Adventures In Parenting

I'm reminded of a joke I heard told by Bill Engvall (giving credit where credit is due). He said, "It's true that if Parents truly told what Parenting would be before anyone had kids...we'd all have a lot more dogs in our lives."

I laugh because I think it's true. And while I believe I'd still be massochistic enough to go through with being a parent, there are times I look at my husband and say, "Dogs. We could have just stuck with dogs..." and we laugh.

I fully realize that there is that point when you cross in your child's eyes from being a revered amazing superpowered person, to just a complete imbocile. I did however expect that time to come a little closer to the teen years, you know, around 11 or 12 (being optimistic). I think 8 is a little early for this dance to begin.

Case in point...Saturday evening we had tickets to go to the Zoo's Winter Wonderland, which took place after the zoo had closed. A special evening event. When the sun goes down, what happens to the temperatures? Yep, things tend to cool off a bit.

We checked the weather forecast and it was supposed to be in the upper 50's / low 60's for the time we'd be there...a beautiful fall night. We planned accordingly jeans, light sweater and a jacket. I said to our daughter, "We're going to be leaving at 5:30 to go to the Zoo and I would suggest and encourage you to put on long pants, long sleeved shirt and to grab your jacket." Upon hearing the news and scrunching up her face and giving me the "Mom you're cracked" look, I finished it with, "But what you choose to wear will be your decision."

Before it was time to leave, I restated the suggestion 3 times and her father also made the suggestion (crazy to think that Mom may actually know what she's talking about!). Nope, not changing her mind, totally good with her choice and nothing we say can dissuade her. We said, you're going to stick by this decision AND if we arrive at the Zoo and you decide that you're in fact cold, we will not be leaving. Yep, solid in my decision and good to go.

We arrive at the Zoo, get out of the car and don't even make it to the gate when she's got her arms wrapped around her and shivering, "I'M COLD!". My Husband brings up that she was sure of her decision, blah blah blah, but that all pales in comparison to icicles hanging off of her nose from freezing in 63 degrees of Florida "early winter" weather. LOL

My Husband (DH) wants a picture with the cold and cantankerous child who was NOT happy. Then it was a picture with a person dressed up in a Rudolph costume...the face is priceless! One that will go with her Kindergarten picture in which she is so surly, you'd think they were beating children who smiled that day!

We then walked back to the car where she was aghast at the thought of going home already. DH produced his jacket for her (he had on a warm vest underneath) and I produced a pair of sweater tights to put on under her shorts, "sure it will look goofy, but your legs will be warm" was apparently not the words to say to sell the fashion look.

Once warmed up, her attitude changed and we had a good time at the Zoo. Saw lights, saw critters, saw Reindeer (who were loosing their antlers due to our weather being warmer than New York, where they came from), light displays and giant inflatable slides in the Reindeer Games locations.

It was a fun and memorable evening and the pictures will be worth gold when she is in college and brings home that one special young man who will have captured her heart. Then we can pull out the special pictures and say, "This is what you're getting in to...she's all yours, congratulations!"

Yep, I can see why dogs are so popular. But we wouldn't trade her for the world...most days.

It's the little things...truly

It's truly the little things that just make me giddy sometimes. With full truth and sincerity, it's the reason why my Mother called me a "cheap date". I'm easily entertained. Some days more so than others.

And lets face it, in these times and challenges, finding the cheap and easy thrill or tickle, is what we're all looking for.

For example, let's take Blogspot.

When I sign in to update or write a post, I have to provide my Identification and password that I selected. Well, when I selected my password, Blogspot had undergone some changes, was being non-cooperative and quite frankly, I wasn't in the mood to play.

My password is not a kind phrase.

I would not utter it in church. And I DEFINITELY would not utter it in front of my Mother or any of my Grandmothers (God rest their souls)!

But every time I type that phrase in as my password...I smile. I smile and I giggle and I feel like a naughty child getting away with something I know I shouldn't.

And I smile and giggle again.

Yep, I'm easily entertained and it's truly the little things that can entertain me and make me happy.

And when I pause long enough to remember those little happy glimmers that I can find and provide for others, and myself, it makes things somehow better. More palatable and I can move forward with my day with a little spark of laughter and happiness that I can feel in my heart. A gleam of the imp shining in my eyes and a laugh waiting to burst forth from my lips and to share that with another and hopefully watch the spark continue on with others.

What can I say? I'm easily entertained and it's truly the little things in life that provide moments of instant and sustained happiness.

What about you?

Mmmm....caaannnnddddeeeee

There are times when sugar cravings just go through the roof. I mean, let's be honest, there are times when you could just dive into something with reckless abandon and joy because, you're an adult and get away with it!

