Blog List

So I mentioned here that I am a blog stalker. In fact, it was a little embarrassing when I revealed to the hubby just how many blogs I regularly check. It was in the course of some conversation with visiting family about how I love my computer time. Basically he thought I read some ridiculous amount of blogs each day, like say, five. The resulting snort led him to pry further.

Let's just say I browse more than five blogs most days.

To be fair, it does not take a significant amount of time to "regularly check" a blog.

Anyways, I say all this to introduce the blog list right there on the right side of your screen. Apparently, I read mom blogs, crafty blogs, and funny blogs.

Know of any I should be reading?

And how many do you read regularly? Am I nutso?

Domino Effect

I was busy doing some grown-up thing one afternoon this week when I noticed a little body pawing around a junk closet that had inadvertently been left open. She had a plastic phone jammed between her ear and shoulder and she was having a long conversation of some sort. Instead of immediately shooing her out of the closet (I mean, why punish her when it was my fault she was mildly unsupervised and that the closet was open in the first place?) I watched for a bit and then abandoned my grown-up agenda.

I sat down and played with her. Joined in the game she was already playing. Didn't try to suggest alternate activities. Didn't think about the laundry or the dishes or the bills or the internet. Just played.

She grabbed my hand and led me to her room where she was rocking her babies on the ottoman of her chair. She covered them with a blanket and we patted each one. I pretended the plastic phone rang, answered it, and handed it over to her. She said "Hi, Dada," then held it up to each baby, in turn, repeating, "Hi, Dada." She grabbed a book and pretended to read to them, then got distracted by all the books and so we sat down and read for awhile, plastic phone still in hand.

It was a domino effect, which led us from one activity to another all afternoon. We made music with water and cups, then just played with the water, banged pots and pans like drums, crawled around pretending to be animals, played hide-and-seek, and more.

And every once in awhile, she would say "hug" and wrap me up in a big bear hug or sneak in a kiss. She is very selective about affection lately, so these were prizes beyond compare.

It all left me wondering, what would have been the domino effect of the alternate path? What if I had kept on with my grown-up task instead? What are the effects of all the little choices we make throughout the day?

I know one thing for sure: parenting is a big job.

Flashback Friday: That Time I Could Run

So when I wrote this I made it seem like I'm a runner. Or at least that I run regularly. Or at least that I am capable of running.

I may have exaggerated a bit.

I have a love/hate relationship with running. It started when I joined the cross country team in middle school in order to be cool. I was never very good at it. It didn't make me cool either.

Regardless, I'm an "as-needed" exerciser, so when I start to feel a little pudgy, I turn to my old stand-by, running. And for a bit, I lace up my running shoes and proceed to sweat, huff and puff, feel like vomiting, and manipulate myself with thoughts like, "I'll try to run the whole time today. Okay, half-way. Alright, just to that next street. Maybe that stop sign. I'll alternate running and walking."

This will go on for awhile until mission accomplished and then my running shorts become pajama shorts again.

Except for this one time when the mission was to run a 5K. My friend that is forever convincing me to do things "suggested" we run one. So we did. And it was great. And I have a picture to prove I really did it.

That's me, in the back

I guess I didn't exaggerate too much when I suggested that I was capable of running. Because I am was. Five years ago.

I even finished it. Without walking. Seriously.

So this week I've been using my early morning time to run again. Which really means that I'm making a loop around a park, running one stretch, walking the next, and then trying to convince myself to run the next stretch again.

And I'm on a roll because I've done this twice this week. BAM! Take that, tight-fitting pants that I couldn't wear to church last week.

Mirror for Sale?

When my alarm went off at 6:25 this morning, I sat up and stared off in space for a few minutes. The hubby bustled around, finishing adjusting his tie and gathering his work things. He knows better than to talk to me first thing this early in the morning.

I finally hoisted myself from the bed, dug out a sports bra and pulled on some running shorts from the floor. I stumbled to the bathroom, put on my contacts, and brushed my hair into a messy ponytail. If I hadn't already scared my husband away from talking to me in the mornings, he might have offered to move over from the sink where he stood brushing his teeth so I could use the mirror. But like I said, he knows better.

