The Mishap of a One Bathroom Home

Every morning Nico gets up, stumbles bleary-eyed to the bathroom. You hear the faucet being turned on and know that he is washing his eyes out, then he towels them dry and tries to find his way to his momma's arms. About 15 minutes later he will return to the bathroom for his long morning pee.

Well this morning Joe was in the bathroom. Nico starts banging on the door, Joe asks who is it? NICOLO MATTEO CODISPOTI - I NEED TO PEE! Just a minute buddy is the response. So Nico says I got a great idea, I can go outside. I said sure buddy, go ahead. He makes his way out to the pee tree and goes as I watch from the window.

Then I see it.........the look. Joe is out by now and is looking out another window. I yell out the window.....buddy, buddy do you have to poop? A frantic nod. Joe meanwhile is yelling don't poop, if you poop you can't go pee outside anymore, no more peeing outside. I am laughing hysterically because how can you say such a thing? Really? We are outside in the middle of a park or at a place with no bathrooms - can you really follow through on that? Frantically Nico is trying to decided what to do - a panicked look on his face suggests that he can no longer control what it is his body is doing. Joe has stopped threatening and is simply completely grossed out at this point while I can't control my laughing but thankfully my bladder is fully under control.

Then it happens..........our pee tree has now become the poop tree.

Sisters

How I love this blog: www.aholyexperience.com - it makes me tear up every time. Today's post was about sisters. I don't have any sisters, a wonderful brother with whom I share a common language - one word or phrase can bring about understanding usually followed by HUGE laughter and often laughing so hard that tears come. I send him gross pictures of things, I send him texts telling him how pretty I look, I can pray for him, I can ask for prayer, I can share so much. Yet, he isn't a girl and doesn't have that certain understanding that comes from being a woman. And so while I don't have a biological sister I read this post and thought of my other sisters - ones not from the same mother but from the same Father. These are the women who share my life - who are a phone call away, a text away and on some lucky days we can even see each other and take a breather from everything. For it is with these women that I am more or, rather, even less. I am no one's mother, no one's wife, no one's anything......there are no expectations. Rather there is a loosening of self, a time when everything seems easier when you are with your true sisters. I love how a look or a word can translate into so much more - there doesn't need to be scores of explanation for they know. They know without saying that you are tired, that you do more than you ever imagined you would for your family, that you love your husband more than words could ever capture yet at times you feel so exasperated. They know that how you looked on your wedding day is not how you look now but that there is beauty in a face, a body that has given life, that has sacrificed, that has spent days playing and laughing and cooking and eating and loving. A body that once was made carefully through exercise and watching what was eaten rather than cleaning the plates of small children, enjoying a huge ice cream cone on a sunny day and when exercise comes in the form of running around the yard and following just starting bike riders. They know all of this without you telling them - for you also share a common language. I love this. I sometimes mourn that fact that I didn't discover this group til later in my life, this club that belongs only to women, women who are comfortable in their own skin, who have grown to love themselves enough to share and delight in the company of other sisters. I hope for my girls that they know this bond from early on. That they will walk through life knowing the love of a sister, not only blood sisters but the sisters that He has placed in their lives.

Stabs of Jealousy

Tomorrow Fia, Nico and Francesca are going to grandma and grandpa's to spend the night (cue thunderous applause and celebrating in the background). No particular reason - just have a ton of stuff to do around the house and well, grandma and grandpa are both retired now and I assume they have nothing better to do than take care of my children with their vast amounts of spare time. Back to the subject..........so while I may indeed delight in the occasional night away from my children I expect them to be devastated by the loss of my company for any longer than 24 hours. However, tonight Fia said that she would like to just stay at grandma and grandpa's, to live there. UHHHHH....punch in the gut. Really? So I told her that was fine we can pack up her clothes and she can stay there (thinking if I push it I can get her to admit to the enormity of this decision and she will come running back into my arms). Ok, she says. Nothing. Am I not a fun mom? Do I not make delicious meals, plan fun activities, delight in her presence? (That might be a bit of an exaggeration but I am trying here, people) So later I tell Joe that I am a bit heartbroken by this and isn't he feeling this way too? He says she gets to eat junk food and watch a bunch of tv, I want to live at grandma and grandpa's house. Hmmmm...........good point, daddio, good point. Not feeling so badly anymore..........

I am BOY see me pee

So for quite awhile Nico was all about the girl stuff.........painting nails, dressing up, etc. Fia did these things and as far as he knows she quite possibly is the coolest person in his little world (or so she has led him to believe). But this all changed the day the Fether boys were over. You see the Fether boys live in a completely different world - MAN WORLD. There are four Fether boys and one big Fether man. They carry this MAN WORLD with them and one day it came to our backyard in the form of Brady sliding down our twisty slide, getting off at the bottom and peeing right on the jungle gym. Fia knew enough to look away, giggle and look at me as if saying can you believe this kid? But Nico filed this information away and decided to use it for another day. That day came later that week when the pee tree was established. For that day Nico discovered the one of the truly COOL things about being a boy - you have a penis and you can use it wherever you go. Have to pee? Great - here's a tree. Oh and did I tell you you can AIM IT? You can actually pee on rocks, shoot dandelions.......you can even pee on tires to wash off the dirt. AMAZING!!!!!!!!! We have had to curb his excitement and insist that he only use the outdoors when he MUST or he actually is outside. For awhile he would get up in the morning and want to go pee outside. It was amusing at first and then I thought.....hmmmm, this might not be a good idea. But for now the penis wins out over nail polish, dressing up and all things girlie. It was almost too much for him when he discovered the "stand up" toilets in the men's bathroom.........he now loves the urinals and doesn't want to go in the girl's bathroom anymore. And so the fascination begins.................my little boy is growing up...................(oh and by the way, he thinks his penis is TOO BIG - hahaha!)