This picture was taken five years ago, on our last vacation before we had children. Little did I know that my world was about to be turned upside down forever.

A few evenings ago, I sat down on the couch after a long day of writing, going to the gym, paying the yard men, picking up the clothes from the dry cleaners, running around playing tag with the kids, ordering takeout -- oops! I mean... mowing the entire yard, doing a ton of laundry, fixing dinner… (shhhh! My husband might read this thing. Just go with me on this!)

So, anyway, I sat down on the couch after a loooong day and said, “I’m exhausted!”

My two-year-old daughter tilted her head to one side, stared at me in wonder, and finally replied,

“No. You’re Mommy.”

“I know how to rhyme,” my 4-year old son announced one afternoon.

“O.K. What rhymes with car?” I asked.

“Da-brar.”

“What rhymes with cat?”

“Da-brat.”

“What rhymes with dog?”

(If you’re paying attention, you should know the answer.)

“Da-brog. And I know what rhymes with monster truck: da-bronster truck.”

“Little dude, you are one smart da-broy.”

My kids and I have a ritual. Every morning, when we're in the car, we sing the song Beautiful Day. We only know four words out of the entire song, but we’re somehow able to stretch the singing of those four words into quite an event. There is no sight more precious to my eyes or sound sweeter to my ears than when I glance into the rearview mirror and see my preschoolers belting out at the top of their lungs,

“It’s a beautiful daaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! It’s a beautiful daaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!”

My four-year-old son is a big helper. He loves to help measure and cut and draw and stack. And the other day, he was helping my mom decorate her house for fall. His task was to move the pumpkins to their proper place. “Ya-ya,” he said (he calls my mom Ya-ya), “can I put the pumpkins out by those things?”

“What things, honey?”

“You know, those things. Those things that scare the corn.”

And here they are. Those things that scare the corn: