Things We Need to Work on This Summer

Only two weeks into our summer vacation and I've come to realize there are a few things we need to work on this summer.  For starters ...

Not calling "Mommy!  Mommy!  Mommy!  Mommy!  Mommy!  MOMMY!" to alert me to the fact that you'd like to get up.  (Mollie, I'm looking at you on this one.)  I get it, you're up.  Calling like this too early in the morning will get you a cranky mommy, particularly when you emphasize the "MOMMY!" part every five or six mommys.  (Yes, typically when I actually get into her room and see her little face smiling at me I forget the rage I was in just seconds before, but it really gets my heart rate up and starts the day off on a shaky foot.  Having said that, I realize how lucky I am to have two amazing kids who want to see me so badly.  I really shouldn't complain ...)


Not wiping our hands on whatever surface/article of clothing is available.  You can reach the tissues, you can reach the sink and have access to the soap (for better or worse), heck, you can even ask for my help if you're stumped.  But please, for the love of my sanity, don't wipe your hands covered with who-knows-what on your clothes, the couch, the table, your sibling, ... okay?


You have three responsibilities at our house: putting away you shoes and coats after having been outside, picking up and taking care of your toys, and setting the dinner table.  None of these things take much time and all of them are within reason for us to ask of you.  Want me to list out my responsibilities again?!  Or, better yet, want me to stop doing some of my responsibilities?  None of these things warrant flopping on the ground and screaming at the top of your lungs; you guys are smart and know that won't get you anywhere; it just ends up taking up more time and letting us do fewer fun things.  (And it pushes Mommy ever-so-close to losing it on a daily basis.)  Please help things be more peaceful in our house and just participate with a smile.  (Yes, I know they are 3 and 4 and this might be too much to ask of them, but I still want to work on it.)


Please understand that Mommy is a human being and does not always want to sing along to every last word of every last Beatles' song on their number ones CD.  Sometimes my throat hurts, sometimes I've been talking and really just want to give it a rest, and on rare occasions when there is another adult in the car I'd really like to talk to that person.  John, Paul, George, and Ringo would probably be appalled at my singing anyhow; wouldn't you rather just hear their fantastic, professional voices?  And, at the very least, if I'm going to be singing could you sing along, too?  I know you know the words.  It'd make it that much more fun if we were singing together.


Baylor, this one's for you.  You need to stop reading over my shoulder.  Yes, I know you can read and love to do it (and I'm very proud and amazed at how great you are at reading already), but it's not really polite and quite frankly you're too young to be reading anyhow.  There are far too many things in this world that are NOT appropriate for you to be reading at the ripe old age of four, and sometimes those things pop up on Mommy's computer whether she knows it or not.  (Thank you, Facebook.)


As the summer moves on, I'm sure we'll add more things to this list.  *sigh*  Hopefully by fall we'll have made at least a little progress on each of these items, though some I have more hope for than others.  We'll see!