Truth Hurts

Brad is doing P90X. P90X involves a 90 minute yoga work out. Brad no likey. Gianna does yoga at school with the occupational therapist. When she saw Brad struggling she hopped right in to give some moral support.

After critically observing his downward dog, Gianna stated, "I am doing better than you."

Get.It.Together

So there's this part in Shawn of the Dead where....ok nevermind. Basically, one character tells another to "sort their {insert four letter expletive+ing) life out."

Through a combination of growing a human being from scratch and staying up irresponsibly late (again) and day one of Brad working 20 hours of overtime this week, I was v. tired today. Even more so by the time we screeched into the Trader Joe's. I had to take a moment after I turned off the car to gather what scraps up energy remained. I made the executive decision to NOT make homemade pancakes and picked up the only frozen pancakes they had....gluten-free, dairy free. I actually got them gratis after quizzing an employee about the tastiness of the pancakes. (verdict...meh. they were weird). We made it through the check-out line without incident, both kids sucking on their organically fair-traded all natural etc etc lollipops and made our way to the car.

I was pulling out of my parking space and heading out when I realized the light indicating a car door was open was on. I pondered this and then realized....it was Gianna's door, because I had never buckled her into her seat and thus never properly closed the door. HALT. Gianna realized she wasn't buckled at this same moment and she was appropriately horrified.

 I pulled into another space and buckled her up, all five points, and commented off-hand, "Mama is a little tired and crazy right now....I forgot to buckle you!!"

And she said, "But, Mama. You HAVE to! You have two kids!"

Yep. You're right, my G. I need get it together. Good thing Lent starts tomorrow. Good thing Holy Mother Church is so wise in Her rhythms of the year....of having some Ordinary Time after Christmas, and just when winter is looking bleak, when all the half-assed New Year's Resolutions have faded, She gives us Lent. A time to sort our stuff out. Do some house-cleaning, soul-cleaning, re-ordering, purging, stripping down, all with the eyes toward the Resurrection at the end of the 40 days.

If you were hoping I'd get to some nitty-gritty, specific advice on how to do all that....I don't exactly have it. I know that I'm going to spend some time each day in silent conversation with God, that I am going to spend more time playing and enjoying my little buddies, that I am going to look for more ways to serve Brad and our marriage, that I am going to make a lot of Goodwill runs and try to be mindful of all the blessings I've been given. I'm going to generally try to sort my life out.

Let's pray for each other as we head in to this most fruitful season....this season of hope and possibilities....welcome to Lent!

7 Quick Takes: The Third Time Around

1. The first pregnancy I worried about everything and anything, big, small, non-existent. I think I made up things to worry about it. The second time I had only one worry: an inexplicable fear that our midwife wouldn't make it in time. In fact, that is what happened, and it all worked out fine. So now, this third time around, I have no worries but one. I am worried about whether I will fit in our teeny tiny bathroom when I am enormous.

2. The heartburn kicked in even earlier this time (maybe I'll finally get a newborn with some hair?) and I was out of TUMS. On the recommendation of a girl in the Whole Foods vitamin section, I bought some papaya tablets. To my surprise, they mostly work about as well as a TUMS, with the added benefit of not making me feel like a 45 year old man. That and it just sounds better to tell your midwife you're taking papaya enzymes instead of synthetic calcium.

3. Not gonna lie. I'm not looking forward to the cankles that a July due date has destined for me.

4. I'm pleased and eternally thankful to a merciful God to announce that Operation Potty Train Boychild is going v. well. We're randomly on night three of a dry diaper in the morning (how? why? I have done nothing to merit this particular grace) and there has been lots of pee pee on the potty, including scary, public, non-Elmo related potties. And so, so many M&Ms.

5. On another transitional front, Doms has not had MAWK in a few weeks and I think it's safe to say the MAWK is officially closed for business for a little while. The withdrawal period has been hard for the Doms, who, when taken on a quick trip through the lingerie section at Target, saw the plethora of bras and exclaimed in sheer ecstasy and longing, "So. Much. MAWK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

6. I know you're dying for an update on the ice cream situation over here. Well. I'll tell you. It's gone. All, all gone.

and this is where it went....the bebe bump circa 18 weeks

7. Have a fabulous weekend....I know we will.........

This week for more Quick Takes, visit Betty Beguiles!

this is what happens when your big sister helps you get dressed

starbucks barista?

all crazy, all the time around here

Valentime's Day

Sorry about the unofficial blogging vacay. The longer I was away, the more I felt pressure to write something extremely insightful/witty/profound/etc and so the more I put it off and then the more the pressure mounted. And now all I've got is a (bad) post about Valentime's Day.

You might be wondering if during my bloggy break I forgot how to proof-read but I promise I did not. Though Gianna *can* make a proper /n/ sound, when it's in a word, especially in the ending position, she tends to say /m/ instead. So "phone" becomes "foam" and "Valentine's" becomes "Valentime's." And though we should probably not encourage this, it's just really cute and now "foam" for "phone" is so much a part of our family lexicon that even Dominic thinks that is the right way to say it.

Anyways. I realized that Valentime's Day is tomorrow. And I thought to myself, "S***." Because that means I have to go through the whole show of getting cards for Gianna to give her classmates, and oversee the writing of names and decorating of stickers and counting and re-counting to be sure we have left no staff member/teacher/child behind. Which inevitably happens despite my efforts. Then there's the fact that it's not enough anymore to give a card, there has to be candy and small gift bags and puppies.

Part of me wants to eschew this custom created by the industrial-military complex (sorry. I listen to a lot of NPR and I really, really like it when people call in ranting and they use the phrase "industrial-military complex" like it means something) and buy the crappiest Valentimes possible. But my sweet 4 year old has not yet achieved the same level of forced un-coolness/feigned distaste for this national greeting card holiday. And let's be honest. I like Valentime's Day. I like to confiscate all the candy ("This is very bad for your body") and then consume it secretly myself. With each passing year this deception becomes harder and harder to execute...luckily, I have Dominic to dupe for a few years still.

So, what is a too-cool for Valentime's Day mama to do? How to show my worldliness while also not looking like the lame parent who just plain forgot to do anything? I shall do what comes most naturally, and that is to take the path of least work for me. I buy a stack of cards. A couple packs of stickers. I give Gianna the list of names and a pen and let 'er rip. As long as the amount of cards is the same as the amount of people needing cards at the end, I don't care what they look like. They let the kids deliver the cards anyways, so I figure Gianna will remember that she really wanted to Claire to have the robot-wearing-a-tutu-card, and just handle it. This lazy approach allows me to maintain my laid-back parent image (see? I am letting her find her own way/take this as a self-directed learning experience/hovering? no sir not me) while still projecting the image of a conscientious parent who cares about school functions and the psyche of their small daughter whose current, most ardent desire in life is to pass out princess Valentime's cards.

I know you are all amazed at the depth of my thoughts. Stick with me, I'll show you how it's done.