Mom Talk

 So the aforementioned (in a prior post) birthday party is scheduled for October 11^th at our local Chuck E. Cheese’s. As I continue on with party planning I am amazed at how much it costs. My daughter wants Little Einsteins plates and party hats so I placed the order for those today. Unfortunately, I don’t think we can get a Little Einsteins cake because it’s copyrighted. That’s no fun. So in addition to the expense of the party, we also have decorations, cake and ice cream, invitations and gifts. It costs a lot to have a birthday but then again, we’re only doing a “blowout” this year because her birthday falls on a Saturday. Next year, it’s back to cake and ice cream in the dining room at home with a few close friends and family members.

My soon to be 4-year-old has started a new pastime-eavesdropping. It’s natural I guess since she spends most of her time around adults. She tries to get in on the conversation. Unfortunately, I’m accustomed to speaking freely in front of her on most topics, not really thinking about the fact that she may understand what I’m talking about. My first clue that this was changing was a few months ago. I was on the phone with my mom complaining about the behavior of a relative and my daughter came up to me after I hung up and began asking for clarification on several points. This is a relative she knows and is very familiar with so I had to do some “creative truth telling” to cover myself. The last thing I wanted was for her to say something like, “Hey, Uncle George, my mommy says you talk too much,” the next time we’re all together (names have been changed to protect the guilty). Now that I’m realizing how much she understands, I am trying to be careful what I discuss in front of her but this is no small task. I’ve discovered that she can spell when the context is right (I guess she sounds it out!) so this is a whole new ballgame for me. I’ll keep you posted on any effective methods I uncover during this learning process.

This weekend, I’m visiting my aunt in a smallish town of about 10,000 people.  I live in a city so I’m noticing all the subtle (and not so subtle) differences in the way things are done.  The things I like:

*I love that I can walk around a playground and let my daughter run ahead without feeling like someone’s going to jump out and grab her from 5 feet in front of me.

*I love that she can play on the equipment and I can sit on a bench at 20 feet because that’s what all the parents are doing and there’s not much danger of her getting lost in the crowd.

*I love that the wait at the local steakhouse (much like an Outback) on a Friday night is 20 minutes instead of 45 to an hour, and the owner comes out several times to make sure everyone’s enjoying their meal.

*I love that it takes only 5 minutes to get anywhere.

*I love that the cost of a nice house is only about $100,000 (that’s 3 bedrooms, 2 baths!)

*I love the lazy, small town, homey atmosphere that permeates pretty much everything.  I think I’m a small town girl at heart.

 Now, I grew up in a very small town (population 2,140) and that was a bit too tiny for me.  Now that I live in the city, I find myself missing the atmosphere of the slower life.  Unfortunately, we are all stuck living wherever our jobs land us but some day I hope to get the luxury of raising my little ones in a little town like this one.

My daughter will be four in just a few weeks and for the last two or three months, she’s been going through an “afraid of everything” stage.  I’m not sure if this is common for all kids her age or if it’s just her. She doesn’t like loud noises, the dark and being alone in a room.  She doesn’t even want to play in a room by herself.  She has been sleeping alone in her own room all night since she was 9 weeks old and suddenly, even that is a challenge.  She begs every night to stay up or to sleep with us (which never happens), then when we finally force the issue and she goes to bed, she gets very upset if her night light is not in the perfect position or if there is any unexpected noise outside.  I’m hoping it’s just a normal phase of childhood but I’m really not sure.  Anyone else have this experience?  I’m going to do some more research.

Juggling my many hats can be a challenge at times.  This week, my daughter and I are travelling for our yearly visit to my favorite aunt’s house.  While this trip is exciting for both of us, the sheer volume of stuff I need to get done before leaving is astonishing.  For the last several days, every time I sit still for five minutes, my mind starts to whirl with the list I have yet to put down on paper.  Fill the cat’s food and change his litter pan, finish up last minute laundry so my daughter’s dance stuff is clean for next week, work ahead for my online school classes, pack. . . .and the list goes on!  If I had started the week off by making a list, I would have saved a shred of my sanity but now here I am, a day before I leave, just now writing it down.  I guess better late than never.  To top it all off, I came down with an awful cold a few days ago and today I have PMS!  Posting this blog is one thing I can now mark off my list. :)  Do you guys have any tips for preparing to leave town?  Any nuggets of wisdom you’d like to share?  Leave a comment!

My daughter’s fourth birthday is drawing nigh and we’ve decided to have her party at Chuck E Cheese.  This decision was made after a lot of research on different venues.  Most places around town require that you purchase a party package that covers 20 kids for about $200.  Since we only know about 5 other kids, that doesn’t make a lot of sense to us.  At our local Chuck E Cheese’s, we can reserve for as few as four kids at $11 each.  That includes pizza, drink, tokens and party favors-not a terrible deal.  The problem we’ve run into?  We have many adult friends that have no children and we have to invite them to her party to avoid hurting feelings.  The pizzas there are around $20 for one large.  Ridiculous!  We can’t afford to buy pizza for 30 adults, plus the rest of the party.  It would cost us several hundred dollars.  Our solution?  We are putting a disclaimer on the invitations.  “Pizza and soft drinks provided for the kids starting at 6:00 p.m.  Cake for everyone at 6:45 p.m.”  I’m not sure where this falls in line with party etiquette and I hope I don’t offend anyone.  Any opinions out there?  I’m all ears!

