So another week down – and this one ended with celebrating my birthday last night!  Which was great.  We got a babysitter (I also call her “mom”) and went out for drinks and dinner with friends.  Perfect end to a chaotic week.  Got to relax – and get a little tipsy… And then this morning came – very early.  I’m awake in bed as I realize, hey!, I never renewed my plates (due on your birthday – so now late). Sigh.  And I need to get a clean air test for the car before I can do it.  Double sigh.  And it’s my morning with the kids so hubs can get some down time.  And my eldest needs a new passport before we go to Lake Placid in LESS THAN A MONTH.  My husband tried, and failed, to get a usable photo of our squirmy three-year old earlier this week.  Triple sigh.  Oh! And it’s swimming lessons at noon.

Party morning!  Maybe I’ll just roll over and go back to bed.  But no.  Instead, all three of us went to Canadian Tire; then Service Ontario; then the mall.  And I got it ALL DONE; with two kids under 4 in tow; in LESS THAN TWO HOURS.  We even got to swimming lessons in time.

Efficiency INCARNATE.

Well, that, combined with some luck re: short lines and kind service staff at Canadian Tire who, I think saw my two kids running around their waiting room, and bumped me up the list.  Oh, and chocolate bribery re: getting the passport photo.

God Bless Canadian Tire.  And Laura Secord.

Anyway – that all done – it’s time to remind myself that my kids are actually pretty awesome.  So I give you my top 5 laughs of the week with the kids as part of Saturday’s Top Five laughs.

Top 5 Laughs of the Week

Number 5

• Last Sunday, I’m running errands with my 3-year-old before we all head off to a friend’s party.  I’ve explained there will be chips and all sorts of fun food, and a pool to go swimming.  She asks if, after shopping, it will be time to go to the party.   I say yes.  She starts pumping her fists and bouncing up and down in her car seat repeating, “Party, party!  Oh yeah!  Oh yeah!”  Gotta love the enthusiasm.

Number 4

• My 11-month old is now mimicking everything we do.  She has decided that the erasure for the white magnetic letter board the girls have is her cell phone.  So she is now walking around holding it to her ear and babbling.  Figure that’s pretty much what we look like too when we’re on the phone…

Number 3

• My 3-year-old has a fabulous imagination combined with a very serious nature and a toddler’s firm sense of right and wrong.  We were hanging out in her bed before it was time to go to sleep and were playing with her Barbie doll and a fairy doll.  She was having them play nicely together with the fairy sprinkling pixie dust to help both of them fly.  Then, with zero warning, she suddenly burst into tears.  Not understanding at all what just happened I ask what the matter was.  She wails at me that “Barbie isn’t sharing the pixie dust with me!!!”  And so she couldn’t fly with the dollies.  I’m clearly suppose to intervene and set Barbie straight on the importance of sharing.  Doing my best to keep a straight face I suggested we ask if Barbie could share and then imagine we were flying with the dolls.  Apparently, upon reflection, Barbie decided to share and we all got to go flying together.  Crisis averted.

Number 2

• When we go to the gym, my 3-year-old opens the (automatic) door by running ahead, running up to it and yelling “Open Door!”  Sure enough, if we are close enough for the door to hear her, it opens.  I’m not looking forward to the day she realizes she doesn’t have to ask it to open….

Number 1

• As mentioned, we went to the mall today to get passport photos.  We are walking in, on this muggy, hot summer day and my daughter suddenly says to me all excited, “Mommy, Santa lives here!”  Took me a moment to remember that, yes, this is the mall we go to when we visit Santa.  I had to explain that he only visits at Christmas and that right now he was back home at the North Pole.  That seemed to fly.