A long, long time ago — even longer than my last blog post, if you can believe that — I decided to undertake a project. It was for a pregnant friend and a newly unpregnant sister-in-law: a journal that I wish I had to keep track of the changing realities of being a new mom…
Fancy Dinner: CityZen
We had splurge Merry Christmas dinner the other night at CityZen at the Mandarin Hotel. Fortunately it wasn’t until the following night that my son woke a few times before midnight. Thankfully, on our night out, all was quiet. We left at 7:30 and didn’t return until 11:00 after a lovely dinner (with a neighbor…
Reduce = Relief
This post originally appeared on December 10, 2008 on DC Metro Moms Reduce = Relief One sister wants socks. The other wants to just to re-gift or to do a white elephant. The brother is always gunning for t-shirts. This year, the name of the game is one item under $10. Two years ago, when…
Teacher, can you please make that mean mommy shut up?
This post originally appeared on DC Metro Moms Blog on December 7, 2008. Original comments follow below. She called her daughter rotten. I think the girl is 18 months old. After several weeks of cringing in mommy & toddler Spanish class listening to Mean Mommy shout “No!” and “Don’t make me come get you” in…
Don’t come in this store!
It’s always bugged me that the Babies R Us near my home has this mixed-message sign on its entry door. The white-line-divied red circle screams “don’t go there!” but the wording says “Entrance Only.” The other day I happened to have my camera with me, so I finally documented the insanity. Above is the view…
Gramma’s Kitchen: Better than Wendy’s!
On the day before Thanksgiving, we had the pleasure of a lovely little breakfast at Gramma’s Kitchen outside of Mansfield, Pennsylvania. This is the only photo I successfully snapped before my camera battery died, which is a shame, because I’d have loved to snap one of the cute grannies on duty or the vegetable omelet…
Diversity and Language: Not Just Words
This post originally appeared on DC Metro Moms on November 21, 2008 Diversity and Language: Not Just Words “How do we say manos in French?” my two-and-a-half-year-old son asked, his open hands twisting on his wrists high in the air. “Wait, he’s learning two other languages?” my friend asked, head cocked to the side. French…
Clearing the Clutter
My son finally has a room with a bed, no longer a double futon on the floor that takes up half the room. I am finally feeling like a grown-up parent. Here is his room now moving clockwise. All that’s left is perhaps some work on the walls — art or shelving — and curtains…
Mama Bloggers Show Motrin What Pain Is
If you’re not on Twitter, you might possibly still not know about this phenomenon (I didn’t until yesterday). Motrin released a snarky anti-babywearing ad in the hopes of garnering more pill-popping consumer support. What the company got was a big dose of mad mamas. Women started Twittering about the condescending ad in droves. Here is…
Happy and healthy Halloween
This year’s Halloween was a great day with crisp air and squeaky clean blue skies. I’m happy to say that, at two and a half years old, my son had a blast without having any clue that Halloween and candy have anything to do with one another. Here’s what we did: 9:00 Parade at school…
People who live in houses with smudged glass doors should do some cleaning
This post originally appeared on DC Metro Moms on November 13, 2008 People who live in houses with smudged glass doors should do some cleaning When I brought out a spray bottle of Parsley Plus to wipe off our patio table during playgroup, my son nearly outed me as having a housecleaner. “That’s for Selma,”…
Coconut Oil – new study shows it might help with pneumonia
The Washington Post recently published an article entitled “Coconut Oil May Help Fight Childhood Pneumonia.” The study was only done on folks taking antiobiotics (no group that wasn’t on meds), but it did show that the folks who also consumed coconut oil daily had a quicker recovery and had lower levels of the “crackling” sound…
Just Like in the Books – Boy Gets a Bed
This photo is artistically rendered to obscure both my son’s face and my husband’s thinning hair. (btw, the masthead on this blog is a similarly altered-in-Picasa chunk of a photo of my son’s mouth and nose. Can you tell from the hyperpink in this bedroom rendering?) The heartwarming scene depicted here is of a father…
Acupunture and Cupping for Tight Muscles
My neck and shoulders used to hurt all the time. Long before I was diagnosed with Graves’ disease (autoimmune hyperthyroidism) or celiac disease, my health problems manifested in a more physical way. I’ve had some issues on and off since my son was born, especially when I was wearing him in a sling all day,…
Election ’08: One more take
Everyone and her dog is writing and talking about the election. It’s one of those phenomena we all have to talk through endlessly to process. Did it really happen? Yes, it did. The United States of America elected its first black president. Two weeks ago, a campaign button made the impact of this reality —…
A Tale of Two Airports
This post originally appeared on DC Metro Moms on November 1, 2008 A Tale of Two Airports “What year are we in — 1993?” I asked my husband as we stood waiting at the old terminal of Reagan National Airport for Northwest to produce our bags. Two tired carousels sat glumly like rides in the…
Happy Halloween – 33 years later
I don’t give my mom enough credit a lot of the time. But the woman can sew! In 1975, she made this leopard costume for me. It’s been worn by nieces and nephews, and now, by my son. Thanks, Mom!
Fitting in with carbs: gluten-free rolls
Kneading dough is part of our Waldorf school’s curriculum, and it turns out you don’t really knead gluten-free dough. The xanthan gum is what adds the elasticity. So rather than use gluten-free dough in the classroom, my son’s teacher and I decided the class would use wheat as usual and we’d just bring in our…
Snacks to Go
My son has always been into things he could chew — munching on celery at 10 months but pushing away purees. Now that he sees other toddlers eating chips and pretzels and cereal, he really wants more crunchy options than rice crackers. One new gluten-free option our local My Organic Market just started carrying is…
Smacked in the Facebook
I’ve just recently lost my Facebook virginity. It happened a few months ago, but I’ve been in denial. I created the account using my secondary (read: hardly checked, used only for esoteric Yahoo lists about traditional eating and food allergies) email. Then I just ignored my page. When I checked back during vacation in July,…