Mommy Migraine

"What's the best way to get rid of a mommy migraine?"

"Follow the instructions on a Tylenol bottle. Take two and keep away from children"

Funny, yet so true.

Show me a mom of a toddler who doesn't know what I mean, and I'll show you a mom who is so hands-off she likely doesn't know her own child.

Here's the thing about toddlerhood. There are so many adorable aspects about them. The way their little bodies are so warm and cuddly with feet that look like little porkchops. The way they throw themselves so completely into things. The way they tell you exactly what they're feeling, when they're feeling it - no holding back of emotions here ("i WUV you, mom!" yes sometimes even while you're holding their hands while sitting at the potty, waiting for the poo to come out. Theirs, not yours.). How they can pick out the most atrocious color combinations and manage to still make clothes look cute on them. How they actually stop crying and give you a huge smile when you plant a little kiss on their boo-boos. How, even if you're gone for just a few hours, they come running towards you and give you big hugs like they haven't seen you in ages. How they can look like the happiest little things on earth, just by you reading them a bedtime story.

The flipside? They run on their own schedule (the hairs on the back of my neck stand up just looking at the clock turn 1:00pm, Charly's nap time when she begins to morph into stressed-and-sleepy-toddler-who-doesn't-want-to-go-to-bed. I kid you not, there have been days when I have bundled her into the car and strapped her in the car seat to go for a ride, the surefire way to get her to sleep right away). They are like little neanderthals when it comes to feelings (yes, the same spontaneity which makes them throw chubby arms around you and say "i WUV you, mom" is the same spontaneity that makes them throw things on the floor when they get frustrated and can't explain what they want or as Mr. Rogers says "they don't know what to do with the 'mad' that they feel"). The upside is that they have the attention span of a flea (if they fixate on something, so long as mommy is creative enough to distract them, the tantrums can stop justlikethat) . The way they manage to come up with a toddler crisis just as you are running late and trying to get out that door (yes, it has driven me to tears of frustration that I have been late several times although I started getting ready three hours earlier because Charly has either decided she wants to go potty just as I head out the door, or she has rolled around with the dogs and managed to look all grubby and dirty or has decided she doesn't want to go and stays stubbornly glued to her books...the list of reasons are endless).

Mother Nature was wise to hand out our kids in little infant forms. If she'd plopped down toddlers on us, without giving us time to bond with them first, there probably wouldn't be so many takers.

I think I'll pop two more Tylenol. The little one just woke up.