Mothering

I might need to stop listening to NPR around my four year old. At first questions about Gaddafi were cute. Now they aren’t so darling. Although we did have a nice geography lesson this morning…this is where we live and this is where Libya is and wow look at that ocean. Now he is starting to ask me
about Iran.

At preschool yesterday that same four year old inspected the mole on one of the moms helping in classroom, gave her a shot and told her he needed to cut it out. Yep he sure did. There was something or other about needing to make an appointment at the front desk too.

My four year old can pronounce the names of dinosaurs so well that I secretly hope he doesn’t ask me to read the dinosaur book at bedtime because I’m tired of him correcting me because he is so clearly exasperated by me.

There were a lot of things I didn’t know about mothering when I was blessed by this job. For instance, I had no idea I’d become so adept at waste management and so inept at managing clothing.

My two year old hurls his body in all kinds of directions and sometimes I shrug it off (think: wow, who knew you would bounce off that like that and thank goodness you thought it was funny) and sometimes I scream bloody murder (think: YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO JUMP ON FURNITURE AND YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO JUMP FROM COUCH TO OTTOMAN TO COUCH TO CHAIR TO CHAIR DID YOU SEE HOW CLOSE YOU CAME TO FALLING OFF THE EDGE OF THE COUCH?!!)

Tuesday at preschool another mother asked me how I managed to always look so together. I told her that it was a slippery slope to sweat pants and a minivan and then another mother screamed “it so is!” and we had a great conversation about getting dressed and people wiping snot on you or pulling at your necklace and shoes with heels.

Last night Luke told me my dinner was so good that his heart was melting and I was an angel. On the spot I vowed to get him the ridiculous toy he wants for Valentine's Day. Nolan too...because I'm sure he said the same thing in his heart, he was just busy shoveling in my amazing dinner.