I Said...

Do you ever have those mommy stretches where you just seem to say the same things over and over and over and...yeah, well, it must be spring break in Wisconsin. You know, the place where at the start of the week we wore shorts, spent the day at the zoo and got little, tiny sunburns. Then had two full days of down pour and cold wind and now, oh how joyous, we're being blessed with snow. Persistent snow.

I'm calling it persistent because it's been snowing on and off for the about 12 hours now. Thankfully we're just this side of winter enough to see the stuff only last on the ground for short bursts of time. I knew it was coming. I saw the weather guy spewing his forecast at all of us. So smug in his little suit, standing in front of his blank wall, trying to be all ominous. Well, get over yourself, buddy, it's just snow. Unless you're brand new around here, a flurry or two in April isn't anything you haven't seen before.

How do I know it's been snowing for 12 hours? Because I was up at 2:AM. It was coming down heartily, with great determination. By 4:AM there was a nice ground cover going. By 6:30 my boys were thundering up the stairs to wake me up (again) to tell me the obvious, "Mom!!! There's SNOW on the ground!!" You would have thought they'd never seen the stuff before. You would have thought they hadn't just spent the winter shoveling it up. You might have even thought it was the first snow of the season, but no. It was merely an opportunity to wake mom.

But I'm not bitter about this.

The dog is though. Lady the hound does NOT like snow. Or wet. Or cold. She's sort of a Diva Dog.

Back to the never ending verbal repetition that I'm currently calling parenting. It goes something like this.

*You're shouting at me.
*We don't touch people.
*You took it, now you need to eat it.
*You specifically asked me to make you this, now you need to eat it.
*No more candy.
*Don't touch things that don't belong to you.
*Does that belong to you?
*Are you playing or fighting or play fighting? I need to know.
*No band aid unless there is blood.
*The tattoo shop is closed.
*Put on a helmet.
*Flush.
*Wash.
*Turn down the volume.
*Be quiet.
*No, you can't change the channel, the other kids are watching that.

Those are just a few of things I feel like I'm saying in my sleep this week. Every moment, around every corner, one of these phrases is slipping out of my mouth.

What about you? What are your mommy statements? What are the things you say over and over to the little people? Come on, tell us. We gotta know.