From the category archives:

Motherhood

SHORT!

by Jo-Lynne on August 25, 2010

in Motherhood

My daughters both have an obsession with long hair.  I’m pretty sure my younger daughter is only obsessed because of the influence of her older sister.  And because I always wanted long hair as a child (and didn’t have it until I was 25), I have obliged my daughters’ requests — even though my younger daughter’s fine, thin hair is not exactly conducive to long locks.  She usually looks like a street urchin 5 minutes after I’ve brushed and styled her hair.

Well.  I finally convinced her of the error of her ways, and tonight I took her to get her hair chopped.  She loves it.  I mean, really, this child is on cloud 9.  It’s so nice to see – #1, because it looks SO much better, ohmyWORD!  And #2, because I love how she is developing her own tastes and preferences apart from her adored big sister.

Take a look!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Who loves herself?

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Do you remember this commercial?

Well, of course you do.  Unless you were in diapers at the time, in which case, I kind of hate you.  Only because you’re younger and probably have fewer wrinkles and dimples than I do.  I’m sure you’re a lovely person, otherwise.

Because of that crazy commercial, I still put my laundry detergent directly on my husband’s collars.  What can I say, I’m a child of the eighties.

And commercials are powerful influences.

Now there’s a new Wisk commercial on the horizon.

I don’t think much has changed between then and now.  I suppose my mom fought the same battles I fight, although maybe not because I wasn’t exactly the kind of kid that got dirty.

But my kids?

Oh do they ever get dirty.

Ask anyone, and they will tell you that I always say that the worst stains I have to fight are the ones from the dirt and grass in our yard.  I can get out almost any stain except that.  I have actually had to throw clothes away due to grass and mud stains.  So I am VERY eager to see what this new stain spectrum technology entails.

This post is sponsored by Wisk, and I am being compensated for participating in the Wisk Blogger Campaign.

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As I was busily typing away yesterday morning, my son appeared at my arm and announced, entirely out of the blue:

“Mom.  I want a pet lizard.”

Huh? Yeah, okay…

WAHHH???  COME AGAIN?

“Yeah, I think a lizard would be a good pet for me,” he informed me.

Now, let me pause and set the scene.  I am not a pet person.  My husband is not a pet person.  When I was a little girl, I had gerbils.  And when we were a young married couple without kids, we had a cat.  He made me so ill that we had to give him away.  It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, so I can only imagine the state I’ll be in when I send my kids off to college.  But I digress.

Since then I’ve happily joined the ranks of the pet-free.  I like having no fur to clean up.  I like having no litter box to scoop.  I like having no poop or puke to clean up aside from that which my generous children decide to share.  I like having nobody to find care for when I leave on vacation.  I like having no vet bills.  I like having no pets.

But the kids.

They would very much like pets.  They would like a dog, but they know THAT ain’t happening.  They would settle for gerbils, but I’m not even interested in gerbils.  I had them growing up.  Been there, done that.

We’ve done the hermit crab thing.  That didn’t go so well.

I could be persuaded to consider a fish.  But a lizard?  That’s a pet that was never on my radar.

I’m not quite sure how I feel about welcoming a reptile into our family, but I’m a sucker enough that my son easily talked me into a trip to the pet store to “check into it.”  After perusing the various and sundry cold-blooded creatures for sale, my son decided that the leopard spotted gecko was JUST the thing he was looking for.

I admit, compared to the other scaly creatures, he WAS rather cute.

I am happy to say that I did NOT come home with a lizard and a glass-walled home for him.

(Did you know that aquariums with the appropriate lamp and other reptile-friendly paraphernalia cost upwards of $150??)

(And did you also know that geckos eat LIVE CRICKETS?)

But we are “checking into it.”

I’ve done a bit of research, which basically means googling “gecko pets” and reading the first hit.  It seems that a gecko is a fairly good pet.  If you’re in the market for a pet.  Which I am not sure that I am.

A leopard gecko makes an excellent pet. They are small, have minimal care requirements, and can be left alone for severals days {SCORE!}. They are quiet, don’t smell {that’s positive, at least}, and don’t need attention. Leopard geckos are inexpensive and easily available from pet stores and breeders {but have you priced their habitats?} They do not require a large amount of space. They have a wide variety of color and pattern variations. Leopard geckos are the perfect lizard pet. [source]

The part about the crickets throws me a bit, I have to admit.

