Mommy Friends and Children's Laughter

You'd be crying if your house looked like this too...

Seriously! 

How does one's house get THIS messy SOOOO quickly! 

I won't go into details about how I think the house got this way (a.k.a. I left the girls alone with Daddy last night (while I helped a friend with a baby registry and then went grocery shopping) who is an incredibly playful father, but not so much a multi-tasker when it comes to taking care of the children and cleaning up in their wake!) 

But, nonetheless, the house was messy and it makes me a bit crazy when it gets like that and while I didn't exactly cry about the house being messy it added to my sensitivities this morning that things felt like they were falling apart at the seams. 

The story gets better....

Shortly after we woke up, I heard Ava saying to Scott, "Daddy, can I watch this movie?" 

One glance at the DVD cover had me saying "Oh Crap!" Because the said movie was "A Bug's Life" and it belonged to the Lancaster Library like SIX DAYS AGO. 

Now, first I thought that the damage was a mere $6, which would have been bad enough ($1 a day for every day that it is late).  We took out 4 movies last week before we left for NJ and I thought I had taken them back to the library. When I saw "A Bug's Life" in Ava's hand I logged online quickly to check my account status. 

Imagine the look on my face when I saw that not only had "A Bug's Life" not been returned but neither had the other 3. Go ahead, do the math...That's right folks, $24 stinkin' dollars in late fees! (there are the movies on my messy table!)

In my slight defense, we got back from NJ last week and in the process of pulling all of the stuff out of the car and putting things away, the movies got stuck at the bottom of a big "put away" pile that evidently never got "put away".  

I was REALLY down on myself. I think because this was a manifestation of a lot of things going on in my life lately; all said things leaving my brain screaming "Lis, you NEED to get your act together. YOU ARE the mother now!" 

A few other bonehead things I've done in the last two months:  

• I missed Ava's 3 year checkup not once but TWICE; the first time because I hadn't written it down, the second time it turned out to be scheduled while we were on vacation and I while had written it down this time I temporarily misplaced the calendar it was written on!  
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• I've had a bunch of other less significant library fees. 
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•  I missed the 3- year birthday party of one of my other closest high-school friends' sons because I hadn't written it on the calendar! 

As you can see I really do need to work on remembering things here. 

As frustrated as I was, I held it together with hopes that maybe the librarian would grant me some reprieve when I told her my sad story. Not so much. 

That's when the tears came! 

Fortunately, not while I was standing in front of the librarian-- I held it together there. But, as soon as we walked away, tears, tears, tears. Enough that I avoided looking at several other people as we walked out to our car. 

I'm a pretty sensitive person, so this will come as no surprise to those who know me well...for those of you who don't, please don't feel badly...it doesn't take much to get me to cry. 

We got home, I made the girls some lunch and then several things happened to cheer me up...namely, sympathy from some mommy friends and the laughter of my children. 

I called my friend Sarah from MA earlier today-- she and I have a LOT in common-- she simply said, "Lisa, you're sounding more and more like me. I'm notorious for showing up at the doctor's office on the wrong day or at the wrong time and we had to pay a $19 fine for overdue books and movies earlier this year!" 

Whew. I'm not the ONLY one! 

Several other facebook friends admitted to similar foibles and recommended that I sign up for email notifications from the library which I plan to do before the day is out! 

Then, as I was cleaning the kitchen the girls started playing this silly game in which Ava threw a bouncy ball into the laundry basket and dug around for it until they could find it. When they found the ball Ella would cackle so hard all you could do was laugh with her-- it was infectious-- and then Ava started laughing at Ella who was laughing.

Shortly after the laughing ball game Ava and I headed upstairs to get her settled down for her nap. I was reading her "The Little Mermaid" and when we got to this page in the book the commentary that ensued had me cracking up...

"MOMMY! Look at her boobies!"

I ignore her and keep reading. 

"MOOOMMYY! Look at her boobies!" 

at which point I crack a smile. 

"MOMMY. Her boobies are bigger than yours!" 

At which point I can no longer hide my amusement and start laughing aloud. Ava thinks it's hilarious that she's gotten this kind of reaction so now she just starts saying, "Boobies. Boobies. Boobies!" 

Now I feel like I'm an 6th grader in health class all over again...laughing aloud at what I know is ridiculous and inappropriate, but really quite funny out of the mouth of a 3 year old! 

I put Ava down for her nap, took one myself, got up and had a cup of coffee. Though the day hasn't completely turned itself around I think that we owe ourselves to laugh and enjoy the little moments of joy as much as we can tend to get upset about the little moments of frustration. 

When we think we may be the only one's royally screwing up as parents in one department or the other, chances are we are A) probably wrong in our thinking that we are the only one's and B) are sometimes crumbling over things that, while they might cause momentary irritation, have really not affected anyone's well being (except our own!) at all! 

Here's to tomorrow being a better day and to attempts to not make mountains out of molehills.