Shelley's Case

Art of Mom Mond- er, Tuesday

I don't feel very art-of-momish this week. 

Yesterday - Peach's first day in the young preschool class - I had the worst drop off ever (although apparently she had a great day), a crazy hectic day, followed by leaving early to take her to the doctor, arriving at the doctor at 5:48 (traffic was nuts), and then a surprisingly pleasant doctor's visit.  After about 18 months of fighting the doctor, I asked her on the way out of school, "hey, do you want to go to the doctor?" and she said, "I want to go to doctor."  And it was awesome.  She didn't fight having her weight taken (31.7 pounds - finally over the 30 pound mark!) She didn't fight having the doctor look at the spot on her skin that I was worried about.  She hopped down after her exam and started playing.  She didn't fuss about the seasonal flu nasal mist experience.  It was fabulous.  I thought, "Wow.  She's really growing up."

Bonus: we were both in bed, and asleep, by about 8:30. 

This morning, I was reminded again that yes, I have a toddler.  Waking up: crying and fussing.  Putting on potty: lots of whining.  Putting on clothes: two parent operation.  Brushing of teeth: ditto.  Drive in: much demanding of going to the zoo instead of school.  Drop off: Second worst ever. 

And what is up with this new "I want to go to store" demand that crops up every time she has to do something she doesn't like?  I don't get it. Matthew calls her his little capitalist.

Sigh. 

But we had a great weekend: we met her BFF JM (and JM's mom) at the zoo, and they were so cute, holding hands and hugging and giggling.  Little girls are so cute!  And I love that as dominant as Peach is, personality wise, she is perfectly content to follow JM's lead.  We ate at Peach's favorite place - Noodles & Co. - for macaroni and cheese and meatballs - and much fun was had. I finally found a coat (at Target!) that she will wear instead of refusing my choices with a dismissive, "I just be cold." 

Ah, well.  Hopefully the weekend will come soon.  Work is topsy turvy (down a legal assistant) and I will probably end up having to do a work road trip on Saturday, but I'll look forward to the zoo on Sunday.  

Water on the moon - what's next, blue skies on Mars?

LOS ANGELES – Suddenly, the moon looks exciting again. It has lots of water, scientists said Friday — a thrilling discovery that sent a ripple of hope for a future astronaut outpost in a place that has always seemed barren and inhospitable.

via news.yahoo.com

Oh, now this is super cool stuff.

Art of Mom Monday

Crazy, crazy day.*  Twenty minutes from daycare/Matthew's work, Peach announces, "I have to go potty."  She's been so perfect on the commutes that I gave up putting a diaper on her for the trips to/from work (even with commute traffic!) a while back.  So we diverted to my office (closer: I drop them off and then backtrack) and she went there - disaster averted.  Whew. 

A few weeks back, I just gave up on putting Peach to bed in her room in her big girl bed.  I'd had an easy to put down baby for a long time, then when night terrors started, it got a lot more complicated.  Finally, bedtime become another toddler battleground.  After Matthew's surgery, I didn't have the energy.  She'd been waking up at 3 AM and ending up in our bed, anyway, so I figured, let's skip the battle and the nightly drama and just let her go to bed with us.  (If Supernanny has a problem with it, she can kiss my hardcore commuting, working mother ass.)

And it worked.  Suddenly there was no nighttime drama (other than choosing books and the occasional, hilarious talking in her sleep - last night it was "My bunny!").   As a side bonus, Peach is potty trained, better rested, and a lot easier to be around.  The only downside (other than the occasional kick to Mama's kidneys) was that now I was competing for covers with two people instead of one.  Yesterday we solved that issue by purchasing a king sized comforter/duvet for our queen sized bed, and it was awesome - almost like our bed had grown. Loved it.  

So you can imagine, then, my surprise when tonight she announced she wanted to go to bed in her big girl bed.  And climbed into it, demanded a few stuffed animals, her soymilk - and then promptly went to sleep....!  I knew sleeping with mom and dad was going to be self limiting and just tonight told my mother on the phone that as independent as Peach is, I didn't expect it to last long. But seriously?  45 minutes after I said it? 

Well.  I'm not taking back the king sized comforter.  I love that thing.

*I wish I could talk about work on my blog.  My work is nuts: I represent victims of sex abuse, and occasionally it gets so crazy it's surreal.  So do some of the clients.  But alas, I can't talk about it. 

Peach in a tutu

Peach picked her outfit this morning (well, she does every morning - or at least nitpicks what I choose), and was adamant about the tutu - but then decided at the last minute not to wear it to school (we did a quick car change).  Still, I enjoyed it while it lasted!

How can someone so young sing words so sad?

