What did our mothers do before playback machines were invented?

Seriously, I have no idea. Tonight, "101 Dalmations" has been my saving grace. It was last night, too. Ah, what the heck, maybe it'll be tomorrow night's, too. Or "Stuart Little 2". I might not even need it. We have a mega backyard party planned tomorrow for CJ and his buddies. Water balloons, a water slide, sprinkler, make your own sandwiches, and ice cream tubs. When I grew up on the Jersey shore we never had backyard sprinkler parties, we just went to the beach. And when I moved to Columbus 4 years ago, it was a huge culture shock on what to do in the summertime on the weekend since we are so land-locked. Now, after a little time have passed, we have figured out how to cool off. Summertime is all about the community pool and the backyard sprinklers.

So hopefully we all (and by "we all" I mean specifically Andrew) will sleep tonight so we can wake up all refreshed and ready to party. The moms of the friends are coming over, too who I am friends with so I'm really glad I'm playing hooky from work tomorrow. I know last post was really tongue in cheek, but really, when will this 2 1/2 year old sleep? I guess it's a bit of a slap in the face considering we didn't have these issues with CJ. Part of me can hardly remember how we even got CJ to bed, it seems so long ago. We're starting to try and toilet train Andrew now, and I swear, I have forgotten everything we did to get CJ toilet trained. Is my brain really that fried? Most of the time I call Andrew "CJ" and CJ "Andrew." When I do something like that I stop and think: "Mirror mirror on the wall, I have become my mother after all." And I'm still deciding if that's a good thing.

Next post: the great mid-summer backyard water party wrap-up

Things to do on a Monday

• Miss your morning breakfast habit
• Get insulted by your boss
• Feel like sh*t due to bullet above
• Tell your son to stop farting at the dinner table
• Kiss a boo-boo on a thumb
• Tell a toddler 10 times to go to bed
• Find said toddler in living room hiding behind the curtain in the dark
• Put toddler back to bed and let him cry it out
• Breathe a sigh after the house is quiet
• Wonder when this child will ever sleep
• Reads some blogs
• Write a post
• Yawn
• Say goodnight....

Anyone else have a typical Monday?

And sleep finally comes.

(Yes, those are socks on George's feet, because you know, they get cold of course)

The darndest things

So I had a good time with a friend last night who was over my house, putting up our feet sharing a couple drinks while the kids ran around the yard and played, and we were sharing some of those “gotta write this down” questions and expressions our kids have shared with us over the years. As we were sharing the classic quips, she shared a keeper that her daughter asked her. Of course, I don’t have a daughter, and it’s questions like this that I’m glad I don’t (although not to say a boy wouldn’t ask this). She asked, “Do you have to be married to have a baby?” Back in the day, I would have gotten 40 lashes from the nuns at my Catholic school for even pondering such a thing. I liked my friend’s response, though, which was appropriately diplomatic: “Well, yes you can. But it would more ideal if you were married.”

Interesting timing for that particular topic of conversation. Because in the next breath, I am passing on the good news that my closest friend in NJ just gave birth on Monday to her first child, and she is…unmarried. She has been dating the father for several years, and they plan to marry in the fall, but still, it has been an unexpected backward series of events. I honestly don’t care if she gets married or not, or if anybody who wants a child gets married, but I do think a child longs for the love from both parents however they get it. There are different things a mom gives to her children, and different things a dad gives to his children. If that can be done in unison, well, maybe there’s an argument for parents being together when they raise a child. I know that my friend’s response had nothing to do with the morality of marriage that some people love to argue, but more for the logistical reasons. A spouse’s 5 day long business trip can bring us married folks to the brink of insanity and makes us wonder, “How do single parents do it??” I lean on my husband for certain things, as he does me, and I admit, I have no idea how single parents do it. It has got to be the hardest job in the world.

"Hey Mama, I'm not a morning person either!"

Me vs The Chigger

OK, so I need some real help. Well, I need lots of real help, but I have something very specific to write about. There’s a micropscopic nemesis that has descended upon my backyard that will not go away: the chigger. These things are wreaking havoc on my backyard fun. Opening my sliding glass door to the beacon of my backyard to garden, play catch with the kids, and push them on the swings has become about as safe as swimming off the coast of a New England seaside town (cue music…). I’ve had 3 bouts of them already this summer, and Andrew has had them all along his diaper area now for the past few weeks. Not easy trying to let him air out a little.

The difficult decision to spray pesticides today and remove some well established plants over the weekend was not an easy one. (You could call us slight tree-huggers, maybe something like tree hand-shakers or tree’s acquaintances). But after sleepless nights scratching, I reached the end of my rope. What’s also irritating is that they don’t seem to be biting my husband. He has yet to suffer from a bout of chigger bites like me and the kids have been. And he does all the grass cutting and weed whacking. The only remedy I have found to speed up the itching process is to spray a fast flow of water directly on the bites with the hottest water I can stand. Unfortunately the kids wouldn’t be able to handle the hot water, so they can’t use this remedy. But hot compresses on the bites seems to work. Otherwise, preventive measures have been bug spray, with little success, and I’m not a huge fan of deet.

So does anyone else suffer from these annoying mites? Any remedies you care to share?

Seems like old times

Howdy.

So recently I've been inspired again to take fingers to keyboard and start blogging again. I have better technology and convenience for posting than I did a year ago, so hoping it will be easier this time around. Of course there's still that tricky thing called "time" that has not been improved upon, but I suppose it's all about making time, right?

Anyway, after a year, the kids are getting bigger, work still has its ups and downs, and I'm currently developing an online store with my paper/stationery collection in hopes that one day it will get me out of the corporate world. More to come on that.

Not sure what to pick up with after almost a whole year off. I guess it will come to me, and I can post about that next time. For now, it's off to the pool with the kids to cool off on a hot day in the summertime.

Until next time, Go Barack!