What is Pink and Squishy and Family-Friendly? BARBAPAPA!

Sure you have your Cabbage Patch Kids, The Golden Books, your Strawberry Shortcake, throw in some Winnie the Pooh or Where the Wild Things Are and you have yourself many childhood favorites. All things many of us look back on with happy nostalgia. However, it was while I was visiting Paris during my pregnancy that I discovered a toy in a French department store that brought back much of my childhood to me. It was Barbapapa! I knew instantly I had to have him. Excited and in utter disbelief (this toy is still popular?!) I had him rung up at the register and brought him home to await the arrival of my daughter, T.D. That and Holzspielzeug für Kinder are my favorite toys I bought for my daughter. As a kid Saturday morning cartoons dawned early in my house. Barbapapa (the cartoon is based … [Read more...]

She’s Crafty

THUD!CRASH!BANG!Footsteps can be heard running overhead with the sound of hysterical Joker-esque laughter following it. Yelling quickly ensues. It sounds like an old Adam West Batman episode is at play in my house. Aah, nap time!That crash was her pink plastic pig. The thud? A pile of books she has unceremoniously dropped from her bed.The bang is new. I'll have to investigate.Some people remove all furniture from their toddler's room when these things occur. I've seen many a bare toddler room. I wonder where they put all the kids stuff. Her grandparents freak out and fear for her life and I do too a little bit but I feel that even if we removed all T.D.'s furniture she would still find some way to climb, jump and make quite a commotion. I would have to rip the windowsill off the window and … [Read more...]

Well! Don’t I Just Rock?!

To keep up with the pace around here and the use of "rock", "rockin'" and "rockin' it hard", which H used last night like repeatedly until at one point when I heard him ask T.D., "Are you rockin' that water?" I decided he must not be allowed to watch Brett Michaels and 'The Rock of Love' EVER, EVER again. But I digress...I feel like I kind of do rock this week. Yesterday, ConnectingMoms put up their interview with me and introduced me to the whole CM crew as their new Mom Contributor. I'm elated! I get to raid discussion boards, promote this here cute blog and all my others while interviewing other amazing working mothers. I feel blessed to be in such good company and to be able to do such cool things.Then, if you will direct your attention to the right of this blog, you'll notice a new … [Read more...]

In Which Target = Happiness

What happens when you go to Tarzhay with low blood sugar and massive amounts of hormones sweeping through your body? You end up with a bag full of stuff like this-One Method lavender disc deodorizer which for some reason you felt you could not live without. After all you could not sleep last night because your house smelled like chicken soup or some other such phantom smell.An entire bag of mini Ritter Sport Butter Biscuits. Which you then ravenously ate a few of before even leaving the parking lot. There is still chocolate under your nails.One carton of full-sized cadbury cream eggs. You will hide them away and eat them in secret later, preferably in bed.A bath mat. Why? Not sure. It looked very soft and fluffy in the store. Its pristine whiteness calling to you. It makes the old bath mat … [Read more...]

Book – Part Deux

Well if it isn't perfect timing- Mummy has quite the migraine today and would rather be lying in bed in the fetal position than doing anything the resembles going through a normal day. As promised, another entry from the book. For the first entry click here.Anyone else smell ammonia? * * * * * * * * * * * In her mind, though Casey began to think back. Hit me? No. Rob had never hit me. Sure, there was that time that he twisted her arm a bit. When he would forcibly make her do things but that was not hitting. Besides, she was small and he was so big. He did not know his own strength. He always said he was sorry afterwards too. That she was weak and she was so small she needed to toughen up and he was just helping her. It was true. She was small and weak. She wanted to be tough. That was not … [Read more...]

How The Washington Post Peed in My Coffee

There I was, sitting at the kitchen table, not fully awake but trying to read the Sunday paper before all two year old hell broke loose in my house and sipping some coffee when I saw it. By it, I mean, the front page article in The Washington Post's Outlook section, 'We Scream, We Swoon, How Dumb Can We Get?', by Charlotte Allen.Ugh.Read it now. Get back to me.Are you angry? Or do you just feel "dim" as Allen puts it and you don't quite understand all the fuss?Why is an article such as this the one that gets the front page? Why an article about how women will always lag behind men, are the worst drivers, love romance novels and are only smart enough to remember where the berries are, the type of piece that ends up on the front page?Reading Allen's piece I not only got angry but I started … [Read more...]

Oh! You Didn’t Know I Had a Maid, Did You?

Yes, it's true. I have a maid. How else would I get everything done?She's quite efficient too. When I finish my shower, there she is at the ready, holding my towel for me. She would not have it any other way. She's my lady in waiting though I have no rank.She hands me my make-up. She holds my hairbrush and patiently waits for me to put in my hair goop.She even doles out my lotions and other assorted face products.She puts away the laundry. Everything in its proper place! Draws must close completely and she scolds me when I half shut them.She is obsessive about dusting and even screams at me when I try to do it myself.In fact, whenever I try to do anything on my own there she is trailing after me yelling, "ME HELP! ME HELP!"If you haven't already figured it out, my daughter is the maid. … [Read more...]

What Would You Do With One Extra Day?

Today should be the last day of the month, but we are in a leap year. Think of tomorrow as our bonus day! For most of us it will be life as usual (wake up, wipe kiddie snot, work, wipe more snot, sleep, repeat), but think of this- If you could have one extra day to do something, anything- what would you do? Would you spend time with family and friends? Would you rather spend the time cleaning the house or tackling projects around your home?Yahoo! polled over 2,000 people and found these results-80% chose doing something fun like hanging out with family/friends, going on some wild excursion or shopping63% said they might work, do some sort of organizing around the house or clean the garage40% would do some online clean up, like cleaning their email box, their many online profiles or back up … [Read more...]

Here we go!

Her knees are pulled so tightly to her chest she thinks she might bruise her ribs. Her arms grip her legs and her hands clutch her ankles as if she is holding on for dear life. The knuckles on her fingers are white. She rocks there on the floor of her friend’s room unable to stifle the sobs that sometimes became wails that then crash into screams. Her face is a mottled mess and her hair is wild and sticky from her tears. It sticks in clumps to her face and snarls in other places from her fingers that twisted and pulled the blond strands at other times.After the first hour, no one paid her any mind. They wanted her to ride it out. Her friends were uneasy with this much emotion. While Casey was never one to shy away from how she felt her friends simply did not know what to do with this type … [Read more...]

I’m a sucker for a man in gold

6:40 p.m.- Ooh! The Oscars soon! Only about an hour to go until the pre-show! Whooo hoo!7:30 p.m.- Hm... am missing the Barbara Walters show. Didn't DVR it either. How will I know Harrison Ford's true thoughts on him being twenty years older and doing yet another Indiana Jones movie?8:10 p.m.- Must get off phone... Oscar's beginning any minute! Why is T.D. still up?! Toddler chatter is loud over Jon Stewarts dry wit. Haven't even made Oscar pics yet!! WTF is Daniel Day Lewis's wife wearing?! Looks like someone stamped a giant piece of lead-laden costume jewelery on her chest.9:00 p.m.- Huzzah! My super bowl is in play! Jack Nicholson is making me sad with his incoherent mumblings. Did he just call Tommy Lee Jones 'Harvey'? Oscar's take note: Jack loses front row seat next year. Replace … [Read more...]