Crickets are a good source of food and nutrition in your leopard gecko’s diet. You can feed the crickets commercial cricket food and liquid or just use a piece of potato and some oats.

Now hold on just a minute.  I have to feed the gecko AND the crickets?  This is getting a wee bit out of hand.  Although my son SWEARS he will do EVERYTHING.  Yeah, riiiiiiiiiight.

It goes on…

Crickets are very resourceful and are sometimes difficult for the gecko to catch. If this is the case, you may have to remove the rear jumping legs of the cricket.

Did that just say REMOVE THE REAR JUMPING LEGS ?????

HOLD EVERYTHING.

I appeal to you, dear readers.  Have you ever had a lizard pet?  Would you recommend it?  What am I getting myself into?  Is a 10-year-old going to be able to care for it?  Because I can tell you right here and now.  I am NOT touching that thing.  OR its crickets.

My son has been told if he wants a gecko, he has to save up for it.  Admittedly, that was BEFORE I read the bit about the crickets.  That buys me some time, right?

Thoughts?  Advice?  Admonitions?  Valium?

Thanks, I knew I could count on you.

* * *

In other exciting news, and this has absolutely NOTHING to do with geckos or crickets.  (Or valium.)  We had some sort of tornado/straight wind thing come through our neighborhood last week and take out my precious crepe myrtle.  Yeah, that one.

So sad.

We’ve planted a crepe myrtle in each house that we’ve owned, and this one was my pride and joy.

It was always a willing subject for my amateur photography experiments.

And it also enabled me to sit on my front porch and read a book and hide from people walking by if I didn’t feel like being sociable.

We had a burial last night, and I said a few words.

But as my daughter so wisely reminded me as I mourned its loss, “Mom, things don’t matter.  Only people.”

And it is so.

* * *

Finally, I will leave you with this.  Tomorrow night I get to go to a BlogHerStyle event at the LOFT in Paoli, PA.  My good friend girlymama has organized an event for Philly mom bloggers to get an exclusive sneak peek of the LOFT’s fall line as well as style advice for the upcoming BlogHer conference.

Which means, Fashion Friday will now be Fashion Saturday: BlogHer Style.  Stay tuned!

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The good news is, we made it to Maine uneventfully. The bad news is, I left the power cord to my laptop at home. The even worse news is, a replacement power cord is $80, thank you Steve Jobs and your proprietary-ness.

SO. I am hijacking my husband’s laptop to post these links that I gathered earlier in the week and to tell you that unless I decide to cough up that $80, my blog posting for the next two weeks will be spotty at best. Try to contain your disappointment.

In other news, I have already accomplished part of my list of goals for these two weeks in Maine — namely reading and napping. I haven’t yet had any lobster, although I hope to remedy that situation today. Nor have I bothered to unearth the camera and capture the perfection that is the lake at sunset. I did, however, run 2.5 miles in my Vibrams on the gravelly camp road with the view of the lake shimmering in the early morning sun through the pine trees. DIVINE.

Now, for a few good links:

3 a.m. — Motherhood is not for Wimps.  This post makes my heart hurt.  In a good way.  :-)

The Way of Barefoot Running — Bareftoot Ted’s Adventures.  Barefoot Ted is featured in Born To Run as the renegade barefoot runner in his Vibram FiveFingers.

85% of Kids’ Drinks, Snacks Could Contain High Levels of Lead — Inhabitots.  Hat tip to Stephanie.  Yet another reason not to buy juice boxes, as if the sugar and empty calories wasn’t enough.

You knew I’d slip my dietary agenda in there somewhere, didn’t you.

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I know that we’re way behind most of you, but today is officially our first day of summer vacation, and I’ll tell you what.

Summer vacation is kicking my trash.

Besides the hour I had this morning before the house woke up, this is the first time all day I’ve actually sat down at the computer.  It’s 1:20 in the P.M.

Now, I realize some of you maybe sitting there saying, “Yeah?  And?”

But for me, that might be a world record — for a weekday, at least.

