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My Son Won’t Eat Mac n’ Cheese, But Olives- YES!
My son will not eat Mac n’ Cheese. He doesn’t like any kind of pasta…
I don’t know how he came from me. He doesn’t like a lot of icing on cake or cupcakes- that totally comes from me…
But yesterday was a new ‘You’ve got to be kidding me’ moment:
My son opened the fridge and saw black olives, “Mom, can I have a bowl of black olives for a snack?”
Ummm, okay. So I gave him a small bowl of olives, and he ate all of them. Then, as only a mother can do, I started thinking, ‘Are a lot of olives really good for a kid? Will it make his stomach upset?’
Stop it mom, he’s fine. A few olives never hurt anybody.
‘Mommy, Let’s Just Listen…’
My son and I sing a lot. We are not always on key. But we have a good time. He loves my singing… or so I thought.
The other day we were listening to kids’ music in the car, I don’t remember the exact song, but it was by Laurie Berkner, Justin Roberts, or They Might Be GIants… oh, or Dan Zanes. He stopped singing but I continued in my earnest, yet sometimes flat singing voice, and then I heard,
“Mommy, Let’s Just Listen.”
Ummmm. Okay.
Guess the days of him thinking ‘any song that came out of my mouth was melodious’- are over.
Avoid The Rush… Go Out The Night Before
It used to be pretty fun going out on special nights- New Year’s, Valentine’s Day; but as we all know: things change.
I’ve never been a fan of New Year’s Eve anyway, because it can rarely live up to the hype associated with it.
My answer: GO OUT THE NIGHT BEFORE.
I have now done this for New Year’s AND Valentine’s Day and it works great.
My husband and I now have a tradition of going out on December 30th- there aren’t the crazy crowds, babysitters are more readily available, and service isn’t rushed.
Fast forward to Valentine’s Day this year; we were planning on going out as a family for dinner to one of our favorite family restaurants on Saturday, February 14th…
then I got to thinking, ‘Everywhere is going to be packed, everybody’s going to be a little rushed’, and I quickly changed our plans-
We all went out to dinner on Friday, the 13th, had a wonderful dinner, the restaurant wasn’t very crowded
and then for Valentine’s Day we ordered chinese.
Moral of the story: Consider starting this tradition, it’s easier and then ‘ordering in’ the next night is a nice topper!
My Antique iPod
This was my iPod until a few days ago. I was one of the first people with an iPod. I am normally not that trendsetting; my husband had heard about it at his high-tech workplace and got me one.
I remember, I kid you not, riding on Metro and people asking me what it was. Then Oprah featured it on her ‘Favorite Things’… and Poof! Magic! You gotta love Oprah…
The same week Oprah declared the iPod one of her favorite things – 2 different people actually
stopped me on the street to confirm that what I had was ‘the iPod that was on Oprah’.
That was many years ago and believe it or not, my IPod worked until about a month ago.
My husband got one a few years ago that was super-snazzy compared to mine, and much sleeker.
But his died around the same time mine did… like a sweet, old, married couple, or something.
So my husband surprised me with a brand new iPod Nano for Valentines Day (the smaller version of the iPod which only holds about 2,000 songs). I currently have 26 songs on my iPod so it’s plenty big. I know, I’m adding songs.
And when he found out that a new battery for his would cost almost the same amount as a new iPod nano- he got himself one too.
Look at the difference in these iPods.
And the instructions are a few sentences long. Pretty amazing, huh?
Reminds me of a trip to Best Buy last year to buy a new cordless home phone. Woops, sorry, no home phones have cords anymore, unless you get a ‘retro’ one from Pottery Barn… Back to Best Buy: I was disappointed with the size of their phones- they were all so
small. I wanted a bigger one so it wouldn’t get lost flushed misplaced.
It’s 2009. What an incredible world we live in… now if I could just figure out how to sync-up the remote for the TV and the one for the DVD player; now that would be incredible.
I’m a Fantastic Mother… Thanks to Complete Bribery
Ah, Bribery. I’ve never been a big fan, but sometimes you just gotta do it.
