A Belated Merry Christmas

Belated Merry Christmas to all! (Light blogging due to family being in town.)

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas! Mom and Dad arrived on Thursday and all went well at the airport. DH picked up the kids and we all went out to dinner at a fun family restaurant in Springfield VA called Paradiso. They have a kids room where all the children eat dinner at picnic tables and watch a movie while the adults eat in the family room outside, with a big window between the two rooms. A nice way to catch up with adults and for the children to have fun, too.

On Friday, DH went to work while the rest of us went to the Tysons mall. We had lunch and then headed home for gift wrapping. We picked up some pizza for dinner and watched The Polar Express for family movie night.

On Saturday, my parents stayed home to wrap presents while the rest of us made our mad dash run to Wegmans for groceries and to pick up our holiday ham. Then I took my parents out with the kids for lunch at Chicken Out before heading to Lady Bird Johnson Park to see water-skiing Santa. We caught a very very short glimpse of Santa -- better to see him on the web site! Well, the excitement must have caught up with Nicholas, because he fell asleep on the way home and slept...and slept...and slept...right through to our planned departure time for church at 3 pm. So we stretched it until 3:30 pm. Then 4:00 pm. Then 4:30 pm. Then we decided to skip it altogether. Saturday night was dinner at Silverado early (5:20 pm) and then putting out presents under the tree.

Sunday morning was an EARLY awakening by my daughter with the announcement that Santa had brought things in addition to the presents we had put under the tree for each other -- and she asked permission to go downstairs to look. (We have a split level house so she can see from the stairs but not REALLY see from so far away.) She found a rocking horse, a Cinderella doll set, an Alice in Wonderland dress, a box of Princess wigs, and a turtle suitcase. Her brother found a Plasmacar, a GeoTrax airport, a GeoTrax fire and rescue station, GeoTrax rescue equipment, and a turtle suitcase just like his sister's. We spent the morning opening up presents, and then DH cooked up an awesome breakfast -- Baked French Toast with strawberry and blueberry sauce. YUM! We were so full from breakfast that Christmas lunch got shifted to Christmas dinner. As my Mom said later, it was a very "old fashioned" Christmas -- lots of fun watching the kids and no stress.

Monday we were silly enough to go back out shopping at Tysons. Picked up a few things on sale, but were not so silly to be at the Nordstrom men's sale at 7 am -- a 10 am arrival was fine with us. We picked up lunch at zpizza -- it was a different spot to try, but I wasn't "wowed" by it. I tried to finish up laundry -- I had somehow managed doing 13 loads of laundry on Christmas day, mostly for all the new clothes the children now had. Both children were pretty tired so they napped in the afternoon. We went to dinner again at Paradiso -- my parents are Italian food fans so it is an easy choice -- and called it a night early.

On Tuesday, DH went into work and we got the luggage loaded into the car and headed first to Pentagon City mall ("The Fashion Centre at Pentagon City"). My dad was looking for a store that used to be there called The Impostors Faux Jewelry -- but it wasn't there any longer. (I hardly ever go to that mall any more because the stores I shop at are not there, so I had no idea.) We picked up a few things on sale and then readied to do our airport drop-off. Of course there flight was very delayed -- as in 2 hours later arriving from Nassau, Bahamas. The airline did not tell them much, either -- even changed their gate on them and made no announcement. But they made it home finally, and received a phone call at home from US Airways "apologizing for the inconvenience". How nice. While they were at the airport, DH and I were organizing closets for donations to charity. Not sure how many bags of clothes we ended up with -- maybe 7?

Yesterday was back-to-work day for me and DH's day off. He did the bags of clothing drop off and ran some other errands. With Congress being out for the entire month of January, here's hoping he has a reduced hours schedule then, too -- sure helps to get errands done and makes up a little for the very long hours he puts in when Congress is in town.

All in all, a fun Christmas. I think about some friends and family that are not here this Christmas and I hug my children a little tighter. I'm glad that my parents got to spend some good time with the children, too.

Arrival Day

Like everyone else during the holiday season, I have been busy readying for today. Today is Arrival Day. My parents' arrival, that is.

Yes, Mom -- the one that has not been on a plane since 1993 -- Mom agreed to fly down here from Massachusetts. As I explained to her, the flight is not that long -- she has been to longer Masses at church. But with Mom's condition -- who knows how today will go.

I phoned my parents on Monday at lunchtime, and my mother was ready to draw and quarter my father because -- according to her -- he had told her that they would be visiting us for Christmas but he had not told her that they would be staying overnight. I talked to her for about 20 minutes to try to calm her down, but she was ready to jump all over him. I feel so bad for my Dad -- mine is just a 20 minute phone conversation, and not having to be "on" 24 hours a day with no downtime.

Although I am diametrically opposed to just about every stance of her politics, I always felt such admiration for Nancy Reagan for what she did for her husband. That is just very tough stuff.

So we'll see what happens over the next six days. The LAST thing I want to have happen is something "weird" that sticks in my children's mamories. But I also want to give my father some sort of "downtime" from all this. Maybe I can share the load a little with him for a short time.

An angel has left this Earth

A dear friend left this world this week. It has hit me (and many others) quite hard.

Sheila was a very spiritual person, and frequently turned to St. Therese ("The Little Flower") for support. I have been seeking solace in St. Therese these past few days and learned more information about St. Therese. St. Therese was canonized as a saint by Pope Pius XI in 1925. He then declared that St. Therese would be co-patroness of the Missions (along with St. Francis Xavier) on December 14, 1927.

I like to think that St. Therese called on Sheila on December 14.

Post-birthday synopsis -- the evils of toy packaging

Well, the Birthday Day is done. We had a party in the Toddler Room complete with cupcakes from Heidelberg (YUM!) and Elmo plates and napkins. And fire chief hats as party hats.

Then we came home and had Nicholas' favorite food (pizza) and chocolate cake with ice cream. Then we got to the presents. Natalie seemed to really want to help open everything. First up was Natalie's gift to her brother -- a John Deere set with tractor, pick-up truck, and farm animals. Of course every bloomin' thing is wired in place. Grrrrr. No points for John Deere.

Next up is the LeapFrog Fridge Farm Magnetic Animal Set. Thankfully no wires, and batteries ("for demonstration purposes only") are included. One point for LeapFrog.

Next up is the LeapFrog Fridge Phonics Magnets. Thankfully no wires, and batteries ("for demonstration purposes only") are included. Another point for LeapFrog.

Finally, the Geotrax "deluxe starter set" - purchased direct from Fisher-Price. I actually lost count of how many wires I untwisted after counting to 30. And it cannot be for "display purposes" because they do not sell these in stores!!! Many many grrrrrrrrrs and no points for Fisher-Price. (Although the train itself is very cool once you get it all untwist-tied!)

So, on the lovely note, I looked on Technorati to see if anyone had been blogging about this packaging lunacy -- and yes, Blogging Baby has a great post about this article in the Olympia, Washington Olympian about the hazards of toy packaging. VERY funny stuff!

Happy Birthday, Sugarplum!

Happy 2nd birthday, my little man!

I cannot believe two years have flown by so quickly! It seems just yesterday that I was waddling around the MCI Center at The Wiggles concert trying to find your sister who decided to go "exploring". At the time, I had no idea how my heart could get any bigger to love another child more than I loved Natalie. But it happened. And you stole my heart the first moment I saw you.




And I love you and Natalie more and more each day.

Thank you for being in my life, Nicholas. Thank you for coming in to my life and throwing my entire world upside down. This journey with you has been so incredible!

I love you, sugarplum!

Back from Baltimore

We just got back from Baltimore!

Friday I stayed home with the kids for a "snow day" and packed for our short trip to Baltimore. We went to celebrate Nicholas' birthday -- my little man will be 2 years old on Tuesday (*sniff sniff*) so we celebrated his birthday just like we did for Natalie. We went to the National Aquarium and to Port Discovery. We stayed at the Renaissance Harborplace -- very nice, but self-parking at $21 a day? What is up with that??? Well, I did get the room for a deal on Priceline -- so I won't moan too much.

Anyway, we had a blast. The new addition to the aquarium is VERY nice. Inner Harbor is a great deal of fun during the holidays -- very festive with the lights and decorations, people caroling along the waterfront. Lots of fun.

The pavilions at Inner Harbor could teach their retail sales help a little bit on the "May I help you?" front. DH went into one of the stores and he was nearly accosted by one of the clerks -- "What can I help you find today?" before he even made it completely inside the store. He said, "Nothing" and walked out. I HATE when I get followed around like that. Send me straight to buying online!

Pictures from The Nutcracker

Two pictures from our visit to see The Nutcracker:

What a little sleep will do - quick post

DH arrived back on Friday so I was in bed and asleep at 6:15 PM. *AHHHHHH*

Saturday Natalie and I went to the Nutcracker and had a great time. This year's production had lots of new choreographic twists to it -- VERY well done!

Sunday we went to get the kids' pictures taken -- it was a great photo shoot but My Princess was a little cranky and let everyone know about it.

I'll fill in more later...

What Kind of Freaky Mother are You?

Who knew?


You're a punk rock mommy! DIY is probably your
motto, because you're a punk mama at heart.
Your kids are getting your independent spirit
and guts, and learning to solve problems
themselves. You love it when they show their
independence, even when it's breaking your
heart.


What kind of a freaky mother are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Today is Friday...