Halloween I think truly brings that out. Let's face it, how many times have we bought a bag of candy only to realize that you need another one.

There are few times where I worry that my "girl card" is going to be recalled (I mean, I'm a girl, but well follow me here). For example, I'm not a huge chocolate fan. There are times it's good and majority of the time...meh.

Cheesecake. Um, I couldn't stand to eat it (or even more than 2 bites) until the last year, two tops. Before then, no thanks. But I could make a killer cheesecake - no interest whatsoever in it.

Some people are sweet treaters.

Some are savory.

Some are tart.

Yeah, not so much for sweet, but tart and savory? Oh yeah, those would be me. Favorite candy of choice as a kid? Sweetarts.

First birthday? Butterscotch pudding pie. You couldn't make me eat a cake...well not until I started Kindergarten, then I realized I had to convert.

Love Smarties. Oh if it's a really good bag, I can eat the whole darned thing...acid burn to my tongue and all!

New fav? There is a great little candy store not too far from the house. I like to indulge every so often and riffle my way through the Sunkis Fruit Gems to pull out the Pink Grapefruit candies. OH.MY.GOTT. to quote Tammi.

Seriously! Why isn't there more Grapefruit and Pink Grapefruit candy out there? It's sweet, it's tart, its savory...it's got it all and its oh so good.

So yeah, come on world. I need Pink Grapefruit candy! Now I have a mission...to find more!

Bwahahaha!

Child-isms

When you have a child, there are certain things that they will do or say that will be so serious to them...and just incredibly funny to the rational adult on the other side of the equation. Whether it be something in passing, such as Daisy referring to stairs as "ladders" or those moments of just utter frustration and aggravation and you, as the rational parent taste blood to try and keep from laughing and, well honestly, just pissing them off even more.


Case in point...Friday upon picking Daisy up from school, I knew something was up (Mothers Intuition if you want) and upon asking...was proven right. Busted.


An agreed punishment was decided, no tv/movies for the weekend and she'd write a page of sentences (my choosing) for me. Done deal.


Cut to late Saturday afternoon. She's finishing her homework and I remind her that when she is done, she will need to see me for her sentence to write...and cue beginning of tantrum and righteous indignation.


Which culminated in to, "If I have to write sentences, so do you and Daddy because you were wrong to punish me!"


HUH?! Where did *that* come from? I bit my tongue to keep from laughing as we're clearly reaching for Mars on this one.


"Um, why do you think Daddy and I have to write sentences as punishment for something that you did? I'm confused."


There was a great explanation, but I got lost somewhere in the middle and when she was done, explained (calmly) that she was in the wrong.


I was obviously mistaken and more indignation followed. Trying to use logic and rationale on a very pissed 8 year old is like trying to get your dog or cat to answer you in fluent Russian...without ever taking a language course.


I had to chalk it up to, "That's not happening now." followed by the angry snorts of a future petulant teenage daughter waiting to seethe at a parent that just has no clue whatsoever.


Yeah, solitary parental moments are just a blast and a half. Once she was asleep at the end of the day, I earned a slice of pie and a glass of wine. Who says the only happy endings are in fairy tales?!

Thanks Pam!

Thanks to Pam and her newest post Class Warfare, by the POTUS, I felt compelled to put my own "spin" on the article and it's "help wanted" ad that was posted to Craigslist. So without further adieu, here's my commentary, in italics and ( ).

"The Working Families Party (WFP) (www.workingfamiliesparty.org) is New York’s most energetic (i.e. caffeinated), independent (we don't tell Mommy and Daddy how we're spending their money) and progressive political party (AND we get to wear long pants now too!). Formed in 1998 (yep, we're a whole 13 years old, still can't drink, but we're a tween dream!) by a grassroots coalition of community organizations (we used the thesaurus for this part), neighborhood activists (unemployed stoners), and labor unions (do I *really* need to say more here?!), we came together to build a society that works for all of us, (and by "us" we mean all of us who want the government to provide without putting anything in...you know, like Mom and Dad do) not just Wall Street CEOs (they laughed us out of their office when we said we wanted $80K right out of college and without any experience or technical skills whatsoever, what the hell?!) and the well-connected (well Mummy and Daddy's friends have kids and we all go back to those darling prep school days). WFP is independent from corporate and government funding (mainly because we couldn't figure out how to get the grant paperwork filled out, too many questions and Buffy wasn't in the mood to type, she just got a killer mani-pedi, totally understoon!) and in-addition we are community based (we can get away with calling ourselves that since we're working out of Muffy's Daddy's golfcart garage); community funded (Mumsy and Daddums were happy to have us out of the house for a few hours) and equally uninfluenced by both major parties (we are influenced heavily by minor parties, the republicans and democrats are minors in the eyes of the people, right?). Our agenda focuses on economic and social justice (thanks to that civics class with the darling lawyer from ACLU), corporate accountability (Enron was bad!), job creation (we added James and Biff, so we're creating jobs on our own, woohoo!), environmental protection (because we all drank the green kool-aid and believe in Al Gore!), and investment in education (2+2 still equals 5 and we can show you why the teachers were wrong!) and healthcare (all those other foreign places like Canada provide top quality drugs very cheaply so we're for that too!).

