“Mommy, you a foo-foo, head.”

It all started with a made up word meant to spur a laugh in an obviously frustrated Mom (me) at the end of a long day.  By the end of those kind of days, no matter how nicely I started to direct commands in the morning…they become short, delusional quips by the end of tub-time.  My two-year old has a knack for making me crack a smile, even when I’m most aggravated.

This time, the last laugh is mine.  “Foo-foo,” struck her older sister and I so funny that night that we all started shouting it across the house in fits of laughter.  Now, every time my two-year old, Lo, does something hysterical…we dub her “Foo.'”

Standing on the chair to reach grab a piece of candy out of the Halloween bowl on the counter, so much so that…at two…she has established a candy stash of “chocolate chips” somewhere in her room that I cannot find.  Foo.

This morning, when I walked in the front door from my run, instead of a “Mommy!” and a running hug tackle…Lo tip toes into my line of sight grasping onto a roll of Smarties in one hand, and a Tootsie Pop in another.  “Hi, Mom,” she said with her stance communicating that she was ready to bolt the minute I stepped any closer to take her candy.  Foo Foo.

At the mall playground the other day, who decides to jump off the highest thing she can climb…straight to her knees?  Not even attempting to land on her feet?  Foo Foo Head.

Today, I cleaned the whole house for Thanksgiving.  Even the sliding glass door, which I normally neglect because my toddlers can smell Windex from the other end of the house and come sprinting at it with sticky fingerprints.  Not only did Lo mess up the part of the window that she could reach…but she stood up on the tippy top of the bench to reach the very top.  Smudge all the way from top to bottom.  Foo Foo.

Can you guess which one is Foo?

Every time she does something funny, we laugh.  Then, she realized that she thought we thought she was funny and laughs again.  Sometimes, Grandpa will add a “Lo, you’re funny.”  To which, she responds, “I know, Grandpa…” and rolls with laughter all over again.

She’s a Squinkie addict.  If you don’t know what a Squinkie is count your lucky stars.  They are the tiny little rubbery toys in all sorts of shapes and characters that get lost all over my van and my house.  It’s also all Lo wants for Christmas.  “What do you want Santa to bring you, Lo?”

“Minnie Squinkies, ” without hesitation.

“What else?”

“Minnie Squinkies.”

Why Minnie?  Because she threw a fit in Target one day and launched a package of ‘Minnie Squinkies’ onto the floor in protest of whatever battle she was trying to achieve the upper-hand on.  She lost.  The Squinkies remained on the floor where she threw them…and she watched them fade out of sight as I kept pushing the cart through the store.  Foo Foo.

Lo can’t fall asleep at nap-time or bedtime before she has successfully snuck down from her bed, retrieved a pile of books or toys, and taken them back up to bed with her.  What’ s funny is that she’s so sneaky in the execution of her plan, but then busts herself out immediately when she wakes up.

“I just played.  I just read books,” she’ll inform me, with her arms up in the air and shoulders shrugged.

As trying as two is, these are only a page full of reasons why I don’t even have time to blog once a day…once a week…sometimes even once a month.  My life is full of toddler madness.  And I’m loving every minute of it.  Lie…not every…but most.

My source of never-ending laughter…

I knew being a Mom was going to be awesome. It’s all I ever really wanted to do.  But, I never realized how often my kids would remind me how important it is just to let go and laugh.  Thank God for them, and thank God for laughter.

Happy Holiday…and Toddler…Madness!

Megs