Today is Friday, Today is Friday, Friday is fresh fish...

Ooops -- slipped into the Eric Carle book for a moment. Must be the lack of sleep.

Yes, today is the last day of solo parenting. United Airlines, no mess ups with flights from San Jose this afternoon, thank you very much.

Our parents' group at preschool did a fundraiser to raise money for bonuses for the teachers -- we sold wreaths this week and it turned into a pretty nice fundraiser ($800 profit). I put the wreath in my car Wednesday night and opted to store it outside instead of in the house so that it would be in better shape to hang on our back door. Well, I was up until midnight on Wednesday night (actually more like 1 am Thursday) doing laundry and was up at 5 am Thursday cooking. (Yes, I was making a casserole for dinner at 5 AM Thursday.)

As we were leaving at 8:20 am Thursday morning, my daughter says, "Why is the wreath over there in the carport, Mom, and not hanging on the door?"

I nearly lost it. But I am happy to say I bit my tongue.

But REALLY!

Little Man seems to be doing much better. He's been on the Albuterol since Monday night and he was supposed to be on it for 3 to 5 days. I think I am going to stop that medication today as the wheezing is gone. He'll still be on the Omnicef for another week for his ear infections, but he really sounds so much better.

Of course my daughter now has sniffles, sneezes, and coughs. Perfect timing for Daddy's arrival and for the possible first snow in DC sometime this weekend.

Dad and mom see the attorney this afternoon. I think my dad managed to do the living will part but not my mom -- dad said she broke down in tears just reading the paperwork, and said that my brother and I would know what to do. Sheesh.

My advice to all -- do everyone a favor and complete a Living Will WAY before you are eligible for a AARP card.

Double ear infection

My Little Man is not feeling well.

I left work early yesterday to take Nicholas (and that means Natalie had to go, too) to the pediatrician. Nicholas has a cold with some chest congestion and wheezing and I wanted to be sure he was okay. (Natalie has a history of febrile seizures and those tend to run in families.)

We saw the nurse practitioner and Nicholas has two ugly looking ears. He's on Omnicef once a day for the ear infection and liquid Albuterol three times a day for the wheezing. I stopped by to visit him at lunchtime today to give him his 2nd dose of Albuterol for the day.

I have dinner cooking in the crockpot --we're having spaghetti tonight, by request for Natalie. My laundry should be washing as I post because I have the "delay wash" all setup. Still have to take clothes out of the dryer as I did not get a chance to do that last night, but I'll manage that tonight when waiting for the water to boil for pasta.

My hat goes off to single moms everywhere. Trying to do this with one child isn't too bad, how anyone does this with two children for the long haul is beyond me. And for those single moms with more than two children -- let's just say I am in awe of you!

Speaking of crockpots -- check out Slate's article on great slowcookers!

I survived Day 1!

Yes, I made it in to work on time and with children and gear, too!

I called the pediatrician office first thing this morning -- Nicholas still has a cough and I want him checked out today. So we have an afternoon appointment.

I spoke with Mom and Dad today -- Mom is excited about coming down to see the kids but is not too keen on the airplane ride part of it. I told her that the flight is short -- she's been to longer Masses at church. I think that made her giggle. :-)

I'll update about Nicholas when I know more. Tonight is make our own pizza night for dinner so it might be a late update.

Daddy goes to California

DH is enroute to California for the week. This is a rare occurrence for him to have to travel (and for so long), so it is a little bit of an adjustment for the family. Here's a copy of the email that I just sent him (so he can read it on his Blackberry):

After dropping you off at the airport, with both kids asleep in the car, I went straight from there to Harris Teeter to get groceries for the week. (Yes, I had a list and a menu "in my head" for each night.) By about the Beltway interchange, Nicholas had woken up and seemed confused why I was driving instead of "daddy". But I told him all was okay and he went back to sleep.

As we got close to Harris Teeter, I asked Natalie (who was asleep) if she was ready to help me at the grocery store -- and that we were going to get strawberries, and some ice cream, and some cookies, and dinner -- maybe we could make pizza this week, etc. Just tried to keep it "light". She and Nicholas were all excited, and she said that she was going to have "good listening ears" and help in the store.

So we got the racecar shopping cart (WOOHOO!) and did our grocery run. One of the workers brought two balloons for the kids -- they were thrilled! Then we had to stop at the "dinosaur" (dragon). Well, there was an "Out of Order" sign on it. Natalie was okay with it, but Nicholas was hysterical. :-(

We made it out to the car as he was sobbing -- and it started to rain. Got both kids and balloons in the car, loaded the car up, and headed for home.

Got the kids in the house with balloons -- Nicholas is better now. Got the groceries in the house. Saw the condition of the fridge -- YUCK -- and fixed that while they watched "Old MacDonald" downstairs. Got the groceries put away and got dinner on the table. Nicholas sees "Daddy's car" and wants to know where Daddy is. "Daddy, where are you?"

After dinner -- started putting lights on the Christmas tree. Three sets of lights are blown, so got most of the lights on and started doing bead garland together. We'll finish that after I get more lights tomorrow. Nicholas asks, "Where's Daddy?" I've been saying that Daddy is on an airplane to California. Now I add "Daddy had to go to work in California, so he won't be home tonight." So Nicholas said, "Daddy at work on airplane."

Now we move to bath. Nicholas still asking about "Daddy -- bathtime". I tell Nicholas, "Daddy is not here." Nicholas says, "Daddy at work on airplane." Got them all set, made the offer for everyone to pick the bed they want to sleep in. Natalie wants to sleep in Nicholas' bed. Nicholas wants to sleep in Mommy's bed. So that's what we did.

Nicholas STILL asks, "Where's Daddy?" I hugged him and said, "Daddy is not coming home tonight. He's on a plane to California for work. He loves you and will see you on Friday." With that he rolled over, scooted his back towards me, and fell asleep.

Love,
Boo

So far so good. I have everything ready for work tomorrow. Let's see how close I am to my "real schedule" without Dad around.

And can I just say I am loving the look of my refrigerator tonight? It was FUN to get it so clean and so QUICKLY, too!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This week has been pure madness.

Every spare moment has been focused on Mom. Dad met with the attorney on Tuesday so that he can get health care proxies, power of attorney orders, and a trust setup for their house. That afternoon, Mom went to see the PA at her doctor's practice -- the visiting nurse took her blood pressure on Monday and it was 190/90. Her blood pressure was fine on Tuesday -- Mom thought that there was some sort of "plot" to move her into a nursing home. She sees her new neaurologist on January 12 and does not see her primary care physician (a cardiologist) until December 12. My parents will be spending Christmas with us and this is only week 2 on Aricept for her.

We had a nice Thanksgiving at home. At one point we had planned to go to Richmond to go to the children's museum and the science museum, but I'm glad we did not go as both children were not feeling all that well yesterday. Nicholas has a constant runny nose and Natalie had a low-grade fever yesterday.

We took the final gates down yesterday (!!!) after the electricians came to do all the work on lights on Wednesday. We now have timers on all new exterior lights, a motion sensing floodlight in the backyard, and new lights in the children's bedrooms and the kitchen. Yesterday and the security system folks came and moved our security box, too -- a very productive week!

Today we did The Big Clothing Sort and donated 7 bags of things to the Salvation Army. Tonight we went to see the drive-thru Christmas Lights out in Upper Marlboro, MD -- VERY nice and we plan to go back with my parents when they come to visit.

Oh -- the Christmas cards also arrived. I'll share the picture early:

The week from Hades

Figures that four days of heaven would be followed by four days from -- well, you know.

I have been putting major house into the charity event that I am the reluctant co-chair of -- plus my co-chair announced last week that she is leaving and moving back home to the mid-west. Plus there is just so much work involved with this charity drive thing and, no matter how many people you have that ARE really pulling their weight, there is an awful lot to do.

Today (Thursday) is the first day that I could literally take a breath. And it did not help matters that our neighborhood's civic association had a meeting on Tuesday night. Plus it appears that I am on the verge of battling mastitis and my mom is not doing all that great.

More on all this tomorrow...or maybe Saturday. I made an appointment for myself to get highlights on Saturday -- 2 hours away for ME TIME and away from everyone. Well, except my stylist, whom I love. I can hardly WAIT for Saturday!!!

Four days of heaven

It is Sunday night, and DH is trying to get Nicholas to go to sleep...oh yeah, good bloomin' luck on that.

I had four days with my children. It was HEAVENLY!

Thursday we went to the Air & Space Museum. Such a cool thing being so close to the Smithsonian. Anyway, we went by my office and took the Metro from there, and headed over to Air & Space. Natalie's requirement was going to the planetarium to "be in the dark and see the pictures of the planets on the ceiling". Well, I heard about the new IMAX movie "Magnificent Desolation". It's a 3-D movie of walking on the moon. So I asked her if she wanted to see the movie or go to the planetarium. She wanted the planetarium. Well, we arrived around 11:20 am and I knew the IMAX show was at 12:25 pm, so we had lunch first, then went to see a couple of exhibits (How Things Fly and Air Transportation) and then headed over to the IMAX theater. Perfect timing! Went straight in and got our 3-D glasses. Nicholas wasn't sure about the glasses part but Natalie was totally into it. It was a GREAT movie and we all had so much fun! The fastest 40 minutes I've ever seen with them!

After the movie, we went to the planetarium and caught that show. It was okay, but not nearly as good as IMAX. Nicholas started to sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" towards the end of the show.

