"Mom, look! I'm nursing."

I'm terribly behind in so many aspects of life as one who runs the house.  For instance, the kids still (in spring) have loads of fleece PJs and clothes in their drawers, and now nothing will shut properly.  However, with the recent string of deaths and illnesses in young parents around me, I have been attempting to embrace the moments that matter.  We go to the park on beautiful days.  We snuggle on the couch and read books.  One day we read pre-nap stories on a beach blanket in the yard and ate popcorn in the sun!  Bursting drawers and snow boots still in the bedroom closets be damned...we're going to have some fun around here.

Vivian's main source of fun is at Henry's expense.  She figured out that if she wields Barbies at her brother, or mermaids during bathtime, she can totally and absolutely send him into shrieking hysterics!!  I kind of like it, because he gives the rest of us so much trouble that Henry has his fair share coming.  Robbie told me he heard from a friend that having a two-year-old in the house has been likened to living with someone under your roof who is constantly drunk.  We got a lot of hard laughter out of that news!  Yes, they have no impulse control.  They make huge messes.  Reason doesn't work.  Wow, why didn't I think of that sooner?  Robbie and I have been living with 2-year-olds for many, many years in a row.  Someone is always two, or acting like it, around here.

Usually when Henry wakes up we all hear the pounding of his fast feet as he sprints down the hardwood floors in the hall to find me.  This morning I only heard whimpering and some moaning as he entered the kitchen.  He was sore from his four mile run, and his little body was tight all over.  He was in slow motion for the whole morning.  This NEVER happens.  Later, when Henry got up from naptime without ever having gone to sleep,  he entered the living room with a tiger and a stuffed giraffe to his nipples.  "Mom, look!  I'm nursing."  He was SO proud of himself.  He was also very excited recently when he arrived at playgroup and ran to show his boy buddies the My Little Pony Rainbow Dash toy figurine that we are going to use, against Robbie's wishes, as his cake topper.  It is his heart's desire to have Rainbow Dash on his birthday cake.  He's been talking about if for months.  I, as his mommy, will make his dreams come true.  I, as his mommy, will pull this cat out of the bag way down the road when he brings some pretty girl home from college.  I can't wait!!  Again, Henry has paybacks coming.  Bless his heart.  I love him dearly, but he can wear a woman out.