Dancing with Daffodils

My precious first baby turned eight today. I remember her birth so well with all of the newness of if written on my heart and body. I woke up at 5am to go to the bathroom and felt a little gush so I called the doctor and she said to come in. I took a shower and got to the hospital at 6am. I remember when they finished breaking my water for me and what a strange sensation that was, and how relaxed I was because I had an epidural. I was so numb though that even my fingers were tingling and it completely freaked me out so I had them dial the medicine down. My husband was reading the Reader's Digest to me but I was so tired and struggled to stay awake and listen (even though later I found out he was trying to help me go to sleep). Because I was so numb, it was really hard to push and it took about 2 hours before the doctor threatened to suction my baby out. A quick two pushes later, she was out at 2:04 p.m. on a beautiful summer Sunday afternoon, She needed some immediate attention...

This week was #2 in my happiness challenge and I focused on increasing my emotional happiness through better parenting. It was a great week. I didn't raise my voice, I limited my sarcasm, and I tried to be more fun and easy going when my kids were being challenging. On the first day when my three-year-old spilled her full bowl of cereal all over the floor, I sang to her to get a towel and clean it up instead of my usual, are ya kidding me? In fact, singing helped a lot in the beginning of the week. I sang to my children when they were fighting and I sang to them when I was super annoyed for various reasons. The best was when my three-year-old sang back to me in a very operatic voice telling me she would sit nicely at the table. I laughed out loud and that was a wonderfully fun moment that I appreciated. I feel like I'm constantly correcting my kids. Eat over your plate. Be nice. Don't scare your little sister. Give that back. Stop whacking him with the blanket. Try that...

It has been a busy summer but this week I tackled my goal of being happier by challenging myself mentally. Every day I took at least 20 minutes to myself for this goal, which was no easy task. I only missed one day of practicing the piano and it was so enjoyable to have that much time to just play. While I practiced all types of music, I decided to especially focus on re-learning Rachmaninoff's fifth piano concerto. It was my senior recital piece and I'll admit I barely made it through the song back then. I love it though and can mostly play it so I'm hoping that in a few weeks of concentrated effort that I'll be able to sit down and play it all the way through again. I also spent time reading a fiction book about WWII that took place in Hungary. I know very little about Hungary so while it was kind of depressing, it was informative and an interesting read. I also broke out my Norton Anthology from when I went on study abroad to London and read through some John Milto...