Happy Birthday, sweet Catybug. All I can really say is how proud we are of you. Thank you for reminding me every day of how precious life is, just by being you.

This post is from Leanne Wildermuth : Artist by Nature.

She’s Twelve.

Then…

Now…

And the conversation this year went a little like this:

Me: So, how do you feel? Do you feel older?
Chickeymonkey: Yes! ::rolls eyes at me::
Me: How do you feel older? What changed?
Chickeymonkey: Doh Mom, 6 is BIGGER than 5!

And there you have it. A great snarky start to the beginning of our sixth year with Mini-me.

This post is from Leanne Wildermuth : Artist by Nature.

Chickeymonkey’s Six

This post is from Leanne Wildermuth : Artist by Nature.

She’s Eleven!

Welcome to my Birthday! Today is the day. Help yourself to a nice piece of cake! Yes, that is my cake. Except that I put the words on there. The rest is totally edible. And the frosting? Buttercream, of course!

I woke up at 6:00, and nothing happened. So far, turning 36 hasn’t proven any different from yesterday. Here are some non-eventful events that have (or have not) unexpectedly occurred today.

• None of my Birthday Wishes have come true (yet). Bummer.
• I do not have the urge to hide my age or pretend I’m any younger. (I thought I would. Can any of you old people tell me at what age this occurs?)
• I didn’t spontaneously lose the rest of my hair color and turn gray. (it could happen.) (yes, I was worried about that, too.)
• I had an uncontrollable, unexplainable urge to wear red today. And so I did.
• I got a new zit. It’s all shiny, and red. Hey, do you think that’s why I had that urge?
• My husband put gas in the car. What a man.
• He also woke me up with kisses and happy birthdays. Again. What a man.
• He ALSO wrote an e-mail to John Mayer’s management team to request John make an appearance on my blog today or something. Well. Like that’ll happen. (I’m still gonna cross my fingers in hopes that he’ll think I’m cuter and more lovable than Jessica Simpson, and that he won’t be able to resist the urge to check his new amps with a nice jazzy rendition of happy birthday and upload it to YouTube just for me.)
• One of my girlfriends sent me a GC to Amazon for a backyard birding book I’ve been eyeing! She rocks!
• My other bestest buddy send me a GC to John Mayer’s gift shop. Does that girl know me or what?! She also rocks, of course!
• My Catybug was so sad about having to go to school and missing spending my birthday with me that she got sick! Isn’t she so sweet! (Damn flu.)
• I did not fall down on the sheet-of-ice parking lot taking the Chickeymonkey to school!
• My hubby is going to make me my Birthday Lasagne for dinner!
• My nonfat vanilla latte tastes the same as it did yesterday! Yes I was expecting it to be better. I thought I’d appreciate it more. Sadly, that’s not the case.
• No wrinkles have appeared today to mark my age. Somehow, I keep thinking I’m a tree, and that I’ll get a new “ring” every year. Phew, I’m glad I’m not a tree.
• I didn’t break a hip. Thank God. I was worried. Fortunately, I have nothing to report on the Brittle Boned Old Lady thing.

You are welcome to come over for dinner, cake and ice cream! I’ll even make ya a Purple Pig (which is the happiest most fun purple kool aid drink EVER)! I know, I’ve been a big tease the last few days, but aren’t you glad you stuck with me? NOW you can have cake!

This post is from Leanne Wildermuth : Artist by Nature.

I’m 36!

So I wonder. The minds of my children are spinning creatively with “what do we get Mommy?” and I love it. I love seeing their eyes sparkle and shine with a twinge of deviousness, keeping a secret from me. There’s nothing better.

Still, part of me wants stuff. I do. I’ll always cave to the kid in me that wants to make a list and give it to my own mommy, you know? This year, it’d go something like this.

I know you can’t afford much this year, and I know you’re probably not going to make the early morning trip to the grocery store followed by a 2 1/2 hour drive to my place just to prepare my Birthday Lasagna, but I want you to know how cool I think that would be, and how a little part of me still hopes you’ll do that – even though it hasn’t happened since my 18th birthday. Thanks for making my birthdays special, even though you’re the one who did all the work.

I know I’m really old now, and birthday presents are a rarity, but here’s the deal. I want some stuff, and I don’t know how to get the stuff. Since you’ve got a few years on me, maybe this year you could just give me tips and tricks, a little motherly wisdom, and I’ll be all set.

1. I want the bruised relationships of certain people in my life to be healed. I want to not be the one to have to hold hands and lead people to one another, I want to see people take initiative to make things that are wrong right, and just do it. I want this to happen magically, overnight if possible, so that I can wake up the day after my birthday and hear that bridges have been rebuilt and are better than before.

2. I want Catybug to not put so much pressure on herself to be the A+ kid. She’s turning into a perfectionist, like her mother, and I want her to ease up on herself. I’d love for this to happen overnight, too. I’d like to wake up Monday morning and know that whatever test she has, she’s totally fine with doing her best, and I’d like her to know that I’m totally fine with that, too.

3. I’d like it if I could start getting the words out again. I have so much I want to say, but I care too much about having an opinion that might offend. I’d like to find that balance between caring and being brutally honest.

4. I want my property back. I don’t want garbage leaning up on my big expensive fence, and I don’t want dogs peeing on it, either. Please tell the surveyor to hurry up, and to consider working for a trade.

