Gotta' Love It

I know I don't have to tell any of you mom readers out there, but the difficult early years of raising young children is...um...difficult. And while griping and moaning about cleaning poop out of the carpet, refereeing squabbles, and fixing dinners that no one will like, with the remaining three ingredients in your pantry, serves its own VERY IMPORTANT purpose, we DO have to once in a while celebrate those moments that really keep us going.

Like this morning.

Now, I will start by saying that the inevitable ramification of children being raised by a childbirth educator is that they learn about having babies much sooner than other kids. You just can't expect young children to not take interest in the baby dolls, pelvis models and posters that mom hauls around with her to and from class. And I still call myself proud to know that my children know the correct terms for vagina and penis...there are no hoo-hoos or wee-wees in our household!

As we were getting ready to leave for preschool this morning, five-year-old Ellie was toting her doll around, cradling Baby Alice in her arms, telling me how "newborn babies like to be held this way," and confessing that, "I just had her yesterday. I walked around a lot and worked really hard to have her come out of my vagina." She made me promise her I would "give her baby mommy's milk" while she was gone to school, in case her baby got hungry. Oops. Baby Alice is still out in the car...

Anyway, now driving into town to make it to my dermatologist appointment before preschool drop off, all three kids in tow, Ellie wondered aloud what babies drink while they're inside their mommies' tummies. "There's a kind of water in there called amniotic fluid," I responded as matter-of-fact as always. "Oh," Ellie replied as content as always with my matter-of-fact answers.

"Is there any sharks in there?" Landon wanted to know of the water in a mommy's tummy. It was, after all, a legitimate concern. How would a baby stay safe in his mommy's tummy if the intrauterine environment was also inhabited by a Great White?

Once in the dermatologist's exam room, my kids were excited about the "big blue dress" I got to wear for my exam. "It's just a paper gown," I explained. "It makes it easier for the doctor to look at my skin." I was, after all, feeling quite gleeful that the doctor was only going to be looking at my skin. For me, going to the doctor in the past few years has usually involved a paper gown, a set of stirrups and a very cold instrument.

As the doctor looked me over, the kids intently eying her, and me, Ellie stood up on the exam table step. She began poking and prodding at my arms and chest in quick succession after the doctor. "This is a big one," she pointed out of the mole on my chest.

"Thanks for noticing that, Honey."

This, of course, comes on the tale of an incident two days ago during which I found three-year-old Landon hitting his twenty-month-old baby brother with a plastic golf club. "Landon, we don't hit people with golf clubs!" I hollered, swiping the club from his grasp. "Why would you think that's ok to do?"

"Because, I thought he was a golf course," Landon replied with as much innocence as he could muster.

I'm fairly sure my sister did exponentially more horrid things to me growing up and I, along with my own sometimes frazzled mom both survived. This is the stuff that makes life rich, right?

So I will continue to record these priceless moments. Who knows...maybe there's another book out there, just waiting for me to write!

What was YOUR favorite silly kid moment this week?