If you could get your DAMN kid’s DAMN coloring book out of my DAMN bed, that would be helpful. I’d like to get some DAMN sleep!
“Mommy, I really loooove your shoes! Are you suuuure I can’t wear them a little longer??”
The real question is; who DOESN’T wear a knit cap and Little Gym medal to walk their dog?
When sick and looking to whatever decongestant the pharmacist just had me sign for – no matter how many time’s I’ve taken it, and no matter how many pills are in each little bubble in the package, check to see what the dosage is. Because it’s no fun feeling like I’m walking through a pool of molasses all day only to find out I could have and should have taken two pills instead of just the one.
Also, stay at home moms should get sick days. Just saying.
This week’s bag of choice was the very unglamorous Target bag. The contents were interesting – a lot more things she shouldn’t have let alone collect were in her bag.
Yesterday she walked into the office with the knit hat on and the keys in her hand, said “bye bye!” gave me a kiss and headed out of the room. I thought it was adorable…until I realized she might actually be heading somewhere!
Contents:
Juice cup
Target bag
Pen and paper
Knit hat
Flip flops
A flower hair clip
French fries
The flosser that she uses to “shave” with Daddy
The phone and the ear piece that goes with it
And spare keys
I have been trying to teach Baylor to say “happy mother’s day” but since she refuses to slow down long enough to say a full sentence other than “let’s go!” or “come on!” (so weird since her parents aren’t like this AT ALL) the best I could get out of her was “app-y momma day!” and that took like 5 whole minutes and lots of coaching so we’re good with it.
I received my very first child made gift this year. A beautiful bracelet! Baylor picked out all the beads and the sequence of the beads and Grandma strung them together for her. Bay did insist on wearing it most of the morning, but I was able to locate it from under the couch cushions during nap time to snap a picture.
My beautiful new jewelry
Momma and her jewelry designer
Baylor’s assistant, Grandma and Daddy – and Bear
We did miss my mom this year – she is freezing in Montana already for the summer. But we did get to have a very giggly phone call and Bay got to talk to Noni in “Ontana”. I got an incredibly sweet card from my friend Kristin that brought happy tears to my eyes and a great new pair of running shoes from PW. We had a delicious brunch with Peter’s parents, a little shopping, a little swimming and lots of champagne – all in all? A great weekend. So happy belated Momma’s Day to all the moms!
This week’s bag of choice was actually a box, rather than Baylor’s usual shopping bag or purse. I gave her an old hat box I used to use for stationary intending it for organizing some of the MANY toys we have accumulated. Instead, it served as a fun toy in itself. She played putting things in and out of it and then started her usual collection. Here’s this week’s booty:
New bunny, beany butt bear and little rabbit
Play coffee, an egg and two ice cream cones (is she my kid or what?)
Her Little Gym medal which she wore for a week after receiving (literally)
The gender neutral Little People Family and their furniture. No judgement, all I’m saying is that it’s hard to play “house” when you’re not sure which one is the mommy
Her favorite Emerald City surf shop t-shirt that she shares with Kat, her favorite stuffed animal
It seemed fitting that I imbibe a glass (or two) of wine while I write this post (p.s. it’s the evening when I’m writing. I haven’t gotten to the point where I’m drinking wine out of a coffee cup, thankyouverymuch).
My mom and step dad left for Montana, their summer home away from home. They run a guest ranch (www.hubya.com) just outside of Yellowstone and it’s the time of year that I hate when they go back to start getting ready for the season. We visit around the 4th of July and meet my mom in San Diego in the late summer, but that’s it until October each year.
The good part about them going? They unload their refrigerator, pantry and most importantly their wine collection on us! I left my mom’s house the other day with not only office supplies for the family business we run, but a ridiculous amount of wine. Not to mention the delicious things they purchase at Costco and AJ’s are now happily waiting to be ingredients in our next meal. The wine consists of either labels they’ve bought and decided they didn’t like (never had that problem myself) or gifts of a vintage they don’t prefer. But despite their origin, they are all happily at home in our modest wine rack.
While the influx of fermented grapes is wonderful, there are a few down sides. The first is we now have a great excuse to pop the cork more nights a week. And while this makes the night very enjoyable, my productive projects that I schedule for after Baylie is asleep like ironing, blogging, mopping, etc, are shot. While wine fueled posts are generally funny, they usually prove to be too much work to edit the following morning. And wine fueled mopping is dicey at best.
The second problem is that is that I think the cheap wine we usually buy is a little self conscious. Peter pointed out that one of the bottles from my mom was from 2002. It occured to me that I never pay as much attention to the date on the label as the number on the price tag. Therefore the bottle(s) of Rex Goliah ($4.99) is feeling a bit inferior to the bottle of Monte’s Alpha (not a clue on the price since I shop the shelves from my waist down) that I’m quite certain cost at least four times that.
But! Not to worry my pretties. I will drink you all and enjoy you equally. Or at least that’s what I’ll tell you.
