Lately I am noticing little aspects of J's personality emerging.  I see him do things and they make me so proud of who he is and confident in the person he will become.  At least, I hope what I am seeing is the foundation of the good hearted, kind person I hope he is as a man.

One thing I noticed recently is that J is very kind to smaller kids.  He ADORES his cousin Anna (age 18 months) and has always been very patient, considerate, gentle and kind with her. He has recently started calling her his "sister" and asks about her every day.  I have always been impressed with how he treats her (because patient, kind and gentle aren't often words that can describe three year old boys).  But, recently, I saw him around another child of the same age. J was so sweet to this little girl.  There were many children playing and jumping around, but J made sure to look after her.  The kids were taking turns jumping off a ledge onto a huge beanbag.  J helped this little girl onto the ledge, took her by the hand and then they jumped onto the bean bag together. When bigger kids came around, he made sure they weren't going to land on her and that she had room to jump.  He shared his toys with her and they got along exceptionally well. I hope this is a trait he never loses. I hope he always looks out for the little guy. I hope he always makes sure that people who are littler, slower, younger or whatever are watched out for. Because to me, a big part of a person's character is how they treat "the little guy".

                                                        Jackson and "sister" Anna
                                        
I have also noticed recently that J has the tendency to be a daredevil. He likes to try things that make my heart leap into my throat when I see them. He doesn't see things as too hard or seem to be intimidated out of trying them.  But, I also noticed that he doesn't throw caution to the wind and just dive into dangerous things either.  He is very methodical about testing the limits of what he can do.  Again, I hope this translates to the rest of his life. I hope he always has the desire to try things that might be intimidating or daunting to him, but that he does so responsibly. I also hope that he never looks at something and thinks, "That looks hard or risky, so I won't try it." Instead, I hope he says, "That looks hard, but I think I can do it. I won't know until I try."

                                           Downhill racing. We don't have a bike helmet yet, so this
                                                                           Was J's solution (lol).  

                                                 The next Evel Kneivel? Maybe if he grows a little.

Also, J has recently started being able to sympathize with people and will apologize without us making him.  That may seem silly to a lot of people, but that is important to me. A good example of this was a few weeks ago. J dropped something on his dad's foot and it very obviously hurt his dad.  Ryan left the room to let off the steam and J was visibly upset that he had hurt his dad. I have told him before that it is up to him whether or not he says sorry, but that when we hurt someone (no matter why) we should say sorry. This time I didn't say a thing.   His dad returned and with no prompting, J said ,"sorry daddy" and gave his dad a big hug. Why does that matter to me? Because it shows empathy. And because it was sincere. J could understand that his actions hurt someone. It also shows an understanding that an apology isn't just for wrongs we MEAN to do, but for those that are accidental too.  I want J to always to admit when he made a mistake be quick to offer a sincere apology.  Too many people don't value empathy and sincerity anymore. It is a small example, but I hope it is the first stop on the path to a man who does value those qualities.


The last trait I see emerging in J is gratitude. I love to hear him thank people for things. Especially when I don't have to prompt him. Obviously, it is good manners, but I hope it goes deeper than that. I hope he realizes that people are being generous to him and that he appreciates it.  And I hope he in turn will be generous to other people.  A while back J received an unexpected gift. It wasn't a big, over the top gift, but J loved it.  Upon receiving it, he said to me, "mom, these cars are awesome, I need to write a thank you note." Hallelujah! All those cards we have written may be sinking in! I hope that J is always thrilled by any gift given to him, no matter the size. I hope the surprise of someone acting kindly to him never goes away and that any time someone is kind to him, he continues to say, "thank you, thank you, thank you!" with that smile on his face and twinkle in his eye.  And I hope he only continues to grow in his desire to give to others. I love it when we are at the store and he sees an item and says, "you know who would like that? Daddy. Let's get it for him!" I want giving to be as exciting as receiving for my son. When J gets a new toy, we have a rule  that he has to pick one toy to give away.  The last time he got a new toy, I reminded him to pick one out to donate.  Without a single complaint, he said, "yeah, because some kids don't have toys and they might like playing with one of mine". 

                                                 This is the smile and the eye twinkle I was referring to!

Kids are obviously works in progress. Adults are too. We all need to learn and grow and be reminded to be kinder, more understanding and more generous.  Seeing J start to "get" these concepts helps  me to be mindful of these things too. And it reinforces to me to keep on him about those things because he does get it. Even when I think he doesn't.  Hopefully, he continues to impress me!

