A Taste of Fall Mommy Days

Perhaps I can manage a craft or two? Check out this chintzy little frog bead thingy. The kids each got one in the picnic grab bag a few weeks ago and Rory and I worked on this one during one of our days together while Shelagh was at camp. I have to admit that it took me a few minutes to figure it out from the measly directions, but alas I did and behold this magnificent frog keychain for which my kids have no purpose. Rory boasted about it for days (although really he barely helped and I ended up doing most of it myself that little credit-hog). Shelagh did hers a few days later and she did a great job doing it almost all by herself!

Kindergarten Supplies

I cannot believe the size of the "Supply List" that we have for Shelaghs Kindergarten class. I guess it just reflects the state of school budgets (or mismanagement of funds) these days that students have to supply so much. I don't mind contributing and always ask if the preschool has wish list items, but I guess the number of items surprised me. Here it is in case you are curious...By the way, I hear Target has sold out of a lot of school supplies already. Nice.

• glue sticks
• paper towels
• hand soap
• crayons
• 2-pocket folder
• liquid glue
• hand sanitizer
• markers
• pencils
• disinfectant table wipes
• tissues
• erasers
• tape
• 2 spiral notebooks
• 1 pkg wipes
• $5 for a magazine subscription
• stickers or prizes
• $ for PTO

Sesame Street

Miss Kelly got to pick the show...Sesame Street starring T.R. Knight (from Greys Anatomy) as the letter I investigating the letter of the day. Good stuff.

What is the Deal with Drs Lately???

The kids dentist is booking in APRIL right now. APRIL. What the F???? Tried to also change my annual physical in Sept....booking in late DECEMBER. Seriously??? Had to wait 4 months for my dermatologist this summer. Is something going on other than the massive health care crisis? What, is it b/c Doctors don't make the money they used to? Is it b/c Doctors can't afford malpractice insurance anymore? Unbelievable pain in the ass.

Cute Kelly

How cute does she look??? Here's what is going on with Miss Kelly...

• She's almost 7 months old and still has her 2 bottom teeth.
• She's 17 1/2 lbs which is about 90% for weight (I need to get a close-up of those sausage thighs). She's also about 75% for height (Joes genes, for sure)
• She is grabbing EVERYTHING - my hair, my boobs, toys, the strawberry pyramid at the grocery store today. She has a crazy grip too.
• She has gotten over the Hand-Food-Mouth disease she had a couple of weeks ago and is FINALLY eating, and not spitting, her solids again. She likes peas, pear/raspberries, cantelope, sweet potatoes and hasn't seemed to not like anything. I made some mango and also some potatoes I'll try tonight.
• She is rolling both ways - back to stomach and stomach to back
• Despite an earlier post she really isn't sitting up by herself yet. Soon though, I bet!
• She is such a sweet and mellow baby...she has had hijacked naps left and right and just rolls with it. She is a classic third child and smiles all the time.

We love you, baby Kells!

Outside Art Display

Not only did we get a new driveway, we got a new art platform for Shelagh! Perfect for the new sidewalk chalk we got from the picnic last week (which the kids left out and Joe promptly drove over).

Crabbing

We went to a picnic thrown by Joes boss last week in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA. It was on a nice lawn at a marina/park and was a lovely day. The event finished with the kids crabbing off of the doc. Below is Shelagh holding her string with hot dog tied to the bottom and pulling crabs up. Then they dumped the bucket of crabs out, watched them crawl around and sent them back to the sea. The kids loved it!

TV: Mad Men Premiere

If you aren't watching Mad Men, add it to your TiVO/DVR Season Pass List for Season 3 and get the DVDs for Seasons 1 and 2 ASAP! Awesome show. I don't think I've written much, if anything, on this previously (I looked but it certainly could be buried somewhere). Forgive me if I'm repeating myself, but THIS SHOW IS AWESOME. If you haven't heard much about it, essentially, it's about the 60's advertising world at work and their respective lives at home.

Joe and I watched Season 1 on repeats before Season 2 last summer and Season 3 premiered last night. We stayed up to watch it at 10pm last night and it was just so good. Stylish, provocative, emotionally charged. I don't know how much else I can say without spoiling it. The characters are so well developed and complex. Don Draper is the main character who has basically a double life - a past that no one really knows about and a current life that is surface and polished on one side and sordid and shady on the other. There is drama in the office, drama at home, drama on the sly.

