Posted on | April 12, 2012 | 35 Comments
today was one of those unexpected really great days. i have to admit, lately toddlerhood has been challenging to say the very least and most days end with heavy sighs on my part while i stare at the ceiling in the dark pondering all the ways in which i am failing my kid. don’t get me wrong, it’s not all bad, not even close. but the bad is, well bad, and somedays it’s hard to convince myself that i’m not singlehandedly ruining my child by my complete lack of knowledge on how to deal. i’m still blown away on a daily basis that seriously anyone can just have a kid and the hospital just sends you home with it. walking out out of that place looking back like “seriously? this? ::points to minature human in carseat:: really? okay…”. and then just winging it from there on out. ok, guys, great plan, go team.
but! today! today, oh today was a dream. we had an appointment around ten (preschool related, simma down now), which she behaved really well at. afterward, we hit up the bux for some soy milk for her, americano for me and a little snack.
we had a few tables full of really friendly people around us and before i knew it H was up and doing the robot for them. of course they ate it up so she kept on entertaining them while we all chatted. next thing i knew she was up in the lap of one girl (highschool or college age) and they were playing games on her iphone. they were all just enamored with her and it was nice to talk to nice people. i realize that makes me sound lonely and possibly sad, but dude, nice people are hard to find these days!
after our pit stop we headed out for some thrifting.
Harper is usually pretty good when we go to thrift stores. but today she was perfect. when we passed people she said “hi. i like your hair” and other such niceties. she read the books she picked out while we shopped, and told me all about them. it was kind of…insane? refreshing to say the least. she also randomly asked for “meximo kisses” and hugs from me. i could have squeezed her little head clean off, she was so cute.
we’ve been shopping around for a toddler bed for her. i always keep my eye out while i’m thrifting but we’ve also looked at ikea. today there was the perfect one at a price i couldn’t refuse ($24) especially for the amazing condition it was in. usually it’s a paint and fix up situation but this was ready to roll. Harper was STOKED. i went up to the front to grab someone to make a ticket for me so i could pay for it. as the lady went to get a ticket and ask a co-worker about leaving the mattress (did not want), she came back with a bummed out look. her co-worker was already selling it. i told her that was ok, we were too late and as we started walking away Harper burst into tears, “MY NEW BED!”. baby and standard size jesus, it was sad. the lady who was buying it ran over and handed me the ticket. “i don’t need it that badly. honey, you can have the bed, ok?”. i kind of wanted to cry. i thanked her profusely (after asking “are you sure? but are you SURE?” about 60 million times). i know it’s not the cure for cancer or anything, but damn if that lady didn’t put some of my faith back in humanity.
big girl bed is big.
currently, the tiny human is napping and i am sitting here smiling about our day. it was exactly the day i needed. an OMG toddlerhood is all worth it day. a nothing spectacular but man was it spectacular day. we spend every day together, her and me, but this one stood out. filing it all away in my brain’s happy folder.
Posted on | April 6, 2012 | 18 Comments
well this is exciting. all of us lowly android users got to join the fancy apple users this week as Instagram launched it’s app. the app seems pretty good, although i have never had the original to compare it to. i do know it’s missing a few features that iphone has, like the tilt shift option. and i’m sure it’s due to adding like a flajillion users in a week, but it runs pretty slow. i also heard it isn’t available at all for certain android phones, which would have put me into some sort of blind rage had it been me. only kidding. but seriously.
in only a few short days i think i’ve pretty much won in instagram bingo. pictures of my food, sleeping child, my hair, flowers and my shoes even made an appearance! damn, i didn’t take one picture of coffee. which is insane considering how much of it i drank this week. BETTER LUCK NEXT WEEK, NEWBIE.
i’m excited to try some of the fun extras that Danielle posted about this week, too! so i’m teammandy on there, let’s be frands.
oh, this week also brought word that i’ll be um, speaking at blogher this year? Jill from Baby Rabies submitted a fabulous room of your own (ROYO) idea and included me, Charlie from How to Be A Dad, and Gina from The Feminist Breeder and enough people said they’d attend it, so it’s on! the session will be about “dressing” for the blog you want, accepting that maybe your blog is more than you originally intended it to be and embracing that. i hope if you’ll be in NYC for blogher that you’ll consider attending our session and yes of course, feel free to snicker at me. i’ll be the one at the end nodding a lot. hey that camel pack of wine might come in handy.