For the past twelve years the WFP has been at the fore front of progressive politics (we could go back further, but Biff and Sissy just got the right to vote in the last couple years, so we added everyone together), leading the fight and helping to frame the debate (what fight? I thought the next match wasn't until our Vegas getaway! I did the debate team, I mean, I was on the debate team..wait that still didn't sound right). The WFP has a proud record of fighting for issues that matter (because Buffy, Biff and Sissy all agree it was important, like when you say a double shot machiato, it should have 3 shots and extra syrup!) and has been instrumental in implementing key pieces of legislation such as Raising New York’s Minimum Wage (we showed up when they were signing, so we get a win in that column!), Enacting Living Wage Laws (no idea what that meant, but it sounded good!), Creating Thousands of Jobs In the Green Economy (sure, they were shipped to India, but we created them!), Passing Healthcare Reforms on the Local Level (we couldn't get anyone else to take a meeting with us, even with Mummy & Daddy phoning), Fighting for Affordable Housing (I mean really, $3,000 a month for a 500 square foot broom closet for my shoes, just isn't fair!), Keeping Tuition Costs Low (that's what out of state students are for!), A Progressive Tax Code (no idea what this was, but Anthony said we needed it...he's a math wiz! I think he learned from his Uncle Bernie!), Reliable/Cost Effective Public Transit System (the smart cars are just adorable, impractical but adorable!), Public Financing Of Elections (paying someone to vote is totally acceptable!) and Corporate Accountability (Uncle Bernie said this was important, so we did it). In addition, we have an unapologetic stance on supporting and pushing good candidates to enact progressive legislation (if you're clueless, you don't have to apologize and can stand in cow patties and think it's the rose garden!)
The WFP is seeking immediate hires. (Again, we're building that employment underline!)
You must be an energetic communicator (you have to talk good), with a passion for social and economic justice (showering habits are optional). Only outgoing (because we don't have room in our foursome for you here), articulate (have to know some big words, dictionary optional), dedicated (unemployed), determined candidates (again, part of that whole politcal free wheeling thing we're trying) will be considered for the positions. (Kama sutra knowledge will score triple word score credits with Biff and Todd!)

For those candidates that qualify WFP offers substantial paid-training provided by senior leadership (Bill Clinton is our hero!), on varied issues such as: advocacy, public speaking, mobilizing, fundraising, networking and organizing (nuff said). We invest in passionate people with excellent communication skills (must look good on camera and not like the hippy ilk that are roaming the streets) and a full benefits package is offered to those candidates that qualify (do I really need to go there?!). In addition, there is opportunity for advancement and travel to our satellite chapters and out of state affiliates. (Woohoo, fire up the corporate jet! We each travel on one - it's the green thing to do!)

This is not a policy job! Through direct action you will be shaping NY state politics for the next 20 years. (We picked a number out of the air and this sounded better than saying 2.)

If you care about New York and want to help educate and mobilize around legislative campaigns-then we look forward to hearing from you! (And by you, we mean those who are independently wealthy, good looking and finishing school educated with a vacuous brain to be molded and do whatever we tell you you should do and feel good about it.)

Yeah...'nuff said.

Fresh Start

It's been many a day since I posted anything here. Truth be told, on more than one occassion I tried to figure out how to just delete the whole damned thing and erase it from the memory banks...without success.

I looked over some old posts that were made here, the good, the sad, the critical and the pissy. There were celebrations, relief and life in general was documented in a somewhat ongoing fashion. That's when I made a decision. Delete. Delete it all.

Yep, it's all been erased and removed and gone. Even after that "are you sure you want to do this?!" warning popped up each and everytime, I hit delete.

But why? Well, somethings that were here were written at a time and place that I'm no longer in in my life. I'm not going to look back and agonize and apologize and worry about what was said then versus the me of today. So the best way to lay things bare and decide where you're going to go is to strip down to the foundation, look around and decide what is it to be.

I don't know just yet...but whatever it is, it's a fresh start. We'll see where things go from here. I'm sure to many a degree it will be "Mommy" posts. Family posts. Politic posts. And quite frankly whatever strikes my fancy.

Should be interesting. 8D