Things No One Tells You (Part I)

I have been thinking lately about the things no one tells you when you embark upon parenthood.  I am titleing this part I because, let's face it, J is only 3.  I am certain there are going to be infinitely more things that I encounter that will make me think "How come no one told me about that?" Because clearly these are things that every parent knows. When you talk to friends and tell them of a recent experience, they shake their head in a sympathetic way because they have been there too. Yet, they don't warn you.  Well, I am putting it all down here. Whoever reads this will have fair warning!

The first thing that no one tells you is that not all children sleep through the night.  To hear other moms tell it, their babies reached 6 or 8 weeks of age and began sleeping from 7pm to 7am with not even a whimper in between.  But, there are other moms that don't tell you that you could get a kid like J. (Maybe they don't share this one because they don't want to send frazzled new mothers into a tailspin .) J is the world's wost sleeper. I always said he was a happy baby and easy going to make up for the fact that he never slept.  That was the trade off. Happy baby, bad sleeper.  He was one before he made it for an all night stretch.  It is not uncommon for him to have nights where he wakes up 4-5 times (always for such incredibly important reasons such as "my socks hurt" or "I want toast".) And in an everage week, if he sleeps all night 4 of the 7 nights, I am happy. I am also happy if he stays in bed until 6a.m. That is the rule. Now that he knows numbers, he isn't allowed to get up until he sees 6:00 on the clock (although, this morning, he laid awake whispering loudly: 5:44, 5:45, 5:47 so the 6:00 rule didn't really pay off there!).

You also don't get told that everyone will judge how you parent. Yup, everyone.  And it is super frustrating! Although, I have concluded that this one is all about karma. Because before you had kids, who hasn't thought, "Man, that kid is acting up, seriously can't you control them?" or "Seriously, get that screaming kid out of here!".  And then you have your own kids and karma gets ya!  No one warns you of the extreme embarassment you will experience. But, they also don't tell that you that EVERYONE'S kids have meltdowns. Mine is no exception. And eventually, they all do it in public.  And when it happens, the young women look at you like you are the worst parent on Earth because they don't have kids yet and haven't been through it. The moms with older or grown kids do the same because that same hormone that makes you forget how painful labor is apparently also makes you forget what little nincompoops your kids can be. The only ones who understand are the other moms who are abandoning their full grocery carts in the middle of the store to take a screaming kid out to the car. 

And to follow that one up, no one tells you just how hard this parenting thing is!  Sure, you hear people say it is hard. But, no one tells you the nitty gritty, down and dirty truth. It is ridiculously hard.  You juggle your job, your child, what passes for your social life, your home, your marriage.  You function on the already mentioned lack of sleep and cram more into one day than you ever though possible. You will be tired, stressed and overwhelmed.  Your heart will break when you have to discipline your child or take them to get their shots.  You will be sad when their feelings are hurt or they are mistreated. You will be frustrated because, darn it, this kid just won't behave! But the flip side of this reality is that when that child hugs you and says, "I love you mommy" or crawls in your lap and says, "I'm cold, warm me up", you will know happiness and contentment that you could never imagine.  The truth is also that you will have moments that take your breath away. You will experience happiness, pride and love like you never thought possible.  So, I guess the basic warning should have two parts: you will be closer to losing your mind than you ever have been before, but you will be so in love with that child that you won't care.  I think that sums it up!

Also on the list of top secret mommy info is the fact that you will never feel like you are doing a good enough job with your child. You don't get a nice pamphlet entitled: Mommy guilt: You Are Not Alone.  No one tells you that you will lay awake in bed  debating whether or not to run your sick child  to the ER, which formula to use, which diapers to buy, did you give them enough time, love attention etc.? Or that you will agonize over whether or not to send them to Kindergarten or wait a year. Or that you will obsess about just about everything they do all the time.  I don't know if there is an adequate warning for this.  But here it is: WARNING: You will lay down to sleep each night and think, "was I a good enough mom today? Could I have done more or been better? Do I have everything ready for tomorrow?"  Honestly though, the fact that you are thinking that, means you are one darn good mom.

And to end on a light note (since this got heavier than I thought it would!), no one ever tells you that boys are gross (maybe some girls too!). It is as simple as that. They are nasty :)  They think fart and poop jokes are funny from the moment they learn to laugh.  It is hard wired. They will touch things that make you cringe. They will run around in dirty, smelly clothes and not care one bit.  They will eat things off the ground and wipe their noses on you. They just can't help it. It is a DNA thing.

