somethingreal: 5onFri(7) here today

update: it has been brought to my attention that i skipped #3. clearly #3 is anticipating the day my brain returns from pregnacy fallout, breastfeeding brain drain, and any other reasons i can conjure up to excuse the fact that counting to five is hard. it's hard okay. alright that's all. buy bye.

if you have been reading for any amount of time you know-- these babies...
i love them longer than a checkout line before a blizzard.
i love them deeper than my laundry pile after two weeks of camp.
i love them fo'sho'.
nate has already been prepped for the ugly cry hormonal mess i have every intention of becoming upon the arrival of babies leaving, spreading wings, growing up in general. tears in my coffee have been shed over putting up onesies, baby rolls smoothing out, proper pronunciations of words being grasped and the like... but come on. come. on. there are those things that i really won't miss. things i won't be sad to see disappear like gorillas in the mist.
these are those things...

top 5 things i will not miss about my life right now in relation to being surrounded by the most delicious babies/children known to man:

1. the constant checking/changing of other people's pants.
i remember back to the day when it was socially inappropriate to sniff someone for offensive odors or to be involved in their 'business' in any way really. it's like dogs gone wild around here. there are absolutely no boundaries to the length at which these small people need/desire you to be intimately involved in said business. sniffing and checking and wiping and cleaning... one day we will bring back some good old fashioned social norms where people keep their business to themselves. i will not here screams from the bathroom. "i'm doooooooooooone!!!!" i will not ask my husband for specific descriptive details on the state of the baby's poo. color, texture, frequency... you know the drill. it will be the good old days where poo happens.. but i don't have to know about it. :)

2. the saving/protecting of life, limb and sanity from each other.
the squeezing too hard and the playing too rough.
the fighting over who had the toy first or how long a turn should be.
or why babies are not expected to put their messes away.
the explaining that lucienne can't say with words that she does not want that helmet on her head or to play humpty dumpty on the couch with you.
the prevention of glasses breaking and small toy swallowing.
dropping babies.
slamming fingers.
finger sweeping for small, half chewed objects.
all.before.lunch.

right now between grayson being a 3 year old rough and linebacker and lucienne jumping knees first into the world of crawling/scavenging it's quite the all encompassing experience some days. just this week luci somehow managed to get her hands on a stray cat turd. which i realized when i saw her puckered up face sucking on something that appeared was making her wish she had a spit out reflex-- not just a put everything in your mouth compulsion. further inspection brought the realization of what we were dealing with here. even after thorough washing of her mouth her breath smelled like a cat butt. literally. i ended up using the kids licorice non fluoride toothpaste to 'wash' her mouth and finally got the stink out. right after i signed myself up for mother of the year award. this week i also had to floss her 4 teeth after she chewed on blue crayon. she also choked on a chickpea but thankfully has a fantastic gag reflex do to her intense love of scavenging. it's a pretty good time.

4. the messes...oh the messes. i don't mind the cute messes. the fingerprints on the glass. the lone car hiding in the plant, the baby doll tucked into my bed. those kind of messes have the ability to give me warm heart smiles and remind me that one day those will be fuzzy memories i conjure up when i desperately try to remember what an open mouth baby kiss feels like. or chubby arms around my neck and an 'i wub you momma' in my ear. i'm okay with those little reminders around my house that little people walk these floors and breathe this air. i'm talking THESE kind of messes....

the overflows, the all out toy box dumps, the 'my room is so messy that i had no where else to play so i dumped this in your room'... kind of thing.

someone likes to leave this guy out and make me do the embarrassing late night 'what the!?!' jump and clutch my heart dance. that's awesome.

5. my shower. we only have one bathroom... so my shower includes moving ariel and all her little friends, being interrupted for any and all bathroom experiences, tissue needs, tooth brushing, a room to use for hide and seek and the constant tattling/conversations/urgent questions about the iraq war. i'm not joking. someday i will shower at will. without interruption. i will shave both legs. i will use conditioner for the recommended allotted time. it will be a dream.

oh i love those babies. the good, the bad and the ugly. i think God knew exactly what he was doing when he wrapped up all the hard and covered it up with all this good..

that peanut butter and jelly sandwich is so smooshed up together you can't separate one out from the other.

the hard and the heartbreaking. the achingly sweet and the... ummm yeah grayson just peed on the floor apparently just because he has the ability to do so and thought it would be fun- hold that thought.

cleaning,

scolding,

asking why,

no idea,

using up my last. bit. of energy.

put in bed.

hug, kiss, new day tomorrow.

whew. anyways. like i was saying. i love those babies. :)

but you know what is good??? cupcakes.
fantastical, terrifying, gravity defying hi-hat cupcakes.
i'll get a step by step post up about them next week. but it's always a good idea to end with cupcakes. :)