Boy Mom Problems

On most days I relish being the only girl in our house. I love my mamma's boys, who as of right now, shower me with hugs and kisses all day. I don't mind being surrounded by super hero capes, trucks, tools, and swords. I have become a pro at pretending to be a knight in shining armor, a Ninja Turtle, or a pirate. These are the things that have filled my daily life for nearly five years and I'd say 99% of the time I love it.

 

This past Saturday was the one percent of the time where really wished there was another girl around. I'm not sure what pushed me over the edge. A whole combination of things really. It started with each of my boys entering a new phase a development over the past few weeks. Zane turned the corner from preschooler to I guess school age boy, just generally older boy. While Rowan entered the defiant, I'm going to scream no, and not do anything you say phase of two. Both subtle, small changes, but changes none the less.

 

Zane's new phase has come with a new attitude that sadly includes arguing with me over everything. A new, false belief, that he doesn't always have to do what I tell him to if he "doesn't want to." Along with the attitude changes he has also just started to act more like a school age boy vs a preschool boy. This is a hard change to explain, but think fart jokes, potty talk, smelling arm pits, burping, and wanting to be punching or fighting everything, real and imagined, at all times. This new phase became strikingly clear to me when I woke up the other day with a shirtless, tall, lanky boy poking my back.

 

Rowan's new phase is more of the same two year old drama, just with more words and attitude to go along with it. Lots of jumping up and down, screaming no, and irrational conversations with a tiny little boy. Multiple times a day he can be found in a pile on the floor screaming, crying about anything from wanting a fiber 1 bar (this fit went on for nearly an hour the other day) to not wanting to pick up his shoes, and every possible thing in between. All of this phase is made worse by the fact that either Rowan doesn't understand the punishments we are trying to enforce or he truly doesn't care, so we're at a loss currently at how to deal with it.

 

 Obviously the build up had started days before but by Saturday morning I had just about had my fill of boys fighting, farting, burping, climbing on me, and trying to fight me. Then add Zach, who just happens to be a boy, into the mix and I had been taken over. Our morning was spent with two very messy eaters at breakfast. Then I got to spend large amounts of money on super hero shirts, all of which took less than ten minutes to pick out and fit them perfectly. When I started to mope about this fact, Zach so lovingly told me I could have gotten new shirts. Of course not factoring in that it would take me a solid hour in Old Navy to find one shirt that might, possibly, kind of fit.

Talks of baseball practices, sword fighting, wrestling, and little boys sitting on the potty, with no peeing just playing (if you know what I mean) filled the rest of my day. There were time outs for hitting people, tears, breakdowns, and then my day come to a close with a bath tub full of little boys at my sisters house. 

 At one point I told Zane that I was going on vacation, with only girls, no boys allowed. Obviously this was a blatant lie, but of course my tender hearted Zane started to cry. Making me realize how truly loved I am by these, soon to be very stinky, boys. However, there are days that I could go for mani/pedis, shopping that takes a little longer, a few more beautiful things, and a little less fighting. However, in the end I know that I truly love the craziness because even on Saturday, after about five minutes into my maybe thirty five minute run, I already missed their sweet, all boy, faces. And I always try to keep in mind that one day soon all the action figures will be gone, the costumes put away, and my house will become very quite. I will beg for hugs and kisses, thinking back, wishing for one more crazy noisy day with my two little boys!!