Mommy Mafia

Okay, seriously. I feel like I have suddenly joined the mommy mafia. All I do is yell, lower my voice to seem "serious", threaten, beg, plead, threaten, beg, plead, and then throw myself in a room and scream. Welcome to my life of a toddler and a preschooler......
Let's be honest. My children are definitely mini-me's. They are demanding, impatient, strong-willed, independent, stinkers, big lovers, and huge cuddlers! As I sat here looking for another mystery shop to pay for that craving I am feeling for sushi, my husband was yelling the famous words yet again "we saID STOP!!!!! Stop tackling your sister!!" I suddenly realized that I looked EXACTLY like the picture on Staciesmadness.com. My straight hair is that frazzled from pulling at it. My eyes are bloodshot from lack of sleep due to teething and colds, my lip is split  because baby girl was playing dentist yet again. I had to watch my son teach me his newfound butterfly pose over and over again......sans underwear since it was all in the wash. I realized I feel like all we do is yell. Then, I realized that mommy's of little ones......we are in our own little club, aren't we? We are the little mommy mafia. We are loyal to a T. We have a secret club that we each understand the code of. We love each other, support each other, and lift one another up. When our mommy buddy has her second, we smile and sympathize at her fear of going out with two...raising two...how will she handle the one in the parking lot. All the while inside we are thinking about the two running around the parking lot. Buckling in the second while the first has learned to undo his buckle. Wishing we had that traveling carrier that once seemed ridiculously bulky back. And we support. We understand. We don't clue them in to what is to come. But, when those laptops are closed and the desktops turned off.....there is the secret world. We hide and pretend to go the bathroom, shower, take a nap, okay, really all we can do is pretend to ignore the "enemies" of laundry, potty training. We threaten play dates, candy, toys, time-outs, anything to get our desired behavior. We throw binkies in the river. We let "fairies" take gross blankets. We beg, plead, get on our knees when the threats don't work and the enemy turns on us. And finally we succumb to the "phase".
And then it starts again with the newest enemy, the newest phase. But we see each other in the store. We smile that sympathetic smile and nod. We look away to let that mom with the screaming toddler keep her pride and not feel ashamed. We pick up the five hundredth shoe our fellow mom has lost that day. We give a knowing glance, a friendly comment. Sometimes it feels like it is us versus them. But really, we are all living in the same world, just doing the same thing the other side is. We are trying to understand, trying to get by. But really, if there is any club I want to be in....I am proud to be with you fellow momma's in our "mommy mafia."