Category Archives: Friends & Family

Sunday with e-baby

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My cousin Cat and her husband Tony moved into an apartment while they’ve been doing a huge home renovation project. We helped them when they were moving into their short-term apartment. Now, two months later, this was the weekend that they finally got to move back into their house, since all of the improvements are finally finished. Since it’s difficult to move with a two year-old underfoot, we had Elizabeth come over to our house for the day to play with Cate, and we had so. much. fun.

Elizabeth's playdate at our house

Seriously, she’s just about the easiest toddler in the world. (I’m sure her parents don’t think so, but admittedly she was probably on good behavior for us.) In fact, I’m going to claim as my biggest accomplishment of the month the fact that I got not one but TWO toddlers down for a nap in the same room at the same time. And they both napped for about two hours. Go me.

Elizabeth & Catie discuss the finer points of sidewalk chalk

We played with some of the other neighborhood kids and both girls seemed to have a lot of fun. I took e-baby home late this afternoon, and we miss her already. We had such a great time.

Elizabeth & Catie playing in the yard

I know that taking care of two toddlers might not be some people’s cup of tea, but I think we got off way easier than the people who were loading stuff onto and hauling it off of a U-Haul. The only heavy lifting that I had to do was of two adorable girl-children, and really, you could do a lot worse.

hungover

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Last night, one of my neighbors hosted a party at her house. It was basically just for the ladies, there was a rep there from some company that sells silver jewelry, which was the main purpose of the party. I went into it thinking that I might be able to find Christmas gifts for people, but everything was crazy expensive, so I didn’t buy anything.

As soon as I got there, Margaret (the neighbor who was hosting the party) offered me a glass of wine. And I thought, well, I’ve had a long week and I deserve a break, so sure, why not? Then I had another glass. And another. I’m not sure how much I drank in total; I felt fine while we were standing in the kitchen talking. Then I left to walk home (it was two houses down from us), and as soon as I started walking, I realized that I was drunk. Not buzzed, but full-on, “ok let’s concentrate really hard on left foot, right foot so I don’t fall down” sloppy drunk. Um, oops? That hadn’t been my intention.

Cate had been hanging out with Dave while I went to the party, and she was happy to see me when I got home, but I was scared to pick her up. I sat on the floor and hugged her instead. I took a shower while Dave changed her into her pj’s, and we got her to bed. I promptly passed out.

Today, I have been so. freaking. sick. All day. Oh my lord. I think wine hangovers are worse than almost any other form of alcohol.

This is why I almost never drink at all anymore, because Mommy doesn’t get a day off to lounge around and feel miserable. I just have to suck it up and deal, because this little girl of mine still wants to play and she wants my undivided attention. I know, I know, I totally brought it on myself, so I’m not asking for sympathy, I’m just whining because I feel bad. Also, Dave has a big deadline next week and he’s been working all day today, so it’s been just me and Cate on our own while he’s been slaving away in his office. It’s been a pretty rough day for everyone around here.

Right now, we’re waiting for some pizza to get delivered to our house, because I think we earned just a little bit of laziness.

battling The Frump

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Lately I’ve been feeling like I have a major case of The Frumpiness. I’m not sure why, I’ve just been feeling sort of… blah. Very boring suburban mom-ish. Which, well, I AM a suburban mom, so I don’t know why it bothers me, but it does. Maybe it’s because I spend almost every day in a hoodie and jeans. I sort of miss having an office job (or fancy events) to dress up for.

Also, when Cate and I fly to Mississippi next week, we’re going to be meeting up with a few girls from high school, who I’ve reconnected with via the Miracle That Is Facebook. It’s not a bad thing, I’m actually kind of excited about it. But I feel like I need to look cute and make a good impression since I haven’t seen any of them in about fifteen years or so. Maybe it’s because in high school, I was sort of a non-entity; I only had a couple of friends, I didn’t date at all, I wasn’t involved in any extracurricular activities. Basically, because I was fat, I tried to be as invisible as possible. So I’d like to show that I’m cute and sassy and fun and all that good stuff.

Really, I’m sure that our get-together will be fine. After all, we’ve all grown up since high school. One girl who used to be head cheerleader is now a lawyer working for the state attorney general’s office. I’d say it’s a safe bet that she isn’t the same person she was 15 years ago either, right? And we all have little girls around the same age, so it should be a lot of fun. I’m just being unnecessarily neurotic.

But anyway, back to the issue of The Frump: I recently found out that one of my neighbors is a hairdresser. I wouldn’t have booked an appointment with her, because what if she sucked, and then trying to explain why I never went back to her would be super-awkward. But she did my next-door neighbor’s hair, and she looked fantastic, so I thought what the heck, and I asked for her card.

