DC Metro Moms: The UN-ELECTION PARTY
What do you get when you bring together SUPER COOL MOMS,
a plethora of great food and drink,
no kids,
and even a ride home?
You get the DC METRO MOMS BLOG UN-ELECTION PARTY!
…of course.
What I love about being a DC Metro Mom contributor is exactly why I loved this party-
all us women are totally different,
have different takes on everything,
but yet, we are all concerned mothers, trying our best to do what is right,
learning every day how to be a better mom, while not scarring our children in the process 
Our party was at Clyde’s of Tyson’s Corner.
We had fantastic appetizers, great entrees of pasta dishes and cheeses and a delectable dessert selection toward the end of the evening.
The people at Clyde’s couldn’t have been nicer and made the planning of this party…easy.
What was even easier was working with Chevy, the sponsor of this party.
Chevy picked up DC Metro Moms for the party and then ALSO drove us all back to our cars and homes in Chevy Traverses.
I think the candidates and their political parties should…THROW A PARTY, get some wine mixed in,
and see what happens.
I think the result would be wonderful!
Cool moms, cool place, cool transportation, cool conversation:
I can’t wait until the next cool event for DC Metro Moms Blog!
MY PERFECT JEANS
I’ve found them. It took a long, long time. But I’ve found them!
The perfect pair of jeans.
Last year I started back into my love/hate relationship with jeans. I go through phases when I don’t like jeans and don’t wear jeans. But last winter I decided that I really needed some good jeans, so I started looking.
I have never been a ‘big’ jeans gal, no pun intended, because I’m 5-feet-tall. So getting jeans involves hemming them,
and this involves really liking them enough to motivate myself to take them to my tailor and try them on,
get them fitted and then go pick them back up.
And jeans aren’t supposed to be like that. Jeans are All-American casual pants. Cowboys wear jeans. I’ve always longed for the day that I just slip on a pair of jeans in a store, they fit perfectly, and I wear them that day. I’ve dreamed of waking up in the morning, going to my closet, seeing pairs of jeans and just sliding them on. I’ve dreamed of jeans being so inconsequential, so normal to my wardrobe, that I don’t even think about having cool jeans anymore.
These are the dreams of a 5-foot-mom… I’m sure most of you are scratching your heads right now; well stop scratching and thank your lucky stars that you are in the middle of the bell curve! You’re normal size! Jeans fit you, you don’t know your tailor on a first-name basis, he doesn’t ask about your kids… be thankful:
YOU ARE NORMAL.
So last winter I began my quest for not a perfect pair of jeans, but some nice, durable pairs of jeans… simple right?
I went first to a mom’s party at a local jeans store/boutique down the street from my home. There were great jeans there, but none of them fit me well. And these jeans were all over $100 a pair.
$100 for a pair of jeans? I know that people spend that on jeans nowadays, but why? However, my visit to this boutique was good because it made me focus and realize what I really wanted:
a cool pair of jeans that fit me well and that I could (GASP) possibly wear off the rack.
I went to many stores and bought a couple of pairs of jeans… that I then got hemmed.
But I didn’t LOVE them.
So then I thought. And thought some more… Who makes jeans? Who started making jeans a long, long time ago…
Hmmm…
But where do you find Levi’s? I didn’t even know. I googled it…
So I went to Sears. They had a lot of Levi’s. I found my size- cool! But then I saw a huge area devoted to petites- yey! I almost ran across the aisle, looking, looking, I found my size in a petite (meaning shorter). I started getting excited.
Then I saw the mother-load… the jackpot tag of jeans: petite AND short.
Are you kidding me?????!!!!!!!!! I didn’t even know they made petite AND short (even shorter than just petite). My heart was racing as I walked to the fitting rooms. I wanted to run, but that would have looked weird. I was so excited- the possibility of jeans that would fit me and wouldn’t need hemming… and I liked them!
I got to the fitting room and tried them on. I looked at myself in the mirror and they fit PERFECTLY! I just grinned at my reflection. I turned around, looked some more and just grinned, because I had reached the holy grail of jeans:
the jeans you just throw on and they fit.
Levi’s has me, they had me at ‘Hello’. Go back to basics and what do you find? You find what you want.
