The "I can't walk but I can dance" dance

In my "free time" today I was checking out The Parents Bloggers Network and saw this blogblast promoting the Best Little Dancer in America Contest. It's sponsored by Stride Rite and Baby Loves Disco. The actual contest sounds like so much fun and all of the proceeds benefit Alex's Lemonade Stand . And....If you participate in this you could win free shoes! I instantly thought of these pictures of Sam...he was about nine months old...he would turn on the radio in his room, hold on for dear life and rock! I love the facial expressions, they are the same ones Daddy makes when he boogies.

More pics from blueberry picking....

The best and worst of New England in late summer.

Today Is Wednesday

Still no trip to the grocery store...must go tomorrow as there is only a drop of milk left. We've been out of bread and all other staples since the weekend....Didn't go for a run today either...I'm doomed... What I did do....watch a friends three year old for five hours, take two three year olds and Grace blueberry picking ( I have a minivan, I can drive three kids:), bathe two three year olds together as the blueberry patch (is it a patch?) was infested with poison ivy, visit my friend Clarissa and her eight week old daughter, Alexandra. Pretty good day.

Today is Tuesday

I woke up this morning thinking it was Wednesday. My plans for the day included going for a run, going to the grocery store, going to AC Moore to buy supplies to make wreaths and pew bows for my sisters wedding and going to the mall to return my extra bridesmaid dress and sashes for my sisters wedding and to Pottery Barn to buy lanterns for the wedding that I saw on clearance last week. Ambitious, yes, but since all of the errands are in the same general location, I thought it was doable.

By the time Grace woke up from her nap and we got out the door I was mad at myself for the waisted morning. I had not gone for a run, and since it's now Wednesday, I probably am not going to be able to run off five pounds by next week (On Sunday evening it seemed possible to pull this off if I got out there and ran for fourteen consecutive days....). I hadn't even showered. I was dressed in sloppy pants and a grimy white t shirt with my "Life is Good" baseball hat on...no makeup, nothing...I cannot account for the morning, I just knew it was Wednesday, and the day was half gone.

I decided to hit the mall first...my new ride has many amenities, but a cooler for perishable groceries is not one of them (Don't you think that is a brilliant idea though? How good would life with a mini van be if you could ride around with your groceries for hours?). We arrive at the mall, I stick Grace in my EllaRoo mei hip carrier (this contraption is worthy of its own post...worth every penny...better than a sling at this stage...) and let Sam walk. We hit Ann Taylor. Months ago we bought dresses for my sisters wedding. They were something like $178 and another $28 for a sash. Last week, I saw that they were marked down to $78 and the sashes are $8...Like any good (insert my mothers maiden name) I re-bought it on sale, figuring it was worth a return trip to the mall to return the full priced dress (they wouldn't give me a price adjustment...I asked). I couldn't have been more wrong...the original dress was purchased on my mom's credit card and that was the only way they would refund it...on my mom's credit card, which is in my mom's wallet, in CT. So I'm standing at the counter and Grace is screaming like Daryl Hanna's character in Splash and Sam is running laps around the display tables singing Jingle Bells at the top of his lungs (He has been watching Wiggly Wiggly Christmas in the minivan for two days). Heartless Ann Taylor wenches wouldn't budge...

As we are leaving the store I got accosted by an Israeli woman selling body scrub with Dead Sea salts and mud in it...She literally grabbed my hands and gave me a hand scrub/massage while I told her that I didn't have time and wasn't interested....Grace continued to scream like a mermaid.

On the way out of the mall, Sam climbs onto those rip off rides and won't get off. I threaten to leave him and he looks at me and says, "No you won't mommy. You'd go to jail." What the....?

Although Pottery Barn is just down the hall from Ann Taylor, I forgot to go to.

Next I make an unscheduled stop at the package store (liquor store for those of you not from CT)....It was really busy and I thought, "Well I guess that is normal since it is the FRIDAY of Labor Day weekend." Grace is still screaming...I think about climbing into the third row of the minivan and sneaking a beer.

Next we hit the craft store....I am not crafty...I buy pre-maid bows and I'm not that into wreaths...yet I offered to make these things for my sisters wedding, which is like ten days away...We walked around the craft store for about 45 minutes. Grace is still squealing like a mermaid and Sam is telling her to knock it off. I left without buying anything because I was completely overwhelmed. Thankfully it is only Wednesday...I have plenty of time to make bows and a giant barn door wreath.

I call Brad from the parking lot and ask when his sister from Long Island is supposed to be arriving. "Not till tomorrow." Totally annoyed I say, "When did they change their plans?" He says, "Pretty sure they were always coming on Wednesday." In my best "you dumb ass" voice I reply, "It is Wednesday." Nope it's not, it's Tuesday. Yahoo! I still have plenty of time to run off five pounds!

