What I Learned

What I learned in the second year of motherhood: A poem.

Nighttime sleep is always there
But naptime is debateable.
Today she likes bananas
But tomorrow they are hateable.
Elmo, Plex, and Barney are
The friends that you can always call
And sometimes just a little bit
Of penguins doing a pratfall.

Planets hanging from the ceiling,
Glowing stars adorn the wall,
The best of decorations is
her sticker art- adorable.
Every book has in its heart
a need to be read ninety times,
And furniture isn't for sitting,
It's for the jumping and the climbs.

Toys don't go in baskets
Unless tiny hands have put them there,
Forbidden drawers are quite exciting
'Specially Mommy's underwear.
Peanut butter is a gift
From a benevolent deity,
Vegetables can be hid
In something much more sweetie.

No is not so bad a word
As furrowed brows try to project,
It's more the hitting, or the falling outside
Mom runs, small heads to protect.
Friends are more a source of toys
Than any kind of social time,
But if they share their toys
Then I might share some of mine.

In short, in matters finger-paint and ABCs and building blocks,
I am the mother of a girl who almost puts on her own socks.

With apologies to Gilbert and Sullivan.  Happy Mother's Day, my dears!

Mom?  Are you... singing?