Home Sweet Home

I can't wait to get home, which is a bit ironic because I've usually got one foot out the door as soon as Bemma rise from nap or night time. The quicker we escape our house the less time I spend held prisoner by their boredom as its screams, whines, and cries careen throughout the house. And their toys offer little comfort, scattered throughout the house like leper colonies, not to be touched and certainly not to be played with!

So I scoop them up and make my escape from the boredom, the screaming, the fighting and crying. I escape to a park, a coffee shop, a trail, anywhere the kiddos can be occupied and hopefully burn some energy.

The bottom line is I don't usually look forward to returning home with Ben and Emma (unless it's bed time), but after a couple of days in a non-baby proofed environment I'm almost giddy to return to our outlet plugs, locked cabinets, Houdini drawers and elevated electronics. Two days away has reminded me just how safe and simple home is.

We've been at Mop Mop's (My mom) all weekend and from the moment we arrived they found danger like a drug-sniffing dog at a Pablo Escobar fiesta, while tearing through the house like a class 5 twister even Jodie Foster would be proud of. Not only did they find the most dangerous paraphernalia in the house, but they left a trail of carnage, not unlike the famous bull in a china shop.

In any place other than home, nap times are never long enough, bed time is always a little late and the morning is -- you guessed it -- a little to early. I theorize that it's in large part because toddler humans are not like adult humans. Adult humans welcome a break from routine, but such a break seems to rock a toddler's world and transforms them into the drug-hound tornado-bull mentioned earlier.

I always think the excitement of Mop Mop's house and the presence of new faces will be enough to satisfy even Bemma's nanosecond attention span, but I'm always wrong...oh so wrong.

Home, sweet home, where my children return to their slightly predictable behaviors.

But I have to say that at the end of it the trips are worth it, not only because we all get precious time with Mop Mop, but because it allows our hearts to miss home, making our daily life a little sweeter once we return. At the very least, home is able to moderately contain their inner drug-hound tornado-bull...moderately being the key word.