Mother's Day

As I go along this journey with Tiny Dancer, I'm so happy to get to experience so many firsts with her. We've seen her roll over, we've introduced her to new foods, and we've had to deal with some not-so-pleasant firsts like immunizations and sickness. So, I often forget that I'm also experiencing some firsts for myself. And yesterday was one of those firsts: my first Mother's Day.

It started like any other morning. I had to get up and get Tiny Dancer ready for the day. But once she was up, changed, fed and content, Cliff started insisting that I take out the dogs. I knew he had ulterior motives because he never asks that I take out the dogs on the weekend. I commented "Yes, that's exactly what I want to do on Mother's Day," and I went on downstairs knowing a surprise was in order. And there was a very nice surprise awaiting me.

Our first family picture, flowers and a lovely card

What a sweet surprise from my husband and our girl! I'm a lucky lady, for sure.

After looking at my lovely surprise, we had breakfast, and then I called my own mother. I felt bad that I wasn't able to be there to celebrate with her, but I wanted to make sure I talked to her while she opened the gift we had sent her.

Charm locket from Hallmark

It's a little locket from Hallmark that has customizable charms. I chose a little girl with Tiny Dancer's birthstone, my birthstone (bottom right), Cliff's birthstone (to the left of mine), a pink paw-print for my animal lover mother, and a red heart with the word Mom. The back was a little chrome plate with a tree to represent our family. She seemed to really like it, and I told her she could customize it at will if she ever gets to a Hallmark store.

After that, we started getting ready to go to Cliff's mom's house. Not only were we going to celebrate Mother's Day with her, but we also were to celebrate her birthday, which is actually today. Lots of special things happening for her, and we were happy to be there to help celebrate. For Mother's Day, we got her a family tree necklace.

I forgot to get an actual picture, so this representation from the store website will have to do.

The top stone green represents Cliff. The light green stone to the left represents his sister, and the blue stone to the right represents Tiny Dancer. She seemed to really like it. Then she opened her birthday gift which included this frame.

With Tiny Dancer's picture inside, of course

The goal is to eventually get a picture of Nanie and Baby to go in this frame, but for now, we just put a picture of our lovely Tiny Dancer inside. Cliff's mom has a lot of framed photos in her living room, and she told me that her plan is to get them all up on the wall over the summer. I think she really liked getting a framed picture of the little one for her collection. We'll just have to continue to add to it as she grows.

My Mother's Day was also special because I got to share a couple of other moments with my daughter. Cliff and I went for a ride on the golf cart with her.

I love her little hat and sunglasses.

I also got to watch her splash in the big pool where we will one day soon go swimming.

Splishy-splash!

And there was more fun to be had, but I think I'll save those memories for just me and the family. So, until next time, I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day.