There you have it. Installment number one of "Things No One Tells You." Stay tuned.  This kid is full of good material :)

The Dells

This past weekend, our family ventured to the North for a short get away. I had never been to the Dells, but have heard that it is a must-do for families.  J likes the water and swimming, so we figured this would be right up his alley. After, packing enough stuff for a trek to the South Pole (seriously, I over pack so badly it is ridiculous!), we headed out on Sunday for some water park fun.


The ride to the Dells was much quicker and smoother than expected. Anticipating boredom, I packed everything I could think of to occupy J during the 2 1/2 hour ride (crayons, books, tractors, trains, my ipod stocked with new games and enough snacks to feed a small nation). Turns out, we really didn't need much of that stuff. J was a car-riding rock star! He was happy playing "I Spy" type games and commenting on things we passed. Or he amused himself with silly made up games like "Hiding under my greenies". He did ask "Are we there yet?" every time we slowed down or stopped along the way (Roughly 732 times, I would guess).  And he commented that the ride was "long" and that "I am waiting forever and ever to get there!". But, that was the worst of it. Upon arriving, he once again asked if we were there. Ryan and I happily said"YES!" to which J replied, "Oh.... well, that didn't take very long."

Our hotel was the Wilderness Territroy, which I highly recommend. It has three attached water parks and a huge 4 story play area for kids. There is an arcade, indoor mini golf, laser tag, pottery making and all kinds of outdoors stuff we couldn't try on this trip, but will certainly try in the future (To the Wildernss Hotel group- you know where to send payment for this endorsement).  Plenty to keep an active 3 year old and his parents very busy.

We checked in and I pack muled our stuff to the room (husbands and kids mysteriously disappear when there is heavy lifting to be done). We quickly donned swimsuits and were off to the water park. Our first stop was the Water Dome. A huge glass covered area where the main attraction was a huge wave pool. I didn't think J would be into the idea of a wave pool, but I was so wrong! He LOVED it! And not just gently riding the waves. He preferred to have waves breaking in his face, submerging him. He laughed his hilarious little laugh the whole time.

 



 We stayed for a couple hours before J got too cold and we headed back to our room.  We ordered pizza and hung out before we turned in.

The next morning, we were up, suited and waiting for the water parks to open (my only complaint is that nothing opened before 9a.m. and that is a lot of time to kill when you are up at 6!).  We started out at the wave pool again, but this time, the glass dome ceiling filtered in a ton of sunshine and it felt like a day at the beach.  After we stopped for a snack, we mosied over to the Klondike Cavern Water Park. 

Once there we set a new world record for longest time spent floating on a lazy river (okay, Guinness hasn't confirmed this, but I suspect it is true!).  J loves to people watch (just like me!) and was satisfied floating around watching people on the slides and seeing the 1,000 gallon bucket dump water all over.  We rode the river until lunch.  We followed that up with a family nap (hooray!) before hitting the third water park, the Wild West Town.  This was a lot more J's speed. More geared towards little people with smaller slides.  After that we cleanedup, put on respectable clothes (no swim suits for dinner out!) and hit the town for supper.  We all fell into bed exhausted, but happy.

On our final day, we opted to spend the morning in the 4 story play area.  We figured more water park would mean a soggy, uncomfortable ride home. J was okay with this arrangement as he had a blast in the play area.  It was equipped with every kind of slide, crawl space and climbing apparatus you can imagine.  It also had air cannons that shot nerf balls.  J was more into gathering up "ammo" in the totes provided that he was shooting them, which worked out well because his dad was waging war on some 8 year olds and needed a steady supply of nerf projectiles.  There is something so wrong about seing a 39 year old trying to snipe a kid using a gun shaped like a rodent.

Once I tore Ryan away from the guns, we crawled around with J for a couple hours.  (Coincidentally, it was that long before Ryan could walk totally upright again following all that crawling around.) 

The play area wore us out and did J in too.  We got in the car and he promptly fell asleep for part of our ride home.

It was a very nice break from reality for all of us.  I got to be "off duty" for two whole days (no cooking, no cleaning, no work!!!), J got lots of fun time with mom and dad and a good time was had by all.  I must also say that J was nothing short of angelic the whole time.  He really made the trip enjoyable and I appreciated his good humor each time we encountered a child in a nuclear melt down.  We will most definitely be returning to the Dells!

