Mom Talk

On the way to the sitter’s today, my daughter noticed a Highlights magazine in the back of one of the car seats and wanted me to hand it to her.

“I can’t, I have to keep my eyes on the road. Besides I gave all but those two to Lorie so you and Lily could look at them together while you’re there.” (Lorie is the baby sitter.)

Little did I know, I was opening Pandora’s box.

“Why!!!” she whined and started to cry. “It’s not fair that you gave them all to her and only kept two for me.” She was truly distraught. “I want them baaaack!”

“You hadn’t touched them in a month. It was time to get rid of them,” I replied. Trying to keep my cool.

“But I would play with them now,” she said.

Suddenly, my strategy became clear.

“Remember I told you we had to get rid of some stuff to make room for your Christmas presents? Those books were part of what we got rid of.” She’s still crying.

“If you really want them back, I can take all your Christmas toys back to the store and then get the books back.”

“Even the cupcake maker?” she sniffled.

“Oh, definitely,” I knew I had her now.

“I don’t love you anymore!” she moaned.

“That’s okay, I still love you. I think you love me but you’re just mad that you can’t have the books and your Christmas presents.” The wailing stopped but I still heard quiet sniffling.

By the time we got to Lorie’s, she was calm. I asked if they could look at the Highlights today and of course, that was fine. Crisis forgotten. As a side note, I think I’m raising a packrat.

When did 4 year olds start sounding like adults? My daughter amazes me daily with her use of some very grown-up phrases in casual conversation. We were getting out of the car to visit some friends yesterday when she ended a sentence with “doubtful”. Huh? The sentence was so normal until she added that word. Something like, “We’re gonna eat dinner early tonight? Doubtful.” I looked at her like she was a stranger. She’s also been using the word “also” a lot (like my play on words? ) and saying things like, “That’s very disappointing, mommy.” What happened to my baby?

My four-year-old daughter got a Vtech Vsmile game system for Christmas. She enjoys having her own video game system for sure, but doesn’t like to fail. When she comes to a difficult part in the game, she panics and hands the game controller to me or her dad and says, “Quick! Get past this part!”

This practice caused me to beat the entire game for her in under a week. She’s even emotionally involved when I’m playing. During one part, when a bird comes out to pop the balloon the character is riding on, you have to swerve to avoid it. She covers her ears (not sure why) until I pass that part and make it to safety.

When we started over from the beginning, I refused to take over when the going got rough. “You can do it. If you fail, you’ll just start over. It’s just a game, no big deal, “ has been my pep talk for several days. She’s still nervous but getting through it. Who knew a video game could cause such anxiety?

I am officially a typo freak. Typographical errors in what is supposed to be professional content actually makes my stomach hurt a little. In this age of spell and grammar checks, there just seems to be no good reason to publish content that is less than perfect (or at least mostly perfect).

I realized the extent of my problem today. I write for a kids’ product review site and I was asked to visit a website and pick out a product to be sent for me to review. The retailer’s website was fraught with errors. I selected my item but began to have qualms about writing about it, especially if I was recommending it. Would suggesting a product from a less-than-professional-looking website make the site I write for look bad? I e-mailed my editor to make her aware and get her input. Lucky for me, she is also a raging perfectionist and will understand my concern while determining if it actually warrants any action.

My disease even goes beyond web content. When someone sends me an e-mail that is full of typos, I grit my teeth a little. How long does it take to proofread and replace “better then” with “better than”?

Maybe I would make a great editor, or maybe if I was an editor, I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.

The difference between the way men and women think is comical to me sometimes. I hastened to put together the new dressers we bought for our bedroom because I was sick of digging my clothes out from all over the house. That was several days ago. Tonight, I finally put my clothes away.

Why the delay? I was overwhelmed by the sheer size of the project. I had a conversation with hubby last night about this.

He said, “Why can’t you just do it in phases?”

I looked at him like he was speaking an exotic foreign language that I could never understand.

