Children, I mean.

This week, both Girl1 and Girl2 are in a city-run camp that includes swimming lessons, crafts, activities, yada yada, yada. They don’t particularly like it, and it is a bit disorganized. It’s one of those “you get what you pay for” kind of daycamps and it was only $120.

So they are with friends of theirs, and I’m carpooling with the other mom. I do the drop-off in the mornings, and the first two days, Girl2 clung, and cried and looked up at me with her sad, sad eyes when I left. This morning, though, she was fine.

Yahoo, right?!?

Of course not. Girl1 sensed the impending relief of maternal guilt and decided it was time for her to cry.

No rest for the wicked, right?

You know, I love that glow of maternal pride you get when you pick your kid(s) up from a playdate, and the other parent says, “oh, she was no trouble; honestly, I hardly saw them the whole time!” or “she’s so polite!” or “she was so good!”. I only wish I could reciprocate.

Only I can’t. Because ALL CHILDREN ARE BAD AT MY HOUSE.

Read the rest of this entry »

…my children blisters. I hate blisters.

You know, it actually started off as a great little afternoon jaunt.

It was yesterday afternoon, about 4:30, I was done working for the day, and I spent about half an hour on the back deck with Girl1 and Girl2. We were mostly freezing warts off Girl1 (aka wart farmer’s) feet with the ineffective and totally useless Freeze Away by Dr. Scholls, but hey…there was a togetherness, ya know?

So, because the weather was so lovely I decided we should go for a little walk. We decided to head over to M&Ms for some chicken breasts, etc. (GODHELPME the nanaimo bars were on sale! But I resisted.) Girl2 came out wearing flip-flops, and I questioned her choice of footwear, doubting she’d make it all the way there. She agreed, and went inside to change into these:

the blister-makers

Now, honestly, I should have balked, but for some reason, I didn’t. Read the rest of this entry »

what's my name?

Okay, so I’m back in blogland now, which means I’ve been surfing all my fave blogs and reading back in their archives to see what I missed. And one of the best entries I read in my catch-up was this one, on LoriD’s blog Not the Mother of the Year. In it she tells us some of the baby names that topped the list for her and her hubby during her three pregnancies, but still didn’t make the final cut.

I just loved reading the names and the stories behind them, and it got me all nostalgic thinking about the little babies I named but then never had…the names I loved as a teenager and in my twenties, the names my hubster and I talked about before I ever got pregnant, and then the names that were shortlisted while we were expecting our two girls, but never made it to real life (two that are very special because they were chosen for the son we never had). Read the rest of this entry »

I bought a previously viewed copy of Juno a few weeks ago. I just happened to be in the video store with Girl1 & Girl2, and was buying them a previously viewed copy of The Water Horse. It was $14.99 or, the guy informed me, I could have two movies for $20, so why didn’t I just grab Alvin and the Chipmunks while I was at it? Well, of course I wouldn’t buy Alvin and the Chipmunks. Ewww! But I did spy Juno and jumped at the chance to own this wizard film that I had loved so much in the theatre.

The problem is, Girl1 was there, and seeing me buy it renewed her erstwhile fascination with this movie. Okay, two things. One, during Juno’s theatrical release, Girl1 was agog with curiosity about a girl who got pregnant. She kept asking if she could go to the movie, but I told her it was for grownups. Two, it’s not really a problem that she’s interested in it. I thought it was a totally fab movie and I wouldn’t have problems with an adolescent daughter seeing it. But I do think it’s a bit much for a seven year old. Read the rest of this entry »