Thomas The Train

Anyone who knows J knows his love of all things Toy Story, Tractors or Thomas. For along time, J was obsessed with watching the Toy Story movies. Recently, Thomas has been at the top of his list. He gets a limited amount of t.v. time (contingent upon eating a good supper and behaving well). We have been trying out Net Flix which offers tons of episodes of Thomas to choose from, providing a little variety for mom and dad.  Here are my observations on Thomas.

Thomas and his friends are trains working on the Island of Sodor. They each have some personality quirk (or disorder) that makes them unique. Thomas' best friend is Percy. Percy is rather whiny and borders on unintelligent which allows Thomas to get him into trouble a lot.  There is also James who has a bit of a narcissism problem (come on, his red paint isn't THAT awesome that he must mention it every episode!).  There is Emily (who is like, a valley girl or whatever), Charlie (who tells bad jokes) and Spencer (the arrogant control freak).  Gordon thinks every task is beneath him and says "oh, the indignity!"  whenever he is asked to do something.   There are others such as Edward, Mavis, Toby, Cranky, Kevin and Victor who make regular appearances to round out the cast. Kevin is my favorite.  He is a little crane that works in the Steam Works with Victor. He is clumsy and drops stuff all the time. Victor is always saying, "Slowly, Kevin, slowly. Gently, Kevin, Gently." I use this on J when he is ramming about the house or trying to "help" me with a project.  He finds it hilarious and slows down to a reasonable speed.

There is also Sir Bertram Topham Hatt (yep, his first name is Bertram). Bertram runs the railway.  His day starts with going to Tidmouth sheds to assign jobs to  the trains. These jobs are always vitally important (ie: carrying a pole  accross the island to put up a birdhouse, driving an opera singer to her concert or making sure a load of flour gets to the duke's summer house so that he can make cakes for tea).  He gives Thomas these important jobs to do with stern warnings about the awful things that will happen if Thomas doesn't come through. Then Thomas ALWAYS messes up in one way or another.  Sir Topham yells some more (flirting with a heart attack) and Thomas goes around trying to prove that he is a "really useful engine". In the end, Thomas redeems himself and Topham calls it a day and goes home to his wife (Lady Hatt). Also, Bertram apparently suffers from some sort of short term memory issue. Because even though Thomas messes up every time, Sir Topham continues to assign him jobs wasting time and railroad resources.

Of course, each story has a good lesson to it. Although, sometimes they are a bit obscure and non applicable to people. For instance: "Don't lie or you might get turned into a chicken coop" or "Don't be vain or you could get bricked inside a tunnel." And my peronal fave: "Don't throw rocks at trains or they will sneeze at you."   But, good morals aside, someone needs to get  those engines to clean up their potty mouths.  Be careful while watching with your kids because you just never know when Thomas will drop a "cinders and ashes" bomb.  Or shout "bust my buffers!" or "fizzling fireboxes!"  J has been overheard exlaiming "bubbling boilers!" or telling me that one of his trains is a "bossy boiler". 

But what has been the most interesting thing my hubby and I  have observed about Thomas is the manner in which humans are apparently pawns to the trains.  When an idea "flies into Thomas' funnel", why doesn't the engine driver just stop the train? Anyone else ever wondered that? I mean, somebody has to fill the trains with coal and keep them chugging along.  When the trains challenge each other to races instead of working, a conductor never jumps out and says, "whoooooaaaa there guys. Bertram said we were to deliver cars to the docks. I am not getting yelled at by that dude again." Why not just stop fueling the engines if they decide to leave their cars in a siding to go plan a surprise party or play in puddles? Are the humans some sort of slave race there to serve the engines? If so, why do they let Bertram boss them all around? I guess some questions just can't be answered. Or shouldn't even be pondered (I really do waste my time thinking about these things).

All in all, I like Thomas. It beats watching Toy story for the 8,945th time. And there are good lessons to be learned. J picks up on the engines being kind or unkind and being good friends to one another and we try to help him apply that in real life too. He also understands about being helpful and working hard, which is important for him to see as well.  But just once, I'd like to see an episode where Thomas just does what he is told.  Rather than just doing whatever he wants, he follows directions and makes Bertram happy. There is a good lesson for kids in that too.

