May 13

Last Mother's Day, I had a four-day-old baby and a not-quite-two-year-old.

It's funny how much difference a year makes!

This year, I still woke at the crack of dawn. But this time, we gathered up the kids and went out to breakfast.

After church, we had a picnic in the backyard.

Then the kids and I all took long naps.

When we woke up, I went to Target by myself and drank a chai tea latte while I shopped.

When I got home, I found that Caleb had colored me a special card, after first peeling the papers off all of his crayons. 

He also demonstrated his bicycling skills.

(Don't let the picture fool you; he was stationary. He has no idea how to make that thing move, and it's much too big for him. But our sidewalk is a gradual downhill, so eventually he rolled a little bit.)

At dinner, my one-year-old revealed that she can totally handle corn on the cob.

(I had cut pieces of corn off for her, but she had no interest in those. She kept grunting and reaching for my grilled corn cob. Finally I gave it to her, and - surprisingly - she did a pretty great job! I'm especially surprised, considering she still only has two bottom teeth and no top teeth!)

Daisy also showed us that she can use a fork. In fact, she prefers to use a fork.

Sometimes she still "helps" the fork with her fingers, though.

Chris grilled us a yummy dinner,

and grilled us s'mores for dessert.

It was Caleb's first s'mores experience. I don't think he fully appreciated it.

Daisy didn't partake, though I did give her a graham cracker to keep her from crying.

Chris surprised me with a special Mother's Day gift: 

an emerald ring to celebrate Daisy's birth! He had it custom made to go with my ruby ring that celebrates Caleb's birth. What a good man I have! It's just a shame that Daisy was born nine days past her due date; if she had come in April, her birthstone would have been diamond. Instead, I'm stuck with Christmas colors. (Ha! I'm completely ridiculous to be complaining about jewelry! Also, we can easily fix the problem by just having a few more children. Then no one will notice the Christmas colors.)

My mommy spoiled me, too. She got me this set of lovely antique crystal dishes. They make my ice-cream eating feel pretty darn fancy!

Happy Mother's Day to me, and to all of the wonderful moms in my life.