We went through more exhibits and called it a day at 2:30 pm. Neither of them had napped yet and then both of them fell asleep on the walk back to the Metro (thank goodness I brought the double stroller!) and we made it back to my car at my office. When I was buckling Natalie into her car seat, she asked me why we didn't get to ride the train back from the museum. *giggle*

On Friday, DH was home for the day so it was the beginning of the Attack the Leaves in the Yard weekend. We bagged 13 bags of leaves on Friday. By the end of today (Sunday), 29 bags were filled with leaves and set curbside. We have easily another 20 bags to go in the backyard alone, and we have another tree to "drop" its leaves.

Saturday and today were typical weekend days, but somehow we just managed to get so much accomplished this weekend. The programmable thermostat is now installed. The chimney sweep came and did his inspection. The fireplace accessories are by the fireplace. Lots of clutter has been dealt with. All the new exterior and interior lights are not only ordered but actually here -- all I need to do is mark what is going where so the electrician has an easier time of it. Our leaf blower actually works. :-) My beef stew is cooking for the charity event on Wednesday.

It's frightening, but somehow we just got tons done this weekend. Maybe I need more long weekends like this!

Oh -- news about my mom. Friday morning was her first REALLY good morning. She went to sleep at 8:30 pm and got up at 6:30 am. She felt so good, she went shopping with Dad to get greens/decorations for the house. That made me feel so good!!!

Charitable giving

Well, my "big week" is almost here. Our "Concern for Community" week starts on Monday. So here's a link to one of the organizations that receives assistance through the United Co-op Appeal -- NRECA International Foundation.

Pre-school has an in-service day tomorrow and DH is up to his eyeballs in Congressional stuff, so I' m taking the day off to be with the kids. (WOOHOO!) So we are planning on going to the Smithsonian tomorrow. Should be lots of fun!

I did some reading on Aricept -- full effects of the drug do not occur until 6 to 8 weeks after starting on the medication. So I called and told my dad that. When I spoke to my mom this afternoon, she was in tears with me on the phone because she is so frustrated calling my dad my brother's name. She feels it is very insulting and she is so disappointed in herself. *sigh* -- this is so VERY hard.

Dad bought a George Foreman grill and a crockpot. I sent him his first recipe today. I am thinking about putting together a ring binder of large print recipes for him for Christmas. I think they might really appreciate that as a gift. So if you have any great recipes that have only a few ingredients, please share them!

Now I am on the search for a flu shot. Both kids got flu shots yesterday morning, but our work-based flu shot clinic was cancelled due to shortage of vaccine supply. So I guess I might be in line for a flu shot this weekend. We'll see...

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad

Happy Anniversary to my Mom and Dad! 57 years ago (but who's counting?) was your wedding day at Sacred Heart Church. I hope you have many more years together.

On a good note, DH's mom was released from the hospital today (yes, both moms were in the same hospital at the same time!) and she'll be going to a rehab place for a little while before she can go back home.

My mom was visited by a nurse today and my dad could take a short break from care-giving. The nurse will return next week to check on my mom.

We made a appointment with the attorney for November 22. I'm going to email my dad with questions he should ask and papers he should bring with him.

Mom sounded a bit better this afternoon. I didn't call tonight as it would have been too late.

Congratulations to Governor-elect Kaine!!!

You MUST check out this post on divas...

Mindy has this Diva thing NAILED!!! Oh, to be mom to a 4 year-old diva...

Oh, what a week...

Sorry I have been away. It's just been a little crazed in my life.

It all started Friday morning. As I was heading out the door, my sister-in-law called -- my mother was being taken to the hospital by ambulance because she was weak, dizzy, and had numbness in her hands and fingers. And wait -- there's more.

The day before, she "saw" a woman in her bedroom -- the woman told her that my father was not eating. Something happened and my mother walked to my brother's house -- somehow managed to get there -- and was sitting out on his porch at 9 a.m.

Evidently my mother decided to stop taking her "memory pill" (for dementia) a month ago. Thursday night, my sister-in-law urged my mother to take the pill again.

So -- back to Friday. My sister-in-law spent the day at the hospital. I was spending time making long distance phone calls trying to reach my mother's doctor. He's out and will be out through the 18th. So I pieced together what I could and faxed my mother's doctor with the details. In the meantime, my mother is having all sorts of tests -- all come back negative. But my mother is still exhausted and feels like she has been run over by a truck. Maybe there is a medication reaction with the memory pill? The hospital staff says no. Mom tries to stand up and she is very woozy.

They keep her there overnight to get her rehydrated. She is discharged Saturday morning. Yet she is still woozy.

So my father is running ragged trying to care for her. They had talked with a nutritionist before discharge so they both knew how much she needed to eat. So Dad is off to the grocery store to get food but he is afraid to leave Mom alone. Neighbors sit with her while he is gone. She eats very well on Saturday.

Sunday morning she is still very sleepy and now has ringing in her ears.

Dad is going to stop the memory pill again. He wants to go to the neighborhood pharmacy to ask about side effects. I convince him to call the doctor-on-call at the medical place my Mom's doctor is at. He gets a call back -- the memory pill is the cause and don't take anymore of them.

So why didn't the hospital say that?

She eats well on Sunday. Plan is to call Monday morning and get into see the nurse practitioner or the physician's assistant as soon as possible.

Monday morning, she is still pretty woozy. She has a 2:15 PM appointment with Minnie, the P.A. that she really likes. She went with both Dad and my sister-in-law. Minnie says, "You look really tired" and Mom says she is. Minnie puts her on Aricept. My sister-in-law is trying to get a visiting nurse or a home health aide in to check Mom's blood pressure and to help her get bathed and such. I found an attorney who happens to be a friend of my sister-in-law's to help my Dad through the health care proxy issues he faces.

I tell you, it is hard to be so far away and also help out in some form.

Some venting

You know....it's true when people say that only you can allow yourself to be used. But it seems that there are more and more people attempting to do the "using".

An example -- I have been "volunteered" to be a co-chair of a charity event. (It's one of those "you can't say no" things.) I have been REALLY hauling on this thing as it is now less than 2 weeks away. Everyone else on the committee -- and I mean EVERYONE else on the committee of 11 people -- seem to have more pressing things to get done. I, on the other hand, have been putting in 30+ hours a week on this stuff and other things have been back-sliding. Well, guess what? I took today to primarily work on this charity event thing and tomorrow I am officially off-duty. I am spending the day working on Real Stuff and I am delegating so that everyone else handles it.

I'm tired of being the bailer.

Happy Halloween

Wow, things have been incredibly busy the last week! All thanks to Halloween!

Our neighborhood civic association has been -- well, "dormant" is the best word to use, I suppose -- over the past several years. A group of neighbors has helped revive it and, on September 29, we had a General Meeting and officers were elected, etc. (No, not me -- I have way too much to do and there was no way I could commit to something like that.)

Well, I volunteered for a few things -- which included the development of flyers, brochures, etc. That included a flyer announcing our neighborhood's Halloween costume parade on Saturday October 29. A team of volunteers (numbering about 4 or 5, I think -- again, not me!) leafletted our neighborhood of about 900 single-family homes last week. I was a little concerned about the weather, but it was absolutely beautiful on Saturday afternoon -- and we had roughly 40 children show up in costume for our parade! It was great fun! My daughter -- um, Princess Belle -- walked the whole parade route not only in heels but also without a wrap over her yellow ball gown! My son, on the other hand, pretty much stayed in his Mommy's arms for the entire route -- 34 pounds of Mickey Mouse can do a number on Mommy's back!

So today we'll do a visit (in costume, of course) to my office and then head home for trick-or-treating.

First I have to get through some stuff at work. I'm the co-chair for our organization's annual charity drive and we have "the presentation" to do today before senior management. That's at 1 p.m. so once that is done, then I can focus on Halloween.

Why did I pick Halloween as the day to do a presentation before senior management? Oh yeah, it was the only day that fit most everyone's schedule. *sigh*

Happy Halloween!

Blogmaster

See Erick's post on his blog for news.

Hurricane Wilma's second landfall

Hurricane Wilma just made landfall this morning and it must really stink to be a on-air meteorologist. Wilma came ashore as a strong Category 2 and of course the media is complaining about how no one knew that it would be "so bad".

All I want to say is *hrumph*.

WFOR has some pretty decent live coverage.

Hurricane Wilma

One of the weather boards that I frequent is the Eastern Weather Board. What's great about the board is that there is a mix of professional meteorologists and amateur "hobbyists", and folks post very detailed analyses of weather models and such. If someone is "into" the weather, it's a great place to just read and learn.

What has been interesting for me is to watch the "tone" of the board over this hurricane season. I have been part of the board for a couple of years, so I'm accustomed to seeing the "bring on the heavy snowstorm" frenzy and the "bring on the hurricanes" chants. What HAS been different this year -- due to the catastrophic damage of Katrina -- is the more measured response when some continue the "bring on the Cat(egory) 5" ardor. It's great to see posts that remind everyone that a Cat 5 in a shipping lane is all find and dandy, but a Cat 5 making landfall ANYWHERE (including the Yucatan) is not such a good thing.

I wish the media would learn a little from the Eastern Weather Board.

