MamaBlogga

This weekend two of my sisters came to visit me. Jaime interviewed my kids (well, the ones who talk) and their answers were revealing. Rebecca’s interview was an especial favorite. The highlight is definitely 1:32-1:55.

But perhaps most importantly, H is for this guy:

Happiness. We all want it. And yet it seems to elude us the more we think about it.

I think that it’s really easy to overthink happiness. Happiness is a choice, an attitude, but mostly for me it means focusing not on myself and what I want to do, but what I know is most important: my family.

This was a big take home lesson for me a couple years ago as I thought about how to choose happiness:

Choosing to be happy does not mean that we will automatically be happy all the time. It doesn’t mean we always choose whatever might make us happy right this second.

Choosing happiness means we choose the things we know are most important for our long term happiness. . . .

Choosing happiness means doing what I may not want to do most right now—it means choosing the thing that I know is right for me, what’s important in the long run.

My conclusion is something I still need to work on: “Choosing happiness means choosing my children. It doesn’t mean that I am completely subjugated or I have to ignore all my own needs—but when I take the time to really work at being a mom, the whole family is happier—including me.”

What do you think? What is happiness to you?

We don’t have a way to upload our regular videos right now, but I got this one with our still camera (hence quality, shakiness and silence) today. As a reminder, she’s 5 months and 10 days old:

She’s got that lateral motion down. Forward is . . . a work in progress.

Hayden’s more taken with taking pictures than being in them for the most part, so his latest video is things that he thought were worthy of filming:

And Rebecca’s is her three newest words

(They’re Becca, Pinky and milk.)

With Hayden, we had two people giving examples—me and Ryan. (And, let’s face it, most of the time it was me. That whole earning-money thing. Whatever.)

With Rebecca, she has two people with her pretty much all the time to model behaviors. She’s picking up signing probably about the same as Hayden did, and of course some things she hasn’t learned yet that he knew at this age—but some things she’s practically a prodigy at already.

Like this one:

She also does this whenever she sees me with my arms folded, and randomly throughout the day. I love finding her sitting on the floor, her arms folded and her head deeply bowed. She’s also done this while we were eating lunch or even out to eat, as if to remind us that we forgot to say our prayers.

I know there will be an equal number of disadvantages for her, of course—I just won’t have the same amount time I devoted to Hayden to give my singular attention to her—but I’m pretty proud of this one!

How were your later children easier than your first? What things did you notice them picking up on faster?

I’ve been making soup a lot lately: salsa soup, white bean soup, and coming up this weekend, turkey noodle soup, of course.

Hayden has also been making soup: mostly alphabet.

Yeah, that’s a deep fryer.

In other activities, Hayden has begun singing various and sundry songs, with a little help from us:

He’ll be ready for Don’t Forget the Lyrics any day now.

Not to be forgotten, Rebecca has made her own strides this week. On Monday, she discovered her toes!

Got toes?