I never went to the grocery store...

Look what I got!

Ten years ago, if someone had told me that I would long for a mini van I would have laughed in their face. I'm pretty sure that the phrase, "I will never drive a mini van." crossed my lips more than once or twice...but here I am, a mother of tow who has suffered from mini van envy for more than a little while. We picked it up last night. Sam was so excited (it has a dvd player, which to Sam is as cool as say, a margarita machine in the dashboard would be to me).

"I tied Gracie up!"

"Mommy come here, I have to show you something really cute."

"I tied Gracie up!"

"A child is a curly, dimpled lunatic."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Grace is ten months old...yesterday!

I can't believe it! Although she is still completely dependant on me for EVERYTHING, I kind of feel like I don't truly have a baby anymore. She's become more of a little person, her personality is more pronounced every day. She loves to laugh and to make people laugh. She doesn't have much for material....but she thinks it's hilarious to toss her head back and then give a toothy grin. We laugh when she does it and this only eggs her one...she will do it for ten or fifteen minutes at a time. She's a girl....when she's ticked, it's different than it was with Sam...she truly has a, how shall I say it, hmmmm...bitchy scream. She's turning into a pretty good sleeper, sleeping through the night probably 50% of the time (you have to take my word for it, in our house this qualifies as good sleeping). She has an appetite like mine, she will eat anything! This too is really different for me, because Sam was strictly a boob man till he was well over one years old (While I was pregnant, Sam still nursed. Brad used to tease me and ask, "S0 which one will the baby get?"). She's pulling up on everything and I know that walking is just around the corner...Yikes!

DMT (Dementia of the Mommy Type)

Shortly after Sam was born I mentioned to my friend Elaine (a social work buddy who like me, has worked with Alzheimer's patients) that I was afraid that I might be in the early stages of some type of dementia, perhaps even Alzheimer's. I felt so scattered, I couldn't remember anything. I would nurse Sam on one side and fifteen minutes later, when he was ready to nurse again, I had no idea what side he had just nursed on. How do you forget something like that in fifteen minutes? Elaine laughed and explained that when you deliver the placenta, a good amount of brain cells go with it. That was her theory, and I agreed. However, now that I have two kids I think there might be more too it. I think it really is a type of dementia.

A while ago I wrote about pouring apple juice instead of cream into my coffee....well that's not the half of it. Last week I put a full pound of American cheese on top of the fridge (which is where I keep the bread) and didn't discover it until the next day. Several times a week I put coffee in a travel mug and leave the house without it. On a regular basis I make trips to places like Target or the mall with the intention of returning something only to discover that I have left the item on the kitchen table or worse, gone shopping, spent $100, have both kids in their car seats and the item is still sitting on the passenger seat. I walk through the grocery store saying things like "don't forget laundry detergent, laundry detergent, laundry detergent...." over and over and leave without getting it. I put clothes in the dryer and forget to turn it on. I made cookies the other day a couldn't remember if I'd added baking powder or not...Sometimes I have a really hard time with word retrieval...

The incident that really got me wondering if something might truly be wrong is this: I left my house one day not too long ago without putting underwear on. There were none in my drawer so I put on a skirt and I intended to get a clean pair out of the laundry basket in the basement...on the way I changed a diaper, answered the phone and got Sam a snack. We were late for our play date and I totally forgot. Some may say that this is no big deal, and I agree...ten years ago I did this kind of thing on purpose...but at this stage in my life, lets just say I really didn't want to be the mom at the park wearing a jean skirt and no panties.

I know I'm, not alone...we all have our "mommy" moments...My mom calls me "Sue" (her sisters' name) on a regular basis and has since I was a little girl....sometimes she gets mad when I don't answer! I'd love to hear about the things that you've found yourself doing (or not doing) since becoming a mom. I'm planning to make a game of it. This year I am the hospitality coordinator for our local MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group. Part of my job is to come up with silly little games to use as ice breakers...I thought it would be fun to make a list of mommy moments and have each mom give themselves a point for each thing that they have done. The mom with the most points would win a prize as well as the mom with the fewest points. I have a lot of my own material, but I'm betting that I haven't done it all! Tell me your stories! I'll post a top 10 (or 20) if I get enough stuff.

What a week...

