The Tinsel, The Trappings

Whew! We made it through the whole christmas season. Our tree went back into the box whence it came this afternoon.

It was wonderful to spend time with our families over the long weekend. My brother and his family were here as well as Brett's brother from Chicago (either I have not yet created an "alias" for Brett, or I have decided that the whole privacy issue is moot) plus both sets of parents. It was truly a beautiful experience to have everyone together, eating my mom's good food (yep, she catered) and enjoying each other's company. Sadly, the Up North branch of our family tree was fevered and contagious. We are hoping to see them this weekend!

We have lots of cool new toys at our house. Some of Browniefoot's faves were his Robo-Raptor, which he has named King George the Third (hahaha) and a spy kit that issues a high-pitched alert when someone enters his room. BooBoo likes her Itty Bitty Baby by American Girl and some singing character toys that Santa brought her - Spiderman and Pizza Elmo.

Brett and I have a Wii! It is loads of fun but, most importantly, has helped me to realize some areas of personal growth I have overlooked, namely not being a big baby sore loser when I consistently do not win at tennis. Grrrrrr....

I also used some much-appreciated xmas cash to buy the December issue of Yoga Journal. Check out their website to subscribe to the (FREE!) daily newsletter of yoga and meditation tips.

Countdown to Xmas

I love this quote from a story about a christmas tree farm in Belvedere, New York:

“They’d tie a piece of baler twine across my lap so I wouldn’t slide off the tractor seat and tell me to steer for that tree across the field,” said John C. Wyckoff, 41, recalling his own time on rock duty as a young boy.

The little green apron store was HOPPIN' today. Reportedly, this is the busiest shopping day of the year and I was on my toes from start to finish. I arrived home to a houseful of extended family - hooray!!

Our holiday cards began appearing in the mailboxes of friends and families today. On average, American families receive and send approximately 28 cards at this time of year. We mailed 31 (which, unfortunately, was not everybody on my list but it was already December 21st). Ten cents from each card was donated to St. Jude Children's Hospital, a very worthy cause; our's features a drawing by seven-year-old Belle of a peace angel. I irreverently added a photo of Griffin sticking out his tongue and Bela squirming away from him. I hope it will give everyone a chuckle.

To the side of this post is an advertisement I helped write for a very cool new photographic studio in Old Town, the capital city's creative hub. The studio has an IKEA stainless steel kitchen that I am hoping to one day install here up in our crib. Luckily, I may be able to get some freelance work going with the studio to pay for this endeavor.

It's A Wonderful Life, my favorite holiday movie, was not on television tonight, sadly. I had hoped that it might be, despite the fact it aired last Friday. I am still hopeful that it might be on again tomorrow night, or even on Monday. We did, however, watch two great movies on DVD this week - Super Bad and Sicko by Michael Moore. Super Bad was over-the-top with the crude sex-humor but also hilariously reminiscent of high school (and, I thought it was ultimately not really advocating teen sex because nobody actually "goes all the way," even the nerdy kid who is destined for Dartmouth.) Sicko, an indictment primarily of the health insurance scam, I mean system, in the United States, was scary. Canada, England, and France have all made much better choices about how to treat their fellow man.

I'm off to eat some cookies before bed... just like Santa Claus!

Video from G's Party

Video from Griffin's fifth birthday party. Where did my baby go??? He is such a big kid now.

Little Einstein Exersaucer

I am selling Bela's Little Einstein Exersaucer. On those mornings when I have had to catch a shower after my wee petites have already woken up (as tomorrow will be if I don't go get some shut-eye) I have used the exersaucer to keep Bela in one place. No more. Here is a photo of Bela sitting on my lap(top).

She is able to climb out of the exersaucer and used a chair to climb up onto my desk. Quite the climber, my little monkey also used the container for the dog food and the garbage can to ascend the kitchen counter in order to clink together the martini glasses. My friend, Mary, the Scientist, thought this indicated superior intelligence. I just think AAAGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Anyway, the exersaucer is one year old, purchased for $80 from Amazon.com, offered here for $40 or best offer. Excellent condition.

Hasty Update

I have so so much I want to blog about but only a tiny amount of time. Since the posts have been rather scanty lately, I thought I would take a moment for a hasty update. By the way, I love those two adjectives and I am thrilled that I get to use them.

I am quickly boiling some pasta because I work at the little green apron store tonight, the second night in a row as we count down to Christmas. As we approach the holiday, the customers are becoming testier. I don't know if it is a lack of vitamin D in the shape of sunshine contributing to their bad mood, or just mall traffic, but I do know that I am psychologically much healthier today than I ever have been. Their complaints roll off my back because I have a strong sense of self. To the customer who asked "Are you knowledgeable about the products or are you just a door person?" I would have liked to have said "I am not just anything" but I did not and that's okay.

