38 and "Me" Time

My college roommate and I share a birthday. We celebrated our 19th birthday together at Kinzua Bridge 19 years ago. That means I've known her for more than half of my life! She's one of the only friends who ALWAYS remembers my birthday (because, obviously) and we sometimes compare notes.

This year she celebrated her birthday with happy hour, dinner with family, and then drinking with neighbors in her hot tub. My celebration was vastly different. I spent the morning at the ENT specialist for a re-evaluation for Youngest Boy's surgery (scheduled for Thursday). I made our traditional Friday night dinner (homemade pizza) and baked my own birthday cake. I received two AWESOME gifts from my loving husband (this Vintage Pearl necklace and a Sidney Crosby third jersey) and the kids sang Happy Birthday to me.

Turns out, I don't mind the way I celebrated. Actually, I totally enjoyed it (OK, except for the getting up at 4:30AM with a teething baby part). You see, I spent my 20s largely alone. I had great friends and of course, my immediate family, but no special guy. I spent a lot of time alone. What I would refer to now as "me" time. I think maybe that's why I don't get all of the hype surrounding that term. Sure, I'd like to be able to do some things alone (like pee), but for the most part I enjoy being with someone. MY "someones". I guess I'm just making up for lost time.

Maybe it's because I didn't become a parent until my 30s. I can't say that's the best way to do it, but I can say that it's working out alright for me. Looking back, maybe if I hadn't spent so much time doing exactly what I wanted exactly when I wanted to I may be looking to do it now. But I'm not. If anything, I wish I had more "alone" time with my husband, but we're both patient enough to know that the time will come when we can have that time without having to worry. For now, we're happy to be surrounded by our little "someones". Nothing makes me happier than snuggling on our bed with our babies wrapped around us like a giant (squirming, squealing) quilt. I don't need the party crowd. I have everything I need. My family.

It's A Good Thing Her Self-Worth Is In Her Body Image, Because Her Personality Sucks

Jillian Michaels, this mama could kick your ass. You may think in your perverted masochistic mind that having a child somehow lowers the worth of your body. Clearly, you are not a mother. My body has created life - LIFE!! - not once, not twice, but four amazing times. And those four amazing things? Are worth every stretch mark. Every wrinkle. Every gray hair. Growing those babies was hard work. Delivering them would drive even you to tears. And I did it. Does that make me somehow worth more than someone who's NOT a mom? No. But it certainly doesn't make me worth less.


For the record, I'm certain than given 30 days (and I wouldn't need to give my program some lame-o "name" like "shred") my size 6 ass (that's right, size 6) could kick your size whatever up one side and down the other. And that's AFTER giving birth to four children in just over 6 years.


My body? Is beautiful. Not because it's perfect. I don't have 6-pack abs, but they're a lot flatter than some. I don't have super guns, but they're more defined than they were in my 20s. I work hard to be healthy and in shape but it still makes me sick to my stomach to think that someone would pass up a chance to have children because YOU said it would ruin their body. Ruin it? Hardly. Because it makes you so, so much stronger. Moms can do things that other people wouldn't even attempt.

You go ahead and adopt (for the record, I think adoption is a beautiful thing but NOT for this reason alone) and please, adopt a boy. Because I pity any baby girl who has to grow up with someone criticizing her body the way you criticize other women. Women who made the choice to have children. Women who are beautiful BECAUSE they made that choice.

Bring it, Jillian. Bring it.

For the record, it was this article that pissed me off. And it references this magazine (Women's Health, for crying out loud! Whiskey! Tango! Foxtrot?!?!)

Who Needs A Dyson?

In the past few weeks (really, since she started to crawl) I have found our Little One chewing on the following:


Day Week-old Cheerios
Peanut butter sandwich debris
Thomas the Tank Engine
Cord from the baby monitor (WHILE it was still plugged in)
Bottle of (tightly capped) nail polish remover
Cable remote
Batteries from the cable remote
Night light (WHILE it was still plugged in)
Her sister's hair
Walkie-talkie antenae
White (washable) crayon
Dirty diaper (in a plastic ziploc baggie)
The Wii-mote
Markers (at least they were capped)
Rocks
USB cable (WHILE it was still plugged in)
Unopened tampon
And my personal favorite, a raw onion.

I'm so glad we invested in a whole-house vacuum system when we built this house, because we clearly should be using it more often.

Clone Wars: The Panic Attack

Anyone who knows my boys knows about their Star Wars obsession. This has carried over into The Clone Wars and even into our video gaming (which is very, very limited). The Clone Wars is a cartoon which airs on the Cartoon Network at 9PM Friday nights. Since bedtime is 8PM (with sleep happening somewhere around 8:30) we almost always record it. Occasionally they have been allowed to stay up and watch but that became less often after one particularly nightmare-inducing episode (and I'm talking about me not them). Friday night Oldest Boy had open house at his school and bedtime was pretty late so we didn't even think about TV. No mention of it by anyone...until.