Oh, and one more thing...go check out Cecily's post and wish her a Happy Anniversary. Just don't use the C word. :-)

Regression

I got up a little early this morning because I didn't have a lot of room in bed -- yes, DS made his way into our bed last night. And imagine my surprise when I took a step across my bedroom floor and spotted my daughter spread out across our bedroom (hardwood) floor in her Dora sleeping bag.

I replied to Sharon's comment that DD tried to bite someone at preschool yesterday. We are now over 6 weeks since DD has been in her new pre-K classroom, and the two-year-old-like behavior is still going on. I have already spoken with our pediatrician about this, and have read what seems like every parenting book out there on the subjectss of whining, hitting, biting, and fancifulness. DD's teacher absolutely shares our concern and has been trying a positive approach (rewarding when using words, when playing nicely with friends, etc). But the misbehavior continues. And now we seem to have regressed to sleeping in the sleeping bag in Mom and Dad's room.

I'm frankly not sure what the next step should be. *sigh*

Way too much rain

The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood warning for Taunton, near my hometown in Massachusetts. The Whittendon Pond Dam is on the verge of failing, and emergency management officials have evacuated 2,000 people as of last night. News reports state that the 100 year old dam was inspected two year ago and declared in fair condition.

As for here in our "new" home state, the roofers are almost done -- just the carport remaining. And yes, DS did wake up in the middle of the night again, so we do not have a trend for sleeping for 7 hours at a stretch. And I have a community association meeting tonight. *yawn*

Roofs

The roofers have started their work. *wump wump wump*

They have been a little delayed thanks to the rain in the area *wump wump wump* but managed to get about a third of the roof replaced on Friday *wump wump* and another third done yesterday. *wump wump wump* DS ended up with NO NAP due to the noise. *wump wump wump* So he had a late dinner *wump wump wump* and went to bed (with DH's help) in his big boy bed at 9 PM.

He slept until 4:20 AM.

This is the first time in 22 months that he has slept so long without needing "Mommy". Mommy got to SLEEP. What a GREAT concept.

And of course Mommy was so shocked by it all that I got up and posted it here. DH is getting DS back to sleep now.

Call me stumped

Yes, just call me stumped. Pass the Clueless Parent Award this way, please.

For the life of me I cannot figure out what is going on with my daughter. I thought we nipped the transitions issues, and now she is right back to her 2 year-old status, this time for teasing her best friend at preschool. My daughter is just plum MEAN right now. And she is hyper-sensitive about EVERYTHING.

I think I have read through at least a half-dozen parenting books, and I tell you, I think there is a book out there that gives the proverbial "there there" pat on the shoulder to every form of parent. But there are no SOLUTIONS.

The director from preschool offered to meet to talk some more. I told her I didn't know what to talk about because it is so darn frustrating. I don't know what to do at this point. I am seriously considering holding her back from Kindergarten next year, because this sort of stuff is NOT acceptable. (I sound like that Super Nanny lady!)

And on the toddler front, my son is still hitting children. At least he stopped biting, but now he is hitting. And getting him down to go to sleep takes HOURS. DH has been in with him for over 90 minutes now just to get him to go to sleep in his toddler bed.

Madness, I say -- absolute madness.

We now have a shed

Yes, the shed people/installers came today. The ground had dried up enough and our handy-dandy little "flags" held up in spite of A River Runs Through It going on in our backyard.

I had my minivan cleaned today -- as in detailed. Wow, does it look BEAUTIFUL! I took the double stroller out and the two car seats out, and the man worked his miracles! He started on it at 11 am and he finished at 4:15 PM! It really looks beautiful. I was anticipating having to buy new floor mats, which are pretty pricey in a minivan. But it really looks like a new car!

DH stayed home with the kids today as I don't get Columbus Day off as a holiday. The commute in today was SO LOVELY -- 15 minutes from my driveway to the elevator in my parking garage. If that is not an incentive to establish flextime, I don't know what is.

That's about it here -- heading to bed to catch up on some sleep...

Bring on the RAIN!!!!

Thanks to the remnant of Tropical Storm Tammy, the metro Washington DC area is forecast to get a whole lot of rain tomorrow and into the holiday weekend.

Thank goodness! Our new arborvitae need the rain -- they were just replanted by Merrifield Garden Center last Saturday. (In late June, we had Merrifield do a series of plantings and four of the trees were pretty brown at the beginning of September, despite a very regular watering schedule. Merrifield replaced the lot of the arborvitae at no charge.)

Of course our roof is scheduled to be replaced this weekend, too. Well, that isn't happening on schedule, that's for sure. DH just called the roofer to figure out what to do about the many pounds of roofing materials sitting on top of our house right now -- especially with 4+ inches of rain forecast for the area.

Homework

This has been a hectic week. All kinds of goings on at work, plus our community association meeting took lots of time last week, and that was AFTER our annual fall sale at my children's child development center.

I did manage to get some mums planted this weekend as well as some winter pansies in the windowbox. We have been having a running battle with a local trash contractor -- DH reported them to Fairfax County's consumer affairs department thanks to their handy dandy online form. We're now at 27 days without picking up yard debris -- and yet another supervisor "absolutely promised" it would be picked up tomorrow. We'll see -- just don't hold your breath!

We went to "curriculum night" at preschool tonight. The teachers did a great job describing how they are teaching children in the pre-K program. They also answered all of the parents' questions. VERY well done.

The shed installers rescheduled from today until Saturday. The roofers rescheduled from Thursday to Monday (Columbus Day). Sure glad I'm not a general contractor!

That is a quick summary -- I'll fill in more tomorrow!

More on the Yale women

Over at Slate, Jack Shafer compares the New York Times "Yale women" story to a 1980 story on the "career vs. motherhood" issue. The most intriguing part was his anecdotal follow-up to one of the women mentioned in the 1980 article:

One criticism of Story's article is that college students are poor predictors of what sorts of adults become. To test this idea I conducted some purely anecdotal research of my own: I Googled the lead character of the 1980 New York Times story, Mary Anne Citrino. Within minutes, I reached her at her New York City office at the Blackstone Group, an investment and advisory group, where she is a senior managing director.

Citrino laughed at this week's Times story when she read it, recalling her role in the similarly squishy Times story from a generation ago. She says the Times reporter misrepresented what she said, attributing to her sentiments that were "the exact opposite of what I meant."

"I never wanted to be a full-time mother," says Citrino. She says she was considered the most gung-ho career woman among her classmates, never stopped working after finishing school, has three children, and put in 20 years at Morgan Stanley before joining Blackstone a year ago.

"I never even considered giving up my career," Citrino says.

But that's just one anecdote, mind you.

Also...as shown over at Mediabistro, evidently at least one of the students interviewed in the article has a problem about how she was quoted/characterized. There are even more details over at Alas.

MIA

Sorry I haven't been around -- H's visit over the weekend ate all available free time so I couldn't post.

Here's a plug for a great pumpkin patch/fall festival in the DC area over at Cox Farms. We went yesterday and we had the BEST time! Loads of fun!

Yale women, continued...the survey methodology

Came across this over at Gelf Magazine and I just had to share -- everything you wanted to know about (cough cough) "survey methodology" as practiced by some at the New York Times. Quoting from David Goldenberg:

One likely reason that Louise Story came to the conclusion in her front page New York Times article Tuesday that many Ivy League women would rather be stay-at-home moms than part of the workforce: A skewed sample. She arrives at a conclusion about “women at the nation’s most elite colleges” based on spot interviews with students from a few Ivy League schools and then a survey with students at one school: her own. Last school year, Story sent out a 37-question survey to a group of freshman and senior women at Yale University, her (and my) alma mater. While it is indeed possible that 60% of those who replied said “they planned to cut back on work or stop working entirely” when they had kids, as Story writes, it's doubtful that those who replied are representative of all Ivy League women.

So I take back what I said about Yale -- David gets it.

Transitions, continued...

My daughter moved over to the pre-K room right after Labor Day. She has been in the same daycare center (yes, it is a high quality one -- I'm sure some of the Yale women as described by Amber at Prettier Than Napoleon would bash me nonetheless) since she was 6 months old. She has ALWAYS had an easy transition. This one, though, is not going so well.

There is a girl in her pre-K class that she has known since she started at the daycare. (I'll call her B.) B is a little rough around the egdes. An example: my daughter and B were outside on Monday afternoon coloring with markers. Natalie was coloring on her paper, and she went to get up to leave with me, and B "snatched" the paper away from Natalie. Natalie -- at her super-sensitive best -- started bawling. To make a long story short, we managed to get out of there and over to the classroom to pick up my son, and we were all having fun together, and all was great. We made it out to the atrium of the building and my son was fascinated by a sculture in the atrium -- and who walks out to leave? B and her mom. B goes over to Natalie and says, "You'll never see that paper again!" and rips it up in front of her. Natalie bawls again. *sigh*

Well, this has been going on since the transition. Admittedly Natalie is hardly the "golden child" and she can whine with the best of the them. And she can be absolutely supersensitive to boot. Plus we are having all sorts of sleep issues right now -- this from my great napper. So I'm working with the teacher on this. Plus the curriculum director. Plus the center director. It's just REALLY hard.

And a totally unrelated note -- Hurricane Rita is currently a catageory 5 hurricane and has the third lowest pressure of any north Atlantic hurricane. Goodness, I hope ths thing weakens (at least a little) before landfall. And kudos to Max Mayfield for his great testimony before the Senate yesterday.

