Have you noticed that this time of year turns into a total pissing contest between mothers comparing how fast their Johnnie grows...Punch me in the face if I ever do that.

With the collage of back to school pictures posted on Facebook, mine included, there was a common question:  Where did the time go?  Maybe the question pops into any parent's head when they are comparing pictures from previous years or crying over back to school costs.  "No, you don't need those school supplies, I will just find them under the bed" or "I just bought you new sneakers."

(Hey total aside, have you noticed that this time of year turns into a total pissing contest between mothers comparing how fast their Johnnie grows--"he grew two sizes over the summer!"  Punch me in the face if I ever do that.)

But I look at my girls and know exactly where my time went:
1.  Sleep--and never enough.  Or sleep when I am sharing a bed with a kid who wants to "cuddle, cuddle" only to end up kicking me in places that I shouldn't be kicked in the dead of night.
2.  Food prep--but not meals but snacks, every 20 freakin' minutes.
3.  Play dates/Birthday Parties--Coordination of times, wooing certain parents that we like and want their kid to come over and avoiding certain others.
4.  Reasoning, Bargaining, Ultimatums and Begging--usually in public places.  Laurel is out of that stage.  Rachel is in the stage and I think it's going to stick around until she is 22.
5.  Diapering and/or toileting:  With diapering there was always the amazement of frequency, and later in this stage, punch.  Now, it is running to the potty with Rachel or standing outside the bathroom with Laurel because she doesn't want to be alone.
6.  Discovery--The joy of something sweet or the disgust of something that they will never touch again.  "But I don't like fish."
7.  Books read...over and over.  We whittled Laurel down from 7 books a night to 15 pages out of a chapter book--Rachel just likes one--no more, no less.
8.  Queuing up DVR or On Demand and then pulling them away when they have had enough.
9.  Lots of giggles from Laurel and Santa like belly laughs from Rachel--and usually this is at the dinner table when I would just like to have a nice sane meal.
10. Answering the impossible question--Mom, how who you describe describe?  Why was I born?  Basically I either defer to Wikipedia or claim I didn't hear and get into the bathroom.  Let Ching deal with it.

And that just scratches the surface.  I didn't even mention all the trips to McDonald's.....but I have my blog so I remember everything.