended up not taking a nap and no one would have guessed. She's been happy and joyful and spunky all day, and I found myself constantly looking at her, amazed at the little girl she's becoming, and the fun personality I see emerging. It's bittersweet to see her growing up and shedding her baby tendencies by the day. I had to look back to last year and compare pictures:

Kisses!

And then there was Mother's Day 2010 (I was 18 weeks pregnant):

Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful mothers out there. Special thoughts go to those of you who have a difficult time on a day celebrating mothers. And of course, A Very Special Happy Mother's Day to my mom and mother-in-law. We are blessed to have you in our lives!