Today I went to her salon and got a haircut and an eyebrow wax. It’s kind of amazing how something so simple can make me feel so much better about myself. Seriously, I feel about a hundred times less frumpy now than I did this morning.

Cate and me with my new haircut

You can’t really tell in that picture since Cate is obscuring half of my head, but I think my haircut is basically “The Rachel,” just a little bit longer. I like it a lot so far, although the real test will be to see how it looks when I have to style it myself later.

So, yay! I have groomed eyebrows and a new haircut, which cost less than half what it cost me to get the exact same thing done in Washington, and I’m feeling pretty cute for the first time in a long time.

devilish grin
Cate says, “Just don’t go thinking you’re the cutest one in the house, lady, cuz you ain’t.”

Thanksgiving plans

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What with all of the election excitement, I forgot to mention that the reason why I might not be able to do NaBloPoMo this year is because Cate and I are flying to Mississippi for the second half of the month. My mom is having her breast reconstruction surgery, which, on the scale of all that she’s endured so far for her cancer, is pretty minor. It’s outpatient surgery, she’ll be home the same day, but I imagine she’ll feel as flattened as a fly on a windshield.

So, since my mom will undoubtedly be feeling bad, I’ll be there to help out with meals, running errands, and whatever else she needs. And Cate will be there because grandbabies have scientifically-proven healing powers. Watch her try to stay in bed when Cate runs in to greet her in the morning with an ear-splitting, “HI, MIMI!!!” Ha! It can’t be done. She’ll have to get up and about immediately.

I think I’ve already emailed most of the people I know in Jackson to try to make plans to see each other, but we’ll be there from November 18th through the 29th, the Saturday after Thanksgiving. (My mom intentionally planned her surgery right before a major holiday so that air fares would be at their most expensive. Kidding! She did it so my brother and sister can take time off to come to visit their baby niece while we’re in town.) Anyway, if you want to meet up, drop me an email and let me know.

So, that’s why I have a very half-assed commitment to NaBloPoMo this year. I’ll be keeping up with it until we leave for Mississippi, but beyond that, I think all bets are off. We’ll see. I’ll try. But no promises.

proud of us

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I can’t stop misting up today. I rewatched Obama’s acceptance speech online and it made me start crying all over again. I am so, so happy. I love that this is the first presidential election since Cate was born, and that as she grows up, she will never know a world in which an African-American can’t be President.

Since I was talking about contrasts yesterday, I noticed another one: I think it’s interesting that when I look at the status updates of my Facebook friends, they’re pretty evenly split. Most of my current friends, people who I’ve met and become friends with as an adult, were elated about Obama’s win. But I’ve also reconnected with a lot of people from elementary and high school on Facebook, people who for the most part still live in Mississippi, and who are generally extremely conservative. From them, I see them say that they’re disappointed, afraid, worried, “praying for our government,” “just sick about it,” etc. It’s strange to see the reactions in such stark opposites.

So just in case any of them read this blog, or to anyone else who’s worried for our future, let me just say: RELAX. I think regardless of who won, the next four years are going to be pretty rough. We have two wars going on, an economic crisis, an environment that’s steadily getting shot to crap, and a whole host of other problems. So it’d be a tough road no matter who the president happens to be. But I truly believe that you doubters will find that Obama will have a broad administration that incorporates the interests of both parties, unlike the Bush administration that has consistently catered to the Republican base, while essentially ignoring everyone else.

Now, I realize that the Republican base is going to be upset because they aren’t going to be pandered to anymore. And yeah, that sucks for them. But politics is a cycle. The pendulum swings one way, and it has to swing back the other way. That’s democracy, that’s fairness, and it’s one of many things that makes this country great.

So really, people who are freaking out about Obama taking away your guns or mandating gay marriage or whatever? Seriously, chill. It’s not going to happen. He’s going to have way bigger fish to fry once he gets in office. The people who are freaking out about socialism and taxes? Look, your taxes will only increase if you make more than $250K a year. And if you do make that much money, consider yourself blessed and quit bitching about having to go back to Clinton-era tax rates (which is all that’s going to happen; Obama wants to roll back the Bush tax cuts for the super-wealthy, not raise them to historic new levels).

Personally, my family makes a pretty good living, but like 95% of Americans, we’re under that $250K line, so we’ll actually get THREE TIMES the tax break that we would’ve gotten under McCain’s proposed tax plan. You won’t hear any complaints about that from me.

And if any conservatives are reading this and are still upset? Well, now you know exactly how I felt in 2004.