Since Peach's Duran Duran obsession started, I've been wildly (ha) working on trying to get her tastes diversified. (Oh, hell, that's not true.  Remember my labor and delivery playlist?  I've been thinking about this for a while - I even bought all the posters for the season of the opera I attended when I was pregnant.)  I created a driving playlist with a bunch of music that I thought she would like, and have been keeping tabs on whether she listens quietly, dances, demands "DIFFERENT SONG!" or "NO SONGS!"

This evening's tally was pretty typical. She prefers male voices to female, and regular rhythms to fancier beats.  She likes a good base line and synthesizers.  (She really dug Wagner when she was still a fetus, for that matter.)

The verdicts:

"Let Me Go" by Cake. No.

"Leaving Las Vegas" by Sheryl Crow: Yes. Which is funny, because I don't even like this song much.

"Wednesday" by Tori Amos: Yes, for about 2 minutes.

"She's in Parties" by Bauhaus: Yes, for about 3 minutes.

"Lord Protect My Child" by Susan Tedeschi: Surprisingly yes.

"Work Hard" by Depeche Mode: Yes.

"Private Idaho" by B-52s: Yes, but only for the Yoko Ono-like sounds.

"Graceland" by Paul Simon: (this will break her father's heart) No.

"General Joy" by Tori Amos: No.

"Long Way Around" by Dixie Chicks: No.

"Cinderella Undercover" by Boingo: No.

"Fire Woman" by the Cult: She loves this song.

"Crucify" by Tori Amos: No.

"Sheila Take a Bow" by the Smiths: Yes.

"Rusholme Ruffians" by the Smiths: No. 

"Hello Again" by The Cars: No.

"Sweet the Sting" by Tori Amos: Emphatic no.

"Nice Work if You Can Get It" by Sting: Yes.

"Sea of Heartbreak" by Roseanne Cash: No. 

"You Might Think" by The Cars: Yes.

"Never There" by Cake: 30 seconds, then "different song, please."

"Cornflake Girl" by Tori Amos: very emphatic no.

"Channel Z" by B-52s: No.

"Missionary Man" by Eurythmics: No.

(I don't know how Shuffle managed to pick all the Tori Amos on the playlist, but somehow, it did. It definitely skewed 80s.)

Snotty Store Alert: French Quarter Linens

I work in the Pearl District and as a result, I get to enjoy shopping at a lot of swanky boutiques.  Granted, I  buy stuff on sale/clearance, but I like nice things and it's fun.  I like good service, and I like being treated like a regular at the stores I frequent.  Case in point: Bonnet, my favorite store.  Love this place and have probably tried on every hat in the shop.  They constantly have new and wonderful things in, and best yet, they are so patient and helpful!  (And honest if something doesn't look good on me. That's priceless.)

A bad example and my new least favorite place in the world: French Quarter Linens.  I love their linens and fantasize about the day I could drop $1200 on a duvet.  (Not sarcasm: the fabric is incredible.)  They're a block or so away from my office, and Monday after lunch, I ambled in to look around and touch the duvets. I thought, heck, maybe I can afford a pillowcase or hankie or something.   

Two sales people in the back, a man and a woman, talking amongst themselves.  I am the only potential customer in the store.  I'm dressed to go to court.

But...I am completely ignored.  After a few minutes, I thought this was odd, and I walked towards the back.  I walked directly in front of them.  Twice.  They continued their conversation and didn't bother to acknowledge my presence at all.  

Maybe they sensed my student loan debt load when I walked in.  Maybe they're having a bumper year and don't need to woo new business.  Anyway, I was absolutely shocked.  When I hit the big time, I guess I'll have to find my expensive linens elsewhere.  Jerks. 

Randomness

• Peach sings in the shower. I really dig this.
• She also does "eskimo kisses."
• Opposing counsel should really, really always send RFPs in doc form to opposing counsel.  It's the kind thing to do.
• [Story redacted at Matthew's request. It was the best one of the whole list, too.]
• I am doing NaNoWriMo this month, not because I think I can actually crank out 50,000 words in a month with a toddler, but because my goal is to write at least some words every day -- thereby actually carving out time for myself in each day.  So far, so good.  I have less than 2,000 words, but I feel saner already.  Most of those were written Sunday morning before Peach woke up - at 7 AM.
• I am too tired to write tonight, so I'm playing Lexulous against the computer.  Lately, I've been going to bed between 8-9 and waking up around 5.  This leaves me about an hour where I'm not driving, minding the Peach, doing laundry, working, or parallel parking.  (I parallel park a lot.)  
• Hm. I don't think I've been asked back to participate in the work-life balance panel this year.

Art of Mom Monday

I'm not feeling like a mothering maven today - a screaming toddler during morning daycare drop off does it to me, every time - but even a weekend of sick Mactyres had some up moments.

• My favorite, around 2:30 am this morning: Peach wakes up from a bad dream yelling, "No, it's my boot!  My boot!"  Seriously, cracked me up. I really wonder what that was all about. 
  