So I fumbled with the coffee pot and poured some in a travel mug with extra creamer before loading into the car. In the backseat, the hubby was buckling in a cuddly little girl with sleepy eyes. If I had a caught a look at myself in the rear-view mirror as I backed out of the garage and onto the road to the Metro bus stop, I might have changed my morning plans. But I was focused on that precious girl blinking sweetly. And the hubby certainly wasn't going to say anything.

So we dropped him off in time for the commuter bus and drove to the park for an early morning workout. I ran and pushed the stroller. Amelia ate snack puffs and watched for airplanes and dogs. I huffed and puffed in the muggy air and stopped when I grew tired of the actual drops of sweat I was leaving behind. Then Amelia cleaned all the dew off the slides on the playground with her pajama bottoms and we headed home.

I spotted a garage sale sign on the way into the neighborhood and couldn't resist a drive-by. Turns out the family must have children a couple years ahead of us and needed to clean shop. So I parked, hauled the soggy bottom girl out of her seat, and began browsing with all the other early morning shoppers. I found too many treasures, including some great outdoor climbing toys, and realized I would need more cash.

After a quick trip to the ATM at the gas station down the street and a stop at the house to clear out the trunk, we returned to buy some low-priced goodies. Only after we had made it back home and changed the soggy diaper, and had breakfast, and played with the new toys, did I pop in the bathroom to take a quick shower.

YIKES! I was a mess! Now I'm no beauty queen when I wake up in the morning to begin with. And then there's Herbert. Add to that a sweaty workout and some serious humidity hair and you get a messy mommy monster. I mentally recalled everywhere I had showed my face that morning and cringed.

Too bad there wasn't a mirror for sale at that garage sale this morning. I think I might need one for future outings.

Wordless Wednesday

I'm on a sewing kick lately.

Eee! I'm all giddy about nap mat covers.

And finishing quilting projects from eons ago.

I'm a crafty nerd.

Time Talk

The cover article in Time this week caught some attention in our house. It is about how men and women work the same amount and share the child-rearing and household chores equally.

The hubby felt pretty justified.

I kept my mouth shut.

Then I checked out this little graphic and got a little offended. It says that "nonemployed mothers" work the least total hours. Hmph.

 

My thoughts got all indignant. Well, I feel like I work all day every day. I'm always on call. I don't get sick days or "vacation" away from my job.

Then I looked around.  Dishes were in the sink. Toys were strewn through the house. I was still not dressed for the day.

It was 3:00 pm.

Okay, so I see where they're coming from.

I kept my mouth shut.

MIA

as in Missing In Action...not the nickname.

Sheesh, I'm a terrible blogger. I thought maybe I just had a case of the blahs. That my days didn't contain anything interesting to blog about. Nobody wants to hear about grocery shopping, paying bills, and the giant zit taking over the left half of my face. I'm calling it Herbert.

But then I had a revelation.

When it comes to writing, I'm a percolator. Meaning I let thoughts and writing ideas soak in my brain for awhile before I'm ready to write about them. I think through what I might say and how I might say it. This is completely opposite of me in real life. If you're talking to me in person, you're likely to hear what I think the moment I think it. Just ask my husband.

So it all of a sudden came to me- Amelia is basically down to just one nap a day. Which means I don't have much percolating time these days. I guess that explains my lack of blogging lately. Well, I'll use the excuse anyway.

Guess we'll have to settle for hearing about groceries and zits, huh?

Wordless Wednesday

I know, I know. You three people who read my blog are asking, Where have you been? Well there was a little thing called staycation. And then Nana visited. And since Nana is my main reader, she already knew what was going on in my world.

Basically it was a lot of this:

And my little darlin' sobbed "Nana" for quite a bit of the ride home from the airport.


P.S. I'm going to finish my staycation posts and back-date them, so if you're curious, read below or check the archives. If nothing else, it will satisfy my little bit of OCD.

Staycation Challenge: Day 7

Who: the usual suspects
What: Rainforest Cafe for lunch and Railroad Museum after
When: final day of staycation
Where: Galveston

Highlights:
- Amelia was initially wary of the animatronic animals at the Rainforest Cafe, but then decided she loved them.
- Why are there elephants and giraffes in the rainforest?

- The railroad museum was hit hard by the hurricane a few years ago, so it was a sad kind of fun exploring the pieces that are left.

- Amelia loved the running free and climbing aspects of the museum. I loved the cool old postal train car.

Staycation Challenge: Day 6

Beach Day!!