Now, I can even go online and buy my size and know that they will fit. This is jeans nirvana!
I’m wearing them right now
MY SON HAS ‘THE SMELLY PILLOW’ ?!
First of all, I pride myself on being a pretty neat and tidy person. I have a place for everything, I have my lists; I’m pretty organized.
I plan all my meals for the week, and am right now, in all of my spare time-
cleaning out our attic. After that I am going to re-organize all of the closets.
I do lots of laundry and change sheets all the time. And I like it this way. I’m a no-clutter mom and I like things clean.
Don’t get me wrong, almost every room in our house has toys is it, but there are also baskets, sized appropriately (and in colors to complement the room), to keep all the toys, for that particular room in.
No, I’m not anal.
But, I like things to be straight, no clutter (oh, I mentioned that already).
So, with that said, I took a big blow this week…
I tucked my 4-year-old in bed, kissed his little cheek and said good night. I closed his door, heard him take a deep breath and sigh and expected him to go right to sleep.
Ahh, nothing like a nice routine. But then, after a few minutes, I heard him calling for me. It wasn’t a distressed call; I figured that he was stalling and had to ‘tell me something he had forgotten during the day’. I went back upstairs.
“Mommy, something smells.”
I chuckled to myself and sniffed the air in his bedroom.
“I don’t smell anything, sweetheart.”
“No Mommy, over here.”
I walked over to his bed and still couldn’t smell anything.
“No, Mommy, down here, by me.”
I leaned down to his bed and his head and I did smell something… that bad, stale, sweat smell… yuck.
“I think it’s my pillow.”
I picked up his little round pillow decorated with animals that he loves, and insists on sleeping on EVERY night (because my mom gave it to him), even though we have tried offering much more comfortable pillows routinely.
It was the pillow.
“Whew!” he said.
“This does smell bad,” I confessed. “I’ll put this in the wash.”
“But I HAVE to sleep with that pillow!”
Then he sniffed it again, crinkled his nose and with no further words, thrust it upward to me, and asked me to put it in the wash right away, while taking the other pillow I offered him without a second thought.
I walked downstairs, my bruised ego in hand, and said to my husband,
“This pillow stinks!” Holding my chest, I continued, “our kid has the smelly pillow.”
I felt like Adam Sandler in Big Daddy (“You mean, I have the smelly kid?”). I love that movie. But I don’t like comparing myself to the lead character- a single, hapless, trying-the-best-he-can but NOT KNOWING WHAT HE IS DOING brand new dad. I make lists, for gosh sakes! I even ironed my son’s shorts for the first day of school!
How did this happen? How did I get to the point where my son cannot sleep because of the foul odor coming from the little pillow upon which he rests his head? He had to ask me to wash it! I can provide for him a clean pillow and I didn’t; and this is pretty basic. The shame…
“I am not Adam Sandler, I am not Adam Sandler.”
Okay, I’m over it.
An abbreviated version of this can be read at DC Metro Moms.
HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!
Happy Independence Day!
May you enjoy great barbecues,
Have fun trips to the pool,
And great weather this weekend…
We’re off to the beach!
LOOK OVER HERE,
Check out DC Metro Moms Blog today.
All contributors across all our sites across the country are sharing birth stories, adoption stories and basically how their lives changed forever when they had their little ones.
Click HERE to read about our frantic dash to the hospital after my water broke at 2am.
FOR SANITY… DO MATH
Being around little ones all day has a lot of benefits…
But there are some downsides, like getting a silly song stuck in your head. Many, many times I’ve found myself cooking dinner or folding laundry just to realize that I’m singing in my head,
“Laurie’s got a pig on her head” or
“F is for Fun, F is for Fun… “ (I don’t mind that one, I love that song!).
I bring you an answer! My husband read recently that a tried and true way to get a song out of your head is to…
DO MATH!
Next time your have some song in your head that’s annoying, just start doing math:
1+1 = 2,
2+2 = 4,
1,826 + 3,677 = 5,503 (okay, I used a calculator for that one),
8+8 = 16.
It just takes a minute and your mind will be clear…
Ahhh, Sanity
BABY STEPS INTO THE 21ST CENTURY OF BLOGGING
You may notice, if you glance to your left, that I am a contributor to DC Metro Moms. It’s a great site and worth clicking over to.