FHN Fast Stop

Last Friday, we finished a course of anti-biotics.  The sore throats were gone, fevers were down and appetites were returning. Things appeared to be going great until 2.am. Sunday morning.  J was up crying that his ear hurt.  This lasted about three hours before he fell back to sleep and we managed to log about 90 minutes of good sleep before rising to greet the day.  Being up early, I decided to get J and myself moving and take him to FHN Fast Care which is housed inside Shop-ko in Freeport, IL. I looked up their number and called to find out that they they open at 10a.m. The fee was $52. Much more reasonable than the ER and probably faster too, I thought. And we wouldn't be sitting among tons of sick people catching something worse than what we went in with. I decided we would be there promptly at ten, walk in, have some kind doctor check out J's ears and we would be on our way.  Boy was I wrong.

We arrived on time, but apparently I wasn't the only early bird.  We were sixth in line. Sandwiched right between someone coughing up a lung and a nauseous toddler.  We registered with the very nice (but obviously stressed) young lady working there and were told that we would be seen in 60 - 90 minutes.  If we wanted to, we were told we could browse the store. We were given one of those notification things that you get at restraunts when you are waiting for your table and set off to check out what Shop-Ko had to offer. After all, I wasn't about to sit there and get coughed on or catch my death.

$50 later, we wandered back to the check in area and resumed waiting (I still don't know what I got that added up to $50).  At about the 75 minute mark, the woman in line before us at check in came out of the exam room with her nauseous toddler and a bunch of clothes all wrapped up in a blanket.  A clean up in the exam room was called over the PA and a nice young man with a bucket and mop hurried into the room.  The dr. came out and assured me it would only be a few minutes more so that they could clean up a "little situation" that had occured.  I told the dr. to have mop-boy take his time.  I was ready to be done waiting, but I wanted a diligent, thorough clean up effort to take place before we entered that room. After all, we were there for a sore ear. Not the pukies. Although I ended up going home with $50 of unplanned  stuff,  I wasn't about to take home the pukies too.

I must say that when I entered the room, it was very clean and the dr. was very kind to J (We still didn't touch any surfaces and I utilized hand sanitizer when we were done.)  He verified that there was indeed an infection in J's right ear and upon listening to J's chest and testing his pulse oxygen, that he had the start of bronchitis.  He sent a prescription over the pharamcy and we were on our way.  To wait some more.

It took about 30 more minutes for our script to be filled. By this time, J was antsy and hungry, we were both ready to bid farewell to Shop ko. I plied him with some trail mix that I had bought earlier and took his blood pressure in the blood pressure machine that was there (which he found hysterical.) Finally, our script was ready. We collected his meds and headed for home.

Not really how I wanted to spend a Sunday with my boy, but it is what is, right? I am just glad we got him some relief from his earache and are (I hope) on the road to recovery.

Why toys in the 80's were better than the toys today.

Remember toys in the 80's?  The ones that defined your childhood (well, if you're my age!)?  I got to thinking about toys today as I was playing with J. I wondered what he would look back at fondly as an adult. I am sure he will feel as nostalgic about Toy Story and Thomas the Train as I do about the toys of my childhood. He will probably have John Deere tractors packed away somewhere just like I still have many of my toys tucked away among my prized childhood possessions. But, what toys of today even come close to the awesomeness that was 80's toys? Does a an Elmo toy compare to a Care Bear? Dream on!

One of the biggest fads that I recall were Cabbage Patch Kid dolls. I remember those being so hot that moms were having fist fights at toy stores in order to get the one their child wanted.  They all had "birth certificates" with their names and there were books, cassette tapes, posters and other merchandise to go along with them.  Mine were Melanie and Sybil Sadie.  I still have them.  One even had a retainer to match my orthodontic situation at the time. My sister and I toted those dolls everywhere and drove my parents crazy listening to the tape on car rides. I can still sing the songs. In fact, I am humming them as I type. This was the Cabbage Patch Theme Song off of their 1984 Album titled Cabbage Patch Dreams (http://www.youtube.com/watchv=PoOHeZpUSYc&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLADECCDF45BB47E47 .)Good luck getting that song out of your head.


Jem dolls were also high on my list. They are (in my book) way cooler than Bratz dolls could ever dream to be.  I wanted an Aja doll for Christmas one year.  With her tubular blue hair and bitchin' make up (check her out: http://www.jemdolls.com/jemaja.html), she was way cooler than Jem. And I got her.  Sadly, I no longer have Aja, but I remeber opening her on Christmas morning at my Aunt's house in North Carolina.  Boy, Santa was the best!