This week’s bag contents are pretty eclectic. In fact, I don’t know where she found some of this stuff seeing as I haven’t see it in a very long time.
In the last WIBB post, I received a very strange comment on the post regarding the contents of Baylie’s bag. It all but accused me of being a child pornographer because apparently the doll’s bathing suit in the picture looked like a child’s bra (random?). I promptly deleted the comment and was very close to letting the reader know to take their business elsewhere. So, for any new readers of The Goon Room, What’s in Baylie’s Bag? is a weekly post that details the contents of my sweet two-year-old’s bag of choice. It’s amusing to see what she has decided is worthy of carrying around repeating “let’s go!!”.
This week’s bag: New Monkey themed bag from the $1 section at Target. Baylie makes “monkey” sounds when she points to the picture.
Contents:
A tea cup
2 Bunny cups
Bunny ears
Barbie (a must)
Your Personal Penguin book
Baby Colors book
Wooden duck toy
2 religious medals that I haven’t seen in years
2 sets of keys
A door bumper
An Easter Card
When Baylie was a few months old, I received the Beaba Babycook gadget as a Christmas gift. If you have a baby, a grand baby or need an amazing shower gift for someone, this is it! I love this machine and have made countless meals for Ms.B and even a few delicious sides for Peter and I.
Obviously at almost 2 years old, I don’t make as many things for Baylor in my favorite machine as often anymore. But I do steam carrots and I make a fruit mix for her yogurt. I always blend at least 3 fruits with a veggie. She chows it down daily not knowing that she’s actually getting her veggies with her delicious fruit.
My favorite combo is an apple, spinach, strawberries and blueberries. But this week, I was out of spinach and not wanting to run to the store for just spinach, I tried to get clever. I had zucchini and brocoli. The zucchini was a no brainer – not a lot of flavor and would mix in with no detection. But the brocoli was a long shot. I was feeling gutsy so I went for it. When I sampled the final product, I did taste an overwhelming amount of strawberry, but just a hint of brocoli. Not a delicious combo. But I wanted to get the food critics opinion so I served up a bowl of yogurt to Bay and waited for the response. Rightly so, she turned her nose up after the first bite.
Not willing to give up on my veggie filled mission nor an entire tupperware full of steamed and blended fruit, I got clever. I mixed one of Bay’s favorite applesauce cups in with the fruit. And in a stroke of genius, I used the now empty cup to serve the new mixture. As soon as Bay saw the cup, she dug in. After her first bite, she gave me a raised eyebrow…and then gulped it down!
Mommy is soooo clever.
It’s the little things in life that bring the most pleasure. Sometimes it’s hard to see those little things, or even remember what they are, but once in a while, I get smacked in the face by one and I remember how great it is.
Last week, Baylie went to “Camp Mamie” which means she goes to her Godmother’s house to play for a little while and I set out to run a few errands.
On my way back from the last stop, a song I haven’t heard for a while came on the Ipod. The Killers’ All These Things That I’ve Done makes me think of the summer before Peter’s third year of law school. We were in Phoenix while he did a summer internship for a law firm. It was almost time to pack up and drive back to DC. I woke up to the clock radio playing this song and I was hooked. I had no idea what it was, but I couldn’t get it out of my head. I had to (embarrassingly) sing it for Peter so he could try to find it on Itunes. Once it was securely on my favorite playlist, I practically wore out my Ipod listening to it. That same week, Peter got a job offer from the firm he had been interning for. Suddenly it was like our entire future was clear; we were going to get to come home to Phoenix. We could think about where we would live and make plans for the following year instead of having to say “we’ll see where Peter gets a job and then we’ll see”.
When my sister Ali and I got our first car (a ’94 green Volvo named Alfie) our favorite thing to do was drive with the windows down and the music cranked up. The feeling of freedom was only amplified by the wind in your hair and the bass in the speakers.
Remembering that feeling, I rolled down all four windows and turned up The Killers to an embarrassingly loud level and drove. And enjoyed the simplicity of the sun and wind and memories.
When creative energy meets a quite space of time, it produces great blog posts, chapters in a book I hope to complete some day and many things checked off of my work to do list.
Getting these two things in the same place at the same time is not only tricky, it’s damn near impossible it seems these days. The result? Painstakingly painful posts requiring much more work than what the result would lead one to believe. No work done on a book other than dreams of what I will wear to the book signing and raised anxiety levels over the fact that my list is growing rather than shrinking.
My new goals? Sleep less, push to make the most of nap time and find an additional hour a day where I encourage the kiddo to play quietly while I get a few things done. Prioritize my to do list for life, for work and for myself and stick to it and not freak out when it doesn’t all get done some days (ha. I laughed when I wrote that one. But writing is the first step, yes?). Carve out more structured play time/learning time with Bay and not feel like a horrible mother when her big activities for the day are a trip to the grocery and vacuuming. And to take a deep breath.
iiiiiinnnnnnn aaaaaaannnnnndddddd oooooouuuutttttt
The Goon Room 