5. I want to not be so nervous about exhibiting my paintings. I want to humbly hang my work and not think or stress every day that if someone doesn’t like something, that it’s any kind of reflection on me personally.

6. I want my hair to be really long. Please send magic potion.

7. I’d like for my finances to make sense in my head. I’d like to open up the budget and know exactly how to make the impact I need to make in all of the right places, and I’d love for God to continue to provide for us and allow us to continue heading in the right direction.

8. I really would like Lasagna for dinner on my birthday. Really. And german chocolate cake. Chickeymonkey wants to see how many 36 candles are. Just between you and me, I kinda do, too.

So there’s my list, mom. I think it’s affordable, I just don’t think that my 36 years have given me enough time to figure all that stuff out yet, not on my own, anyway. (Okay I can figure out the lasagna and cake, but that’s really much better coming from you.)

Thanks again, mom, for the 9 months and 18 years of dealing with my crazy antics (before I moved out and you didn’t have to take responsibility for them anymore). Thanks for being proud of me even when I feel like I’m failing.

Love,
Me.

So there you have it, my pre-birthday wish list. There are a few days left, plenty of time to thoughtfully consider it and make some of this stuff happen, right?

I’ll let you know how it turns out.

This post is from Leanne Wildermuth : Artist by Nature.

Almost My Birthday

Even the gibbons know she’s a monkey. She’s my little Chickeymonkey, and she’s five today. Happy Birthday to my little big girl!

Me: “So, you’re gonna be five, huh?”
Chick: “Yup!”
Me: “Does that mean you’re going to turn into a gorilla, or an ape? Now that you’re getting bigger?”
Chick: (Making a sad face) No. I don’t wanna be a gorilla or a ape. I wanna stay a Chickeymonkey.
Me: “Yeah, you like being my little Chickeymonkey, don’t you?”
Chick: “Yeeaaahhhh” (grins)

*****************

Me: “You can have french toast sticks,”
Me: “Or you can have some cereal,”
Me: “And you can have some milk.”
Me: “You can have some grapes in your lunch, if you want,”
Me: “But you can only be four for ONE MORE DAY.”
Me: “Then you have to be five.”
Chick: “Awww Maaaaan!”

*****************

Me: “So, how old ya gonna be again?”
Chick: “Five.” (holds up this many)
Me: “Wow. That’s a LOT of fingers.”
Chick: (giggles)
Me: “So then what are you gonna do?”
Chick: “Then I’m gonna be SIX. And then I’m gonna be SEVEN, eight nine TEN and then I’ll be the same as Catybug!”
Me: “Yes, well, by then, Catybug will be 15. I don’t think you’ll ever catch up.”
Chick: “Awww Maaaannnn” (rolls eyes)

*****************

A day in the life. What I wouldn’t give to have my biggest complaint be that mom is yanking my hair out when she is trying to brush the knots out. To be five again. To have such a wonderful, helpful big sister to play Littlest Pet Shop with, who only tortures you on occasion. To be a snugglebug, cuddly little kissyface brown eyed munchkin whose smile lights up the room, whose giggle is contagious, whose dry snarky sense of humor is too much like her mother’s. Who eats every ten minutes and chooses peanut butter on a spoon more often than not because “that’s protein, mom!”

And to think, five years ago today I was in tears, not knowing whether or not she was going to make it. Wondering how I could possibly help her fight for her little life, lungs under-developed, broken collarbone, tubes winding in and out of her little body in her little incubator oxygen tank. Crying that I couldn’t nurse her, couldn’t hold her. All I could do was feel her little fingers wrap around me for short periods of time a few times a day. Bringing her home finally, after a week in the NICU, and I swear I never put her down.

Now I can’t even pick her up.

Happy Birthday, Chickeymonkey!

Love, Mom

This post is from Leanne Wildermuth : Artist by Nature.

Chickeymonkey’s Five

Happy Birthday toooo youuuuu
You belong in aaaaa zooooooooooooooo
You LOOK like a chikeymonkeyyyyyyyyyyyyyy (see her shirt?)
and you smell like one too!

My baby chick is 4 years old today! She is very happy about her Birthday Cupcake Breakfast. Nummmyyyyyy!

Happy Birthday my lil’ Chickeymonkey Minime! I like you!!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxo

This post is from Leanne Wildermuth : Artist by Nature.

Chickeymonkey #4!

“Happy BIRTHday TOOOO youuuuu…
HapPY BIRTHday TOOOOOOOO youuuuuuuuuuu….
HaPPY BIRTHday dear Maaaarrrrkkkk…
HAPpy BIRTHday to YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!”

Special thanks to Omaha Steak company (or google, or something) for the plate of food. Looks nummy to me!

I will not be making steak and potatoes for dinner, though! If I could have found a crock of angel hair pasta with diced marinated chicken? Well then that would have been swell! I forgot to take a picture of it last time I made it, so fooey on me. That’s what Birthday Boy will be having for his B-day home cooked meal. Last night we had dinner at his favorite restaurant with the folks-in-law, and he liked that, too!

Something about men and food. They don’t care about presents much, huh?

Happy Birthday to my Hubby, my MAN, the Love Of My Life… like the old saying goes, you just get better with age! XOXOXO!

This post is from Leanne Wildermuth : Artist by Nature.

Singin’ for Supper

(I am hoping this pic turned out okay, I can’t really tell on hubby’s laptop!)

This post is from Leanne Wildermuth : Artist by Nature.

My Birthday Girl!