I Am So Important

No seriously. I would say that a good 70% of the time I am in my office, sitting at my desk. A few days ago I was out of the office at a meeting. When the meeting was over I checked my blackberry and there was a message from one of our assistants saying that "Mr. X" was waiting to see me. I was confused because I only know one Mr X and he wouldn't come by to see me - unless OH MY GOD - I had an appointment with him. I am now freaking out. I call the office and they confirm that it is indeed the Mr X I know, and thank GOD, he did not have an appointment, he just stopped by. Now I am really confused. This is a muckety muck. A big muckety muck. Think CEO of a HUGE company type muckety muck who, while I do know, and he does know my name, would NOT just drop in to see me. But, he has already left - not finding me there, so I head back to the office to see what is going on. I rush to our reception area and ask them if someone had been there to see me. They say, "yes, Mr. X was here" I ask if he thought he had an appointment, and they confirm, "no, he was at a meeting nearby and just stopped in". They hand me his card, assuring me it was indeed him. Just to check I describe him and they confirm. I am now baffled and kinda impressed with my star power. Let's just say I couldn't stop by this guys office and drop in to see him. At least I never would. That would be totally inappropriate. I sent him an email and apologized for missing him, and he said he was across the street at a meeting and thought he would pop in. Wow. At the very least it raised my status at work, and that can't be bad...

Bumbo Seat Usage for Dummies

They recalled the Bumbo seat. They recalled the bumbo seat mostly because kids were getting out of it and falling off counters and tables. What kind of morons put their kids in these seats on top of counters and tables. And, moreover, left them unattended when they did. The recall is here. Seriously. The Bumbo says right on it "Never use on a raised surface. Never use as a car seat or bath seat. Designed for floor level use only. Never leave your baby unattended as the seat is not designed to be totally restrictive and may not prevent release of your baby in the event of vigorous movement.” Its imprinted on the darn thing. And now they are recalling it because stupid-as# people put the Bumbo on a table and left their kid there to topple off. Do we really need to protect ourselves from this kind of idiocy?

Don't get me wrong, I have accidentally let more than one kid of mine fall to the floor from a high surface. And I have been VERY lucky that none of them have been hurt. But do I blame the table manufacturer for making a surface without rails that my child could fall off of?

This just burns me for some reason. I love the Bumbo. It is so adorable! My baby loved the bumbo before he entered the stage where he just wants to run around putting whatever he can find on the floor in his mouth. Hmmm..maybe we should recall my vacuum cleaner for failing to continuously pick up all those pieces from the floor (despite not being run)....

Red Sox ROCK!

YAYYYYYYYYYYY. For the second time in three years my beloved Red Sox have captured the World Series title. I only wish my mom had lived to see it. Not once in her life did she get to enjoy a World Series win, and now we've had two. So awesome. Mikayla even put on her Red Sox shirt this morning, and she didn't even know what was going on (as the game was WAY too late for her).

In other news, Mikayla lost her first tooth yesterday! She was upstairs "napping" (not) and came down and said, "Mommy look!", she had her tooth in her hand. I didn't even know it was lose! Luckily Barnes & Noble was open late last night and we grabbed a Tooth Fairy kit. Very cute -- book and pillow and cards and stuff for her to send to the tooth fairy with subsequent teeth. She was very excited to find a dollar under her pillow this morning.

YAYYY Sox!

Big Man's Movie

This just cracks me up everytime I see it. You can make your own one here.

Moms Have No Shame

So, I recently sent this picture to my friends and family for Halloween. One of them pointed out that she would never be so "brave" to send anyone a picture of herself as a superhero. It honestly didn't even occur to me to be embarrassed -- although upon thought, I certainly would NEVER have sent just a picture of me and dh like that. At least I don't think so. I think there is something about becoming a mom that takes away a whole level of inhibitions. There are certainly lots of things I do now that I would never have done before. For example, I routinely now will sing with the kids in the car regardless of who is watching from the road. Even at a stoplight, I just look right back at the person and keep on singing. I will also dance spontaneously with my kids pretty much anywhere - grocery store, walking down the street, mall, school, wherever. I think being with the kids lets you act like a kid yourself, and that's kind of liberating.

So there -- I posted this picture of me and my family as superheros for the whole Internet to see. Ha!

oh yeah, and GO SOX!

Simple Acts of Kindness

So recently my faith in humanity has been restored by some simple niceties by strangers. On Thursday I was coming back home from a business trip in San Antonio. I got to the airport early and got in line to get on standby for an earlier flight to DFW, where I had to catch my connection home. I had already tried calling to get on standby for the earlier flight out of DFW, but they wouldn't do it over the phone. Anyway -- while in line in San Antonio I started talking to a gentleman in front of me. He was getting on the stand-by list too. We both had our names added, and walked to a little restaurant across from the gate to wait and eat. We talked a bit more - we work in related industries. Anyway, the flight starts boarding and they start calling the stand-by list. The gentleman gets called and we bid goodbye - him wishing me luck with getting on. As he is boarding they announce that the plane is full. He turns and looks at me and I smile and wave bye. He walks up to the ticket counter and refuses his standby seat. He turns to me and says "you take it, all I have at home waiting is a dog, you can see your kids." I protest - I probably won't make the earlier connection anyway! But he insists and I get on. Isn't that the nicest thing??! Who likes sitting in airports?! It was so nice of him to do that and totally made my day (even when I didn't make the earlier connection in DFW).

On Saturday I ran into Target in the middle of the afternoon (always a mistake in our area as they are PACKED then) to get a copy of Mary Poppins, that I had decided we should watch with the kids that night. I got in the 15 and under line to pay and a sweet lady with probably only 5-7 purchases let me go ahead, since I only had one. So nice!

Things like this really make my day, and I have to remember to do them for others now and then and make their day too.

Just Call Me "Ma Mere"

Let me start off by saying I do not feel any guilt about sending my kids to daycare. I am a much better mommy for working, and they are more enriched then I could make them if I stayed at home (what with all the screaming, crying and tantrums - oh and they'd probably get upset too).
I also don't read "mommy war" or other "how she does it - type books". But this one was suggested by a good friend - who happens to be a sahm. The book is called "Perfect Madness" by Judith Warner. I am only about 1/3 of the way through it - but it has made me think. It makes me want to live in France. In the book the author talks about living there, and the completely different attitude about adult lives and parenting lives. From her description it seems as though the French culture emphasizes parents still leading adult lives while having children. Compared to the sort of frantic - must be doing something to enrich my kids lives every spare moment we have going on in the US today. People there certainly do things with their kids but they also do things without them - go out to dinner, read books, etc. They seem much less kid-focused. And not guilty at all about it. In fact, the author writes that the French would be perplexed by someone who was guilty about it. Very interesting, at least so far. Will probably provide bigger picture review when I am done.