Compiled Over a Five Year Period

Things We Never Thought Would Come Out of Our Mouths When We Thought About Becoming Parents*

Part I

 by the Happy Yet Often Bewildered Parents of Three Fantastic Children

* but which actually did.

One day while talking to my older sister Nancy (the mother of four terrific boys) on the phone, she excused herself for a moment, turned to her youngest son and said "Do NOT stand on the dog!".  That absurdly funny moment launched this list which has since resided on the side of our fridge for convenient updating. I will post more installments in the future.  We have plenty more where these came from. (p.s. the dog was fine.)

Please wait until you are off the toilet to play the harmonica

Please don’t use your toes to pick up your toast

Girls, stop arguing about whether Brendan’s freckles can be your pets!

Don’t drink out of the ketchup bottle

Do not draw pictures on the church windows with your spit

THERE IS NO SCREAMING DURING THE ROSARY!

I know your bologna is on your head.  The question is, why?

Don’t give ANYONE a haircut.

Please stop ramming me with the grocery cart.

Stop smearing yogurt on your arms.

What a nice big poop!

Don’t dip your sister’s underwear in the dog’s water.

Don’t put your paci in the dog’s mouth.

We do NOT drink from the dog’s bowl.

Close your mouth – no talking AT ALL!  Yes, hiccups are okay.

Whatever it is you are doing, stop it!      

I am not a sniff machine. 

My Vantage Point

Well to launch this new blog I should say that all the pithy little insights and overly-descriptive phrases of  The Tonucci Family Adventure are from my perspective:  Mom/Wife/Person Strapped In for the Ride.  I'm the Wife of Sixteen Years (almost), Mom for eleven and Life Adventurer for Forty-Six. 

First I was just little old me,
fresh from college armed with an English degree...
then me, the aspiring writer....
then me, the aspiring editor...
then me, a really lousy (but sincere) salesperson....
then me, the nursing student...
the nurse....
the wife....
the mom...
and now I seem to be back to the writer role. 

Really there are just so many things I think are noteworthy, downright laugh-out-loud ridiculously funny, beautifully poignant or just lovely that I like to put into words. 

Words. 

Love 'em. 

I can edit out all my stupidity (ok maybe not all of it), grammatical miskakes and politically incorrect oopses.  And describe what I really see as important in my life, which are moments of beauty in the midst of a lot of downright chaos.  Freeze frames of loveliness and outright perfection, often sandwiched between, well, sandwiches, smelly dogs, piles of laundry and an overly-packed schedule.  I think it's a gift our family has, to see those freezeframes, stop and look at each other over the yogurt smeared faces of our children and 'get it' - life happening under our noses.  For me, the best way to remember them is to write about them. 

In our family, we're all strapped in for the ride, and loving the life we lead - in fact, the life to which we are called, the life in which we are blessed and honored to share with each other.

Today is 9/11/10 -  a day that reminds us to love while we can and remember what is important.  A good day to launch a blog, I guess.  As good as any!

"Live a life worthy of the calling you have received."  Ephesians 4