Catie hearts Obama
Cate loves both blue and red. Left and right. Democrats and Republicans. And most especially, she loves the Nabisco Corporation for their Saltines. Mmm.

biking for two

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I haven’t decided if I’m going to do the whole NaBloPoMo thing this year – a post a day for the month of November. I expect it’ll be hard since I’m going to Mississippi for the second half of the month (I’ll save that story for another post), but I’m going to give it a shot for now.

Our next door neighbors are awesome. First they loaned us the spider costume for Cate to wear on Halloween, and then when I was chatting with them about getting a bike trailer, they loaned me their old one, since both of their kids now ride two-wheelers. Score!

Today I took Cate to Target and bought her a bike helmet. It’s probably not necessary in the trailer since she’s buckled in and it’s pretty stable, but we’re trying to implement the rule that bikes = helmets, so we won’t have to fight about it later. I got her a red helmet with Sesame Street characters on it (of course “Melmo!” is her favorite), because it seemed gender-neutral, and I’m all about being able to re-use things for any future kids that we might have.

I fully anticipated Cate freaking out over the helmet, because she hates anything on her head. Hats and hoods? No way. So I planned ahead: I rounded up a couple of other neighborhood kids to ride with us (who of course all had their helmets on), I put on my helmet, strapped her into the trailer, and then put on her helmet at the last possible moment before I hopped on and started pedaling.

And yeah, she did scream for the first ten seconds, until she realized that we were moving, and then she started laughing and saying, “Whee!! It’s funny!!” (She hasn’t learned the difference between fun and funny.) We rode to the neighborhood playground, which is about a 15 minute walk but took no time at all on the bike, and she had a great time playing with the two boys who rode over there with us. On the way back, she didn’t object to the helmet at all, because she seemed to get that it meant she was going for a ride again.

I’m so excited that she enjoyed it, I think it’s going to give us some opportunities for more outings this fall, and of course more exercise for me. The downside is that with all the excitement, she only took a 15-minute nap today (in the car on the way home from Target), so she conked out at 6 p.m. tonight. I’m fully expecting her to wake up around midnight ready to play. Hmm.

boo!

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Behold, the itsy bitsy spider:

itsy bitsy spider

Trick-or-treating was so much fun. People in this neighborhood really go all out. We met up with some of the neighbors that we’ve made friends with, and our kids basically traveled as a mob around the neighborhood. Even some of the parents dressed up. One of the dads was a lumberjack, one of the moms was “Jane the Plumber” (with plunger), and another mom was Sarah Palin (complete with toy gun and a toy stuffed moose). Those last two would’ve been a lot funnier if they were Democrats and being ironic, but sadly, they’re both huge McCain supporters. So… eh.

Things started off great. We dressed her up and took her outside to play while it was still daylight outside, and she had a great time seeing everyone.

Pikachu, Cate, and McKenzie the pirate

See? Hanging with Pokemon and a pirate girl. Awesome!

Once we started trick-or-treating, though, she got freaked out really fast. She didn’t know what to make of all the noise and the action, plus being outside at night, which almost never happens. (Although we found out a new word in her lexicon when she pointed at the night sky and said, “it’s stars!” We looked for the moon but it was hidden behind some trees.) I think overall the poor kid was totally confused by the whole outing. There are a couple of boys in the neighborhood who she would normally hug, but she didn’t recognize them in their costumes, and she was scared of them when they came over to say hi to her. So we carried her around during most of the trick-or-treating part, and that was fine. I’m glad Dave came with me, so we could take turns carrying her (kiddo is HEAVY).

Oh, speaking of which: since all three of us went out trick-or-treating, I left a bowl of candy on the front stoop and left a note that said, “So that everyone gets some candy, please take only 3 pieces each. Thanks, and happy halloween!” I figured that probably the first kids that came along would empty out the bowl into their pillow case and that would be that. But everyone was really good and there was still some candy left when we got home, which surprised me. I guess most kids were out with their parents, who were probably supervising the candy pilfering.

We only lasted about an hour. We went to very few houses, mostly just the ones where we knew the people who lived there. Then we came home and answered the door for about 10,000 more trick-or-treaters. We almost ran out of candy, it was insane.

I tried to get a video of her in her costume, but she just wasn’t cooperating with the camera at all. This is the best I could do: it’s actually 2 separate videos merged together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK8efWzpwuA

Oh, I also found out that in our neighborhood, it’s apparently common to have “treats” for the adults, in the form of cocktails. I think that’s awesome, we’re totally doing that next time. I’ll whip up a big pitcher of pomegranate martinis or something like that and pass out plastic cups for the grown-ups. Although as Dave wisely pointed out, we’ll have to have a kid-friendly version too. That’s fine, I’m already looking forward to next year.