Last night addressed Don and Betty having their surprise 3rd baby (after both spouses have cheated, separated and gotten back together), how Sterling Cooper is dealing with the recent purchase by a British company (wicked office politics), and how Peggy has moved fully into the mans world of advertising as the only female account person in the office. It also touched on Sal and his hidden homosexuality finally. Don was off on a business trip and easily moving towards other women despite how far he and Betty have had to come. I liked that they continue to show him flawed. If he was just kissing Betty's ass at home it would deter from his character I think. While you can't believe he's doing it again, it fits. Pete freaked out about some office stuff and I liked that too...he is immature and always feels entitled so I liked his being shown as holding back, but still harboring, some serious unprofessionalism - especially against Ken's smooth exterior (although that's fake I'm sure). Peggy is more confident this year which I also was pleased with...she can't continue to do well there riding on luck with a few ad campaigns alone...she has to develop some confidence and really start to run with the boys to keep up.

I'm so glad this show is back!

Movies: I Love You, Man

Back to what this blog was supposed to be about....Pop Culture!! It's been a long departure, but I'm determined to pull myself out of mom-dom a bit here and there and go back to my blog roots. Movies, TV, Books, etc. It's not like I'm not partaking...I'm just too lazy to think about and articulate my thoughts to write about it all. Here goes...

We watched I Love You, Man this weekend with Jason Segal, Rashida Jones, and Paul Rudd. Paul Rudd was good and the ladies were good too (also Jaime Pressley who was pretty funny with not that much effort). I just really love Jason Segal. He's kind of a laid-back "natural" sort of actor and he's hilarious. Cases in point...Freaks and Geeks, How I Met Your Mother, Knocked Up, Forgetting Sarah Marshall...need I go on???? He was great in this too...just a good mix of "every day guy" and a few spurts of crazy. Plus, the movie had a awesome Fart scene which gets me every time. I'd like to be above it all and say something along the lines of bathroom humor being beneath me, but that would be a LIE. I love it! All it takes is a fart, the discussion of a fart, or the innuendo of a fart and I'm laughing so hard I can't catch my breath.

That's why I really liked this movie. One fart scene.

Pathetic Cupcakes

Baking and I are frenemies. Sometimes we get along famously and I produce something chocolately or fruity and it is delicious and easy and dough-less. Other times, like last week, despite using a BOXED cake mix - YES IT WAS A BOX MIX THAT I SCREWED UP - it is a beautiful disaster.

Thank you Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Butter Recipe Golden Cake Mix for causing me embarassment amongst the preschool set. I usually use the Classic Yellow cake mix and must have accidentally picked up the butter recipe. I didn't realize until I read the directions and it called for a stick of butter. I had a "Hmmmmmm" moment and then realized my error. Regardless I proceeded as it was for Shelaghs last day of preschool and there was no replacing them.

Firstly, I overfilled some of the cups and underfilled others. When they came out, some of them overflowed (causing Shelagh and I to pick at them so they all looked "even") and some of them looked wimpy. Secondly, one container of frosting suddenly wasn't enough to cover the sunken cakes and fill them sufficiently. Wimpy frosting sucks. Thirdly, I overcooked them b/c the batter was a totally different consistency with all that butter. What a moron I am!!!

See below for the visual and feel free to laugh away, my friends. How is it that I can pull off a gourmet Thanksgiving dinner for 20 by myself, but these freakin' box mix cupcakes were a total failure???? What the F?

Trail Mix

Is just another delivery system for chocolate chips as far as I'm concerned. Joe and I are on a kick and are eating it constantly. It started out with good intention under the "have 10 almonds for a snack" bit. Then, I changed it to walnuts. Then, maybe peanuts. Then, I dropped a few raisins and chocolate chips in there. Then I was making big batches of it and sending it to work with both of us. Then we were eating whole bags of it in the car. Then I was noticing that the ratio of nuts to raisins to chocolate was all wrong.

Put it this way...a handful pulled from my latest batch includes 75% chocolate chips with a few raisins, a peanut or two, and some small walnut pieces which probably equal 1 nut. Seriously.

Shelagh's Kindergarten & the Last Month of Summer

The other day I received an invitation to Shelaghs Kindergarten Play Date and some other papers about the start of school for my oldest baby. Yes, now that she is on the precipice of school, she has reverted back to baby classification as far as I'm concerned. I cannot believe she is entering Kindergarten. Holy cow. I'm a combination of so thrilled and excited for her (she loves being busy and having lots of activities and learning) and so overwhelmed that 1) she is actually going to real school now, 2) I have 3 pickups on my work days now (ugh), and 3) I will have 2 days per week with just Rory and Kelly, notably my more mellow and laid back and STILL NAPPING children. Wow.