Required reading...NYT article on Women at Ivy League colleges planning for stay-at-home-mom-hood

I saw this article in this morning's New York Times and it became "the topic" of discussion on several moms lists that I'm on. It's all over the blogs, too. I especially like Ann Bartow's post about the article on Sivacracy.net. I would add to Ann's point that these women will be 30 year-old stay-at-home moms with $145,000 investments in law school that apparently will not have to be paid at all through students loans. So they plan to saddle their husbands with that debt? And this is all assuming that these women can "easily" have children be it through bearing their own child or through adoption. And, once they have their "insta-children recipe" fulfilled, they will have an easy path back to the workforce -- and a part-time one at that -- down the road.

Wow. Makes me glad that I did not go to an Ivy League college. At least I have some sense of the real world.

See RebelDad's post about the same article, too -- a great perspective from a dad.

Lengthen the school day?

Found a link to this report over at Half Changed World -- how to improve public schools, pubished by the Center for American Progress and the Institute for America's Future. I agree with the first recommendation on increasing the length of the school day, and also the school year. I haven't read the rest of the report yet (only skimmed it so far), but at first glance it seems like a great idea on both counts.

Have more to fill in on transitions but that will have to wait until tomorrow...bath time beckons.

The Birthday Party Circuit

Wow, the things they don't tell you in parenting books. They do NOT tell you about birthday parties. And how they come in waves. And sometimes, even in circuits.

This is a VERY hectic time right now. First off -- my daughter's godmother (H) is coming to visit next weekend. H lives in Ireland (after shedding that loser for a husband that she used to have) and has not seen us in just shy of 2 years. She has not even met my son yet. She arrives on Friday. Which means we have to find our guest bedroom as it is overtaken by toys and clothing that we need to sort through for our daycare center's fall sale. Which of course has to be done by next weekend, too.

But this weekend was The Birthday Circuit.

Yes, two children in the 4's class had their birthday parties this weekend. One had it at the National Zoo on Sunday morning. The other had it at a local rec center Sunday afternoon. Then we have our standing swim classes on Saturday mornings. And then of course is getting the laundry done.

I have gotten diddly done in the guest bedroom all weekend.

My saving grace is that this is "only" H, after all. We grew up together. We've seen each other in high school band uniforms. Can't get much worse than that!

Comments on Hewlett and Luce article

Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Carolyn Buck Luce's article in the Harvard Business Review (March 2005) elicited several Letters to the Editor now printed in the July/August issue of HBR. (The original Hewlett and Luce article made its way across several blogs, including Fast Company Now, Superfluous Sentiments, and Ripple of Hope.) It was nice to finally see some comments that did not focus solely on part-time work as the End All and Be All Solution.

Wendy Ward, Senior Business Development Manager for British Telecommunications in London, pointed out that most women have a higher load of household jobs to handle while also working their way up a career ladder. She wrote, "How many women have a husband prepared to iron their shirts, pick up their cleaning, manage the nanny, prepare the family dinners, and arrange social functions?" She also noted that age is a significant factor for women -- once you get "off" the ramp and you try to get back "on", women (and men) are less attractive as a potential employee.

Anne Mathias, Senior Vice President and Director of Research at Stanford Washington Research Group in Washington DC, pondered: "Why is it that no one ever asks the following question of women who have left the full-time corporate workforce: 'At the time you decided to leave, did your spouse make more money (or at least have a higher earning potential) than you?'"

Warren Farrell, author of Why Men Earn More: The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap -- and What Women Can Do About It, commented that the issue is not that "corporations have adapted to men's needs. That misses the point. Men with children adapt to the corporation so that they can earn enough money to allow their offspring to have a better life than they've had."

Hewlett and Luce respond by stating, "The letters to the editor point to the unequal nature of the domestic burden. In a survey we conducted at the Center for Work-Life Policy in 2002, we examined the domestic division of labor and discovered a 'tilt' factor: Thirty-year-old professional men performed significantly more household chores than did 40-year-olds. This fact is directly linked to relative earning power. By age 40, many wives have experienced an off-ramp and taken a financial hit, and the widening earnings disparity between husbands and wives shifts the domestic division of labor in the wrong direction. Thus, if we want to do something about the unequal burden, we need to create new options on the work front as well as new collaborations on the home front."

Politics...Massachusetts style

Yes, the race for mayor of my hometown continues to get even hotter.

As you might recall from my earlier post, the teams are starting to line up for candidates. All this will mean is that they will split all the "opponents" every which way, and the incumbent will walk away with the prize in the preliminary election (October 4).

Latest news is that Scott Lang, the last of the candidates to toss a hat into the ring, was endorsed by the city's firefighters union. Yes, the classic saga of who supports the police and the fire fighters continues for yet another year/cycle/decade. And the charges go back and forth:

Responding to constant criticism from challenger Scott W. Lang on the city's crime problems, Mayor Frederick M. Kalisz Jr. has accused Mr. Lang of running for mayor to ensure that the city's police and fire unions receive their pay raises.

"Mr. Lang, the police union and the fire union are working together to put out wrong and distorted information in the hopes that the public will not understand their true motive -- which is not public safety but unjustifiable compensation for police and fire fighters," wrote Mayor Kalisz in a prepared release. Mayor Kalisz was asked whether laptops in police cruisers are working as they should.

"What is more outrageous is that an attorney in Mr. Lang's private law office represents the New Bedford firefighters in their contract negotiations with the city and now that same union has endorsed Mr. Lang," Mayor Kalisz wrote.

After a while, voters get sick of this crap and just decide to stay home because it doesn't matter who gets elected. Tsk tsk tsk, dear mayoral candidates.

Transitions and behavior

We have survived the first week of transition into pre-K. And it was just that -- survival.

This has been a bit of a hectic week to begin with because it started off with us on vacation for the Labor Day holiday. Then the pre-K teacher (Miss J) was on vacation for two days, so the first "real" day for my daughter to be with her teacher was on Thursday. Work was a bit hectic this week due to a project I was working on, and on Thursday I arrived to pick up the kids with maybe 1 minute to spare.

The director was waiting for me as she had to talk to me about something that happened.

Evidently, my daughter, the very imaginative one, is very fanciful with everyone. She had told the director (who is mom to one of my daughter's pre-K classmates) that something occurred in the classroom, with lots of "ums" thrown in, and that a certain person did something to her (keeping names out of this for this blog), and then when the director asked if it really was that person, my daughter changed the name to another person. So, the director told me about it, because "you never know" if it is really true or if it is the whole imagination thing going on.

I talked to my daughter about it several time on Thursday night -- no pressure, just a few minutes here and a few minutes there, over a few hours, and I tried to get a sense of what she had told the director AND what had happened during the day.

It was a whole new set of people doing a whole new set of things.

So -- I spoke with Miss J Friday morning at drop-off and asked her to talk to the director and then give me a call sometime during the day when she had a few minutes. Miss J called me in the afternoon -- she told me the set of events that happened both yesterday AND today. Yes, a whole new set of people. She also said that the entire CLASS is doing this sort of thing right now -- and it is like the entire CLASS has regressed to the stuff of 2 year olds; i.e. hitting, kicking, etc. Miss J and I had a good conversation about all this (20 minutes or so) and we're going to borrow some books from the library (that we have read before, actually) on feelings and playing with others, etc.

The "lying" part is actually less a problem for me right now because I think that 4 year-olds don't quite get it yet. (And the experts at ParentCenter seem to agree!) The behavior stuff, though, concerns me. We have been working with my son on not kicking, not hitting, etc. -- all the stuff burgeoning 2 year-olds do. So I guess we'll read the books together as a family as they both can benefit.

Ass Miss J said to me yesterday -- if the children won't behave, she can't teach them anything in the classroom. And if parents do not keep up the consistency at home, they won't behave during the day.

School picture day

Tomorrow is school picture day. Yes, the annual event even takes place for infants! Lucky me, I get to somehow get both children up, dressed, fed, faces washed, and in good enough condition to arrive at school WITHOUT a yogurt stain across their new fall outfit -- and do this all by myself. Why? Because DH has a hearing that he must attend early so he has to leave the house at 6:45 am. Lucky me!!!

On a lighter note, my daughter is doing GREAT in her 4's class. She seems so grown up all of a sudden. *sniff sniff* Just wait until next year when she starts Kindergarten -- I'll be a puddle on the floor.

First day of pre-K school

Yes, my daughter's first day in the "4s" is today. The classroom curriculum has more of a pre-K focus. She is SO excited to finally be in the "speckled frogs" room. She picked out a new backpack on Saturday (Cinderella, of course) and happily put that in her cubby this morning.

Over the weekend, plans rapidly switched around. It all started on Friday. There was an in-service day at daycare and DH was to have "children duty" -- but then the House convened for the supplemental funding for FEMA. His boss actually flew in from California -- no one would have predicted that -- so both children were with me at work Friday morning, and then DH picked them up at my office at noon time.

So our plans for the weekend were dramatically altered at the last minute.

I did some online hotel hunting and found a deal at the Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg. So we stayed there Sunday night and came back home yesterday. We all had a great time!

We have been doing our best to follow what's going on with the post-Katrina recovery while not letting the children see things on the news and such. Dave Farber has been posting lots of updates through his Interesting People list.

One great post was by Stephen Poe -- I really liked his two point summary of You Can't Fund Everything and Our Risks are Increasing. My only commentary to his excellent "policy analysis critique" is this -- what concerns me is the lack of planning on how to deal with the disaster that everyone knew would happen since the infrastructure was not in place for anything beyond a Category 4 hurricane.

