Why? Because

Why, you might ask, am I at 4:00 pm standing at our kitchen sink that is full of dirty dishes, wearing my husband's left shoe and my pajamas (not again, but still), while sniffing at some Tupperware that was holding heaven knows what while yelling at my child to stop ramming a rocketship into the dog?

The short answer would be that I am a mom.

This is the long answer, with many explanations:

Atticus is obsessed with putting shoes on people's feet. Anytime he finds a shoe, he'll either put them on himself, or come find us and put them on our feet. He did this while I was standing at the sink full of dirty dishes, which I should explain also.

You see, I have two 5 month old twin girls and a year and a half old boy. When I have 5 minutes that is not being filled with a dirty diaper, baby food, crying, or teaching -someone who doesn't speak English- how to be a person, I have a priority list. The list changes from time to time depending on what smells the worst in the house and just how eye twitchingly crazy I feel, but for the most part it's like this:

1. Drink something, eat something, go to the bathroom since I've probably been holding it for at least half an hour.
2. Individual playtime with the babies.
3. Sit down for as long as the kids will let me.

You will notice that cleaning is not on that list, which is why it changes depending on what smells bad. Cleaning out the fridge went to the top of the list today.

I will now explain the rocketship. A couple of days after Christmas, Meijer.com was having an awesome After Christmas sale. I mean AWESOME. I found a Radio Flyer Retro Rocket Ship for super duper cheap, and I just knew Atticus would love it for his 2nd birthday. So I ordered it. Last night it came... and we saw the weight restrictions. We realized that Atticus, who now weighs about 35 pounds and is over 3 feet tall, could very well be too big for it by May 15th. So we let him open it. This morning, I remembered that I hate toys like this. This is why: Atticus climbs onto the 4 wheeled car/airplane/rocket ship, and immediately starts ramming into Blake. He thinks it's hilarious. So I have tried my hardest to teach him to stop, and for the most part he doesn't do this anymore... until he found a way around my restrictions.

So now let's put the whole picture together.

I am still in my pajamas because I just haven't gotten that far today. The leftovers have been dumped into the trash and the containers are in the sink. I put the girls down for a nap, push my sleeves back and dive into the dishes. Atticus runs into the kitchen saying "Shoooooooo! Shooooo! Uuuuuunnn!" I lift up my left foot while rinsing out bottles for the dishwasher, and he crams it on there. As soon as he turns around I kick it off my foot, and he comes back yelling "UUUUUUUUUNNNNN!!!!" So I put it back on. He looks at me, nods his head approvingly, and walks out of the kitchen. I continue with the dishes. I come to one that held a mystery food, and realize that it smells a little... Dean Martin-ey. No... I haven't let the food go THAT long... could whatever was in here possibly have fermented? I take another sniff and hear WHAM! Atticus giggles and the dog skitters around, looking for a safe place. Still holding the possibly alcoholic Tupperware in my hand, I peek around the corner. Instead of riding the rocket ship into the dog, Atticus has PICKED IT UP and is CHUCKING IT at the dog. This thing weighs 17 pounds.

At this point, when I honestly feel like giving the kids to my neighbor, getting in the car and going to live on a beach anywhere away from the 4 feet of snow I'm living in right now, I have a thought-

I am going to miss this someday.