Previously, you couldn’t click over to DC Metro Moms from the button to your left,
BUT YOU CAN NOW!
In fact, now when you click on the DC Metro Mom icon on my page (you know, to your left),
you will go to my archives and be able to read every blog post I’ve ever written for them
(lucky you).
Please also do just one more click,
once you’re over there,
to their home page,
where depending on who is posting that day, you can also read about-
potty training,
losing baby weight,
choosing a preschool,
doing a date night with your spouse,
and a million other things.
Check it out!
IT’S OFFICIAL: I DO HAVE THE COUNTRY’S SMALLEST BATHROOM
That’s right. It’s with great pleasure that I give you the results from BananaBlueberry’s first contest ever…
I WON!
Nobody in the country has a smaller bathroom than me.
Thanks to Not Just A Working Mom and Stella and Thomas for your comments. Thank you to the numerous people who emailed me privately laughing about the contest.
Thanks to RoleMommy for giving her Shout-out to my ‘Smallest Bathroom Contest’.
And last but not least, thanks to Ben for the entry of his 36 x 48 ‘water closet’ of just a toilet and sink-
Ben gets the Honorable Mention award !!!
I will keep the roll of toilet paper that I was going to give away for the prize and you can be certain that it will be used well.
Once again, I’d like to thank all who participated and say that I’ve grown very fond of my
Very Tiny Bathroom.
As I said in my original contest post,
it is perfect for 4-year-olds.
Happy Flushing!
NATURE’S OPTICAL ILLUSION
When I saw this out our second floor window I ran downstairs to get my camera. The sunlight was shining so brightly on the leaves of this tree that they looked wet.
I actually thought to myself, ‘It didn’t rain.’ And then I looked more closely and realized that the leaves were sparkling in the sunlight.
Thanks Mother Nature.
MY LITTLE REMINDER
Today is my son’s 4 ½ birthday. We’ve never celebrated a ½ birthday before, even though my son’s birthday is December 18th, and thus in the middle of holiday celebrations galore. I’ll be honest, we’re celebrating this ½ birthday because my son ‘negotiated’ with us that he would go to the barbershop to get his hair cut when he was… you guessed it- 4 ½.
I’ve been cutting his hair since he was born. This is not a big deal except for the fact that my little guy doesn’t like to get his hair cut because he has LOTS of thick, wavy, curly hair. And as a result, he sits still for 3 ½ to 5 minutes for his haircuts. I’ve gotten really good at the quick cuts, out of necessity, but the coaxing and prodding and ‘deciding’ when he wants to sit down for the haircut has grown old.
But I digress…
Yesterday, our neighbors in back had an ENORMOUS tree cut down in their yard. When we heard the saws, my son and I ran to our backyard to see what was going on and then immediately ran up the stairs of our deck and positioned deck chairs for a first-row view of the tree-cutting, which as any boy-mom knows, toppled ANY plans we had to go the pool or park.
As we sat there and talked and watched, I looked at my little man. I noticed how sweet his profile is, how long his eyelashes are and I thought about all the things he has reminded me of.
Children teach us many wonderful things but more importantly, they remind us of things we may have forgotten…
I thank my son for reminding me that band-aids are good, but hugs are better. I thank him for reminding me that it can be fun to get caught in an afternoon rain,
That saying please and thank you is important,
That butterflies are cool,
That it’s good to drink milk,
And that ‘big boys’ still need their mamas.
He’s reminded me that small problems are just that. He’s reminded me that we really should hold hands,
That being kind always works best,
That nothing seems daunting if you’re laughing,
That playdough is still fun to play with,
And that life is good.
Thank you for the hugs and kisses and giggles and tears. Thank you for reminding me that everything is a little better with a cookie.
And thank you for the haircuts- I know there will come a day when I wish my little guy would still want me to cut his hair.
Whether the weather is good or bad, plans change or stay the same-
Most of all, my son reminds me everyday what a great gift it is to be a mother,
And that even a bad day is a good day when you are with a 4 ½ year old…
Thanks for the reminders, my little man.
An abbreviated version of this can be read at DC Metro Moms.
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I Was In The 2012 Show !
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