Kelsie got a time-out yesterday that was particularly infuriating because she wouldn't sit still, tried to talk her way out of it, etc. Once she finally shut up and made it through the time-out, I went to talk to her about what she did and why that was wrong, blah, blah, blah, and then gave her a big hug and she said this:
"Mommy, you know what I love about you? You always can make me feel better."
I almost teared up just writing that.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Thoughts on New Orleans
It's almost the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and although there is still a lot of bad press about the crime rate, speed of recovery, government failures, levee inadequacies, etc., a positive story is finally starting to spread.
Adventure calls workers to New Orleans
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-07-22-new-orleans_N.htm
And this is a great post from one of my favorite bloggers:
http://cajunboyinthecity.blogspot.com/2008/07/could-new-orleans-become-new-new-york.html
If you're short on time (or lazy), the gist is that there is an influx of young professionals coming to New Orleans to help rebuild, start businesses and revitalize the place. The post-Katrina population is already better-educated than the pre-Katrina population. And there was a long piece in last week's NY Times about all the charter schools popping up in NOLA. Feels like it’s a turning point.
Adventure calls workers to New Orleans
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-07-22-new-orleans_N.htm
And this is a great post from one of my favorite bloggers:
http://cajunboyinthecity.blogspot.com/2008/07/could-new-orleans-become-new-new-york.html
If you're short on time (or lazy), the gist is that there is an influx of young professionals coming to New Orleans to help rebuild, start businesses and revitalize the place. The post-Katrina population is already better-educated than the pre-Katrina population. And there was a long piece in last week's NY Times about all the charter schools popping up in NOLA. Feels like it’s a turning point.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Gold medalist's mom wasn't there!?!?!
Nastia Liukin won the all-around individual gold medal last night, and I just saw on the Today Show that her mom chose not to attend the competition! She said she was nervous so she chose to take a tour of Beijing instead. I think her exact quote was, "The timing wasn't great, but it worked out." WHAT??? And then, she didn't even have her phone on so Nastia couldn't get in touch with her to tell her she won the gold.
I try very hard never to judge other parents because I know that what works for one family may not work for the next, but this just strikes me as crazy. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and assume that she thought her nervousness would rub off on her daughter (that's the only fair explanation I can come up with, and one she kind of hinted at during the Today Show interview after explaining that she took a tour of Beijing) but still ... I can't understand how a mom could totally ignore the most important event of her daughter's life. At least hide in the stands if you think your presence will make your daughter nervous. To not even have your phone on?!?!
Oh well, they all put on their smiling faces and seemed like a happy little family in the interview this morning, so who am I to judge? But to Kelsie and Dylan, I promise you this: I will never ever take a tour of Beijing while you're competing for the Olympic gold medal in gymnastics.
(And I just have to say ... poor girl having to grow up with a name that sounds like Nasty Loogie.)
I try very hard never to judge other parents because I know that what works for one family may not work for the next, but this just strikes me as crazy. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and assume that she thought her nervousness would rub off on her daughter (that's the only fair explanation I can come up with, and one she kind of hinted at during the Today Show interview after explaining that she took a tour of Beijing) but still ... I can't understand how a mom could totally ignore the most important event of her daughter's life. At least hide in the stands if you think your presence will make your daughter nervous. To not even have your phone on?!?!
Oh well, they all put on their smiling faces and seemed like a happy little family in the interview this morning, so who am I to judge? But to Kelsie and Dylan, I promise you this: I will never ever take a tour of Beijing while you're competing for the Olympic gold medal in gymnastics.
(And I just have to say ... poor girl having to grow up with a name that sounds like Nasty Loogie.)
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Dinner stats
6 feet: average distance of thrown food
75%: percentage of Dylan's body covered with food
6 minutes: amount of time we have to eat before the head-banging, food-throwing, red-faced tantrum begins
16: number of times Kelsie laughed at him and egged him on
2: number of times we caught sippy cup in mid-air
3: number of times we DIDN'T manage to catch the sippy cup in mid-air (I know, I know ... why do we keep giving it back to him?? Because without that our 6 minutes to eat gets shortened dramatically.)
2: number of times we had to shampoo his hair to get all the food out of it (and of course last night was the night he decided to hate the bath)
The worst part of this is that it was Sloppy Joe night and we knew better! We looked at each other right before giving him his food and said "this is a terrible idea," but we gave it to him anyway because we didn't prepare a separate meal for him. But most of the stats hold true regardless of what we feed him, it's just not always quite this messy.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
I'm here, I promise
I've been so bad about posting lately that now I feel pressure to make my grand return to the blog really pithy or at least amusing. I don't really have either. But I figured that was no excuse to keep ignoring this public diary of mine, so I'll just post an update.
Let's see, since last time I posted we went to the beach ... in Delaware. Who knew that Delaware was so nice? Our neighbor's parents own a former B&B in Rehoboth Beach. Awesome backyard with outdoor kitchen, one short block from the beach, and they cooked for us all weekend. My great friend from LSU, Christine, and her husband and baby drove up from their home in Arlington, VA to meet us there. Great, great weekend. Hard to leave. We came dangerously close to returning home with another pet -- a hermit crab in a brightly painted shell -- but then remembered that with 2 kids and 2 pets (and our upstairs neighbors' pug, who we're keeping for the weekend again) we already have enough mouths to feed and s*** to clean up and don't need another living creature in the mix, even if it is just a hermit crab. Close call.