We started by reading a book called Beach Day to prepare Baby Bits for all the fun we'd have. I think we did almost everything in the book.

These two are pretty cute.

We rode a ferry from Galveston to the Bolivar Peninsula. Some dolphins decided to join us for the journey, which was awesome. I think I was more excited about it than my child. Dolphins just make everything more vacation-y, right?

Once we were on the peninsula, we went to the very deserted exclusive Bolivar Flats. It was great because it was so private. It felt like our own personal beach. We built sandcastles, swam in the waves, grilled hot dogs and corn on the cob for lunch, and hunted for seashells.

The only downfall of being pretty much in the middle of nowhere, is that we have a sedan and there was a lot of deep sand. So we got a little stuck on the way onto the beach and a lot stuck on the way out.

Thankfully God sent some nice guy with a big truck to tow us out. And it only meant we had sand from head to toe and in every crevice in between.

This walking pose cracks me up.

It was such a great day, so I won't even mention about the pain it is to clean sand out of a car, everything in the car, and off of three people. Especially when the littlest one decides to attend to some "business" in the shower while you are in it too.

I'll leave you with this: it is never too rustic for an ice cream truck.

Staycation Challenge: Day 5

Amelia slept later than she ever has before (yay!) and then we went to breakfast at a local kolache place that we love.

Unfortunately, everything was downhill from there.

The whole day was pretty much a bust. Probably because we were so tired from the past few days of fun.

After breakfast the baby and I took naps. They lasted too long. So we left for our fun at Putt Putt Funhouse a little later than planned. And then Putt Putt's house wasn't so fun for our toddler. She was scared of the bowling, ball pit climbing thingy, slide, bumper boats, and Big Bertha game in the arcade.

The clown seems to say bad idea

Oh, and mini-golf? Not so much of an interest for a little one. She wanted to just hold the ball, chase the ball, throw the ball...

We tried.

However, she thoroughly enjoyed the carousel token ride. She kept going back to it again and again. She rode it about 5 times before the hubby graciously said we could leave.

"Why don't we just stay here?"

That evening we went swimming at Mimi's house again. And then came The Great Poo Disaster.

Apparently she had some after-dinner business to attend to...in the pool. And apparently the swim diaper couldn't contain her business. So everything had to be disinfected, including us.

After what might possibly be the most disgusting shower I've taken, we placed a clean, naked little girl on a tile floor. Apparently she had some more business to attend to. And then slipped in it. And took ANOTHER shower.

Whew, when we finally got home and washed all our poo-kissed belongings, we called it a day.

Total Cost: About $35 and a little bit of our dignity.

Not to be too much of a Debbie Downer, I will share that I achieved jackpot status on the Jumpin' Jackpot game. Awesome, I know.

Clearly a proud moment

And I didn't even pee my pants a little while doing all that jumping.

Staycation Challenge: Day 4

We were feeling very brave on our staycation and purchased tickets to Splashtown. ($$ saving tip: find a coupon code online to get the best discount). So once again, we left early to get there when the park opened. We immediately staked a table by their little kids' area and got to playing.

Amelia tried a lot of things, including a small water slide, but eventually decided she liked the lazy river the best. She had the biggest giggles swimming loose in the current.

And apparently small toddlers aren't often seen around Splashtown, so she got a lot of attention. Oohs, ahhs, and "how cutes." I have to agree. She was pretty stinkin' cute with her little orange floatie arms floating down the river.

The hubby and I kinda thought she'd nap sometime after lunch in her big ol' stroller, but Amelia had other plans. So there was a brief period where it started raining, some other family tried to steal our table, and we were dealing with a cranky mom toddler. Thankfully it passed and it turned out to be a great day overall.

I'm sure he'll appreciate my posting a shirtless shot, right?

Total Cost: A more expensive staycation day. Next time we'll have our hand stamped and eat a picnic lunch by the car.

Staycation Challenge: Day 3

We learned that if you get to the zoo close to opening time on a Monday morning, not only will you get awesome parking, but it will be mostly empty. So Amelia got to run free instead of being strapped into a stroller. This made one little girl very happy! We have a zoo membership, so we just opted to see a couple of things and move on to Hermann Park next door.

We took her to the aquarium exhibit...

And to the elephants for bathtime...

Of course, the most interesting thing to her was a bunny in the bushes.

