2nd Mother's Day

Today is my 2nd Mother's Day and it was better than the 1st one, except for the unfortunate clam chowder incident... My sweet little Maria kept me up much of last night so I could enjoy her company for almost the entire 24 hours of Mother's Day. Maria & I sat outside this morning and I saw a beautiful white cockatiel! Tried to get a picture, but my digital doesn't have a good enough zoom and the batteries are dead in my other camera. Then I saw what could have been either a female cardinal or perhaps an oriole. I was juggling the phone and binocs while feeding Maria, so I couldn't get a good enough look. Very exciting bird morning! Manolis gave me a beautiful pair of gold whale's tail earrings for Mother's Day (I think Maria picked them out). Very nice!

Then Maria and I took a bath together with a bubble bath bar called Ruby Slippers because of the red glitter and a bath ballistic (fizzy) that has rose petals in it. Manolis went to church, Maria took a looooong nap, and I cleaned both bathrooms. I finally woke the princess up after 3 hrs or so and we went to the nearby Pier 1, Cost Plus, Barnes & Noble, and my favorite, WalMart. (Last time we went to Barnes & Noble, Maria decided to cough up a big juicy one, sending the guy in the comfy chair next to us away. Kinda funny, kinda not...)

Came home and made some clam chowder with the fresh clams I got from the Chinese Cultural Center market yesterday, while Maria spent some time in her stander and crawler (first time in a long time...). Tried the clam chowder and boy was it nasty. Don't necessarily think the clams were bad, but they were chewy, chowder tasted like nothing. So we dumped the rest of it down the disposal and ate leftover lentil soup. 1st time I can remember throwing away something I've made. Very disappointing! (see, Manolis should have taken me out to dinner.)

Last year, Maria had her feeding tube, this year she's been w/o it for 10 months! She got her hearing aids a week after Mother's day last year, still has them. Her 4th tooth was about ready to erupt last year, now her last 4 molars are coming in. Last year she was yelling, keeping me up at night, now she's still keeping me up, tho' not yelling as much. Sue, the nanny, started a couple days after Mother's Day last year, we still have her and still love her. Maria's seeing and hearing better than she was last year. Smiles more. Interacts with her environment more. Holds her bottle. Has more contraptions (stander, crawler, variety of chairs, etc etc). Rolls a lot more. So, all in all, last Mother's Day was pretty good, but this one was even better!