Mom Talk

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?

I hate winter. I have said it before but today I really mean it. The wind chill here is below zero and the regular temp is in the teens. It’s the kind of cold that actually, physically hurts when you go outside. It makes me want to hibernate. “Move to a warmer climate,” you might be thinking. I also hate really hot weather. Here, I get both but also the pleasures of spring and fall. So, I’ll just continue to complain and keep on living here in the good ‘ole Midwest. On bone chilling days like today, I’ll just stay inside as much as possible and keep the heat cranked up. It’s hard to believe that tomorrow is really just the first day of winter. Brrrr and arrggghh!!

 This morning I had a blond moment. We had a minor episode of freezing rain here in St. Louis last night, leaving a fine glaze of ice on everything. My hubby has the freedom to work from home under such conditions so I was able to leave my daughter with him and head straight to work. I donned my new snow boots (for traction) and headed gingerly down my back porch stairs, my shoulder loaded with my laptop bag and purse. When I reached the gate on our chain link fence, I realized the latch was iced over and would not lift. I pulled with all my might and it didn’t even budge a little.

I stood there for a few seconds more, contemplating what I should do. I wondered if I would have to jump the fence (I’m sure you’re already laughing) or if I should go in and get a pitcher of hot water to pour over the latch. Still deep in thought, I headed back for the back door, planning to ask my husband what he would recommend to get the latch open. As I paused with my hand on the doorknob, my brain suddenly began to function and I realized the simple solution . . .the front door.

I was in a hurry so I walked back through the house and told my family “bye” again. Hubby told me to be careful as the front porch is usually even more slippery than the back sidewalk. I made it to the car and headed for work. Later in the day, I talked to my mom on the phone and just told her about the back gate being frozen, not my whole thought process. She said, “Wow, if that happened to me, it might take me a few minutes to realize I could go through the front door. I’d probably be out there with a pitcher of water or something, trying to open the latch.” That is when it became amusing to me that the same thought had crossed my mind. I was very glad I came to my senses before asking my husband what I should do. Even now, I can picture the amusement I’m sure he would have displayed had I asked him how I was supposed to get to the car. My mom and I had a really good laugh over the whole thing. Apparently, great minds (and other kinds) think alike.