The Most Important Thing I've Learned As A Mom

What are the most important things you have learned as a mom? For most of you it's probably something along the lines of "I didn't know I could love somebody this much" or "I never knew I could enjoy waking up repeatedly with my children". You are good people. For me? The lesson I am most proud of myself for learning is that messes can be cleaned up. That's the whole thing. Hands can be washed. Clothes can be burned. New sheets can be bought. Floors can be scrubbed. It's all good.

We went to McDonald's last week yesterday a couple of weeks ago to get Tommy a "brown ice cream cone" because I am not above bribing my child. It was one of those soft serve ice creams dipped in the chocolate sauce that hardens. We both got one and they were delicious. And messy. And they started dripping as soon as the McDonald's guy handed them to us. And they kept dripping and pretty soon Tommy had ice cream flowing down his arm, off his elbow, and onto his lap. Did I mention they were messy? And that we used at least 87 napkins to clean up? I was busting up laughing while I watched Tommy try to eat this thing. He literally had ice cream all over his face, both hands and arms, his chest, and his lap. You have been duly warned. If you need to bribe your child to do something like not pee in their bed maybe you should choose a treat that's not so sticky.

"It's a good thing there's a bathroom!" - Tommy

A couple of weeks ago we had some really beautiful weather. It was cloudy and rainy for a few days, so we took advantage of the cooler mornings and evenings to go to the park a few times. I don't know when it has ever been cool enough to walk to the park in August in Phoenix, but there you go. I don't know when it has ever been cool enough to walk to the mailbox in August in Phoenix.

Anyway, we went to the park and the field that is usually grassy had turned into a small lake. Tommy wanted to step in it and I thought that would be a splendid idea. Little boys are supposed to splash in rain puddles, right? Well, what I didn't think about was that we live in Arizona and the grass is constantly infested with biting ants (all ants here bite). So I sent my little boy into the bug-infested water and even after he looked back at me and said his legs hurt, I urged him on and cheered and clapped at his boyishness. Once he started crying I stopped clapping and realized that he was being eaten alive from the feet up. So then my mama bear instincts kicked in and I whisked him out of the water and tore off his shoes and socks and smashed all the ants. All of them. Then we were left with a little dilemma. Lily was in the stroller and Tommy was barefoot and his shoes were still crawling with ants. I had no choice but to squish both kids into the stroller and you know what? It worked great! They loved being squished together. Aren't they cute?

Sometimes when Lily wakes up and I am in the middle of something I send Tommy into her room to keep her company until I can come. The other day I walked into her room to find that Tommy had climbed into her crib and promptly stole one of her binkies. He said they were playing garbage truck and that Lily was driving.

A couple of weeks ago Tommy woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 4:45am. I decided that since we were all tired we would trek over to the zoo where we could walk several miles and burn off all our excess energy. The morning was cool enough that it was actually pretty enjoyable. It rained a bit while we were there and just when the sun came out we played at the splash pad inside the zoo. Bonus. Tommy fell asleep on the way home, which was my conniving plan all along. Even though he fell and skinned his knees at the zoo and then insisted on being carried everywhere after we got home because his "blood hurt" we had a great time. We love our Tiny Tom. If you ask him what is his favorite thing at the zoo he will respond 100% of the time "the tractors". I'm glad he was willing to share them with his little sister.