My name is Forever Mommy. I'm from Planet Mom.

Shh, it's me. Can you tell? Two of my kids we're having some troubles, so I decided it was time for a daily visit from Forever Mommy from Planet Mom. My younger two have very active imaginations.... so I thought that they might be able to relate to me more if I were to join them in their fantasy world. So I decided to don my cape, tie on my mask, grab a fairy wand, and throw on a beret.

The beret really doesn't have anything to do with the costume, but my alter ego likes to think that she's French and really sophisticated, polished, and able to eat all the Nutella she wants without having massive elephant thighs.

Like I said... pure fantasy.

Anyway, Forever Mommy is always there for her kids. She will never leave them and she will always protect them from dragons (bad people and bad things). She talks in silly voices and relates to her children. She plays with them and slays all the dragons with her magic wand. She also does silly dances and gives her babies jelly beans and m&m's when they do unexpected things - like when they show manners by saying "yes ma'm" or "no sir" and "please" and "thank you". She never raises her voice and she encourages her children to put on their happy shiny invisible yellow suits every morning and shows them how to blow their "yuckies" into pretend black balloons and let them float all the way to the sky. (Thanks Lisa for the cool ideas).

Forever Mommy rocks.

Leslie Mommy? She pretty much sucks. At the end of the day, Leslie Mommy is tired, pooped, and plain worn out. She vegges in front of the T.V. watching The Bachelorette and Wipe Out and spends her evenings with her boyfriend, Mr. Google.

She also has an annoying habit of referring to herself in third person.

Maddening, isn't it?

No, seriously. I am not one of those moms who gets down on the floor and plays. I am, however, one of those moms who would gladly spend a day building replicas of Egyptian pyramids with sugar cubes and plotting the timeline of all the kings and queens of England.

Man, I love stuff like that!

4 and 5 year olds? They don't care about that. Mine want me to play dinosaurs and hotwheels and throw pretend birthday parties for their stuffed animals. I am way too anal and research oriented to have preschoolers. It's pretty pathetic.

BUT... I'm currently reading Playful Parenting... and it's totally opening my eyes to how important play is to our kids. And it really stresses how important it is in terms of facilitating attachment.

It's helping me to rediscover my inner kid. It's helping me realize that it's okay - that's it's necessary - for me to be silly and playful... and that I can use play as a way of bonding with my kids.

So that's how Forever Mommy... from Planet Mom was born.

Eli LOVES her. Nandi HATES her. Eli loves her because she plays dinosaurs and dragons with him and protects him from the Evil Sister Dragon who bites and kicks and wants to kill him. (He also informed me that the dragon's mom is dead and left him and his sister and now they're all alone. Helllloooooooooo... can you say abandonment issues?) Nandi hates Forever Mommy because she doesn't yell or smart off and she never loses her temper and she's really loving and likes to give lots and lots of kisses.

Nandi tried to stab Forever Mommy with a pretend sword 8 times today. In the butt.

Fortunately, Forever Mommy, like Leslie Mommy, has a lot of padding back there. So she was safe.

But... good grief!

Anyway, I really do recommend the book. I haven't read all of it, but it really did help me realize that I need to be more playful with my kids. And it's really working with Eli. Even Noah had a bemused look on his face when he saw me in costume.

Nandi? We'll see what happens. If I can keep my invisible shiny happy yellow suit on and not blow it by letting her passive aggressiveness (or just plain aggressiveness!) get to me, then I think we might turn a corner. It may be a little corner, but a corner nonetheless.

Now.. if you'll excuse me, Leslie Mommy needs to get back to The Bachelorette.