Her last day of preschool is tomorrow (cupcakes are cooling now and will be decorated with chocolate frosting and pink and purple super-fake nasty tube frosting - but hey, she likes pink and purple and I wasn't so inclined to start food coloring white frosting after the Rory's 1st Birthday Fire Truck "cake" incident).

She is doing 1 week of day camp next week which is 5 days 8-4. She only went to preschool 3 days so I figured this would be an interesting snapshot into how she will handle getting up and out all 5 week days (not looking forward to that part with this particular child!). Even freaking out about a week of camp right now!!!

Then, 2 weeks with no day care plan. Yup, no official plan yet. Maybe a day at my MILs, a day at Kellys home care. It doesn't help that she has the "Meet the Teacher/See your Class" day for an hour and a half on 1 morning; her K screening for 45 minutes on another morning; and her 1st day of Full Day K for 2 hours another morning. God forbid these things get scheduled on the same day or at least over 2 days in the last week. It's not like my town is made up of tons of SAHMoms - all 5 schools have "full day" K in my town. I will try to take a day off to spend just her and I if I can manage to escape from work (my contribution to my work projects is embarassingly small and if I had any other job I'd probably be fired by now). It doesn't help that Kellys home care was on vaca for 2 weeks and then she just got Hand-Food-Mouth this weekend before heading back. Yes, that's 3 WEEKS of "working at home" or barely working as it's become lately.

Anyway, the next few weeks are so crazy I literally have to take it one day at a time. I have babysitting booked, playdates scheduled, the block party coming up, a Red Sox/Yankees game we are having overnight guests up for, 4 Dr appts across the family, a day of dance camp, and the end of my sanity.

Wish me luck!

Davis Farmland

The kids and I went to Davis Farmland yesterday and met up with a friend of mine and her kids. It was our first time and what a fun trip it was! It's essentially a big petting zoo of unique and heading for endangered farm animals - lots of different kinds of goats, cows, donkeys, emu, llamas, rabbits, chickens, etc. The kids got to pet and get up close to a bunch of different animals (Rory was all for it. Shelagh kind of freaked out about the loose animals). They also have a huge playground and a splash/sprinkler park. We were there for a good 4-5 hours and could have probably stayed longer. As usual, Kelly was a good sport hanging out in the stroller and content to nap in the Baby Bjorn. Here are some shots from the day.

The Paradox of Motherhood

I read the following in a book that my sister-in-law gave me before Shelagh was born. It's a collection of essays about natural motherhood and attachment parenting called Loving Mama. While I do believe in breastfeeding and I do love to wear my babies around, I wouldn't call myself a full proponent of natural motherhood (drug-free/natural childbirth - yeah right!, birthing at home - ew!, co-sleeping/family bed, constant baby wearing, nursing on demand and as long as the child wants, etc). I don't know why I didn't read it before, but for some reason while I was nursing Kelly, it just stared at me from the bookshelf and I started reading it. It has not made me a convert, but it's just so interesting to read another perspective and to see how passionate so many women feel about the arrival of and parenting of babies.

This quote stuck out for me...It is originally from The Tao of Motherhood by Vimala McClure (which I did not and probably won't read).

A mother's nature is paradox.

Your strength is in gentleness.

Your authority is in receptivity.

Your power is in letting go.

Powerful stuff...I believe motherhood, for me, is an evolving force. The things that come naturally for me and those things that I have to work hard to achieve are constantly shifting. A sentiment like the one I noted above is a strong statement and one of the things I strive to embrace. I've been thinking about it since I read it a few days ago.

Perfect Day

We got up early today and made our way up to Wingaersheek Beach in Gloucester. It was the most beautiful day. We got there early and got a parking spot up front (this is usually impossible around here). Temperature was 83 with a nice breeze and gorgeous sun...not a cloud in the sky. This particular beach has an insane sand bar. The kids had a blast. They played in the water, they played around the rocks and the pools that form near the rock piles. We had slushes (lemon. yum). We stopped and picked up lobsters and steamers for dinner and fried clams to eat in the car on the way home. We threw in the corn from the CSA which was so sweet and some ice cold wheat beer (smoothies for the kids). Kelly had the CUTEST outfit on today and looked like such a doll on the beach. She was a trooper with not even an hour nap on the beach and less than an hour on the way home even with our stops. Here are my favorite shots from the day.


Shelagh tried lobster tonight and decided, after 3 pieces, that she's not so sure she likes it but she said that she does love the butter part.