Well, we made it another week without someone reporting us to DSS (child protective services in MA). It was close...I really thought, more than once, that a 24 year old woman, straight out of college with no children of her own, might show up at my door to "observe" my parenting skills. If she had come her report would have read something like this, "Mother came to the door in her pajamas...it was 1:00 p.m. The house was filthy. The sink was overflowing with dishes, there were bits of fruit and pasta all over the kitchen floor. The smell of garbage and dirty diapers was strong. There seems to be plenty if food in the home, on the kitchen counter I observed three boxes of cereal, a bag of apples, a container of Nestlee Quick, a loaf of bread and a package of English muffins. The two children were reasonably clean. However, the baby was wearing only a diaper and the three year old boy was dressed in a filthy pajama top and underwear. The boy showed me his playroom. He has a lot of age appropriate toys. However there were a lot of small pieces that the baby could choke on scattered about the room. There were also several empty juice boxes on the floor and an entire package of goldfish ground into the rug. As I walked past the bathroom I noticed the distinct smell of urine."

Now I'll back up and tell you about our week. Last Sunday night we were all playing outside after dinner. Brad was holding Grace and I was in the yard with Sam. Suddenly Grace let out a horrible scream....I asked Brad what happened...the reply, "I dropped her". When I took her from him, she instantly got quiet, very quiet. She looked pale, her eyes were fluttering and her limbs were limp. We called 911 and waited for what seemed an eternity for the ambulance to arrive. When the fire truck, two ambulances and police got there, she perked up. When the paramedic took her from me, she started screaming. It was the sweetest sound ever. It was pretty clear that she was aright but they wanted us to go to the Emergency Room just in case. It was at this point that I started to look around....the table on the patio was covered in empty beer bottles (the accumulation of several days). On the kitchen table were empty two beer bottles from dinner, and on the floor near the garbage, waiting to be carried out to the recycling bin, were two empty wine bottles. (Thankfully we don't keep our crack pipe in the kitchen, ha, ha...). I started to worry less about Grace and more about the fact that they might think that we are alcoholics who dropped our baby because we are intoxicated...Thankfully our good friend Mark is a police officer and happened to be the one at our house that night. I think he vouched for us.

Two days later while Grace was taking a nap I was in the basement doing laundry. Sam asked to go for a run in the treadmill and I let him. I stood right there while he jogged, when he said he was done, I turned it off and went back to the laundry. I left the key in it though....I could hear him hitting the buttons, but instead of taking the key away, I just kept saying "be careful". Suddenly, I there was a terrible scream. Sam was kneeling behind the treadmill and his fingers were caught in the belt. I had to yank his hand free. I honestly thought that his fingers might not come with the hand...thankfully, it turned out to nothing more than very badly burned and cut up fingers...I'm pretty sure that if we'd made a return trip to the ER we would have gotten ourselves a social worker....the bright side of this incident as that Brad now feels slightly less guilty about dropping Grace.

So in a nut shell, that was last week. Did I mention that in the midst of it all, I had the worst case of mastitis that I have ever had? Bad enough that I considered removing my own breast....It was a really lousy week, definitely didn't feel like I shined in the parenting department, and yet we are here, all in one piece. God is faithful, I know he watches over and protects my family. My kids don't seem much worse for the wear...in fact, when we snuggle at night and tell bed time stories Sam asks to "hear the story bout when I was born in the water" and when that ones over he asks, "now tell me the one bout when daddy dropped Grace on her head!"

A day at the beach...

It's hard to believe that August is almost over....these pics are from the first weekend in August...it was so hot, we skipped church and went to the beach.

Big night out! (Thanks Meg!)

Brad and I have not spent the night alone since Sam was about fifteen months old. It was our anniversary and we spent a weekend (or maybe it was just a night...amazing how my memory is gone!) in York, ME. It was wonderful...the weather was miserable (it was October...cold and rainy) but we were alone! We spent an afternoon at spa and had facials, massages and manicures (Brad really liked the paraffin wax treatment:) We didn't sleep that well, I had to get up during the night to pump...(yes, Sam was still nursing during the night at that point) and I think we woke up at 6:30 and just waited till the dining room opened for breakfast....but we were ALONE!

This past weekend, my wonderful friend Meaghan got married in CT. The wedding was absolutely beautiful. She did an incredible job and thought of everything....including transportation from a hotel in Hartford to the reception and back to the hotel. We could have spent the night at my parents house...but we didn't....we had a night of no responsibility and fun, ALONE. Grace had her first real time away from me. I was in the wedding and didn't see her from about 11 a.m till the next morning. My mom says it was fine...but I did get a call at one point asking if it was OK for my sister in law Laura to nurse her....my mom and Laura are saints...





So, congratulations Meaghan and Jeff. You are perfect for each other. Meaghan, you were a beautiful bride and your wedding was amazing, every last detail.... It makes me so happy to see you so happy, your smile was infectious. Jeff, you are the luckiest man alive (and Brad is pretty lucky!), I know you will take good care of my friend. I love you both, cheers!