The hills are alive. . .

I feel moved to write a list. I know. I know. You're jumping with joy at the thought of reading this thing. Humor me, ok? Julie Andrews is singing in my head and the only way to stop her is by listing some of my favorite things:

- Sharing reading duty with Logan. At bedtime tonight I read one book. Then he read to me - "Hop on Pop" by Seuss. I'm not sure which of us had a bigger pride filled smile.

- Logan's frustrated voice as he says, "Mommy, I am not four-and-a-half. I AM four-and-three-quarters."

- Not having to worry if we're out of diapers or not. Yipee!!! Little Miss Meg, at 2 1/2 years old has offically been diaper AND accident free for a month now. Again I say, AMEN!

- Meg's rendition of the wedding march. Mind you, she's learning the march because our entire family of four is in a wedding this fall. Few adults (outside of maybe the couple and even that's sometimes questionable) think this union is a good idea. Megan has taken to singing (with NO prompting I swear) "Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb" to which I say "exactly! You got it!"

- Having a job that actually 'gets' that family comes first.

- Seeing my son tear through the park with his 'very best friend ever.' This being the first very best friend ever (VBFE) he's made without me setting up a "blind [play]date" for him. Luckily I find VBFE's mom to be an actual human being that I can enjoy talking to for a few hours at a time. Yipee! Logan set *me* up on a friend-date this time. Way to go kid!

- Hearing the following exchange after a sibling blow-up:

"Wogan, I am very, very sorry. I am sorry I threw your toy. I am sorry I hit you."

"That's ok, you're still just a little kid. You're learning."

- My whim to remove all the plants from one flower bed and transplant to other flowerbeds has yet to kill said plants. (Fingers crossed!)

- Knowing my anniversary weekend sans kids is almost a month away!

- Megan staring at the white hair that is starting to creep into the side of Daddy's head. Then her brash little voice declaring "Daddy! You have stripes!"

- Finally getting around to painting my living room which sorely needed it.

- Knowing my dear husband will finally get to use his new toy (I mean tool) to cut molding. The man asked for a mitre saw for Christmas so he could mitre me some molding. Now that the room is painted he can get to work. He's so giddy with anticipation it's cute.

Well look at that

Last night I attened a program through our school district on Kindergarten curriculum and readiness. I learned a bit about what to expect and how to help prepare the boy child for his upcoming school year.

I also learned that my little boy born in 2002 is about to become part of the class of 2020.

I know. I'm odd. This amuses me though. . .once my eyes stopped tearing up.

He's so cute

I don't even remember what prompted the conversation, but suffice it to say someone taught the boy how to flatter. (And no, it wasn't me)

"Mommy, Daddy is in his 70s right?"

"Ahhh, no. Daddy is not in his 70s. Daddy is in his 40s," I replied and amazingly I did not laugh.

"Oh, but you're in your 20s right?" he said.

"I love you Logan," I replied. Then I remembered that I've been raised in the family that lives by the 'it's this or dead so why worry about age' matra. "Thank you, honey, but no. I'm in my 30s. I'm 33."

"But you'll be 34 on your birthday and your birthday is in May?" he pressed.

And I nodded.

"So you're in your 30s and Daddy's in his 40s, right?"

More nods from me.

"So Daddy is still older," he concluded.

A few more nods.

"When I'm 18 Daddy's going to be really old, right?" he asked.

"Well, he'll be 60," I said, knowing Daddy does not always like to think of such things.

Logan mulled that over a moment and then said, "Right, he'll be really old...but you'll still be in your 30s then right?"

I love him.

So long, farewell

This relationship has been going on for almost 5 years. Although I'm still a little nervous to let go, I must confess that it's really time to move on. We need to part ways, you and I. I will no longer come to you for security and protection. I will no longer depend on you - except maybe at night when sleep settles upon my house.

Yes, Pampers, we're through.

Can I get an Amen?

A week ago Megan woke up and announced she was done with diapers and that was that. She does still need them at night, although she did go one night dry after waking up mid-way through to use the potty. She has had the occasional accident when she tries just a little too hard to be independent and a button slows her down. I still insist on a pull-up OVER underwear when we're going to be out of the house and I won't be with her - like child care at the gym or church.

For all intenstive purposes, however, she's an underwear wearing, potty using big kid.

Wow.

Can't say I'm sad to see the diaper phase pass.