Griffin turned five (more on that later). John Edwards, my candidate for President, is featured on the cover of Newsweek as the potential surprise winner (oh, I can only dream). I finished reading Screamfree Parenting - the first parenting book I have ever read cover to cover. Britney Spears' mother was slated to write a parenting book ... but now that her 16-year-old sister is pregnant that has been put on hold (I might have read that book just for the "this is what you should not do" aspect). I have begun my freelance career gig. Bela is up from her nap now so I must go. Adieu.

End of Babyhood

Griffin celebrated his fifth birthday today. It sounds like a cliche but where did the time GO???

His party was crazy and fun. I have loads of pictures and video to upload ... and a very messy house.

Thank goodness for Grandma Beth's skills in the kitchen. She made the awesome cupcakes in a cone and then had the genius idea to put the Scooperman ice cream inside the sili-cups (silicone muffin cups).

Ruff Yoga

There is a story on PBS right now about pampered pooches. To quote the narrator, some of the practitioners of so-called ruff yoga "see human-like traits in their pooches..." and treat them accordingly.

I have read about yoga for dogs in the past. In theory, it seemed like a great idea. Rodan's sun salutation is awe-inspiring. I have actually watched her as she progresses from downward to upward facing dog. So, believing the integrity of the DOG was forefront, I always thought yoga for dogs would be a great, fun idea.

Nope. From the video I just saw it is human's manipulating the paws of their pups to make it look like they are doing yoga.

Brett joined me for yoga on Friday night. It was his first class and I think he liked it. If nothing else, now he understands my "workout."

I have found two yoga teachers that I really like at the MAC. Shelley and Steve are great - far more fitness-focused than I am accustomed to from my earlier Kripalu training but overall they lead with a gentle touch. And, I don't find myself hating them in the middle of a postural flow. That's a yoga "good thing."

One more book to read

Co-authored by an MSU professor. Today's must-read.

Bloody Hell

Has been my refrain at my little green apron shop. Pronounced with a Scottish brogue so it comes out more like "Bloody Ell, Mate."

Last night I thought I was getting a visit from Santa Claus himself. An interesting old character walked in the door, just before close. He had a jolly old belly, a great big fur hat on his white head, and a diamond pinky ring. Linda directed him to me when he asked for a coffee expert, and knowing full well that it is poor customer service to pass him on again to someone truly knowledgable, I faked it. Me!

Anyway, we quickly bypassed the $2,000 Jura machine to look at the more appropriately priced Breville for $300. Visions of working as a barista 13 summers ago danced through my head as I expertly pulled on the frother hose and jabbed at the expresso holder thingy. He settled at last upon a Krups Combi, a fine choice, if I do say so myself, and pulled out a list that I thought for sure would have my name at the top. Turns out he was not Santa Claus but a dad whose firm is well-known with politicos around here (just before his order got royally screwed at the end I almost said are you ___?) Anyway, I thought it was great fun advising him because he used "bloody" as an adjective.

And, get this, the New Joisey town where my customer's daughter lives happens to have the same name as the street upon which I live. Get outta town! That just doesn't happen.

But, I have a dilemma. It is the one that everyone who has ever worked faces at one time or another. Scheduling. The sons of bitches scheduled me to work next Saturday. Now for The Jolly Mama loyalists, you know that I cannot work next Saturday because it is the day of the party that will be bigger than jesus. Yes, Browniefoot turns five next Saturday. And I have pledged to him that I will not labor again on December 15.

To call in sick or to take it like an adult.... That is the question. There is an unethical part of me that says "F it. I told them I was unavailable on that date. They only pay me $8.00 per hour. I'm not budging." (Sidenote: I don't know why everything is alway F this and F that. It's just part of my vernacular.) If I do that, I strategize, I must complete all of my xmas shopping there this weekend because I will lose my almight discount if I am summarily discharged from their employ for failure to report. But really, I am not going to work next weekend.

A Blog is a Blog

Subtitle: A Blog By Any Other Name

Names, obviously, are very important to me. I love the interplay of words. The way two or more sounds juxtapose to create a new idea.

I may even love words more than I like writing. In fact, I know I do because I have compared the process of writing to bloodletting, in some of my more dramatic moments. Of course, I like the vision this evokes, blood spilling onto a page, transforming the texture of the paper. Not that I like blood. It is yucky, but I hope you, dear reader, get my point anyway. As an evocative image, bloodletting is more palatable than say, words being burped or puked onto a page, a revolting metaphor, to say the least. Bloodletting puts one more in the mind of romantic vampires than frat boys who've had too much beer.