Brian's parents and his oldest nephew, Daniel, came to visit last weekend. Daniel wanted to see a Yankees game for his 12th birthday, so he got to spend a wide-eyed weekend doing all the NYC touristy stuff. We joined them for the Yankees game (so fun, even though the Yankees lost -- good thing I don't care), a Statue of Liberty outing, and a couple meals. It was really cool to see Daniel be exposed to things he has never seen before (his first plane ride, first big city, etc.), and probably become a Yankees fan for life because his Papa took him to a game in "the house that Ruth built" when he was 12 years old. He was so awe-struck that it made me really appreciate the city and our opportunity here, even if it's not our permanent home.
Work has been NUTS. We're understaffed and new business keeps coming in. I suppose that's a good problem in this economy, though. So far this week I've managed a client announcement, a new business presentation, a 2-hour client "check in" (which turned out to be less scary than it sounded), while keeping my existing clients running and happy. Wouldn't be so bad if we had another person or two helping out -- that's actually a pretty typical week -- but it's a lot to stay on top of and I can't shake the I'm-forgetting-something-really-important feeling.
Our car got broken into, which sucked. They took our GPS unit, and that's clearly all they wanted. It was in the glove compartment and they took the time to find it, make sure they had the right charger for it (left our phone chargers), and removed the base from the windshield. And left our car open in the rain. A tip to car breaker-inners: if you're going to break into a car, at least do it on a night that it's not raining. C'mon. Use your manners.
Dylan gave me a nose bleed this morning with a head-butt to the face. That was awesome. Kelsie apparently thinks she's in the running for Mother of the Year. She has taken it upon herself to discipline Dylan and take things from him that she deems inappropriate.
In the meantime, we're trying to do important things, like go green (under the theory that small changes can make a difference, we're trying to be a little nicer to the environment), save money on groceries (I'm not exaggerating when I say our grocery bills have almost doubled just in the 10 months that we've lived here), figure out our future, turn our million dollar ideas into ... well ... a million dollars, relax a little, get enough sleep, get some exercise (Brian's doing well on that, me not so much), teach the kids to be respectful and independent, keep our apartment clean (how is it that this is our biggest challenge?), stay in touch with friends ...
At least we're never bored. Saints play tonight. Go Saints!!!!
Let's see, since last time I posted we went to the beach ... in Delaware. Who knew that Delaware was so nice? Our neighbor's parents own a former B&B in Rehoboth Beach. Awesome backyard with outdoor kitchen, one short block from the beach, and they cooked for us all weekend. My great friend from LSU, Christine, and her husband and baby drove up from their home in Arlington, VA to meet us there. Great, great weekend. Hard to leave. We came dangerously close to returning home with another pet -- a hermit crab in a brightly painted shell -- but then remembered that with 2 kids and 2 pets (and our upstairs neighbors' pug, who we're keeping for the weekend again) we already have enough mouths to feed and s*** to clean up and don't need another living creature in the mix, even if it is just a hermit crab. Close call.
Brian's parents and his oldest nephew, Daniel, came to visit last weekend. Daniel wanted to see a Yankees game for his 12th birthday, so he got to spend a wide-eyed weekend doing all the NYC touristy stuff. We joined them for the Yankees game (so fun, even though the Yankees lost -- good thing I don't care), a Statue of Liberty outing, and a couple meals. It was really cool to see Daniel be exposed to things he has never seen before (his first plane ride, first big city, etc.), and probably become a Yankees fan for life because his Papa took him to a game in "the house that Ruth built" when he was 12 years old. He was so awe-struck that it made me really appreciate the city and our opportunity here, even if it's not our permanent home.
Work has been NUTS. We're understaffed and new business keeps coming in. I suppose that's a good problem in this economy, though. So far this week I've managed a client announcement, a new business presentation, a 2-hour client "check in" (which turned out to be less scary than it sounded), while keeping my existing clients running and happy. Wouldn't be so bad if we had another person or two helping out -- that's actually a pretty typical week -- but it's a lot to stay on top of and I can't shake the I'm-forgetting-something-really-important feeling.
Our car got broken into, which sucked. They took our GPS unit, and that's clearly all they wanted. It was in the glove compartment and they took the time to find it, make sure they had the right charger for it (left our phone chargers), and removed the base from the windshield. And left our car open in the rain. A tip to car breaker-inners: if you're going to break into a car, at least do it on a night that it's not raining. C'mon. Use your manners.
Dylan gave me a nose bleed this morning with a head-butt to the face. That was awesome. Kelsie apparently thinks she's in the running for Mother of the Year. She has taken it upon herself to discipline Dylan and take things from him that she deems inappropriate.
In the meantime, we're trying to do important things, like go green (under the theory that small changes can make a difference, we're trying to be a little nicer to the environment), save money on groceries (I'm not exaggerating when I say our grocery bills have almost doubled just in the 10 months that we've lived here), figure out our future, turn our million dollar ideas into ... well ... a million dollars, relax a little, get enough sleep, get some exercise (Brian's doing well on that, me not so much), teach the kids to be respectful and independent, keep our apartment clean (how is it that this is our biggest challenge?), stay in touch with friends ...
At least we're never bored. Saints play tonight. Go Saints!!!!
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