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

I have been a "weather junkie" for years. It's just part of being in my family. During hurricane season, I remember sitting in the living room with my mother, my brother, and my grandmother (when I was about 6 years old) listening to the radio to get the latest "lat/lon pair" from the National Weather Service. I learned my Atlantic Coast geography thanks to Hurricane Gerda, Hurricane Belle, Hurricane David, and a few tropical storms thrown into the mix. Hurricane Gloria taught me some appreciation for what the NWS went through in terms of "hype" about a storm. By the time Gloria reached us, she was a tropical storm, and I saw lots of news coverage about "the weather folks always say it is going to be bad, but it never is". But my mother was a child when the Great '38 hurricane hit New England. She witnessed what happened after Hurricane Carol and Hurricane Hazel hit in rapid succession. Then Hurricane Diane hit the following year. My mother and my father and my grandparents taught my brother and I how we had to respect hurricanes -- in spite of what others might say about "hype".

Then came Hurricane Bob.

Hurricane Bob hit the year that my husband and I got married. We were true newlyweds -- 4 months into our marriage -- and we were doing all our hurricane preparations -- storing water, gathering canned goods, buying candles, etc. Bob hit as a Category 2 storm and we watched as satellite dishes blew up the street. A tree fell down in our backyard and took the electric meter right off our house. We made it through fine, and yes, it was a pain not having power for a week, but we did not have flooding, we still had a house to live in, and we muddled through okay. But many friends were not as lucky. Friends that lived near the bay did have flooding. They did lose the roof of their house and had to gather their belongings quickly to move out of their house for a long while. Bob showed me how all this stuff is "real".

We moved to the DC area in 1994, and Hurricane Bertha paid a visit in 1996. I got to see the DC area's version of "they just hyped the storm" complaining. But I did not get forget what I learned in Bob. When Hurricane Isabel hit the DC area in 2003 as a tropical storm, I saw friends once again suffer major losses thanks to a "just a tropical storm". But people still talked about "all the hype".

Now we see what Hurricane Katrina has destroyed.

I hear about the devastation at work, and it just breaks my heart. Then I come home and, after the kids are in bed, I watch the news coverage and have to kiss my kids another time. My heart goes out to all the families.

I just hope that people -- not only residents, but also elected officials and emergency management personnel and the like -- will learn a little from this and have a healthy respect for the weather. Sure, it costs a lot of money to do mandatory evacuations 48 hours out from a storm. But you can save some lives in the process, too.

I think one of the posters on the Eastern US Weather forum said it best -- this was posted the morning of landfall (Aug 29 2005, 09:14 AM):

I am very sad this morning... deeply moved by the disaster unfolding before our eyes. I have been in two cat 1 hurricanes in my life.... and it take a lot to scare ME with weather...

I cannot imagine what a cat 4 is like... the wobble to the west here which has placed New Orleans right in the western Eye wall is just so unbelievably bad.... the words fail me.

2004 .... 4 canes in 44 days in FL.... now this 3rd massive cane in the gulf....

From this day forward these persons and families.... even those not directly in the path of Katrina... and those families who have relatives in other parts of the country watching this disaster unfold... KNOW that today is one of those life-changing days that we love and also fear. Imagine leaving your home on another seemingly senseless evacuation.... just like the last time... kidding with friends and neighbors and family members that this time again nothing is going to happen but secretly having that fear that it just might... then as we watch the media coverage knowing that this time it's different. This time the place that you call home is in serious trouble... this time the luck isn't going to hold .

And as you come home you find your home smashed wedding albums and family pictures scattered about ... the kitchen destroyed... and your entire life strewn about as if you and your family were insignificant nothing. When you are in a category 3 4 or 5 hurricane EVERY days in your life will be post-Katrina.... post 8/29/05... everyday gets viewed as before and after... everything that happened to these persons and these families lives... from 1776 to now get put into one compartment or mindset... and everything that happens from August 30, 2005 until... well until whenever... is viewed as AFTER Katrina.

Yet the greatest power of humanity is that we know deep down the lives are not insignificant and we make our stand against the forces of nature as we rebuild sometimes a rather seemingly senseless act of the defiance but always in a very human matter.

In general Humans are at the best when things are at their worst... and no place is that more true than in United States of America.

Parents and friends observation at dance class

Saturday was Natalie's last dance class for the summer. I just love the dance center that she goes to -- it's right down the road from my office and it is a non-profit. (Two big positive check marks.) Plus, it's not like some of those "chain" places where they charge $100+ for COSTUMES for 3 and 4 year-olds. The "uniform" at our dance center is a black leotard and pink footless tights. Period.

Her dance class is taught by a woman who is not only a dancer but also a Kindergarten teacher in Fairfax County. We all went to "observation day" -- DH brought the camera and I had Nicholas sitting on my lap. Natalie was BEAUTIFUL! She had the BEST listening ears! One of the pieces they did was listening to the "drum" (music on the boom box) and she did so VERY well! When it came time for them to do the obstacle course -- which was dance a circle around the circle, dance a circle around the second circle, hop over the arrow, and tilt over the triangle -- she was the ONLY ONE to get it right! What a difference between now and when she did this at age 3!

We are starting to swim classes in two weeks and we have already agreed that Natalie wants to go back to dance class in the spring. So I'll sign her up for that once the spring schedule is released.

On an unrelated note, I signed her up for CCD classes at our church. I just learned that the diocese apparently allows you to sign up for CCD classes as a non-parishioner -- at an additional cost, of course. The church that I would sign up at is unfortunately filled for all classes under 2nd grade. Maybe we'll give it a try next year.

Hurricane Katrina and the evacuation of New Orleans

I have been following Hurricane Katrina for several days and actually wondered to myself when the proverbial "they" would start evacuating New Orleans. Yesterday I watched the news conference with the "suggestion" for voluntary evacuations, and I thought to myself -- "Are you folks crazy? You need to get these folks out of Dodge NOW!"

Evidently, Max Mayffield of the National Hurricane Center, took things a little into his own hands and called the governor of Louisiana to give some "straight talk" about getting folks OUT. So...TODAY...there was a mandatory evacuation announced.

And someone had the bright idea to use the Superdome as a shelter. Again...are you folks CRAZY??? When that building folds like a crushed tin can, who is going to be responsible for the hundreds of thousands of casualties/fatalities???

This is truly a lesson in how NOT to prepare for a CATEGORY 5 HURRICANE bearing down on you.

Local politics...Massachusetts style

A little bit of history...

DH and I met back when we were both back "home" in Massachusetts. We are from the same home town, and met on a political campaign (in 1982 -- wow, it WAS a long time ago!) for a mayor's race.

Both of us grew up around political campaigns. My first real exposure to political campaigns was in 1970, where my dad and I stood outside at my elementary school handing out books of matches with the slogan "Danny Hayes for Ward 4 Councilor" printed on them, complete with a picture of Danny Hayes on the front. My dad instilled such a love of community and sense of duty to be an informed voter that I registered to vote ON my 18th birthday!

DH, on the other hand, grew up around politics on the "other side" from my dad. No, not in the ward council race, but in the Mayoral races over time. He was a "Rogers guy"; my dad (and me) were with Markey.

Okay -- all this Mayoral race stuff was in the mid-to-late 70's. So fast forward to 1982. There was a special election for Mayor because Mayor Markey was named a judge, and the "Rogers guys" were scattered supporting a myriad of candidates. DH and I met on one of these "myriad of candidates" campaigns.

What made our home town politics very "different" from other places was the use of negative campaign tactics. I shouldn't even say "use" -- it was practiced as a fine art form! Back in the 70's and 80's, there were outright wars between whomever was occupying the Mayor's office, the folks surrounding the mayor, someone on the local "talk radio show" at the radio station, the editorial page of the local newspaper, and whatever local politician was spending some time either with the threat of going to jail or actually behind bars at the moment.

Okay...now to today.

DH and I received a two page letter in the mail. It was from a dear friend who was heavily involved in local politics when we were, and someone who is indeed a patriarch of my undergraduate university. The letter requested our financial support for a candidate opposing the current mayor of our home town.

DH saw the letterhead and immediately started moaning. "How in the world did we get on THIS blooming list?" he asked. Then he read who signed the letter -- our mutual dear friend. He then muttered something about how he loves our dear friend, and he's going to write him a letter saying that he loves him, but there's no blooming way he would support that candidate, etc., etc. Why would he never support him? Because one of the very key players in the current Mayor's circle of trust is a very high up "Roger's guy".

So, I figured I would go and see if my dear friend's candidate had a web site. Yes indeed, he does. Well, the "slash and burn" politics of the 70's and 80's isn't gone, believe you me. I found this on the web site -- dated August 8, 2005 -- Matt Morrissey's letter to Mayor Frederick Kalisz regarding George Leontire's threats at the Portuguese Feast. I do some Google searches -- and find that a former mayor wrote a letter to the editor of the local paper about the "Portuguese feast incident". And, an article from 2000 discusses how a talk radio show host at the local radio station is involved, too.

Who says that politics is any different some 30-odd years later?

Retirement and College Planning

This afternoon I was fortunate enough to sit in on a great (and FREE!) retirement planning workshop at work. It was a primer on retirement investing -- these are cash vehicles, these are bond vehicles, these are stock vehicles, these are the things you should consider when identifying your own investment mix, etc. Great stuff. The instructor serves as one of the senior financial planner/analyst folks in our place.

