Run as long as your little legs will carry you

This is the motto my son lives by.  He starts the day running and goes and goes and goes.  He is no Forrest Gump, mind you.  He runs with a purpose.  Yesterday’s purpose was apparently one of self discovery because this is how I found him.

Precious, but I quickly bundled him back into a diaper and clothes so that we could avoid spreading those baby booty germs about the house. 

Today was a new day but the same race continued.  Bryce ran and ran.  He ran so fast that he ran right past his morning nap.  Unfortunately, naps are hard to outrun and Bryce ultimately lost the race, but I think neither of us were prepared for the finish line.  He fell asleep on the rug while I was changing his diaper!  I guess babies “hit the wall” sometimes, too.

Things I learned at the beach

I was blessed enough to spend the weekend at the beach with my Mom, sister, and 5 kids.  Relaxing?  Maybe not.  But we had an incredible time together and learned something new every day.

 

Lesson 1 : Little monkeys will make their own fun when the DVD players stop working.  We moms should give them the chance more often!

 

Lesson 2:  Popsicles taste especially good when shared in a bathtub full of friends

 

Lesson 3:  Sometimes a Southern Girl just needs to get comfortable and eat a bag of chips.  (European style!)

 

Lesson 4:  We should all be as confident and comfortable with ourselves as a 1 year old.

 

Lesson 5:  All the packing, planning, whining (mine), and sleep deprivation were worth it!

Wrong answer, Mom!

My daughter is 3 1/2 which means that we inevitably get to visit the bathroom at all of our favorite shopping stores. During a recent visit to the lovely facilities at our local Wal-Mart, I had one of those “Mom Moments”. I really can’t blame this experience on my sweet girl or even myself. Here’s the culprit…

Yep! It was the toilet’s fault.

When I first discovered auto-flush potties I thought it was the wave of the future. So nice that I no longer had to risk dropping a shoe in the toilet while balancing on one foot trying to flush. (because there is nooooo way Misty’s gonna touch the handle in a public bathroom!) What I never fathomed was that someday I would squat down in front of one of these fancy contraptions, holding my three year old, trying to make sure that neither of us comes in contact with what we refer to as “booty germs”.

Well, this is how it happened. We had both assumed our positions. My precious girl does her business, uses her toilet paper and then casually (or so I thought) asks, “Mom, does this potty flush?”.

Me: “Yes, baby, it flushes.”

Ella: “Does it flush by its own self?”

Me: “It sure does.”

My little angel then lets out an awful scream and leaps onto me in true McMonkey fashion. I have to admit I was caught off guard but not so much that I was willing to let me or my baby touch the public bathroom floor. I then somehow managed to stand and that’s when I realized that Ella still had her used toilet paper in her hand and was rubbing it all over my clothes. I started to yell, now.

Me: “THROW THE TOILET PAPER IN THE POTTY!”

Ella: “No! No! The potty’s gonna get me!”

Me: (while trying to pry the dirty hand off me) “Throw it in! Throw it in!”

Ella: “It’s gonna be loud! It’s gonna get me!”

I finally managed to pry it out of her hand (ugh!) and got her dressed. I then took her to the sink and scrubbed off as many of the booty germs as I could and tried to ignore the giggles coming from one of the stalls.

This experience has taught me several things. First, the questions my kids ask are seldom casual even when they appear so. There is often a bigger picture I need to search for. And second, always be on the lookout for leaping monkeys.

There Was a Little Girl

 

 

There was a little girl

Who had a little curl

Right in the middle of the forehead

When she was good

She was very, very good,

But when she was bad she was horrid.

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

4th of July fun

We spent the 4th outside playing in the sprinklers and enjoying the day. We promised to take the kids to a fireworks show that evening and my daughter was super excited.  That is until I referred to fireworks as  “pop-pops”, which I thought was okay because this was the term she came up with last year to describe them.  Apparently, I had mistakenly provided the memory queue she needed to remind her that the fireworks were incredibly loud last year, a little scary, and had brought tears.  Before things went downhill too fast, we came up with a solution…

She was super cute in her daddy’s headgear and she pranced through the crowd of people at the fireworks show like the princess she is.  You would have thought she was wearing a tiara!  She gave a very loud (because her ears were muffled) commentary of the whole fireworks show and kept us laughing.

My precious baby boy, who is fearless, didn’t even seem to notice the sound.  He was completely captivated by the lights.  He would point his little finger and clap his hands and say, “Oh! Oh!”  It was precious.

Despite the look on my face and the obvious exhaustion, it is so much fun watching my kids experience and be excited by the same traditions my family had growing up.  If I could keep them small a little longer, I certainly would!