Today I’ve written a blog post, run/walked 3 miles, made and cleaned up breakfast, printed out summer chore charts for the kids (thank you, Organizing Junkie!), gone grocery shopping (2 stores with 3 kids, at that), put away said groceries, made bread, made and cleaned up lunch, proctored a math test, read a story to my girls, and now here I am, ready to tackle my design queue.

The plan is for the kids to occupy themselves for two hours (hey, I’m a Pollyanna, what can I say?) while I work, and then we will go to the pool.  And if I’m really on the ball, I’ll have our dinner ready to throw on the grill before we leave so I have no dinner prep when I get back.

Not only have I accomplished all that, but I’ve been the model parent, if I do say so myself.  I’ve dealt with discipline issues with grace, accepted help in my baking without climbing the walls, managed to get the kids cheerfully helping out around the house, and spoken kindly to my little charges even when I wanted to pull my hair out.

It’s days like these that I feel like Wonder Woman, and I start to get all sorts of grandiose ideas of all the fabulous things I could do with my kids, but I’m not falling for it.

No, ma’am.

I learned my lesson last summer.  It all started out so beautifully, but I know how it goes.  All of this togetherness and productivity is a novelty for the first week, but by week two I’ll be ready to send them all back to school, and by week three they will be more than ready to part ways for seven hours a day.

Plus?  This is tiring.  I’m ready for a nap.

But I have miles to go before I sleep…

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links-and-shout-outsFDA Says Heartburn Meds Can Increase Your Fracture Risk — Mercola.com.  NICE.  And my doctor told me there was no risk being on Nexium for the rest of my life.  I am so glad I got myself off Nexium, and you can too.

The Hidden Truth About Statins — The Healthy Skeptic.

50 Power Twitter Tips — Chris Brogan.  This is spot on.

Oh those technology obsessed neglectful parents… — PhD. in Parenting.  I love this article.  I think she nails it.

F.D.A. Concerned About Substance in Food Packaging — The New York Times.

In a shift of position, the Food and Drug Administration is expressing concerns about possible health risks from bisphenol-A, or BPA, a widely used component of plastic bottles and food packaging that it declared safe in 2008.

The agency said Friday that it had “some concern about the potential effects of BPA on the brain, behavior and prostate gland of fetuses, infants and children,” and would join other federal health agencies in studying the chemical in both animals and humans.

ls suggested a number of things people could do to limit their exposure to BPA, like throwing away scratched or worn bottles or cups made with BPA (it can leak from the scratches), not putting very hot liquids into cups or bottles with BPA and checking the labels on containers to make sure they are microwave safe. The drug agency also recommended that mothers breastfeed their infants for at least 12 months; liquid formula contains traces of BPA.

Why We Won’t be Signing up for the Library’s Summer Reading Program — Steady Mom (newly redesigned by DCR Design, I might add!)

Time Unknown — Blackbelt Oma.  This post tore a little bitty hole in my heart.

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Last Day of School

June 17, 2010

Alternatively titled: What’s Mom Gonna Do NOW? Nevermind me, I’m just having a little bit of fun with Picnik. So anyway.  I am now officially the mother of a 5th grader and a 2nd grader. Fortunately my youngest is an October birthday so I get another year before I have a kindergartner again, and that’s [...]

21 comments Keep reading

Good News/Bad News

June 15, 2010

The good news is, our baseball season is officially over. The bad news is, they lost their game last night — the one that started on Sunday and lasted a total of five hours when all was said and done. It was a close game; it could have been anyone’s win right up until the [...]

36 comments Keep reading

Helicopter Parenting

June 2, 2010

On Memorial Day, we decided to go to the swimming pool. I knew it would be mobbed, but it was going to be 90 degrees, and we had nothing better to do.  So we went. I informed my family that we should get there at 11am, the exact time the pool opens, because I expected [...]

69 comments Keep reading

Menu Plan Monday

May 10, 2010

Did everyone have a nice Mother’s Day?   We’re not big into the “Hallmark holidays,” but I had one request — a day off from the kitchen.  And sure nuff, I barely lifted a finger yesterday.  My kids convinced my husband to bring me breakfast in bed, so I lay in bed and read The Omnivore’s [...]

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