10 Things I Learned This Week, Vol 114

What a week. Not only have you guys kept me solidly in the top 10 of the Circle of Moms NorCal Blogger contest (though doesn’t top 5 have a better ring to it?), you’ve given your time (and blood) to help change the future of cancer. In all seriousness, the day many of you shared that you’re participating in the American Cancer Society’s CPS-3 thanks to my post was absolutely the highlight of my blogging career. And the good news is, it goes through this week in the Bay Area, so there’s still time to participate. Get the details here. (And the Who Has the Coolest Readers in the Whole Entire World contest ends August 13th — and voting takes mere seconds.) So see, this could be another really exciting week thanks to you.

Lesson #1: If you think a 7-hour car ride with a screaming toddler can’t get worse, try sitting next to that screaming toddler as she throws up.

Lesson #2: The next time we’re about to return from vacation, we’ll be sure to send the neighbors some ear plugs as a courtesy.

Lesson #3: Pink can pretty much do whatever she wants for the rest of the day when she wakes up with the sweetest little voice saying, “I always miss you soooo much!”

Lesson #4: When you hear your 4-year old yelling, “Hit me!” in the other room, it may be even worse than it sounds. Instead of torturing him, his big brother might be teaching him how to play blackjack. Good news is, when their teachers asked if they practiced their math over the summer, I’ll be able to say yes with a straight face.

Lesson #5: While the rest of the family may not be ready for summer to come to an end, Pink has suddenly started begging to go to bus stop every morning. Like me after a long night of sleep, she says she just misses it “sooo much”. I’m guessing it’s the quiet following the bus stop that she really misses.

Lesson #6: It’s kind of a bummer when your kid’s intense fear of witches switches to dogs (and squirrels). It turns out they aren’t seasonal. (And you’d be amazed by the places people take their pups. Nowhere is safe for us any more.)

Lesson #7: When two of your closest family friends get new dogs at the same time, it’s just a matter of time before your kids start begging for one too. In our case it started with Little. Yes, Little. The same child from Lesson #6.

Lesson #8: When some of your best friends that you used to see almost daily move a couple hours away, the best way to make up for lost time is with a 28-hour play date complete with visits to 3 parks, 2 pools, 1 yogurt shop, 1 restaurant, and including a dance off, a movie viewing, a game of duck-duck-sponge, and a sleepover. Though it still didn’t seem like enough…

Lesson #9: It’s a good thing I don’t cook much. The boys have adopted all of our pots, pans, whisks, and spatulas for their instruments. Little’s been choreographing moves and writing songs like there’s no tomorrow (look out for his big hit Swimming Thrue The Ocean), Big’s been practicing on the drums and guitar (and transcribing Little’s lyrics), and Pink has been loaning them her shopping cart and practicing as their back-up dancer. Yep, it’s amazing what a trip to a music museum (and a daily addiction to Austin & Ally and/or Teen Beach Movie) will do for little ones’ creativity.

Lesson #10: You think you’ve raised your kids with manners and the ability to handle a nice evening out until you discover that they insist on using their chopsticks as drum sticks and your oldest, most mature child asks why you’ve gone to dinner at a place where everybody isn’t yelling. Luckily he was satisfied once he actually ate the amazing food and discovered that we got the same special treatment Justin Bieber did when he was there because daddy’s friend owns the place.

Here’s to a week full of hits and giving cancer a big kick in the butt! You guys rock!