Mama Needs a Timeout

July is a very busy and important month for our family.  Lots of special days to celebrate – birthdays, our wedding anniversary.  One of my favorite days is July 13th.  It’s Gotcha Day – the day we held our son for the first time!  This year on Gotcha Day we will be in Washington DC to visit the museums and the National Zoo.  Planning has commenced and we are fortunate enough that we will have friends and family to visit with as well.  Lots of dinosaur bones, planes, spaceships, cool animals, national history, time on the river, great friends and family to see, a little shopping for the house, and quality time spent with my boys.

Every night between 6:30 and 6:45 we have a fierce competition in our house. Stair racing. All family members are welcome but it usually ends up being a heated race between myself, the child and our dog Ezra. There is a catch… The first person to reach the top of the stairs is NOT the winner – the second person is. If you are first, you are the worstest, second is the winner, third has the hairiest chest, fourth has the stinkiest toots, and fifth grossest breath. I finally convinced my son that Ezra is a member of the family so he is considered a person. If I reach the top first by miscalculating Ezra’s interest in the evenings race, I usually change the rules to first being the winner – mom’s privilege. Ezra doesn’t really care about the rules, he just likes to race and stop and kiss my son along the way to distract him from winning. The child hates dog spit. (Sucks for him because we have 2 very affectionate dogs in the house.) The child usually ends up getting annoyed by the dog, I end up laughing or rolling my eyes, and Ezra is excited that he got to race and kiss someone at the same time. We finish the race with a booty dance victory for all involved.  Life is good!