My sister, my idol

I always knew that my sister, Nicole, was a rockstar mom, but I had even more proof after visiting her, my niece Morgan, and nephew Parker, yesterday. First of all, as a teacher myself, I have always told Nicole that she better find a REALLY good school for her. She will be three next month, but she is absolutely beyond her years already. She is definitely going to challenge her teachers -- not in a bad way, but in a "I already know this -- please give me something harder to do" way. She has the most remarkable vocabulary already ("I didn't even recognize you mommy!" was a recent sentence she said to my sister), she is too smart for her own good already (she knows the difference between an alligator and a crocodile), and is extremely upbeat..most of the time, right Nicole?!? The activities Nicole does with Morgan and now Parker, are awesome and I've even bookmarked some of them on my own computer so when the boys are old enough, they can do some of them. Nicole talks to and plays with Morgan and Parker all the time --doesn't just sit them down in front of the tv and do her own thing. She takes "stay-at-home" mom to a new level. I remember going with Nicole to a well visit doctor appointment for both Parker and Morgan just weeks after Parker was born and Morgan (who just turned 2 at the time), asked Nicole if she could put up the window because it was too breezy. Um..breezy? Yeah, unreal huh? Morgan even enjoys putting her dirty dishes in the dishwasher. Really?? Yup!

Well, yesterday when I took the boys to visit their aunt and cousins, we were getting ready to eat lunch and I couldn't believe the lunch she prepared for Morgan. Nicole said that when she made it "fun" (see below), Morgan was more into eating it. Her lunch included a PB&J roll-up, yogurt with blueberries on top of it (that Nicole added), carrots and dip, and a small sliver of a magic bar for dessert, with a glass of milk. Seriously she needs to have her own magazine or write her own book or something -- "Making Daily Activities Fun for Kids" perhaps -- activities, how to make "chores" fun, recipes, etc. I don't know -- I'd read it!

I was hoping to get a picture of the boys with their cousins yesterday, but it simply didn't happen -- getting them to all be awake at the same time didn't really happen for long. The best I could do was when we were leaving. The boys were in their carseats already and a bit fussy during that transition, as I was gathering all our things. Nicole started rocking the car seats to calm them down. A couple minutes later, she went to go get something for me and after we got back near the boys, here is Morgan slowing rocking the car seats and the boys were fast asleep. You go Morgan!

We had a great visit, although it seemed way too short. I am excited that I'll have all summer off to visit even more, though. I can't wait for the four of them to grow up together and hopefully be as close as my sister and I are. If I can only be half the mother my sister is, I think I'll do just fine... You rock sis! xoxo