It's apparent you're a parent when. . .

So, Nancy here. Do you remember those Family Circus cartoons called "It's apparent you're a parent when. . . "? I remember reading them as an eight-year-old-child-or-so and pretending I knew what they meant. I'm not so much a comic reader these days, but my college roommates make up for it (yes Dani, Angela, I'm talking about you two.) They always kept me up on the funny ones and do I dare admit? the soap opera ones. Hilarious.

Anyway, sorry about that tangent. This post is in honor of those childhood days when you never knew certain things about being a parent. And this post is certainly not about how I know everything... heavens, no. This is about some of the things that I have learned since the day Derek was born. Some of these things are the obvious, I understand, but I feel that their new addition into my life is at least worth a blog post.

1. You buy so many tissues. In travel, upright, and bulk, we have tissues. At least enough for today. This may have to do with my obsession to make sure that Derek always has a clean nose, but I had NO IDEA how many tissues I would purchase in one winter with one child. It's insane. The boxes are all over the house (sometimes more than one in a room) and the travel packs are all over the car, my purse, and Bryce's computer bag. Tissues are everywhere -- snot is not.

2. Your house can transform from a pretty clean state to an utter disaster in about 2.4 minutes. I have a routine to clean up Derek's toys while he takes a nap in the morning and one in the afternoon. But somehow after those 2.4 minutes since he woke up have passed, I step on some sort of sharp object. Never fails.

3. No WONDER my mother hates doing laundry. Hello!? I swear that our washer and dryer are always going. Oh, and Oxy Clean is sent from heaven. I thought folding my own laundry as an elven-year-old was bad. No way. Folding laundry blows.

4. Thank heavens for Teddy Grahams and Goldfish. These two buddies have been a very recent addition to my shopping list, but they always seem to make Derek happy. The brilliant idea for crackers to have smiley faces is one I wish was on my track record. Gotta love cheese and graham baked into one small bite.

5. Light blue minky blankets are better than me. It doesn't matter what the competition, Derek's blue blanket is much more loved than his mother. The picture here is of Derek in the bathtub this morning upset because he couldn't bring his blanket with him. Sometimes it's hard to be one. You should have seen him when I had the brilliant idea to let him help me put it in the laundry. He sat in for 20 minutes whining to the washer for taking away his best friend. It was awesome.