I’m pretty sure I have an addiction.  It’s not to anything that’s harmful to the body, like drugs or alcohol, but it does occasionally damage my credit card balance.  I love shoes.  If I could buy a new pair of them every day, I would be in a state of bliss all the time.  I’m not sure what draws me but it’s a strong connection. 

I walk into DSW or Famous Footwear (or any other large shoe store) and the first thing I do is take a deep breath.  That’s right, I even like that odd rubber mixed with leather mixed with some other chemical smell that permeates a shoe store.  As I look at the huge room with all the shoe shelves everywhere, I can’t wait to get started.  I think part of the addiction comes from the fact that shoes fit even when I’ve gained a little weight.  My pant size may go up and down but my shoe size stays the same (with the possible exception of the post-pregnancy growth spurt). 

I have one problem when it comes to buying shoes.  My foot (since the aforementioned increase in size) is a solid size 11.  I know, huge for a woman but hey, I’m not petite.  All of those delicious pumps and sling backs and mules tend to top out at a size 10.  I’m offended by this because it feels like prejudice.  It feels like the shoe manufacturers are saying that women with big feet are too big for the best styles and don’t deserve all the cute shoes everyone else gets to wear. 

Despite this, I have been able to find a few wonderful pairs of shoes.  The experience?  An attractive pair of shoes catches my eye and I have to try them on.  When I slide my foot into the soft leather, it feels like butter.  They are very comfortable and I can’t wait to find the perfect outfit to match them with.  I also can’t wait to show them off to my other shoe-loving friends.  They understand what I mean when I say, “Couldn’t you just lick these shoes?”  All you other shoe lovers out there, leave me a shout!

If I run short on topics later, I may post installments of my “spider bite” story for your reading pleasure.  For now, suffice it to say that several years ago, I was bitten by brown recluse spider and it resulted in some fairly severe disfigurement on one of my legs.  As you might imagine, I am now pretty much terrified of the things.  I didn’t like spiders before but now they are my mortal enemies.  This will help you understand what happened to me yesterday.

My husband and I were hauling the shop vac up the ladder into the attic over our garage to clean up after some construction work that had been done.  I was planning to vacuum by myself but it required both of us to haul the heavy vacuum up the ladder.  I was already dreading the task because the attic is very “webby” and I hate being even in the proximity of a spider.  This made me jumpy to say the least.  As I climbed the ladder, I saw a live, large brown recluse spider sitting at the top of the ladder (taunting me?).  I took of my shoe and tried to smash it but it was too quick for me and jumped off the ladder onto the garage floor.  At first, I wasn’t sure where it went and was screaming and flailing.  Then my husband spotted it and killed it quickly.  Unfortunately, after that I felt like stuff was crawling all over me and was even more jumpy, but I went on about the task at hand.  Even the tickly sweat dripping down my back was unnerving.  As I backed from the far corner of the attic towards the ladder opening with the vacuum cleaner attachment in hand, I felt something crawl up my neck and onto the top of my head.  I immediately starting screaming and swatting and dancing around and came very close to falling over the edge of the attic opening.  After “it” was off of me, I realized I had been fighting with and almost killed myself over the string used to turn the attic light off and on.  Even I had a good laugh over that one folks.

I don’t know why, but I truly hate to go grocery shopping. Any other kind of shopping is awesome but that weekly chore of going to the store for food is such a pain. I make a list, which is usually longer than I want it to be, then set off for an hour amongst the shelves of food, reading labels and looking for sales. I typically spend more than I want to and get home only to discover that something is forgotten. That’s why I typically put it off until the last possible minute, when we’re out of everything (think that’s why it costs a fortune?).

If I go to the store hungry, I’m in for a shock at the cash register. It seems I buy one of everything in the store and then some. My growling stomach causes me to use my list only as a guide and pick up anything that sounds good. If I go when it’s too crowded, I get frustrated and inevitably forget something important but I hate the store so much we tend to just make do until my next trip.

It seems silly that something as simple as buying groceries for my family could be a pet peeve but it truly is. I woke up earlier than I intended this morning and realized I had to go the store today so I just got up and got dressed. I’m writing this blog right now as a method of procrastination. I guess I’ll sign off and get started. I’m curious as to how many other moms feel this way. If you’re one of them, leave me a comment!

Isn’t it amazing that kids can make a song out of absolutely anything?  My little one is the “queen of sing” in our house.  You name it, she will sing about it.  I hear her all the time, singing to her dolls or about her toys.  When she can’t think of words, she uses silly sounds to make a tune.  I think there’s a lesson in there somewhere for all of us.

If we would try harder to see the “song” in every situation, we’d be much happier people.  When’s the last time you sang, “I’m doing the dishes, la la la la la!”.  If you’re like me. . .never.  I’m not saying I’m going to start bursting into song every few minutes but I think humming now and then might actually boost my mood.  I can say that when I’m feeling down or annoyed or tired and I overhear her composing a new little ditty in the next room, it definitely makes me smile.