The Mommy Blog™ | Adventures from the Wonderbelly of Motherhood™

Saturday, January 24, 2004

...can be a dangerous thing.

Never let it be said that I am slow on the up-take: after three days of three people telling me that they haven’t been able to see the main content column in my blog, I have reverted to a basic, non-advanced (is that even a word?) template. Interestingly enough, it still manages to be screwed up by whatever I did to italicize the sidebar headings on only one side…

Anyway, please excuse the mess while I mop up after myself. I hope to have the drop-down link lists back soon, but for now you’ll have to scroll like nobody’s business to read them.

[sheepishly realizes she congratulated herself a little too soon on zeno’s blog]

Saturday, January 24, 2004

As you may have gathered, I haven’t been home much lately due to long hours at the office, and now that I am with our youngest for days on end (which I LOVE, by the way), I am just discovering the unavoidable landmines that come of not being familiar of the latest “in” jokes and habits.

For instance, I cheerfully handed Daphne a banana last night, and went about getting a plate and a knife and started to help prepare it for her, when I noticed the big, pouty face she was making. I was supposed to be asking who was on her banana phone, and petitioning to talk to whoever it was. Fortunately, I am a quick study and did it right when the banana came out again this morning.

Then, just a few minutes ago, we were enjoying our cereal, juice & coffee (she takes hers black), side by side on the barstools in the kitchen. She was singing to her Lucky Charms, and I was doing the crossword. Pure domestic bliss. Then, she turned to me and said, “I want to blow it!” I paused for only a beat before correctly surmising that she wanted to cool off my coffee for me. How sweet! So I held up my cup for her, whereupon she stood up in her seat, leaned over, pursed her lips, and dribbled an electric-blue stream of Charms-flavored saliva right into my perfect, perfect cup of Major Dickason’s.

Friday, January 23, 2004

Tidbits on the Kidbits

Logan and I had our own Friday Five last night while reading bedtime stories. Last night’s story was Everybody Cooks Rice, whose message is that “We are all one family, especially when it comes to the way we like to eat.”

It turned out to be an apt choice, because Logan had been learning about diversity in kindergarten, and the teacher had come up with some great ways of putting things.

Logan: “Mom, look at my necklace.” [Shows off circle of paper with picture of dove with olive branch colored on it and tied to a loop of yarn] ” We talked about… what’s that man’s name?”

Me: [Resisting urge to say “Rose?”] “I need a little more to go on…”

Logan: “He was very important.”

Me: [Riffing off the whole dove-branchy thing] “Noah? Jesus?”

Logan: “No. Ma… Marlin…”

Me: “Martin Luther King, Jr.?”

Logan: [beaming] “Yes! He said that we should all love each other. Even if we look different, we should all love each other anyway, because it’s how you look on the inside that counts! See? Just because Daphne is red, and you’re brown [hey! dark blonde…], and I’m white, we should all still love each other!”

OK, it’s an overly small subset, but he gets the general idea. Later, after we read about all the different ways rice can be prepared in different cultures, he asked me a whole series of questions.

1. “Mom, I think you’re going to know the answer to this, because you lived there when you were a girl… is Chicago in the East, the West, the South, or the North?” (Answer: the middle west. Threw him for a loop on that one.)

2. “What kind of rice did you eat in Chicago?” (Answer: all kinds. Tried to explain concept of deep, inner-city pockets of ethnicity, but left off when he glazed over.)

3. “What kind of rice do we eat here?” (Answer: whatever can be stuffed into the rice cooker and left alone until ready.)

4. “Mommy, Daddy told me about the parts of the country because I was frustrated that I couldn’t read the maps in my wild animal books. Can you show me on my globe where the Bitter Artic Cold is?” (Answer: Right there at the top. Rebuttal: “No, there’s no snow where you’re pointing. There’s lots of Bitter Artic Snow there, and this patch is green.” (Side note: many of these phrases are lifted straight out of Richard Attenborogh’s Life of Mammals series, and are more often than not delivered in an English accent—it cracks us right up.)

5. “Mom, did you know that when you talk about the Artic, you have to say ‘Bitter?’ It’s because it’s Bitter Cold there.

Thursday, January 22, 2004

At this moment, what is your favorite…

1. ...song?
Mamasong by the Be Good Tanyas

2. ...food?
Steamed mussels in a broth of garlic and butter…mmmmm…

3. ...tv show?
Never touch the stuff myself…but I do have trouble walking on past the TV whenever the kids are watching SpongeBob SquarePants. Ahhhh, that SpongeBob…

4. ...scent?
Lavendar eau de toilette

5. ...quote?
“Limbic system..engaged!”

Thursday, January 22, 2004

Humor

...if I don’t stop working so much.

Two elderly men were visiting with together on the front porch, chatting about the week and the things they had done. One of the men had taken his wife to a new restaurant a few nights before, and had thought that the food, service and prices were all first-rate.

First man: “What’s the name of this restaurant? I’d like to take the missus there sometime.”

Second man: “Well, let’s see… I’m picturing a flower… what do you call those red flowers, real nice smelling, with prickly things on the stems?”

First man: “Do you mean a rose?”

Second man: “Yes, that’s it, a rose.”

(Click below to read the rest)

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