Life's Little Messes

The kids were literally bouncing off the walls and furniture after the latest leg of Snowageddon 2010.

I decided to take the cushions off the couch and put them on the floor to come as close as possible to replicating a trampoline, with hopefully less opportunity for injury.

At that moment I was feeling like the perfect combination of my parents until I looked back at the now cushion-less couch.

Enzo's (my garbage disposal) eyes lit up at the plethora of snack options and Mya (my cleaner) exclaimed, "I want to help clean up!"

We got out the vacuum and got rid of all of Enzo's tasty treats (gross). We made disappear cheeto handprints (from the Super Bowl), sticky sucker remnants, spilt milk, corn flakes, pretzels, popcorn, you name it!

They had a great time wiping it down and sucking up the gunk, now the only marks remaining on my couch are these:

Making Eyes Across the Room

It still gets me when we're in a large group and Tonio and I make eye contact across the room. It takes me back to being 18 and that where that same smirk or wink made me feel like the luckiest girl in the world. There are quite a few more distractions in our lives these days, but these small moment bring it all back, home, to simply us.

But now there's another "man" in my life and today I was sitting at the computer, sneaking lunch. He was standing all the way across the family room at the train table. Our eyes met, then I waved to him and smiled. While holding his milk to his mouth with one hand, he waved to me with the other. Then he pulled his hand to his mouth and blew me a kiss.

In that instant, I felt so much love and a glimpse into my future. There will be fewer cuddles, more independence, less "Momma!" more, "Ma" or "Mom." Will that loving glance come from the school bus window, perhaps a wave from the football field, a wink after a performance? No one knows. I do know that I learned something today:

Here I am, blessed with two men, one big and one small. It doesn't matter at all that they look nothing alike, the magic is that they make my heart melt in exactly the same way.

Conversations Held in the Bathroom

I just stepped into the bathroom when I heard the familiar jingle of the door.

"Shoot, I forgot to lock it," I thought.

In peers the adorable face of Mya and she asked, "Do you need privacy?"

"Yes." I clearly replied.

"No? Okay. Hi, Mommy. Can you hold my water bottle. Here, Melva needs you to hold her too."

"Mya...(I tried to stay calm) I am on the potty, can you please take your things outside?"

Mya looks at me blankly, "Oh. Sorry. Do you need privacy?"

Hostess With the Mostess

I'm not sure what age I was when my mom taught me how to host a party but I'm assuming it was pretty young. Since then, I have become slightly obsessed with throwing a variety of celebrations. I thought now would be a good time to get Mya in on some of the decision making as we host together.

This morning we prepped to host a playgroup with all of Mya and Enzo's neighborhood friends. We loaded into the car as the sun was just starting to rise and took the familiar path to Kroger to pick up supplies.

Mya followed me around the store with Elmo on her hip and a large purse over her shoulder. We stopped several times so Enzo could point to the millions of valentine balloons that decorated the store. Then we stopped because Elmo just couldn't seem to keep his hands off the produce and Mya said he needed a time out.

Finally we made it to the juice aisle and I asked Mya, "What type of juice would you like to serve to your friends? There's fruit punch, cherry, orange...."

She tapped her chin with her finger as she contemplated their beverage of choice. Finally she settled on the perfect box and said, "How about the pickle one, yeah the pickle would be good."

Tomorrow I'm going to teach her the difference between a kiwi and a pickle.

Did I Do That?

We have cabin fever. It is awful and we all stare longingly out the window dreaming of days where we play outside.

During the summer we run to the stop sign at the end of our street. Lately, Mya has been asking on a daily basis if we can run to the stop sign. When I tell her it is too cold, I draw the line at 11 degrees, a tantrum is sure to follow. I get her feelings of disappointment, I'm feeling it too.

Today we offered to take her out in the balmy 34 degrees. We got her gear, pried the high shoes off, and pushed her feet into the snow boots. The only problem came about when she saw the pants I picked out for her to wear. "NO! I will NOT wear those. They don't match my outfit!" Yikes.

I think I have created a monster, a fashion conscious one, but a

monster none-the-less!

BooBerrie, where are you?!?!?!

Enzo has a lovie. His name is BooBerrie and he sleeps with him, carries him around the first 2 hours of the day, must have him at nap time, and rubs his soft little arms around his face to fall asleep. So to say we MUST have him around is an understatement.

As we head upstairs we often ask, "Where's BooBerrie?" Enzo usually turns his palms up to the sky and adds a questioning grunt, as he cocks his head to the side.

Over the holidays BooBerrie was tossed out the mini-van door without anyone noticing. Well, except Enzo noticed. We thought his tears were hunger, diaper, or exhaustion related so we kept on our way. Little did we know that BooBerrie was sitting alone in the parking lot of the Antique store where we had to stop for a potty break.

The next day Antonio searched (thank you Google Earth) for the correct Antique store and called them up. Low and behold BooBerrie was there! There he sat for a week until Dindah and Paw Paw were on their way to Columbus to pick him up.

Now we are much more diligent about keeping tabs on BooBerrie. However, we are always asking at bedtime, "Where is BooBerrie?". The other day, I just couldn't find him so I put Enzo to bed with his stand in, the less popular Woofie. I came down to finish loading the dishwasher and here is what I found.

NO!

All of the sudden Enzo is turning into a toddler and the baby moments are slipping away faster than I care to acknowledge.

As hard as it is to lose sight of your baby it is equally exciting to see our little guy grow in abilities every day.

It is really fun to witness his growing vocabulary. The list includes: Momma, My-ma, Dada, Nonna, Dindah, Paw-Paw, ball, dog, night-night, wow, whoa, bye, yo-yo (yogurt), and oh-oh (cheerio).

When times get tough, Enzo has a hard time expressing himself and his frustrations. Often times his big sister is the victim of biting/hitting/hair pulling. It is frustrating for all involved. He goes to Time Out after such "crimes" are committed. The Time Out is more for Mya's benefit as she quickly stops screaming when she sees he is being corrected. Antonio and I often look at each other in frustration thinking he's never going to "get" what Time Out means thus stopping the trouble behavior.

Today something clicked for Enzo..... Mya and I were working on play dough, crafting a dinosaur. Mya gave Enzo permission to take Elmo for a walk in the stroller. He smiled and took off. He abruptly stopped at the Time Out chair, removed Elmo from the stroller, placed him on the chair, pointed at him and said, "NO!"

So now we have a new word to add to the list. And maybe, just maybe, he understands what a Time Out really is!