Case in point: my son going to the barber. Yes, I know he’s 5, I should have started taking him to the barber literally, years ago. And just made him ‘cry it out’.
But I didn’t. So now he’s 5 and I’ve been cutting his hair all his life. This did not start out as a whole ‘saving money’ thing, although that part is nice. This happened because my son refused to go to the barber. He has thick, wavy hair; he actually has great hair, Paul Newman hair, but people, strangers, have always brought attention to it and him,
“Look at that head of hair!”
“You’re so handsome.” And then people, strangers, have actually ran their fingers through his hair or patted him on the head= Result: my son doesn’t like anyone, except me, messing with his hair.
The only problem with me cutting his hair is that-
1) I’m not a barber or hair-stylist and he has a lot of hair, and he’s getting older
2) Sometimes he doesn’t completely sit still for me and makes a fuss and trimming his hair can become ‘an event’
So we had enough. My son has been wanting a Vtech camera, so you know what comes next-
The last time I trimmed my guy’s hair and he made a fuss, both my husband and I told him that
WHEN he goes to the barber, he will get his Vtech camera. His immediate response-
“How soon will I need another haircut?”
Are you kidding me? This seemed too easy…
“In a couple of weeks,” I said. A couple of weeks went by and so we went to the barber. We planned out last week which day we would go, and we went.
We went to ‘Daddy’s barber’, a real barbershop. As we were walking around the block to the barbershop, my son held my hand and admitted,
“Mom, I’m a little scared.”
“That’s just because you’ve never done this before, but you’ve seen Daddy get his hair cut here, and these barbers ARE MUCH BETTER than me at cutting hair.”
“And I get a lollipop,” he chimed in.
We went in. Bobby, the barber who cuts my husband’s hair was sitting there- no wait. He was happy to see us (we’ve all been trying to convince my son for the past couple of years to come in for a haircut).
My guy got a haircut. He didn’t even wince. And that was it. No tears, no drama. We went back to our car, drove to Toys R Us and bought a Vtech camera. And my son ‘has decided’ that going to the barber is pretty cool, (and they do a better job than Mommy).
So we’ve reached another milestone…
And it’s all thanks to complete bribery 
Thank You
Thank You to all the women out there who offered their kind words and thoughts and prayers to me after writing about my ectopic pregnancy (below). The wishes from near and far have helped me, whether you read it here or over at DC Metro Moms.
It was a hard post to write, but I felt I had to and it was time, because I see a lot of misinformation about ectopic pregnancy, OR NO information out there about ectopic pregnancy.
Once again, I want to inform and empower women and remind women to trust their instincts…
An ectopic pregnancy can go from bad to worse very quickly.
Please seek immediate medical attention if you are pregnant and in pain.
And THANK YOU AGAIN. Thank you for all your warm wishes.
My Ectopic Pregnancy Gone Horribly Wrong
It was President’s Day Weekend…
I was pregnant! We were thrilled… But my HCG levels were low, so something wasn’t quite right.
I didn’t miscarry, as my doctor said I might, so I was hopeful that my pregnancy would get better. Then, Sunday evening I was cramping up so much that I wanted to call the doctor… but didn’t, at first…
I survived another medical trauma at the start of my 20s, so I think of myself as tough.
Then a started to get a sharp pain under my right breast… so I called the doctor. I have since learned that this is, to quote reference books, ‘an ominous sign’ as it means blood is tracking up the abdominal cavity…
The on-call doctor called me back and immediately apologized for being happily distracted- his sister was in labor at the hospital. I told him about the pain, and he quickly suggested I send my husband out for Pepto-Bismol, and to wink, wink, ‘toughen up’.
So I did. And my husband did. And I took the Pepto-Bismol…
That night pain kept waking me up… and at about 6 in the morning my husband was jolted awake by a thud on the floor of our bathroom. He looked around and didn’t see me. He ran into the bathroom and I lay unconscious on the floor.