Posted on | March 29, 2012 | 87 Comments
in my moms recent move, i acquired a few boxes of my things she had been saving since i was little. report cards, artwork (even a macaroni preschool project!), ribbons, etc. today i sat down to go through one of them at naptime and nearly died of laughter. i had to share some of these with you because for those of you who ask where Harper gets her silly quirkiness? genetics can be the only answer.
in between report cards with comments that were essentially “Mandy would be a great student and has a lot of potential if she’d just shut the hell up once in a while” and talent show rejection letters (how a jump rope/dance routine to Too Legit To Quit not be considered TALENT is beyond me) were hilarious stories and drawings.
first of all let us take a look at the box my things are in. i still remember the day i got these skates. I LOVED THEM.
as a child of the 80′s how could you NOT want to be as cool as these kids?
this one is an animal i made up. “my egg that hatched a pantle”. which if it wasn’t obvious, is half panda, half turtle. which makes TOTAL sense. see how the diagram spells it out for you?
perhaps you’d like some more info about this magical pantle? let’s refer to the story i wrote inside:
“My animal loves to eat out of garbege bins, and only comes out at night…you are probably wondering what he eats, well, he eats old newspapers, old moldey liver, and dead worms. But he only comes out once a day, and he sits in an old arm chair, and eats the garbege off of the ground in my basemant at night.”
2nd grade. it’s weird, i don’t remember being hardcore into opiates at the age of 8.
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next up is a book i made called “someday” where i talk about all the things i was TOTALLY going to do and be, you know, someday.
“someday I am going to clean my room and my mom would say ‘why all of a sudden do you want to do that?’ “(dead.)
“someday I will draw the best picture in the whole school and everyone will write letters to me”.
“someday I will go to Europe and I will meet the man I will marry”. (who even? you’re NINE.)
“someday I will write the best book in the whole world and it will be in book stores everywhere”.
KINDOM OF THE UNICORNS COMING 2013
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when i was 8 i wrote this little ditty called A Turkey Tale. november 20, 1989.
“Once there was a turkey named Lester. He had a friend, his name was Cliff. They were so excited because tomorrow was Thanksgiving. Cliff came over to Lesters cage the next day. Lesters cage was filled with Thanksgiving decorations. It turned out to be the best day they ever had.”
oh honey…no.
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seriously?
“I lived in a nice calm house for about two minutes. Why? Because I had a slight problem. How? Well, this slimey gooy slug craled up on my lap. It came up to me and he asked me something rudd for a slug to say to a humen bing. He asked me if I would marrie him, and I scremed and then he kissed me and then I scremed even louder.
And then I ran out of my house and I bumped into Mrs. Binkin Bopper, and she droped her groshrys.”
I NEVER FINISHED THE BOOK. it was OBVIOUSLY going places, and i mean, how will we ever know how she actually came to marry a slug? come on 8 year old Mandy! you’re killing me smalls.
mrs. binkin bopper. and her boobs, apparently.
i seriously, seriously cannot wait to have things like this come home from school. how my mom didn’t die on the spot, i don’t know, but i think i might need resuscitation when Harper starts writing and illustrating her own stories.
I MARRIED A SLUG ALSO COMING 2013.
Posted on | March 13, 2012 | 56 Comments
on sunday Harper ended up taking a late nap. things were a little wacky from daylight savings and she fought the nap hard – we could hear her in her room singing, making up stories and otherwise entertaining herself. after a long, long while there was silence. since i was worried she might sleep too late, i went in there to get her after i knew she’d gotten some rest.
i opened the door to see her blanket, pillow and stuffed toys on the floor. in the crib was a little sleeping nugget tucked inside…her pillowcase? as i got closer i realized she was using her pillowcase like a sleeping bag. and she was naked. i looked around for her clothes, nowhere. i looked in the hamper – there they were. she’d stripped down to her birthday suit, shimmied into that pillowcase and fell asleep.
after i died three times, called from the grave for Scot to come peek and bring me my camera, i was able to snap some shots. she was OUT like a trout. at this age she never sleeps long enough for me to have to wake her up so these pictures mean a lot to me. between the sleepy bub and the hilarity of what she did, i will cherish these photos forever.
poor tessa the turtle.
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