If you're a mom and you know it, clap your hands! (Or just read this...either way.)

It seems worthy of mentioning that I have reached and surpassed 15,000 blog hits!  Not bad, folks.  Not bad at all.  I have no idea what this actually means, and I maintain that half of those hits are me obsessively hitting "refresh" for no apparent reason, but still.  A big heaping thanks to you all for reading and commenting and letting me know that you're out there!

Now onto more pressing matters...like How to Know You're a Mom...

If anything ever goes missing, you totally blame your toddler.  Nine times out of ten, it was probably actually their fault.  (Some parents have kids so they can make them do chores, others so they can blame stuff on them.  Me?  I do both.)

You remember the days when a beach vacation meant toting nothing but a book and a chair to the surf and quietly reading for hours.  Those days are long gone...but you wouldn't trade the new meaning of "beach vacation" for anything.

You sometimes wish your fearless three year old was just a little bit more fearful, especially when she runs full tilt straight into the ocean (for example).

You're convinced that your one year old has bionic ears.  No matter where she is in the house, within seconds of opening the refrigerator, you hear her panting and running towards it with the excited anticipation of scoring some type of snack.

You know the relationship between grandkids and grandparents is special, and you love how much they love each other...but you can't help wondering how big a role the fact that the grandparents never enforce naptime or bedtime plays into that love.

You've never seen someone get more excited over a rain shower than the weekend after your kids scored new umbrellas in their Easter baskets.

When you splurge on a family dinner at the Japanese Steakhouse, you're shocked to find out that your ordinarily fearless three year old is terrified not only by the fire, but more strangely, the chef's hat.  Maybe you'll show her this picture later and see how she reacts...you know...just for fun...

When all else fails throwing things into water is an excellent source of entertainment, be it stale bread into a duck pond, pennies into a fountain, or rocks into a stream (just to see the splash).

You find that your one year old loves music so much that it takes a mere two beats to launch her into giggles and an all-out dance party.  She is the living definition of "dance like no one is watching".

You walked in the living room to find your five year old lying in crunch position on the floor, so you inquired, "Doing some sit-ups?"  To which he incredulously replied, "Not me.  I'm doing some lay-downs."  Kids...