• Yesterday, Peach and I took the MAX from Lloyd Center back to Sunset Transit Center for no good reason other than she loves trains.  Loves them.  At every stop, she looked at me frantically and signed (and said) "More train! More train!"  In the tunnel, she said solemnly, "Darkness." It was rough when we finally had to disembark, but Daddy was waiting for us on the platform (he drove ahead and beat us there), so that was a bonus. 
  
• Potty training seems to have taken.  I put her in a diaper at night, because she's about 50% on staying dry all night, and those aren't great odds.  Mothering perk: having a toddler means I can go to the bathroom as much as I want to in public, without worrying what anyone else thinks. 

Art of Mom Monday

One word: Schwan's. 

On his own volition, Matthew started ordering from Schwan's.  And lo, there were healthy dinners on the table that I did not have to prepare.  Balance is restored.  Life is good.  (And mostly, he does the dishes.)  The prices are somewhat more expensive than if I cook, but substantially less expensive than eating out.  And the food is pretty tasty. If careful, it's also healthy.  The veggies have been crunchy, and I haven't run across an entree I dislike yet.  Whew!  It makes cooking more of a desire than a demand, and so I - for the first time in ages - enjoyed baking yesterday afternoon.  I made pumpkin-cranberry biscotti.  Yum!

Next item: gratuitous picture of my perfect Peach, enjoying our first post-potty-trained trip to the zoo on Saturday.  She's a jungle VIP:

 

If you ask her, she'll be happy to tell you, "I ride lion." 

Two things about my kid

1.  Today we had an almost completely accident free day (one not-quite-to-potty-in-time morning incident).  All day at daycare: no accidents.  Wearing big girl underwear.  Yes!!! 

2.  This was a real conversation about ten minutes ago. 

Shelley: Peach, don't touch that. It's dirty.  

Peach: Well, wash it, Mommy.  

Matthew: [Cracking up] 

My wild girl

My kid loves Duran Duran, so much so that I'm expecting the next thing out of her mouth to be why Simon LeBon is so much cuter than John Taylor.

(OK, maybe not quite that much.  But close.)

Take this exchange.  The stage: the car, on the way home after a long day of work/daycare.  I had been chatting with my brother via bluetooth, with my iphone connected to the stereo, when I turned the engine over after getting gas.  This resulted in a weird error where the music started playing in the bluetooth adapter.

Shelley: "Can you hear that?"

Shelley's Brother: "What?" 

S: "The Duran Duran?" 

SB, singing: "'Her name is Rio, and she dances on the sand...'"

S: "No, it was the 'Wild Boys.'" 

SB, still singing: "'Wild Boys! Wild Boys! Wild Boys!"

I called him back, fixing the sound bug, and we chatted for another 20 minutes or so.  The music came back on, and a few more songs played.  Then, from the back of the car:

Peach: "More Wild Boys, please." 

S: "What did you say?"

Peach, emphatically: "More Wild Boys, PLEASE."

And since then, that is the only song she wants to hear.  I have listened to "The Wild Boys" more in the last week than I did in all of 1984.  

God help me: for diversity, I may have to introduce her to Wild Boys remixes.

New kind of normalcy

Since Matthew's mid-September surgery, we're getting back to a sort of normalcy.  The hospital bed is gone from the house.  The shower chair isn't used in the shower, but has been converted to a special place for Peach to sit when brushing her teeth.  My sister in law, who came here to help out for a week, returned to Nevada today.  (Unfortunately, Peach never warmed to her - perhaps it was cultural, or her accent, I don't know. It would have been a lot easier on me if she had, but ah, well.  It was nice having Elina visiting, in any case.) 

A Wednesday night trip to urgent care revealed that the feeling like I'd been swallowing ground glass was, in fact, an infection, and after five days on Zithromax, I am all better.  I'd had that thing for weeks, and it had seriously run me down. I actually feel human today!

Matthew still limps, still has a lot of pain, and still has to resolve the upper back issues. (Recap: he had surgery on his upper back in January, a lengthy recovery, then back to work.  He fell in July, and we had to wait for federal comp to approve the surgery on the lower back he had in September.  Unfortunately, the fall made the upper back situation much worse - we will hopefully find out how much worse this week.) 

But we're a unit again.  After months of being the primary (and often only) caregiver, it's so wonderful to hear Peach ask for Daddy to read stories, Daddy to hold her, Daddy to snuggle. (Not just because it's a break for me, but because there was a long period of time when she was quite distant from Matthew. That made my heart ache.)  

Tonight we all hung out in our living room.  I read a novel, Eden bounced and danced to the "country chick" playlist I was listening to, and Matthew tweaked the media computer.  We ate dinner, quietly at home.  It was exactly the sort of ordinary evening that we haven't had in so very long - it was lovely.  I could use a lot more evenings like this one!