I asked the fateful question -- is it better to pay down all your debt (except for the mortgage) and THEN start investing for retirement, or shoud both be done at once? He said that some people have to change their habits in terms of credit card debt (at 18% interest, if not higher) and can't be moving from re-fi to re-fi to cash out and pay off credit cards. For those types of people, they MUST NOT pay down their debt first and then move to investing in their retirement, as they will have little to no money set aside for retirement that way. And as for college planning, parents have to make sure their retirement investments are all in place and at the right mix before they should even consider college funds.

Guess my children will be getting lots of scholarships for school -- or attending the local community college!

No Child Left Behind

The state of Connecticut has filed a lawsuit stating that "No Child Left Behind" is illegal because it is an unfunded mandate, requiring standardized tests that the federal government does not pay for.

I find this lawsuit interesting because it is the first state that has filed a lawsuit, instead of yet another advocacy group (such as the National Education Association) with their own agenda. I also find it interesting because the state of Connecticut has been viewed in the past and "in general" as a state that has quality public education. I wonder if any other states will go this route. I know that several states are considered "hot spots", including right here in Virginia.

Personally, I cannot see what sort of additional gain can possibly be in place here in Virginia since we already have state testing (called the Standards of Learning, or SOL -- what a bad acronym!) in place. Yes, some students are not subject to SOL testing -- but should a student that just arrived in this country be required to take and pass an exam in English in the first place?

The ultimate in cool wagering

From the Guardian:

It seems that not everyone can agree about global warming. Two Russian scientists have laid down a $10,000 wager with a British scientist that the earth will cool (on average) by 2018.

It sure was hot here this weekend. We had planned on going to the pool, but it was so hot yesterday that I could not see how two little ones could possibly be comfortable in such heat. And today, their nap schedules are so thrown off that they are both sleeping now (after 6 PM) -- which means bedtime is going to be -- ahem -- "interesting".

Two more weeks of summer -- it surely flies by fast!

Breastfeeding

I tell you, some people just get fired up about the wildest stuff.

One of the boards that I have been frequenting more recently are the DISboards. We are planning next year's trip to Walt Disney World, and this place is one of the best spots on the Web to do research, compare notes with others, and just learn a whole lot about Walt Disney World and the resorts.

Well, someone posted a question on the Disney for Families board about breastfeeding a 15 month old at the parks. The question was very basic -- but the replies that were elicited are just shocking!

I am really tired of people (WOMEN!) bashing each other for the decisions that we make about our children. It makes me NUTS. No wonder these "Dr. Phil" type shows have such a huge following -- people just want to watch each other in a proverbial car wreck!

Goodbye, Being Daddy

*sniff sniff* Brian is saying goodbye through his blog Being Daddy.

I, too, have struggled a bit with what to post and what to post for privacy reasons. It's not like my children have signed a privacy agreement about what I am posting here. And I know of others that have taken a more extreme view of not sharing any details about their children online. I guess it all revolves around finding the happy balance.

Hot streaks

One of the great things about having XM Radio is the ability to listen to the Red Sox games. Yes, we are big Red Sox fans at our house. I grew up listening to baseball on the radio and my dad taught me how to score baseball games. I am looking forward to teaching both of my children how to score baseball games, too.

Of course it is so much more fun to listen to the game when we are actually up in mid-August and on a hot streak vs. plummeting in a spiral for a wild card spot. I've lost count how many Augusts have been spent that way!

DH is home with the little man today. First off, he got bit by mosquitoes again Monday night and had a serious welt on the side of his face yesterday -- I put some cortisone cream on it in the afternoon as his teacher said he was really scratching at it. I gave him some infant Motrin last night after his bath both for the "itchies" but also since he seemed a little warm to me. By the middle of the night (2 am) he was HOT -- and that was with him stripped down to his diaper. (I get really worried about fevers because of his sister's febrile seizure. I know they are normal and all, but they are just the most frightening thing -- you feel absolutely powerless.) So DH gave him some infant Motrin and we had all managed to get back to sleep by 4:15 am. 3 hours later, the little guy still seemed warm but MUCH cooler than he had been, so DH agreed to stay home with him and gave another dose of infant Motrin at 8 am. I called the pediatrician's office at 9 am and said we would start doing the "alternating Tylenol with Motrin" approach and the doctor is supposed to call me back.

When I talked to DH a few minutes ago, he said that our little guy is very happily playing and is his "goofy self". So maybe the fever broke last night.

Journaling...another Bad Mommy Award

Yes indeed -- Mommy forgot to bring the journal to pre-school this morning. Pass the Bad Mommy Award this way.

The "journal" is a basic composition book that the teacher writes in during the week and then parents (i.e., Mommy) fill in on the weekend with the things we did, the things we thought were fun, ideas we might have or even questions for the teacher. This is hardly the first time I forgot to bring the journal. Just drives me a little batty that I forgot to bring it today.

With Congress out of session, the traffic into DC is almost delightful -- and I got to clean my office today! My desk is actually NEAT! I tossed a ton of stuff, too -- so liberating! Maybe I'll get so inspired I'll do it at home, too.

I have been suggesting to DH that I toss my old dissertation stuff. He won't let me. I could gain a ton of room if I tossed that stuff out.

Civic Associations

Our neighborhood civic association is in the midst of being reborn.

Last year, Fairfax County held a "community dialog" on gang-related activity in the area. There were several recommendations that came out of the community dialog, one of them being the reestablishment of the civic association that used to be around for the neighborhood. Several months ago, there was a "are you interested?" meeting where the organizers were hoping 15 people would show up. Well, 70+ people attended!

There was another "volunteer" meeting on Thursday. We're going to have elections for officers at the end of September, and I am going to help leaflet (and perhaps help design the leaflets) so we can get a good turnout.

On the way to the meeting on Thursday, one of my fellow volunteers saw some gang graffiti painted (? chalked?) on the sidewalk. This was right on the corner by the elementary school. The volunteer took a picture of it and it was sent along to both the District Supervisor and the police.

Read today's Washington Post article about the gang problem and perhaps you'll end up shaking your head just like I am.

The Great Clothing Sorting Exercise

Ah....happy weekend. We are still under a heat advisory here in metro Washington DC -- so what are we going to do today? Spend several hours experiencing The Great Clothing Sorting Exercise.

My daughter is not the easiest to fit because she has no waist and she has long legs. I thought her measurements would be all wacky at her doctor's appointment yesterday but nope -- she's smack dab at the 50% percentile for both height (40 inches) and weight (35.5 pounds). So why on earth is she so hard to fit? *sigh*

So today we are going to go through umpteen numbers of bins and bags of clothes to create the (a) keep them because they still fit or will fit pile, (b) toss them because they are ragged and not good enough to donate/give away pile, and (c) keep them to either give away or sell on eBay pile. I have several people that I want to give things to, and when the child's size/gender/season all match up, it's so much better to give the clothes to someone who can really use them. Plus I know what it is like to have all sorts of cute summer clothes for a little newborn girl only to have a boy born in the winter!

Some other news to share -- my daughter's godmother who lives in Ireland called to let us know that she would be in the States next month. So she is going to spend a weekend with us while she is doing her East Coast whirlwind tour. She hasn't seen Natalie in two years and she has never seen Nicholas, so this should be fun.

Also....shhhh...we are planning a trip to Walt Disney World in the spring. Already booked the resort and everything. We are not going to tell the kids until it's time to go. At least that's the plan!

Time to head off to dance class...

More on transitions...

I did not get a chance to post yesterday as I was recovering from the Bad Mommy Error.

The Bad Mommy Error -- I posted on Wednesday about my daughter's transition to the pre-K classroom. Well, about 6 weeks ago, I spoke with the Director trying to get a rough sense when my daughter would move into pre-K. Her best guess was mid-August, so I have been doing this big build up with my daughter about how she would come back from vacation, spend a week with her "old friends", and then move into the pre-K class. This plan got a bit messed up because the children in pre-K that are moving on to Kindergarten are not leaving "early" (mid-August) as they have in years past. So there is no spot for my daughter to move to.

On Wednesday afternoon, I told my daughter that she would not be moving into pre-K until next month. This resulted in absolute hysterics! We're talking 30 minutes of crying and screaming. It then dragged itself into the night, as she was awakening every 30 minutes/hour with screams of "But I don't belong in the 3s!" and other assorted cries. So yesterday morning was a bit draggy for both my daughter and me, as we had been up so long throughout the night.

Yesterday, I emailed the Director and my daughter's 3s teacher to give them a sense of what Wednesday night was like. The Director called me in the afternoon and said that they will be putting a high priority to my daughter visiting the pre-K classroom a great deal over the next few weeks. They will be able to do this because lots of people are on vacation and such, so they will still be in ratio and all -- they just do not have a permanent slot until a child actually "really" leaves. So we'll only have to muddle through this for the next 3 weeks.

We're off to the pediatrician this morning -- a 4 year old well visit and an ear check for my little guy.

Transitions

My daughter is anxiously awaiting her transition to the pre-K program at pre-school. Now that she is 4, she just doesn't want to be in the "3s" classroom anymore. About a month ago, we were told she would likely transition to pre-K around the middle of August. Well, evidently, the children that are going to move to Kindergarten are still in the pre-K program and no one is leaving before Labor Day (public school Kindergarten starts the day following Labor Day here in Virginia).

