An anniversary of sorts...

Two posts in two days?  Guess I'm off the hook until March, huh?

Well, If I'm being honest, today has been "one of those days."  My heart wasn't really in it.  The older boys got up early early and then neither could settle down during nap/rest time.  By dinnertime there had been no quiet moments in the last 12 hours.  Add to that that Luke, who is always adventurous, was doing crazy things - trying to hammer a screw into the wall, unplugging the phone charger and swinging it around the house, dumping out the toys the second we got them picked up.  Seth was whiny.  Crazy whiny.  To the point of, "Mooooommmmm, Luke's pretending to eat pizza soup."  AND??  Anyway, my hour and a half on the couch with Max, reading, playing with kid books on my Nook, and finally snuggling with a blanket, was just the reminder I needed of why I do what I do.  Wow, that's a hefty introduction to this post. 

Things I never realized when I left the magical mystical world of being a government attorney to be a stay at home mom...

-My husband would no longer leave work, pick Seth up at daycare, run to the grocery store, and then cook dinner while I finished up "just one more thing" at work. Oddly, there was some expectation that *I* would figure out what to cook and (gasp) cook it.

-The cleaning fairy no longer showed up once a month to clean all the things I just didn't enjoy cleaning (aka everything). Again, strange expectation that *I* do this. Sensing a pattern?

-Dave's dress/work shirts no longer visit the dry cleaners and come home wrapped in plastic and ready to wear. Instead they accumulate in the "pretty" hamper in our closet until *I* wash them and then (double gasp) iron them. Again, it's really all about me, huh?

-There is no more daycare. Those days off from work where I would take Seth to daycare for a few hours, get all sorts of things accomplished, then pick him up and hang out, yeah - they no longer exist. Now I have a two or three man (boy) entourage for any errands I must run.

-How much time I would spend in the bathroom, watching other people do absolutely nothing whatsoever, but begging of them to please please please just "go."

-How many drinks could be poured into sippy cups - juice, milk, water, a very occasional lemonade.

-How many (fake) peanut butter and jelly sandwiches could be requested, prepared, and consumed. Or for that matter the number of options on which to make this sandwich - regular bread, thick bread, toast, skinny bread, tortilla, bagel, round crackers, rectangle crackers, even waffles.

-That I could watch the same Dsney movie over and over again and still get excited because it's so fun to watch the boys act it out along the way.

-That a kleenex-less mom with a sneezing child could fix the obvious problem by wiping the snot off with my own sleeve and then just rolling it up another roll.

-That there could be so many "ouchies" that would need kissed and that I would get to do all of that kissing.

-That all your priorities fly out the window when the sweetest 21 month old runs to you and wraps himself around your knees.

-That mornings are great times for cuddling a lovely almost 4 year old, and trading in fancy coffee and bagels isn't really a big deal when the trade off is Curious George and a fleece blanket.  

-That after signing your own name nearly 100 times a day, seeing your five year old write his name like he's been doing it forever could nearly reduce me to tears.

Yes, today is the 4 year anniversary of hanging up the heels and hosiery and trading them in for jeans, comfy pants, and casual shoes.  Usually at least one of those is covered in snot and/or food.  It's not easy, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.