Crazy For Her…

Today there was a minor accident at school. Madison was putting away her blankets after nap time and she, along with an accomplice, got a little carried away. Basically Maddie’s feet were carried away and her head hit the corner of her little fold-up cot. There was a little blood and a lot of freaking out by her teachers. They called Chris at work to explain what happened and he assured the owner that we would not sue.

When I picked Maddie up from daycare I asked her what happened. She pointed to her eye and started reinacting the incident, complete with fake wailing and ended with a big laugh. That big laugh, my favorite kind, the one where she puts her hand over her mouth and scrunches her nose. And in that nose scrunching moment, for the first time, she looked two years old to me. Old enough to forget about the pain but remember the accident and find humor in it.

In these moments I want to freeze time. I don’t want to go back but I am not quite ready to move forward. I just want her to get close to my face and say “Mom, Mom. Mom. Mama!”. Right now it is quite annoying but I know in my heart that this will pass and like so many other things, I will miss it.

I picked Maddie up at daycare on Friday and her teacher was cheering “Maddie went potty in the big potty!”. There was my little girl twisting and smiling with chocolate all over her face. I thought they rewarded her with a big chocolate sundae but it turns out they were celebrating National Ice Cream Day and not my daughter’s potty chair victory.

I was still very proud and excited with the idea of the money we would no longer spend on diapers. The same idea I had when she stopped drinking formula and I still have no idea where that money went. Still excited, I wisked her away from daycare and straight to Wal-Mart where we went shopping for big girl underwear. Immediately I was faced with more choices than I wanted on a Friday evening. However, I did not have to choose between thong or bikini, thank you Lord!

I left the store with training underwear, toddler underwear, a package of Pull-Ups and a bag of Gummy Bears. We came home and I unpacked the bags to show Maddie all of the new potty attire. She was not impressed. In fact, it turns out that the only thing we really needed were the Gummy Bears. Maddie is not ready for the big girl potty and that is ok with me. We are now prepared for the big day whenever she decides she’s ready or one day prior to her 18th birthday, whichever comes first. I did find out that she likes red Gummy Bears the best and that makes me proud because they are my favorite too.

I had a conversation with a co-worker this morning about children. During this conversation the topic came up about children and special powers. We both decided that if children had these abilities (laser beam eyes, telepathy, spitting fire, etc.) their parents wouldn’t make it past two years.

The first time I didn’t give Maddie what she wanted, I would end up with a ruptured spleen. And it would only get worse from there.

Lucky for me, Maddie is like Gleek the Wonder Monkey, no special powers, she just carries the water bucket.

Mornings are sometimes crazy around our house. This morning was no different in that department. Chris was getting Madison ready for school (AKA Daycare) and I was trying to get myself together so that we could leave the house on time. After three changes of clothes we were out the door.

I had driven the car less than two city blocks before Maddie started screaming like she was being attacked by a two-headed Bobtail Skink. If you don’t know what that is, look it up, you will scream. So I tried everything to distract her, “Look Maddie, big truck (she likes big trucks), I tried singing Little Bunny Foo-Foo (her favorite song) but still the screaming. So I did what any good mother would do, I turned up the radio a little bit louder so I could hear something other than the screaming.

We get to school and I open her door (still with the screaming), I pull her from her carseat prison and she points to the floor. There in the floor lay two peanut butter M&M’s. So that’s what the screaming was all about. She grabbed the M&M’s and quickly put them in her mouth and at last the crying stopped.

I continue my drive to work with the radio still blaring and thinking I must stop at the store on the way home and load up on peanut butter M&M’s to make my mornings a little quieter. I get to work and quickly forget about the M&M screaming until two hours later, I am reminded once again. A co-worker comes to me and says “What is on your shirt?” I look to where she is pointing – on my shoulder is a quarter size spot of peanut butter M&M slime. As if Maddie was trying to tell me, “Don’t forget to pick up some peanut butter M&M’s”.