Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do...

If I thought of my day as a montage (you know the montage you see in the middle of an old 80's flick), I would only see myself in various shots with my mouth wide open screaming "Noooo, No don't do that, Stop." And in the background I would hear the song Bad Boys (from the infamous show Cops) playing over and over. The montage would end with me putting one kid in bed and the other in time out. Then the closing shot would be me collapsing on the couch with my face stuffed with chocolate easter eggs and I would be so tired that rivers of chocolate would be oozing from my mouth.

Ok, this could all be true except I never get the chance to collapse because as soon as I do, someone starts crying or jumps on top of me. But yes, I do feel like a bad cop, all day everyday. I am constantly on toy patrol or walking the beat in the playground.

The other woman...

I knew this day would come. I knew that one day I would no longer be the number one woman, the queen of the world, the person who no one compared to in my sons eyes, THE MOTHER! I knew one day I would be replaced...and that day came today when Luca came home talking about another woman.

Yes, Luca came home bragging about his day with "Aimee" from daycare. And how she is so sweet and how they had fun and how he likes her friends.  Aimee was all he could talk about after I picked him up. Of course my heart was breaking but I then began to think about the future. Time is flying by so fast and it is just a matter of time and he will grow up and have a family of his own.

And that is exciting because one day I will have little grandbabbies to spoil. But realizing that I have to share him with the world and there will be a time very soon when he wont want to hang out with mom and girls will be calling, is really sad. Most of all knowing when to let go and let him trust his own judgment. That scares me the most. But all moms do it (well not all but most) and it turns out ok. I will do it too and I will just hope he wont forget his mom.

But in the meantime, I will just have to listen to him talk sweetly about Aimee and enjoy the time I have now when he will actually still give me hugs and kisses.

I never clean my backyard...

I remember growing up leaving my house in the morning only to return in the evening for dinner. We would play in the woods and make forts or go swimming in the nearby river. My mom never really knew where we were, nor did she worry. She always knew that we would be home for dinner. And if we weren't, then we would never hear the end of it...
That was then, this is now. First of all the world has changed and its just not possible to let your kids run free and secondly I now live in a city and have no woods or even a backyard. In our first house we had a small garden but once our family expanded we had t make the decision on whether or not to stay in the city, which meant having a backyard or not. We chose to stay in the city and have the city as our backyard (or this was my partner's argument to stay in the city).

Well, he was actually right. After just a month in our new first floor backyardless apartment, I set out to find the perfect backyard in the neighborhood. We are quite lucky because we live close by to Vondelpark which I call the Central Park of Amsterdam. In Vondelpark you can find several playgrounds for kids. Two very large ones, The Melkhuis and The Vondeltuin are very popular. Actually too popular and I often "lose" my kids for those few panic ridden seconds. Both have sandboxes but the Melkhuis has more swings, slides and other climbing things. Not to mention both have nice terraces for mama and papa to sit on and enjoy a drink.

Yet, now that my baby is mobile and all over the place these two major playgrounds are not a good option on a nice sunny day. So I have had to explore the Hood again and I have found the most amazing discovery. In the small playgrounds nestled deep into each section of my Hood lies the most amazing playgrounds. These are not playgrounds, these are backyards including yard chairs, yard toys, sand toys, bikes, trikes, swings, slides and secret hiding places in the bushes. These playgrounds are what every backyard should have and the kids go wild. It seems that people have just brought their old toys to these playgrounds and left them and there is an honor system to keep them there. It has changed my life! Now I just load the kids up on the bike and go. We dont have to pack up the sand toys or bikes or scooters. Everything is there! And the best part is that I dont hae to clean it up when we are done...I love my new backyard!!

In need of a good plumber...

Help, I have a leaky waste water pipes! And no its not the ones that you can just weld together. No, these are more of a delicate nature, these are my pipes and since I had children they leak, clog and sometimes even burst, always at the most inconvienent moments. Just last week, I had a sewage pipe burst on my way to work. At the very end of my 40 minute commute, I could feel the pipes clammering away and in just minutes later there was an explosion in the main valve. I was able to hold back just in time to run into our lobby restroom and release the pressure. It was a close call, but unfortunately not the only one. I have dozens of stories like this since I had my first child 3 years ago.

My guess is that the pipes got all twisted around after the two pregnancies and didnt recover. And of course NO ONE tells you that this could happen to your perfectly good waste system whne you have babies. NO ONE tells you about the leaks when you laugh, the leaks when you sneeze and the leaks that just make you wanna cry. From now on, I will tell anyone who is even thinking about having a baby about this possible side effect. And to get a good plummer beforehand!

Brain deader than ever...

Growing up, I used to hear my mom say quite often "It's because I am brain dead." Everytime she would forget something or she had to have something explained to her for the upteenth time. I can remember getting so frustrated with her when she would forgot something I had just told her 10 minutes earlier. I could never understand, how could a perfectly healthy and intelligent woman not remember things...

Well 25 years and two of my own kids later, I understand what she meant. I, too, suffer from being brain dead. I swear just four years ago I was an intelligent human being. I dont know what happened since then (other than years of sleep deprivation) but I have turned into this mushy brained person who forgets everything.

When it first started, I tackled the problem by just writing everything down, in an agenda. But that does not even work. I write it down alright. I dont forget to write it. I just forget to read the agenda. I have even tried to incorporate checking the agenda into my daily routine. Sure it worked for like a week, but soon my attentions were spread elsewhere and every morning I forget to take a look.

So, for me, there seems to be no solution. Maybe its the curse of every mother. But I doubt it. I see lots of mothers on Top of things with their agendas always open. No matter what, I am frustrated by the "disease". Better yet, my boyfriend is absolutely fed up with it. The only time we fight now-a-days is when I forget something. Its so bad that sometimes I remember things but I am so nervous that he is going to fuss about my "disease" that I forget seconds later.

There should be some kind of support group, like Brain Dead Anonymous, or Brainless Moms or why doesnt someone find a cure. Until then, I guess I have to put up with being brain deader than ever.