So my daughter won't go to pre-K until next month. She is none too happy about this.

On a better note, she went to her dentist today -- no cavities and great teeth! She'll go back in 6 months for another cleaning.

Swim classes and gutsy women

Set the alarm clock for an early wake-up today thanks to Fairfax County's recreation program registration day starting at 5 am. *yawn* By 5:20 am, my children were registered for swim classes -- with my daughter getting the next-to-last spot in the class at the "right" location and the "right" time slot.

And calling all gutsy women...I came across The New Charm School blog today -- some great stuff here. I especially liked Jennifer's post about Harvard University seeing an increase in tenure offers to women in spite of Larry Summers.

Post-trip recovery = PTO

The title for this post is actually a misnomer. It really should say SHOULD REQUIRE PTO (Paid Time Off) but some of us will never learn (waving hand) and suffer the angst of returning from a trip on Sunday and having to go to work the following morning.

We survived the drive from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania with a stop in Langhorne to visit Sesame Place the following morning. On the way down the Merritt Parkway, I phoned our first hotel to see if they had a room available for Saturday night, too. No sirree -- sold out for Saturday night. So I phoned another hotel thanks to our trusty AAA guidebook -- yes indeed, a room available for Friday and Saturday nights. Woohoo! So I booked the new hotel room -- right across the street from Sesame Place.

Traffic wasn't bad until we hit 287 to go to the Tappan Zee Bridge. I never can tell if I'm better off going through the city via the GW Bridge or taking the Tappan Zee. It seems like whichever I take, the other way is better. Oh well. We made it to the hotel at a decent hour.

Saturday morning included an IHOP stop before going to the Park. Both children had fun at the Park -- they seemed to really like the parade, and the water rides were fun and it wasn't too hot. Did run into a sole "sorry excuse for a parent" on one of the rides. Evidently she could not read the signs that said ages 4 and under go in one line and ages 5 to 7 go in another line. When she got to the front of the wrong line, the ride attendant asked how old the child was.

SEFAP: "She's 3"
Attendant: "You are in the wrong line. She has to go in the other line."
SEFAP: "She will go on when the next group of 3 year-olds goes on."
Attendant: "No, you need to wait in the other line."
SEFAP (screaming): "I just waited 5 minutes. I am not going to wait any more."
Attendant: "They have all waited too. You have to get in line like everyone else."
SEFAP (swearing): "Let's go. No (expletive expletive) way we are waiting."

And of course -- what happens? SEFAP finds SEFAP2 who takes the little girl and "plops" her at the front of the ages 4 and under line.

My daughter asks, "What happened to that little girl? Why is she in the front of my line?" So I told her that her parents put her in the front of the line. My daughter says, "But that's not fair -- she is cutting in line."

So, SEFAP's child and my daughter were on the ride at the same time. I couldn't help it -- I said something about not cutting in line, SEFAP used gutter language to call me all sorts of things, I didn't "go there" and instead asked to speak to a supervisor -- and golly gee, SEFAP's child didn't even want to be on the ride in the first place. The supervisor came by, called security, and escorted SEFAP out of the park due to the obscenities that she screamed at me. Security talked to me, too -- just to get my statement and to alert me that she had been escorted from the park but SEFAP2 was not. They asked that if I had any further trouble during the day to let a park staff person know. Never ran into SEFAP2 for the remainder of the day, but it's good to know that security will do something at Sesame Place.

We did the obligatory take out food for dinner -- Macaroni Grill. Then we went to sleep early after such a long day. We checked out on Sunday morning to head home. We did make one stop in Philadelphia first -- at the Please Touch Museum. What a great place! The children really seemed to really have fun in the Supermarket. The Supermarket is laid out just like a "real" grocery store with shopping carts, aisles of food, a stock room (with a time clock and time cards!), and cashier stations with scanners and cash registers. Children were counting their food, weighing items in bin scales, and just having a great time. If you are ever in the Philadelphia area, I highly recommend a stop to this Museum.

We got back home at 5 pm and had all the bags to haul in. Thankfully there was not a lot of laundry as I had done much of it at my parents' house. But there's just a lot of "stuff" to deal with, and it doesn't help when the birthday girl opens all of her toys right in the doorway of her bedroom, then her little brother takes all the bath toys and dumps them into the toilet, just when you are running to the door to get the pizza from the delivery guy.

Oy.

I should have taken PTO today.

The DVD player society

Last week when we were beginning to pack for our trip, my daughter said, "Don't forget -- I want to watch movies on the ride."

Hrumph.

When I was her age, I would often go for long car rides (as in leave at dark in the morning and arrive at dark at night) and I never had "movies". Come to think of it, I never had a car seat, either. I would bring coloring books and lots of crayons and fall asleep sprawled across the back seat of the car (that did not have air conditioning) as my father would drive on the state roads (no real interstates like we have them today). The trip from Massachusetts to New York City would take no less than 9 hours, and that is without traffic.

What are we doing when we have our entertainment system-ready vehicles or portable DVD players with Toy Story 2 and Monsters Inc. in tow?

Hrumph.

Well, it keeps the Whine-o-matic silenced for a while, I suppose.

One more plug for the blogmaster position

One more plug for the blogmaster position at the trade association that employs me -- the position was even written about in PR Thoughts.

ETA: Corrected the link to the job posting.

Cinderella

Well, we went to see Cinderella today. It was HOT -- as in VERY hot -- and being inside a huge tent didn't help matters. But the performance by Kaleidescope Theatre was WONDERFUL! It started at 11 am and had one 15 minute intermission at Noon, but my daughter was VERY attentive. She even told me she was so impressed with the Fairy Godmother that she wants to dress up like her instead of Cinderella! If you are ever in the Rhode Island/southeastern Massachusetts area, I HIGHLY recommend seeking out one of their performances. Plus the group is just a great cause altogether.

Another neat thing that happened today -- while sitting in our seats at the Melody Tent, Natalie saw that a man in front of us dropped some money on the ground (while sitting in his seat). She picked it up and saw several bills (not sure if she knew they were $20 bills, but she definitely knew they were "bigger than fives"), and she gave them back to him with an "excuse me, sir -- I think you dropped this". She did this without ANY prompting by me. The man thanked her for giving the $60 to him. Several minutes later, the man's wife came back with some food for their daughter. He asked her for a $5 bill as he wanted to "reward honesty". So he gave the $5 to Natalie and let her know that "honesty is always rewarded". I'm so proud of Natalie and very thankful for such a "teachable moment" encounter with such a great family.

After the show, we attempted lunch at Lindsey's in Wareham. Bad, bad, bad idea. The kids were tired (no nap) and hungry but the food there was -- let's just say we should have just kept on going and had a cookout instead. We will not be going back there any time soon.

We picked up pizza (take out) at Fay's later on -- the parking lot is always mobbed there, and the food is "reliable neighborhood restaurant" quality -- which means we go there a lot.

I'm hoping tomorrow is more of a "down day" -- we leave on Friday and I can really use a day to recharge. We'll see what the morning brings!

The birthday girl turns 4

Sorry I have been away for a while...the madness of birthday party planning and readying for a trip really took a toll, especially in terms of posting here.

I ended up taking Friday off from work as the load was too much for me in terms of readying for the birthday parties and managing to pack for our trip. I got our bags packed in 2 hours and picked up the (42) cupcakes at the bakery for the party at pre-school. I also managed to make it over for the re-fi signing, although the re-fi meant that DH could not make it in time for Natalie's party at pre-school. She did not seem to mind too much.

Friday night was busy readying for the Saturday birthday party and for doing more pre-travel angst stuff.

Saturday involved picking up the cake at this incredible bakery and then making a grocery store run for drinks, ice, etc. Also managed to make it to dance class -- and in time! -- and DH managed to pick up the balloons. We got over to the rec center at 1 pm but did not factor two things into thr equation: (1) that it would take close to 30 minutes to lug everything inside, because we were also having to keep an eye on two small children, and (2) that Power Tots would be 30 minutes late to the party due to bad directions thanks to MapQuest. But it all worked out somehow and the party was wonderful! After the lengthy (2 minute!) ride home in the car, both kids were fast asleep when we got hom at 4:40 pm. So I did a mad dash to pull party related stuff out of the minivan and travel bags into the minivan, and both kids slept through the whole thing. We were on the road on the Beltway by 5:50 pm.

We drove on Saturday night and encountered very little traffic. We stopped over for a the night in Norwalk (checked in to the hotel at 12:15 am) and resumed our drive the next morning. We made it to my parents' house at 12:15 pm. All in all, not a bad trip.

Monday was spent with some pool time and a family dinner at the Mattapoisett Chowder House -- good food and good fun. Today was spent at the Whaling Museum and dinner at Davey's Locker. We also managed to get Natalie's birthday photo done at Picture People at the Taunton Galleria.

Tomorrow we are off to the Cape Cod Melody Tent to see a performance of Cinderella. Not so sure how Nicholas will take to a theatre performance, but we'll see how it goes.

Once thing I have noticed coming back here -- it seems like everyone I used to like to hang out with in high school has left the area, and the ones that I purposely avoided in high school have all stayed here. Maybe that's just my perception vs. "reality", but it is something that I have noticed. Of course I have been out of high school for 25 years, too -- maybe I am just old!