I'm Mommalee because my first child started calling me that when she was about two and a half. Mommalee- Moomalee actually. Now, my second child has coined a new name for me: Mommacollama Flower. Instead of Mommalee, I could have been Mommacollama. Great ring, don't you think?
No doubt, motherhood has its challanges. Why else would I always post in the wee hours of the morning? But where else can you collect such awesome nicknames?
I grew up with the name Mary. How do you shorten that? I have two sisters: Jennifer and Rebecca. They were born with nicknames. Jennifer was given her name partially because I could say Jenny. Rebecca declared at two years old that her name was NOT Becky, but Becca! I was just Mary! Nothing longer, nothing shorter. But now....I've got a whole collection of great nicknames. Sometimes, it really is the little things!

I grew up in a family of girls, three sisters. I have all nieces. My first child is a girl. And now, at thirty, I find myself discovering the world of little boys.
When I heard the phrase, "Boys will be boys", I used to think to myself that this was a fancy way of excusing poor parenting skills. Now, I'm beginning to think that there might be something to this. It truly frightens me though. What exactly is this half of the species capable of, that I may not be expecting?
This morning, while sitting at the breakfast table, my three year old son begins singing his newest song: "Everybody, look at my peanit (three year old for you know what)." He then proceeded to make it available for all of us to see. I couldn't believe what was happening!
Now, this brings me to my next epiphany. Who in their right mind thought that little boys underwear should include a hole for poking out their parts? I mean really! Why encourage this behavior? I must say, women who mother sons have a much better understanding of men, then they could have before having had a son. I never had a brother, so I'm not sure if the same is true of sisters of brothers, but I'm afraid, for my daughter's childhood's sake that it probably is true.

I'm sitting here on my bed on a warm (soon to be hot) Sabbath morning. Listening to my four month old coo, and the three and five year old conversing in the shower (nicely nontheless). We just finished breakfast in Mommy's bed, a Sabbath morning tradition that no one in this household would dream of getting rid of. It often results in needing to change the sheets before sleeping in the bed again, but it's a small price to pay for the joy of having everyone in my bed for breakfast.

When I was a child, we would climb into my parents' bed for the occasional ticklefest or a Sunday morning wake up of my parents. After the Northridge earthquake, my sisters slept in my parents' bed for several weeks. Even now, we climb up with our children in tow to chat with my parents late at night. But I don't ever recall eating breakfast in bed with my mommy.

My parents have a California King sized bed, which is why three generations of people can still hang out on it when necessary. My parents crawl into bed and don't see eachother again until morning. Our bed on the other hand is a full size bed, otherwise known as a double bed. Some would argue that it's size is barely sufficient for two people, much less a family of five having Sabbath morning breakfast in bed. But the tradition lives on! It keeps us close, literally.

So, this week I discovered vacuum seal storage bags! Why has no body bothered to recommend these to me already. I am shocked and amazed at how much space is taken up by AIR. My girlfriend with no children, and therefore, no storage problem, commented that they' ve been around forever. But no one ever suggested them to me. So now I can pack twice as many clothes into half as much space.
This solves the problem of storing outgrown clothing that the children will pass down to the next sibling. But I guess it won't solve the problem of their over abundance of clothing that fits.
I did find myself wondering what would happen in I used this storage method for stuffed animals. What would the removal of air do to the stuffed animal? Would they ever be able to regain their original shapes? Out of a fear of turning teddy bears into monsters, I'm not going to persue this one, but it probably would add quite a lot of space to our home.

My mom showed up at my house a week ago with two turtles. She picked them up in Missouri and drove them across the country, in order to drop them off at my house. Of course she didn't tell me that they were coming. Of all the souveniors that she could have brought my children, she chose the alive kind. Apparently, three dogs, a cat, three children (including a four month old) and a husband are not enough to entertain my time.
Now, my mom is smart. She knows me well, and so she introduced the turtles first to my three year old son. Now how could I send them away, after the three year old had already learned that they belonged to him?
The rest of that afternoon was devoted to figuring out what to do with two Missouri turtles in southern California. The first place we went to was the internet, of course. Only to discover that the turtles' were three-toed box turtles, and their current home of pine shavings in a tupperware container was poisonous for turtles and might cause damage including death. While their untimely dimise would have eliminated the responsibility of housing turtles, I have a three year and a five year old who had already named the creatures (Racecar and Emily).
We quickly emptied their tupperware cage and replaced the poison with a bag of sand, left over from last year's Mother's Day project of paving our front patio. (We only play on Father's Day.)
The remainder of our Memorial Day Weekend, which was going to be a relaxing time to catch up on household chores, became devoted to building a deluxe turtle habitat. One hundred and fifty dollars later, the turtles have a great five by six foot rectangle in my front yard.
I've read that three-toed box turtles can live up to forty years in captivity. After all the hard work that went into building their home, I hope they at least stick around for a year or more.

I'm now a mom of three and a homeschooling mom at that! I never imagined that I'd be this involved with motherhood, but I couldn't imagine it any other way. It seems like a lifetime ago that I was a career women, working in an ivory tower, married to a law student. I'm pretty sure that I'm the same person, only more complete. Life has more meaning when you realize that every move you make, might be the moment that defines your child's life.
Our childhood memories are so random. I often wonder which ones will plague my children's memories when they reach adulthood. Will they remember the times when I've been calm and patient (probably not)? More likely, they'll remember my moments of crazed excitement over their latest yelling match.

"I eat, you blink, I grow."
My three year old's newest mantra started after she overheard me telling someone how quickly my babies are growing. Tomorrow, my son will be one year old, which seems impossible, yet somehow it happened.
I'm sitting in a coffee shop getting a much needed break after a long day of whining and fussing, yet somehow the long days strung together fly by too quickly.
I listened to a group of women lamenting over their challenges as grandparents. They felt much wiser than they'd felt as mothers. They felt blessed to have the time they never allowed themselves as mothers, to really spend time with their grandkids. I just listened, thinking all the while how blessed I am. My days are dedicated to my full time job of raising my children. Blowing bubbles, swinging in the backyard, diapering baby dolls, reading stories, making vrooming sounds with toy cars, are all major parts of my day, in between dishes, laundry, meals and other mundane stuff.
I don't always get it right, but I think I've figured out the key: Time! It slips by so quickly, almost unnoticed it seems. Every moment is an opportunity for something, it can be used or wasted. The present becomes the past almost before you know that it was ever there to experience. Nothing teaches this better than being a mom, except perhaps being a three year old.

This is the life I dreamed of. As a little girl in our playhouse in the backyard with my dolls, my sisters and my friends, we made believe that we were mommies and neighbors and daddies and best of all grown-ups. And then one day, make believe became real life. So here I am, the mother of two little angels disguised as monsters sometimes, but truly little angels. One girl, one boy, two dogs (soon three), two cats, two fish, and one terrific husband. I have the best job in the world and today my house is clean (mostly), so life is great.