Happy Feeling

It's been a great week. Conor went a full day without a freak out yesterday--huge!; work hasn't been insane (knock on wood now!); Andy has been home all week (although leaves tomorrow :( ) and the weather has warmed up (did they really say 55 for tomorrow?!). Two other things happened that have made it a happy week.
First, I volunteered at Conor's school Valentine's Day party. A quick back story on that. I told the room parents that I would bring a craft for the kids to do. So, in typical Tessa fashion, it was Sunday afternoon and I was running from Michael's, to Target, to Walgreen's looking for something with hearts on it that these kids could decorate Vday card bags. But, I swear, these suburban parents are insane...nary a heart to be found. Not even a red pen. Now, you would have thought I'd learned my lesson last Halloween when Andy warmed me in August: "Remember, this is different than the city...you can't wait until the week before Halloween and then expect to get a great costume at half price. Don't have Conor wearing a weird pseudo alien/monster fluorescent green number two sizes too big again this year." Nope, didn't heed his advice and the day before Halloween I was running from store to store trying to save my child from sure shame at the school concert. And hey, it worked out...a perfectly-sized dinosaur costume at half price! Yippee! So, of course I thought I'd wait until the day before to get all the Valentine's decor for my craft project and therefore get it all at half price (was actually hoping for 75% off!) Didn't work out this time. I've learned my lesson. Next time, I'll try two weeks out and hope for 30% off. :) Anyway, managed to find some random heart cookie cutters, some red glitter (not necessarily a smart choice for three year olds I later learned) and had Jennie cut hearts off wire garland for a good half hour.
Had a great time with the kids and Conor loved having me there. It was interesting to see how different they all were in their approach to the project. Some kids, would wait for me to help them draw a perfect heart, then they'd lay the glue around the edges and perfectly line up each heart. Conor was the opposite. He just start scribbling, dumping glitter, sticking random hearts. Hilarious.


The second thing that made me really happy this week was that Madeleine clearly said "Mama." Tonight when I was feeding her before bed, she looked up at me, touched my chin and said it! Complete love.

One last thing tonight. A special birthday wish to Nonna who celebrated yesterday!