A Laughing Day

I always make this face when I play with Legos!

I´m the tough one- Monster Garage cap and Tigger the Tiger shirt!

I am the baby and can do no wrong! I´m almost always this happy!

I have a friend Vona who is a wonderful mama to 2 boys under 4. And they have Laughing Days. That means that Mama decides to not get upset, but laugh at anything that happens all day! Me, I´m always drowning in my self-criticism, anger, impatience, etc. And many mornings I wake up frustrated and try to cheer myself/all of us up in order to have a Laughing Day but I just can´t let things go that easily. However, Sunday we had an unofficial Laughing Day (thanks Sara!).

First, let me say that Ben was gone Friday to Monday on a boy´s trip to Murmansk, Russia (which would be the equivalent of going to Tiajuana, if you know what I mean). That is fine though, I´ve gotten some trips too. Anyways, being solely responsible for all 3 kids for a number of days does not always bring out the best in me! On Friday Tiago refused to nap which ruins any day! and on Saturday, for some reason, I thought taking all 3 kids, plus Phoenix´s friend, ice fishing would be a good idea! Ok, it took like 2 hours to get everyone ready! It was cold, windy and I was crabby after taking 2 hours to get ready! And Tiago would not let me put him down for a second without screaming! And the smoke from the fire kept blowing in our faces, Phoenix and Rio just kept interrupting the ice fishing (we were with a group of adults) and throwing snow in their holes, and...you get the picture. Finally, through clenched teeth, I said, "After we´re done eating these hot dogs we´re leaving!". It was an exhausting day and I fell asleep with the kids at 8pm.

After all that fresh air on Saturday I did not feel guilty staying inside Sunday and watching cartoons all morning. We painted and played with play-doh too. We just hung out. It was great. The unofficial LAUGHING DAY started when in the evening we walked to a party. The sun was shining and it was a BALMY 4C/45F! My boys were in their snowsuits, matching striped "summer" hats (really thin winter hats) and snow boots. But there was a lot of ice on the road and they kept slipping and sliding on their butts and they were just so clumsy and I laughed and laughed at them! (Cruel, I know!) But they just kept doing it! We all laughed! They found puddles to jump in too. My boys are also funny because when they hear a car they freeze and start waving at the car for like a minute before the car even drives by. It is so cute! At the party we sat with another mom, who´s husband was out at sea, and her 3 girls. So we were 2 adults and 6 kids! Phoenix and Rio of course spend most of the party touching all the desserts. Actually, Phoenix likes to put his WHOLE HAND on cakes, not just a single finger! Ok, I didn´t laugh at that one! We saw an army tank and I kept saluting and saying silly stuff like, "Sir, yes, sir", and they thought I was hilarious! We just laughed about everything that evening, even when Rio told me he ate horse poop!

Life isn´t perfect but it would be closer to perfect if we had more Laughing Days!