These are the days.

Little Monster. What can I say about him today? He has so much energy, I wish I could tap it and bottle it for those days when I just can't get out of bed. Today I'd have been able to bottle enough energy that I'd be able to skip the Lattes for the rest of my life.

Normally his energy drains me and has me pulling my hair out, wishing for nap time and the end of the day. Today wasn't much different. That's the thing about being a parent. Sometimes it is terrible, awful and disgusting. The good thing is that usually the cute, hilarious, and down-right memorable moments outweigh those moments you want to forget. Today was one day where the cute, hilarious, and down-right memorable definitely won out over everything else.

You want examples? Sure.

Little Monster refused to take a nap today. No big deal. It happens all the time. He finally got quiet. A few minutes later, I decided to check on him. What I found, was a child, laying in his T-Shirt in bed. I chuckled as I saw his little butt cheeks in the air. Then I panicked -- because if he wasn't wearing a diaper, he'd probably peed in his bed. And he did. But where was the dirty diaper? The only thing I could find was the clean one he'd tried to put on after dragging it out of the bin. That -- not one of the perks of parenting today. It was not fun to wake the poor kid up and drag him out of bed in order to get everything cleaned up. (While cleaning up we noticed he had taken off his wet diaper and thrown it into the hallway near the diaper champ. Smart kid.)

After he woke up, though, he decided to pretend to be a dinosaur. The afternoon was spent running around chasing us. We'd pretend to scared and scream which caused him to erupt into contagious giggles. Then he'd announce "I scared Daddy!" or "I scared Mommy!" Repeat times 425. A friend came over, and he was very disappointed when the only response he got to his dinosaur routine was "Ooh, you're scary."

We went out to dinner, but he refused to wear shoes. Only Elmo slippers would do.

On the way home from dinner, he erupted into song... "Head... Knees... Toes... Shoulders..." He loves that song. But then it morphed into "Knees... Toes... Knees... Toes... Head... WASH! SUN! SPIDER!" Daddy and I helped him sing the songs the rest of the way home. I've never had so much fun singing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider" in my life. After the song would end he would yell "AY-YEN!" (That means again.)

Before bed tonight, he resumed 'dinosaur' mode. He walked up to me while I was working on a project, said "RAAAAHR!" and then proceeded to bite my butt. Let me tell you that was quite a surprise. I was very glad that I was wearing a sweater -- that caught most of the bite. When I turned around and asked him if he had just bitten me, he said "Yes. I dinosaur! RAHR! Dinosaur BITE!" I told him it wasn't nice to bite, and that the next time he'd be in trouble. Then I heard Not the Momma nearly collapse in laughter from the hallway. Not ten seconds later there was a girlish YELP! coming from the hallway, followed by "I dinosaur! RAHR! BITE!" Not the Momma didn't think it was so funny when the back of his leg was being attacked by a two-year-old blue eyed dinosaur. There was a time-out this time. (Meanwhile Mommy and Daddy had to excuse themselves for their own time-out so that they could giggle.)

Fast forward to bedtime when we were saying prayers. We said our prayers in English, but Little Monster, who had found a stuffed monkey (Thanks Grampa!), recited his in some unknown primate language.

Those are only the moments I can remember -- from today. There are days when I want to strangle him (with hugs and kisses only) before duct taping him to the wall to keep him from TOUCHING! EVERYTHING! HE! CAN! FIND! There are days where I think I must have lost my mind to actually have desired to have another walking, pooping, eating, crying time-bomb of destruction. But then, there are days like today. When even the time-bomb destruction can make me laugh so hard I worry I'll end up incontinent. These are the days when the gross and terrible parts of parenthood have no dominion over the hilarious, and down-right memorable moments.