4:55AM. Saturday morning. I could feel a presence next to my side of the bed. I cautiously opened one eye and there was Oldest Boy. Without any pretense he said, "Did you set it up to record?!?!" I didn't even have to open the other eye to know what he was talking about. "Yes. Yes I did." No further conversation. And he slept until 7:30 (an unheard of feat for my early bird)!!

Art Appreciation

Oldest Boy brought home this project last week from school:
The title is "My family shows love" (I know, his penmanship leaves something to be desired). Sometimes you wonder what your kids will take away from their childhood as favorite memories. Sometimes they draw it out in black and white (and blue and purple and red).

1. Yes, it looks like we're yelling at each other (and that's what Mr. MOTH guessed), but in actuality, we're eating pizza. Every Friday night I make homemade pizza with the kids. Sometimes they help. Sometimes they don't. But we eat together.

2. We're watching a movie. Star Wars, of course. Notice Darth Maul and his double light saber? The Jedi in their brown robes?

3. This one looks x-rated...but we're actually playing the Wii. Lego Star Wars, of course. They only play on the weekend and only for half an hour each, but they do it with Daddy, so it's the highlight for them. That line down the middle of the square? They have to stand behind something so they don't smack the TV with the control!

4. I knew this one right away. Magic blanket rides. I love my kids.

Thank Goodness It Was A Sunny Day!

I took Youngest Boy for his x-ray today at our "local" Children's Hospital ("local" being still 40 minutes away because we live in the middle of Nowhere, USA). He was very brave and we had a surprisingly short wait. This meant that we had tons of time to kill before we had to pick Oldest Boy up from school.

The girls were at home with Aunt Jo so it was just me and my boy. I stopped into a fabric store to price tulle and elastic to make a tutu for Little One's 1st birthday bash (seriously? I can make one for less than $10...or pay $30 for someone else to do it. Hmmm. Let me think...Yep. I'm still cheap.) Because I made him suffer through that, I rewarded my little animal lover for good behavior with a stop at Petco with the admonishment that we were just looking around and NOT bringing home a pet. He was very, very impressed. Mommy! Look! Kittens! Can we get one? Mommy! Look! What are THOSE?!?! Can we get one? You can have a scorpion for a pet?!?! Can we get one? I'm so glad that I explained the whole NOT bringing one home beforehand. :)

I was still going to be very early to pick Oldest Boy up from school so I took my time driving there. I was behind a little Subaru when I noticed...something...on the rear windshield wiper. Shoes? Little Girl shoes? OKaaay. Well, then. I was still behind the same car when I saw a very frazzled mommy turn around and try desperately to clean up a toddler in a car seat while at the red light. Now things were starting to fall into place! At the next light, it turned red just as she pulled up. I hesitated for about 2.3 seconds before I put the space shuttle in park, jumped out, grabbed the shoes and knocked on her driver's side window. Luckily, she recognized the shoes and didn't think I was a lunatic. Or maybe she did. Either way, we both laughed, she took the shoes, and we went our separate ways - her being thankful that the shoes weren't somewhere on Route 19 and me feeling like I was in that insurance commercial where one good deed begats another. What have you done lately that may seem foolish but made you feel like you did the right thing?

Busy! Busy! Busy!

I posted a few weeks ago about all of the double ear infections that we've been having lately. I know that it's completely normal for little kids to get them, but we became very concerned when Youngest Boy's hearing was affected. A lot. He was sitting maybe three inches or so away from the TV just so he could hear it. We had to scream at the top of our lungs talk really loudly just so he could understand the simplest conversation. It was like living in a retirement community!

Because we didn't really like the "wait and see" approach that our pediatrician recommended, we took him to see a pediatric ear, nose, and throat guy. (Dr. Seuss. Seriously. Youngest Boy said, "Mommy! I can't see Dr. Seuss! He's dead!!" {sigh}). As a result of that appointment, we have surgery scheduled to get tubes in his ears. We also have a round of x-rays to determine if his adnoids need to be removed as well. Oh, and an appointment with his allergist for another round of effing pin-prick testing to see if he has developed any since his last round of testing two years ago. There's a follow-up with the ENT to double-check that the fluid that completely fills his eardrum doesn't magically disappear and then the surgery. ::whew::

Did I mention that this is surgery? Where they have to use anesthesia? And knock out my baby?!?! Yeah. I'm thrilled.

And it turns out that carrying around a 23 pound baby has re-injured my hernia that I had repaired over 10 years ago. In all honesty, I was shocked that none of my four vaginal labor and deliveries from hell caused the problem. So I will eventually need surgery as well. Lovely.