Hermann Park was also mostly empty. I decided I'd definitely be scheduling a playdate here soon.

At Hermann Park, we rode the train...

Rented a pedal boat and fed the ducks...

FYI: This life jacket smelled like a sweaty armpit.

Had a picnic lunch...

Played at the splash pad...

And had the playground all to ourselves...

Full day of family fun for less than $20.

Staycation Challenge: Day 2

How to make a little girl happy:

1. Purchase circus tickets in the cheap seats during a scarcely attended Sunday afternoon show. Then move up to the empty seats up close during intermission.

2. Prepare by reading a circus book from the library and watching some youtube videos. The elephants had her at "hello."

3. Invite Mimi to go along.

4. Indulge in never-before-tried sugary treats.

5. Throw in some "neigh-neighs."

6. Splurge on a super special souvenir.

Total Cost: A more expensive staycation day, but totally worth it.

Staycation Challenge: Day 1

I'm smelly, sweaty, and tired. I guess those are the signs that it's been a good vacation so far.

I'll keep it short and post some pictures of our "staycation kick-off party." We went swimming at Mimi's house. This was much more favorable than spending a bunch of hours in a car with a toddler in order to swim in a hotel pool.

So score one for staying home.

Bonus points for everyone else preparing dinner while I relaxed alone here:

Oh, and this little fish decided to grow up overnight without mama's permission and is swimming on her own with this life jacket thingy:

And these two? Well, smiles like this are what vacation is all about, right?

Total cost: FREE

Staycation Challenge

I'm insisting on a family vacation this summer. The kind with just me, the hubby, and the kiddo. The kind with sightseeing and sun and family photos in front of roadside attractions or sweeping landscapes. But mainly the kind where you get to spend fun times together.

Unfortunately, the ol' budget insists that this vacation take place in the city we live in. That's right. We're doing a staycation.

It helps that we actually live in a destination city. That means there's lots of stuff to do. Touristy things. We started listing all the things we wanted to do and see and filled a whole page with brainstorming.

Lots of the stuff we plan on doing is new to one or all of us. Most of it is low-cost. All of it fits in a much nicer budget range than a trip elsewhere.

It will be fun times together as a family.

And I'm going to document it just like a "real" vacation. And share it with ya'll. Because maybe you want to vacation here someday! Or maybe you're challenging yourself to an awesome, low-budget staycation too.

Either way: Bon Voyage to...

 HOUSTON!

Pig Tails

Mia's hair is finally long enough for two of the tiniest, cutest pig tails you've ever seen.

 

 Eee! Adorable!

I took pictures as soon as her hair was done, because I knew it was only a matter of time until she pulled them out. Amazingly, it lasted through morning playgroup, all the way to naptime.

I used a few barrettes to keep all the little strays in place.

 Still pretty sparse in the front though.

Book Review

The Help

I've seen movie trailers for this one and knew I wanted to read the book. It was excellent. Okay, I waited too long after reading it to do this little review, so I don't remember all the details. But I remember that I enjoyed being immersed in the time period and these women's lives. You should read it. 5 out of 5 stars. Wow, I really know how to sell a book, right?

The Wednesday Sisters
In some ways this was a typical girl-friends book, ala Traveling Pants or Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Set in the 60's, moms find friends at the playground. They meet every Wednesday and support each other through life's challenges. And start a writing group? This was the part that made it different. Because five female friends with distinct personalities going through cliche chick challenges was not different. While it was not top notch literature or anything, I liked it. It made me want to write about my life. How empowering! Plus, I actually have a group of real-life mom friends whom I met through a regular Wednesday baby program at the local library. So they got me there. 4 out of 5 stars.

Mortified
This book also made me think about writing. It is a series of diary/journal entries made by angsty teenagers from decades past. But instead of making me want to write, it made me never want to write down any thought again. How embarrassing! Because apparently what is important to you now will be hilariously dated and stupid in ten years or so. However, this made for a very entertaining read. 4 out of 5 stars.


 
Books that are not worth the time to blog about, but somehow I still finished them:

The Perks of Being a Wallflower- could not identify with this guy AT ALL. Coming of age high school tale. His high school experience was not so much mine. 1 out of 5 stars.

Almost Moon- creepy main character kills her mom. There isn't much action, we're just in her head the whole time. Pretty much boring. 1 out of 5 stars.