You Know You're a Mom When's-Day

Just moments after emerging from an oh-so-needed shower, you find both of your forearms covered in an unidentifiable sticky substance after a split-second hug with any of your kids.  Because they're all equally likely to be the sticky bandit.

You know from personal experience that there is no fix for Jet-Dry on a laptop keyboard.  No matter how quickly you dismantle and clean it.

You have reached the day where your toddler no longer removes her diaper in a civilized manner (if there is such a thing), but instead has resorted to ripping it to shreds, She-Ra style. 

About a day after you wash the bathroom rugs, you always re-realize that you probably should've gone with a color besides practically-white in a house with three kids.

While pondering potential, future careers for your children, you have the most fun with your toddler's possibilities.  Among the front-runners right now:  tight-rope walker, stunt woman, and crash test dummy.  This is in stark contrast to her older brother who will make an excellent litigator, and her older sister who will likely be some sort of backpacking artist.

You decide that among the most magnificent sights in the life of a parent is watching all the kids get along, even if only briefly.  It's even better when they're all getting along because the older one is reading to the younger two.

 

You've had to resort to dead-bolting all of your doors, or else you're standing at the stove cooking, look across the kitchen to the window and see this:

And even this (in case you can't tell, she's sprinting her little heart out toward that playground):

You had no idea how cute and rewarding it would be to watch your four year old run laps at soccer practice.  (Go Abby Go!)

You've watched history repeat itself.  Just two short years ago, your toddler's big sister discovered the joy of shaking little stick trees on the very same soccer field.  And now...even though they're a little thicker, it didn't stop this girl from trying.

Tree shaking circa April 2009...

You've learned that there are two kinds of silence.  The peaceful kind when you know the kids are asleep, and the super-scary kind with which lurks the promise of mischief when the kids are most definitely not asleep.