Two Much Fun!

Another blog... that I forgot to publish.  Grrrrr......

Is it just me or did the past two years completely fly by?? It seems like yesterday we were on the ride from hell to the hospital and now... Mad Max is two! It truly is amazing the transformation that happens between birth and two years old. We brought home an almost nine pound baby boy who did nothing but poop, sleep, cry, eat, repeat. Now we have a miniature man who laughs when he passes gas and has no problem telling us what he likes and does not like. He went from waking up every two hours to going to the potty every two hours. From crying the second we removed him from his swing to crying the second we turn off Monsters, Inc. He went from having to be fed and changed, to eating anything and everything in sight with a fork and using the bathroom on his own. All of this in just twenty-four short months! It is truly unbelievable at times.

I never knew what sleep deprivation was until that little man came along. I had never been peed on and had never had to potty train a child. I had never been awakened by the sound of a screaming infant through a monitor and had never had baby vomit on my clothes.  (My sweet daughter was a miraculous infant / toddler.) I never knew just how badly a diaper pail could smell or how little tolerance one child can have for being told no.  I never knew that teething molars could be so miserable. FOR EVERY PERSON IN THE HOUSEHOLD!  I never knew that one small boy could make such incredibly large messes.  I never knew that tantrums really can last for what seems like forever and that sometimes you just have to leave the room that the screaming demon -- oops I mean child -- is occupying.  I never knew that a one year old boy can go from a completely adorable angel to Captain Destructo in less than 60 seconds.  I never knew that ANYTHING can turn into a car or a dinosaur at ANY moment.  One second he's eating an apple slice and the next it's being driven up and down your arm, horn honking and all. 

I never knew how much I would miss getting up in the middle of the night.  I never knew how sweet (and funny) it would be to hear a now two year old Max call us from his bed in the mornings.  I never knew just how much fun toddler boys have.  I never knew how imaginative he would be at two years old.  I never knew that a kid could have so much fun feeding himself.  I never knew how precious it would be to hear him say "Sowwy." I never knew he would love books this much.  I never knew he would melt my heart with, "MOMMY HERE!" when I pick him up at daycare.  I never knew how much he would adore all of the people in his life, including the dog.  I never knew how contagious his belly laugh was.  I never knew I would have this much love in my heart for TWO children! 

Dear Max,

On your 2nd birthday, thank you for being the absolute sweetest boy - even when it's difficult.  Thank you for teaching me that some toys are just more fun when they are being crashed into walls, that sometimes it's fun to eat yogurt with your fingers and that if you're outside and there is a running hose within a three house radius, you should be in it!  Thank you for loving your parents, your sister and your dog and thank you for actually saying it.  And selfishly, thank you for making me look good by saying please and thank you and using the toilet.  You are the best little boy I could have ever hoped for and I hope you still love me and think I am funny for MANY years to come! 

I love you Mad Max!  Happy, Happy Second Birthday!

Road Trip!

I found this blog buried in drafts...  Written in April 2 years ago....

Last week I found myself driving down the interstate, with both of my kids (sleeping) in the car, crying like a baby. I had spent Easter Week (better known as Spring Break 2010) on a road trip with my seventeen year old daughter and my two month old son. I know what you're thinking, that alone is enough to make anyone cry but that wasn't why I was crying. It had been an emotional week for me anyway. Visiting my family does that to me.  Add to that my son was not fond of the long distance travel, so our trip times were doubled to better accommodate him and don't forget to throw in some post-pregnancy hormones.  But all of that didn't bother me as much as thinking about the fact that this would be the last road trip Allyssa and I will take together before she finishes high school and starts a new chapter in her life.

Road trips have long been a tradition for my daughter and I. They used to be out of necessity, since I was a single mother and too broke to fly but now that we have become accustomed to them - we can't wait to take them!  We have MANY road trip memories. Some good... Making the cashier at a drive-thru in Kentucky laugh out loud when we pulled up to the window and I had attached a car air freshener to my ear and acted like nothing was out of the ordinary. The MANY times that Allyssa would do "research" on the road trying to determine how many people would wave at a little girl who waved at them first and if the color of ones car had any bearing on their propensity to wave back. The time when she wrote "SMILE" in big letters and put it on the window every time we passed a car and the routine concerts that we would put on for each other as we made the drive to wherever it was we were going. I can see my daughter now... seven or eight years old... Singing her heart out to Shania Twain, country twang and all and asking me in earnest if she did indeed sound like Shania.

And some bad... Being stuck on the side of I-24 for six hours with hundreds of other stranded travelers during a snow storm, subsequently having to stay in a bed and breakfast that Allyssa will tell you was haunted. Traveling to and from with very little money and no room for any kind of incident only to have my car break down somewhere in the middle of Tennessee leaving me with a hotel bill and a car repair of $500+.

We've come a long way since those first few road trips. For one, now I have another driver and sometimes we stay in a hotel on purpose.  My daughter has developed her own taste in music and an incredible sense of humor.  She's gone from a gapped tooth six year old to a beautiful young adult.  She has gone from needing help cleaning her room to volunteering to clean rooms at The Ronald McDonald House and completing a service mission trip in Costa Rica.  I went from a young single mom with three jobs to a married mother of two who often wonders how we ever made it the two of us.  Somehow, (by an act of God) I managed to raise a moderately normal kid with a great personality and a sense responsibility to the world around her. 

Raising Allyssa on my own for the first 15 years was a lot like one long road trip.  We've seen a lot of cool things, we've been through some bad traffic but as I looked over at my sweet and amazing daughter sleeping through the last leg of our road trip I knew the journey truly has been the reward!  Good Lord I love that child!