Then there were My Little Ponies.  Those cute little horses with the designs on their heinies.  You could comb their hair and put them in their stable. That's really about all they were good for, but we had hours of fun with those things!


Then there were my Star Wars toys. Man, I had them all! Luke, Leia, Chewy, R2D2, C3PO, Darth Vader, Emporer Palpatine, Han, Lando.  I even had the ewok village. Despite being a girl, I loved Star Wars and everything about it.  I now wish I had kept all those figurines safely in their little pakcages so that I could be lounging around a mountain of money right now, but oh well.  My immense nerdism paid off in other ways. It eventually landed me a hubby. If I hadn't done well at Star Wars Trivial Pursuit on our first date, he may not have stuck around. Hands off ladies, he's all mine.

There were so many incredible toys back in those days. Dare I say better than today, even.  Pound Puppies, Rainbow Brite, G.I. Joes. Sit-n-spins, Big Wheels, Easy Bake Ovens. He-man and She-ra.  And the be all end all of 80's toys: The Atari.  Man. Kids don't know what they missed out on!

You can keep your Leapsters, educational and politically correct toys made from all recycled and BPA free plastic. I'll take a Strawberry Shortcake doll, Thundercat or a Popple any day!

Strep - oh how I loathe thee.

This week has kicked off with the arrival of strep at our home. How fabulous.  Instead of roses and fancy dinners, our Valentine's surprise is streptoccocus and zithromax all around.  We typically aren't big Valentine's Day observors, so we aren't missing out on much.  We had the luxury of a three day weekend (yesterday being Lincoln's birthday - the perks of being a State of Illinois employee!!!). The extra day allowed us to rest and get enough medication in us to no longer be a contagious threat to other humans before returning to work and daycare today.

It is going on 4:00p.m. as I type this and I am surprised that I haven't received a call from daycare asking me to come get J.  I didn't figure he would last the day.  I worked at a frenzied pace this morning trying to accomplish a whole day's worth of work in a few hours in case I had to depart, which has left me with some extra time to write this afternoon.

This recent bout with strep has highlighted  two major changes since having a child.  One is the apparent ability to function with little to no sleep. Even when you are sick.  Somehow, when that little voice is calling for you at 1a.m. (and 1:30, and 2:15, and 3:00) you manage to be able to stumble out of bed and muster enough focus to administer medication, assist in a trip to the bathroom or provide a desperately needed drink of water/hug/extra blanket/back rub.  And then be able to get up and function in the world the next day.  In my pre child days, anything short of a full night's sleep left me worthless and unproductive the next day.  I have concluded that pregnancy and child birth leave behind a new "Sleep? Who needs sleep?" hormone that gets you through parenthood.

The second phenomenon I have observed is the willingness of a parent to let their child sneeze, cough, vomit etc. all over them without a second thought. (Note: Usually this is as a result of trying to supplement the sleep you are being cheated out of.)  I of course contracted my strep as a result of holding J so that we could both get an extra hour of sleep. I awoke with his little face an inch from mine breathing strep germs and bad breath directly into my mouth.  But, was it worth the extra 60 minutes of sleep? Heck yes.  Do I like having snot wiped on me? No. Do I enjoy an unexpected sneeze in the face? No.  Would I let any other human being other than this child do this to me? Not in this lifetime.  Pre - J, I would never have caught vomit in my hands in order to avoid having to change bed sheets at 2a.m.  Nor would I ever have laughed when receiving a big, wet, sloppy kiss from a kid who is hacking like he smokes 2 packs a day. And if you would have told me that I would have accepted a good night kiss from a kid who was running a 102 degree temp  and looked like death warmed over, I would have said you were nuts.

But, I do. Just like every other parent does for their kid.  I get irritated at all of the mid night wake up calls and being sick more than ever before.  But, I wouldn't trade it for anything.  And do you know why?  Because of all the love, laughter and awesomeness that is hiding inside that petri dish of a little boy.  Because when he calls me into his room for the 4,356th time because his feet are hot, he looks at me and says ,"thank you mommy, you are my best friend." Or  he asks me to take him to the potty and hugs me as tight as he can.  Or he just says "I love you." Oh, and because of the laughter. The belly laughs, the silly walks, the funny little songs, the mis-pronounced words and the insightful "Jacksonisms". For those reasons and a million more, I 'd never think twice about any of the inexplicable actions I do as a parent. Instead I will just stock up on hand sanitizer, clorox wipes and coffee. Because I know the day will come when I wish my boy would cough on me at 3a.m.