One Perfect Mess

Archive for August, 2010

I have finally accepted that I know nothing about fashion. Because when I go in a department store all I can think is, “who wears this ugly shit?” My shopping trip today in summary: bedazzled, leopard and/or zebra print, articles of clothing that I cannot tell whether they are meant to be shirts or dresses, belts in locations where nature really didn’t build a human for a belt… seriously who belts their boobs? And why are the built in belts always so INSANELY cheap looking? It seems like department stores just totally leave out my demographic. You’ve got the skanky juniors’ section, the matronly “dress with matching jacket” section and then the Women’s section. Where do the average size thirty somethings shop?

I utter those words with an alarming frequency, almost always upon walking in my front door. With two kids and four cats we’re basically screwed. I almost always locate the source, sometimes it just takes longer than others.

I had been asking Andrew this question the last month or so and still hadn’t solved the mystery. He denied smelling anything out of the ordinary but my nose was not to be fooled. Then week before last I was doing the frantic scrub down of the entire house which involved moving all the furniture and steam cleaning the carpets. Wouldn’t you know as I moved the sofa I saw a large white spot on the carpet. “What now,” I thought. I felt like a character in a horror movie as my brain flipped through possible scenarios and then it hit me and I swear I even heard that ominous shrieking music. I could visualize the Peanut’s sippy cup upside down on the sofa as I had found it some weeks before. At the time I furiously cleaned the sofa cushions and thought that fun little episode was behind us. I never considered looking under the sofa. Sure enough a puddle of milk had pooled on the carpet and was now crusty and dry. It took me about thirty attempts to get the carpet clean but the silver lining is that I finally figured out what that smell was.

This weekend I :

Went to the farmer’s market

Put up a year’s worth of corn in the freezer

Went to the sewing shop

Quilted

Ironed ZOMG

Worked on some paper crafts

Made a fresh peach cobbler without a recipe

I felt like Martha effin Stewart… as long as she feels totally exhausted by the end of her weekends anyway.

To my sweet little Weebles, today you are three! years! old! I can hardly believe it.

This past year has seen a lot of changes. You started preschool three mornings a week. You were very unsure at first, but soon fell in love with it. You are so excited to go. You especially love art projects and playing on the playground but I hear that you also engage in “dramatic play” with your little friends. In the next few weeks you will be moving up to the older class and sometime in the coming months you’ll start going five days a week. Whenever you seem ready.

This summer you started dance classes and you have loved that from day one. Mrs. Sue has taken you right under her wing and you adore getting dressed in your tutus and tights. Gymnastics was a little more difficult for you but Coach Holly is teaching you so many fun things.

You are a smart little girl. You know how to negotiate to get what you want. Arguing with me about how many more minutes you are allowed to stay up or how many bedtime stories we will read. You have been having a more difficult time getting along with your brother lately. Any toy that he has you decide that you want to take it, so we are working on that. Now you often try to trade him a different toy for the one that you want. I even caught you trying to trade him the raisins out of your trail mix in return for his M&M’s. I think we are going to have to institute the Granddaddy and SiSi policy of all trades having to be approved by mom or dad.

Your memory is incredibly sharp. It has to have been at least six months since we stopped eating dinner in front of the TV on Friday nights. Yet the other day the Daily Show happened to come on and you looked at the front door and asked if daddy was bringing pizza for dinner.

Now that you are older there are so many new things I want us to do together. Cooking is definitely high on the list. You have shown great interest in helping in the kitchen lately and I look forward to that. More and more I am letting you choose your own clothes and snacks. Although we are still working out the difference between “treat” and “snack”… or “breakfast” for that matter. Every day or two you still try to get marshmallows for breakfast.

Tantrums are behind us for the time being. Every so often you’ll get upset when you don’t get your way but now you are more likely to stomp off into the bedroom and throw yourself dramatically on the bed. I can’t remember the last time you had a time out.

I can see you right on the edge of such major independence. Since you were a baby I have worried about feeling sad at how fast you would grow up. But instead I am finding I’m just so very proud of you. It is amazing to see how much you can do in just three short years. You are right on the cusp of being so self sufficient being able to go into the kitchen and get yourself a drink or a *ahem* snack even if not always what I might approve. You go to the bathroom by yourself, informing me that you need privacy if I try to follow.

My little Julie, you are so smart and kind, stubborn and creative. I can’t wait to see all the things you will accomplish this next year.

Love,

Mama

So this Gisele person, who I don’t think I’ve ever heard of, was quoted as saying that she believes there should be a law that mothers have to breastfeed their kids. Hoo boy have I seen some responses floating around the interwebs. My response is that there shouldn’t have to be a law. Then again, I don’t think there should have to be a whole bunch of laws that we have but that’s a whole other kettle of drama. People should do the right thing whenever possible. I am SO freaking tired of reading comments about it being “your body.” It is not merely your body when you are pregnant or have a newborn. This whole mess about “choice” really rubs me the wrong way. Where is the baby’s choice? Because clearly that baby wants to be breastfed. It isn’t some weirdo newfangled idea here… we are meant to do it. I absolutely understand the arguments that some women can’t, some don’t produce enough or have medical conditions that prevent it. By ALL means… give that baby some formula and don’t give yourself a moment’s grief over it. And when I say “medical condition” I do include the ladies that would just go out of their minds, stressed, anxious freaked out, panic attacks whatever. Because the baby needs a sane (ish) Mom. But it is hard. And you should give it a really really good try because it is what your baby needs. And thinking it is gross or too time consuming or uncomfortable or inconvenient or God forbid against your belief you should have  a “choice” nosireebob. Don’t have yourself a baby if you don’t want to give of yourself because breastfeeding is just the teeny tiny tip of the iceberg on the crazy shit you are signing yourself up for. So in the end I disagree with Gisele that there should be a law but I back the sentiment 100%.

All the other kids are doing it so here is my advice post for not going to BlogHer.

1.) Make sure you have really supercute super comfy clothes to wear all weekend.

2.) Make sure you have RSVP’ed to all the best parties DVR’ed a bunch of your favorite shows.

3.) Pack your suitcase fridge several days in advance.

4.) Make sure your Twitter app is set to follow ignore the #BlogHer10 stream.

5.) Be prepared to be jealous of the more popular bloggers everyone that got to go.

In all seriousness I really envy all the lovely ladies (and gentlemen) going to BlogHer this year. Last year during BlogHer I sat at home wishing I could be there to experience all the fun I was reading about online. I promised myself I’d go this year only to find out that it would be over my daughter’s birthday weekend. I only debated it for about half a minute. Priorities.. I know right. I wouldn’t have gone without my kids anyway, because that’s how I roll (and why I am totally freaking insane) but I didn’t want her to miss having her party with her grandparents and friends from school. So home I will be this weekend, enjoying a three year old’s birthday party and entertaining my in-laws. I’ll still be stealing glances at Twitter to see what fun everyone is getting up to and staying up to date on the latest drama (why, yes I do enjoy the drama, thankyouverymuch) and looking forward to be able to be there in person next year.