This post originally appeared on DC Metro Moms on October 10, 2008 Yard Sign Blues This can’t be the right address. I checked my notes from the Freecycler’s email. This was the house. But it can’t be. There’s a John McCain sign in the yard. I looked back at my toddler son and thought, “Baby…
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You may rest now. You may not pinch Mommy.
Isn’t he sweet? Napping in his new bed, or rather, his old double futon that takes up half of his new room? If only this shot represented reality more than cover model head shots. We are not napping. The kid is so wound up, you would think someone else in his family teaching him that…
Celebrating changes, looking ahead
Around here, we are finally feeling ready for a big purge and reorganization. There is too much stuff, and we’re ready to simplify. In some cases, the stuff we will toss (or recycle, or Freecycle, or sell) just doesn’t reflect how we live anymore. I keep thinking that once I get rid of all the…
Chasing sleep and a room of one’s own
Naps are hard to find around here these days. My son has just turned two and a half, and he’s not napping about 60% of the time. This might not be such a big deal if I hadn’t failed to teach him how to fall asleep on his own or to stay in one place…
Small change
Leave it to the French to spoil a quiet moment. No, really it was my toddler, just choosing to blast a track from Putumayo’s French Playground in the middle of a rare couple connection. The three of us had just gone out for a nice dinner together — lovely walk in cool September air down…
Earning my keep
I just returned from my first tutoring session of the new school year with the boy I’ve been working with for a year and a half. He’s a student at a boarding school, parents living in Europe. The differences between his life experience and that of the students I used to teach at the public…
It’s 2008: Does he/she know where his/her children are?
Today it was in the Washington Post Style section that I came across the already-tired backpeddle, “We wouldn’t be asking these questions if Sarah Palin were a man.” I say: Bullshit. Although I concede that DeNeen Brown probably had to reference this position early on in her otherwise interesting and insightful piece on how women…
Babysitting Bliss/Blues
Childcare is a good thing. This is how I felt yesterday as I drove to the sitter’s house six hours after dropping E off for no particular reason other than to get to some writing, cleaning and posting stuff of Craigslist and Freecyle in the hopes of eventually seeing my basement floor again. Outside of…
Internal Egg Hunt
“I’m helping you take your temperature, Mom,” said my two-year-old son as he reached for the thermometer on the dresser. A 7:00 a.m. reading of 98.5 after a few days of similarly elevated readings seemed to indicate that I’d ovulated for the first time since he was born, 28.5 months ago. I hadn’t been charting…
Goin’ to Carolina (solo, with my son)
On Saturday mornings when I was a child, I spent hours watching cartoons before my parents came downstairs. It always startled me when one of our Siamese cats darted into my field of vision. After inhabiting a two-dimensional light-box world, seeing the muscular real-live animal removed my fantasy goggles. A similarly surreal experience was enjoying…
The belly is back
“Sugar is a bigger deal for you than gluten,” concluded my doctor as she perfomed muscle-testing on me. A chiropractic neurologist, she was very happy with my progress since my first visit back in October, 10 months ago. At that appointment, I was weepy and not very hopeful. Plus my son was clingy and grabby,…
Ani the Mami and Indigo Women
My husband was really trying to do something nice. In fact, he was trying to do exactly what I said I wanted: take initiative to get us out together as a couple. And he was thoughtful about it, purchasing Indigo Girls tickets after a drive in a borrowed car to the beach in Maine had…
Size 2? Try 2T
I’ve always been small. Usually the smallest in my class until I was twelve, when for a brief period I even had an edge over a few classmates, even some boys. But then I just stopped growing. And I wasn’t the kind of athletic small that would make me good at gymnastics or anything. Truth…
How Tired Are You?
The way I talk about my sleep with other moms reminds me of being in 7th grade, or in college. A friend saw a message I sent late last night to a group, around 2 a.m. As we gathered for a craft day at next year’s preschool – about eight hours later – I admitted…
Drinkin’ and a-Runnin’
Who knew that May 31st was the day before June 1st? When my friend’s husband asked if I was available to come to a surprise birthday party for her, I didn’t put it together that the half-marathon I’d just registered for was the following morning, Sunday, at 7:00 a.m. – a hour away. We talked…
Babysitting Bliss
When someone else’s child is in bed, this mama mouse gets to play in her head. I love babysitting. After bedtime, that is. I wrote recently about not particularly enjoying helping out friends during waking hours. It’s true that as my son gets older, he and his age-mates are better able to entertain each other….
Tired for the Very First Time
It was like I’d forgotten what it meant to be sleepy. I wrote a few weeks agoabout trying to see sleep as the gentle restorative time it’s supposed to be rather than the time I’m not getting things done – cleaning, cooking, writing, exercising. That was all a nice idea, but I was still pretty…
I’m not that woman
You know her — the one who says offers, Sure, she can drop by some (insert grocery item here) when you just happen to mention being out and in a bind. And of course it would be no problem to come over and watch your child while you cook or clean for the in-laws that…
Getting the Groove Back
Back in August, I sprained my ankle two weeks before I was going to run a half-marathon (what would have been my longest race). It’s been a long recovery that I’ll write about from various perspectives in the future. What I’m feeling good about right now is that I am starting to imagine exercise being…
So Many Words
I really had no idea what this whole blogosphere was about before I became a mom. What are all these people doing thinking they are so important that other people want to read about their lives? During my pregnancy, I joined a few Yahoo groups — DC Expectant Moms and a group for BirthCare, the…