He called the doctor and got me to the nearest hospital. I was quickly wheeled into the sonogram room and after numerous attempts to find a baby, a doctor was called in and he said, and I quote,
“All I can see is blood.”
Everything went quickly then. Orderlies were running with my stretcher. I was prepped in a hallway awaiting surgery, all the while, nurses covering me with heated blankets, because I was shivering so much from the loss of blood… 1,2,3,4,5 blankets were covering me and still I shook.
Ectopic means “out of place.” In an ectopic pregnancy, a fertilized egg has implanted outside the uterus. The egg settles in the fallopian tubes in more than 95% of ectopic pregnancies, as was my case. The fallopian tube does not have space or nurturing tissue as a uterus does, for a pregnancy. As the fetus grows, it will eventually burst the tube, which causes internal bleeding and eventually, if not treated, death. A classical ectopic pregnancy cannot develop into a live birth.
So there I was, bleeding internally, being wheeled into the OR. My husband had tears in his eyes and said only 3 words,
“DON’T LEAVE ME.”
I didn’t want to, but I was SO TIRED… not the kind of tired you feel when you need a good night’s sleep; I was exhausted. I felt like all the systems in my body were slowing down,
slowly, slowing down…
And then I had a moment of clarity and it hit me, ‘This is BAD. I’m bleeding to death.’
They put me on the operating table, I remember HOW COLD I was. The nurse looked down at me and told me they would help me; she had beautiful blue eyes and the light was coming down around her face and I thought she looked like Mary. And I was comforted.
The anesthesiologist told me to count backward from 100, and I almost did. Then I stopped myself for only a moment, took all the strength I had left, and screamed inside my head,
“Please God, do not let me go out this way. I have fought too hard for life. Please, not this way.”
And I started counting- 100, 99, 98… fade to black.
A few days later, a few more little scares, and I was feeling pretty good- believe it or not.
I was at home and relaxing, because I couldn’t do much else… and I was so grateful to be okay!
A couple more days went by and just for a moment I thought back to that ultrasound…
‘All I can see is blood’. And I started crying.
Then I wept. And I wept… for my baby, for my baby that never got a chance…
Almost 2 years later I delivered my healthy and happy son. He gives us such joy and he makes me laugh,
and sometimes I’m amazed by how wise he is beyond his years…
And on those occasions, I allow myself to believe that he is blessed with an extra little angel who is always looking out for him.
* Trust your instincts. If you think something is wrong, consult a doctor.
* Sometimes women don’t even know they have miscarried… A miscarriage should not be extremely painful. If you do experience extreme pain and/or a sharp pain, please seek immediate medical help.
* Ectopic pregnancy is the leading cause of death for a mother in her first trimester of pregnancy.
An abbreviated version of this can be read at DC Metro Moms.
Truths Of Motherhood
I got this in an email and edited it a bit:
Great Truths of Motherhood:
1) Wrinkles don’t hurt.
2) Today’s mighty oak is just yesterday’s nut that held its ground.
3) Laughing is good exercise. It’s like jogging on the inside.
4) Middle age is when you choose your cereal for the fiber, not the toy.
Good Plumbers are hard to find…
I am happy to say that I now have a new dishwasher.
The hard part was not finding the dishwasher, but having it installed.
After dealing with a not-so-honest plumbing firm that quoted me an astronomically ($455) high rate to install my dishwasher, I took matters into my own hands… (I nicely told this plumber to leave my home, after all, BananaBlueberry concentrates on the good stuff).
I called the firm that had come out to look at my old dishwasher and asked them who THEY recommended.
They gave me the names of 2 firms and 1 is located about a mile from my house, so I called them-
Leahy Plumbing and Heating is a great, honest, plumbing company. John Leahy, the owner, always tries to answer the phone. He did when I called. He’s been around for years and gave me a very reasonable price.
Leahy Plumbing will come to your home and give you a FREE ESTIMATE. If you don’t like it, tell them to leave, that’s it. No service call charge, done.
The Moral of the Story:
Ask other businesses their recommendations. I went with the first company from word-of-mouth.
And pass on GOOD experiences with service companies
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