“But then it won’t be done,” was my weak reply.

You see, I am not a big picture person. If I don’t think I’ll be able to finish a project, I just don’t start it. So tonight, I decided to take his advice and I got most of it done. The real challenge is getting started. Now I still have some clothes left to put away but I’m no longer overwhelmed at the thought. Maybe I should listen to him more often??

I’m debating with myself about how long I should leave my Christmas decorations up. I didn’t put them up until two weeks before Christmas so it seems like that was a lot of work for a short time. Most of the folks I know only leave their stuff up till New Years but I have yet to tackle the time consuming task of re-boxing all of my ornaments and making the trek back out to the garage attic to put everything away. My daughter loves all the lights and is begging me not to take them down yet. How long do you guys leave your stuff up? Leave a comment and let me know!

When is the last time you had a day when you didn’t even get out of your P.J.’s all day long? We had such a day on New Year’s and it was wonderful. We slept until almost 11 am, had a late brunch and a late nap and just sat around being lazy. I realized at bedtime that I was still wearing my pajamas from the night before and it made me happy. When the whole family has that kind of day, it’s so relaxing. We weren’t on any kind of schedule and even going out to get dinner seemed like too much trouble so we snacked on leftovers. Ah, the luxury.

It has been a crazy week and I’m sorry to say that I haven’t had a chance to post until today. Happy New Year! We had some friends over for New Year’s Eve to just hang out, eat, and play Rock Band 2 on the XBox 360. As usual, it was a blast. Now suddenly today, the disorder in my house is driving me bonkers. Hubby and I spent the morning putting together some chests and a night stand for our room. Finally, the days of getting my clothes out of a trash bag are over! Unfortunately, that used so much energy and I don’t have the motivation to put the clothes away just now. Oh, well. We’re off till Monday so tomorrow will work just as well. I hope you all have a prosperous and blessed 2009!

Tonight, after my daughter was in bed, I quietly began to set up her Christmas morning loot. I placed the wrapped presents under the tree and left a few unwrapped for the “wow” factor as she comes downstairs in the morning. I built a little fort with some Lincoln Logs we got her as part of this ensemble. I finished the project and cleaned up the living room. While I was working, I thought I heard little footsteps on the second floor but my daughter tends to be scared to get out of bed at night so I thought I was hearing things.

When I was done with everything, I sat down in the recliner in the living room to admire my work. As I was sitting there, half dozing, waiting for the washer to finish its cycle so I could go to bed, I heard an unmistakable creaking on the stairs. I got up and quickly popped my head over the railing to meet two of the most startled eyes I’ve ever seen and a flash of purple snowman pajamas frantically trying to make it back up three steps.

“What are you doing?” I asked. “Sorry,” was her answer. “Are you creeping downstairs to look at your presents?”

“Yes, sorry,” she said. She was examining my face to see if I was angry. I could not help but grin.

“We don’t do that, okay? Now go back to bed.” She hurried back into her room. I went up to make sure she really got in bed and she was lying there, sucking her thumb, eyes wide.

“If you see your presents tonight it will ruin the surprise,” I told her quietly.

“Were you still in the living room?” she asked.

“Yes, but even after I go to bed you need to stay in your bed, okay?” She nodded again. Hopefully getting caught was enough to keep her honest. We’ll see in the morning.

Today as I sat at my desk at work pondering how on earth I was going to accomplish all the things on my list before Christmas, I felt panic began to rise. I’m already tired and it’s only Monday. I need to get the house back in order (from letting it go while I was sick), do a TON of laundry, wrap presents and get packed to go out of town. All this and I have to work Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday all day. I got out my calendar to start filling in my time sheet for the week and discovered 4 hours of vacation I had marked off but not yet used! I felt like I won the lottery! Now, I get to leave work at 2:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve. What a relief! Those extra hours will save my sanity. What’s on your last minute Christmas list?