Advent of birthday season

Tomorrow is Molly's 9th birthday. I am not exactly sure where the time went or how she got so big. Tonight for family counsel we listed 9 things we love about Molly. Zoe and Heidi kind of fixated on the fact that it was her birthday tomorrow and there would be cake and ice cream for them to imbibe. Some of the parental contributions were:
obedient spirit
peacemaker
great smile
great singing voice
smart
great hair and increasing ability to style it herself
great with little kids-will be an awesome babysitter one day
helpful
true friend
It was nice to spend a few minutes telling Molly how wonderful she was because she really had been a great kid all day while her siblings had all suffered tantrums and meltdowns.

Other gems from the day:

Tanner, when Reed asked him what a color was "Oh, that's firetruck" (which is every color that is close to red)

Heidi on realizing the timeing of birthdays "I'm gonna have a 9 year old at my birthday".

Zoe threw a fireball of a tantrum, the likes of which Reed has never been around to witness before, including sitting on her bed and screaming about how unfair life is and chronicing all the injustices she can think off just to yell them out. The impetus for this tantrum was her assignment to tidy the TV room to earn an ice cream cone. Molly and Heidi had also been assigned chores and Zoe convinced herself that her task was greater than the others and therefore unfair. My strategy is usually "I am a mom and I broker in obedience, not fairness." I told her she didn't have to do it, she just wouldn't get ice cream. This of course didn't help. Reed talked her down from it. I was fully prepared to let herself scream herself to sleep. I impressed upon her how lucky she was and that she ought to be liberal with her gratitude for his help.

The thing is Zoe can be the best kid, but she falls apart if she is tired or hungry, which is a whole other story.

I love being a mom.