But, I digress. The reason for this post is that Griffin has re-named himself. It happened this summer in the sandbox. A split-second decision on his part has transformed him forever into "Browniefoot." A name that makes me smile and shake my head in pride for its own evocativeness and sheer brilliance.

Bela Simone has become to myself, and, lately, the rest of the family, simply BooBoo. I have loved the little girl character in Monsters Inc. since we watched that movie for the first time with Griffin years ago and always imagined that one day we would have our very own dark-haired, dark-eyed Boo. Bela is more red-head than her cine-predecessor, but whatever!

I am known online as Ooo Lala, a name I irreverently chose one day when I registered for some website and then thought was a hilarious choice as I began receiving mail addressed "Dear Ooo" or "Attention Mrs. Lala."

Terri Gross interviewed the screenwriter from the new film Juno yesterday afternoon, a woman named Diablo Cody. The really interesting thing about her (besides her crazy name and the fact that she may just have created a girl character that will become as iconic as Ferris Bueller) is that she got her break as a writer doing a blog about the sex industry. Most, of course, were more pornographic in nature than Ms. Cody's blog, which was very literary (with a few titillating videos and pictures).

All of this to say, I am considering changing some of the identifable information on the blog for privacy reasons. Not that anyone's reading it. But, I suppose, there is always the possibility. Treehuggermama had a visitor from Poland recently. Yours truly has stumbled, unawares, into the blogs and family websites of people I will never likely meet.

As for the details of this momentous change, pictures and videos will remain but our aliases will have to suffice in the descriptions and stories. Our location will have to go underground. And, this message will, of course, self-destruct.

Dear reader, please leave a comment about these proposed changes. And, for heaven's sake, if you are from Poland, introduce yourself, please!

In Retrospect...

Okay, so after my post about "squeeze free" parenting, some calls and emails have come in from people who know me, who know my kids, and know my parenting style, and the consensus is that I am being far too hard on myself.

Hmmmm....

I will concede the following: ruthless perfectionism is my operating style; everything is always about me, even when it is not about me; and I would do anything for those I love, especially my ultravulnerable little children.

Okay, so now I will acknowledge that maybe those three "facts" are not grounded in logic; maybe they are values that do not adhere to any sound principles; and perhaps I need to relax.

In the inimitable words of one of my high school buddies:

"Sometimes you just gotta say F it. And then F it."

A statement that was made to me half my life ago but probably no truer words were ever spoken. Of course he didn't say F. That's an adaptation I have made since being a MOM.

Anyway, I am off to eat some peppermint stick ice cream - my second helping today because 'tis the season!

Baboon Metaphysics

The authors of Baboon Metaphysics were interviewed on Fresh Air this afternoon. I want to read this book -- and I want to rid my life of the huge stack of books that meanders around my home, chastising me for not getting around to reading any of them yet.

The GOOD Book

Hip, hip hooray!!! My library recently added Screamfree Parenting by Hal Runkel to its collection. Trying to get the book with Griffin and Bela in tow was a challenge worthy of the book.

While I am not much of a screamer, I am a squeezer, as in a squeeze of the wrist, arm, or nape of the neck, in order to get my point across to Griffin (as of yet, Bela has not *needed* such intervention). And, whereas I would NEVER EVER spank my children, I have been known to yank them.

These actions were so troublesome to me that earlier this summer I *confessed* them to my mom, a child protective services supervisor for the state. She said that what I was doing was not considered abuse. She even laughed at me a little bit because a lot of parents do these things all the time.

But it still bothers me... a lot. I did a lot of squeezing yesterday as my two little demons ran through the adult section of the library. Why? Because they were squealing with joy and laughing at each other. I couldn't find my book where it was supposed to be on the shelf. And I became consumed with worry about what the other patrons would think -- of me, as a mom, for letting my kids run amok.

Generally, my mantra is "I care far more how my family feels and far less what other people think." Yesterday in the library, however, was a different story.

In the car on the way home, I asked Griffin how it had made him feel when I was rough. Unsurprisingly, it did not make him feel good about himself. It made him scared. Together, he and I thought of other ways I could *show* him that I love him. He got over it much more quickly than I did, as I sit here today, embarassed and ashamed about an incident that rarely occurs.

As it turns out, when I gathered myself together to check out, the librarian told me that the book was in the front of the library with the other new books. DUH! Thankfully, she seemed to understand that if I'm looking for this book, then I might need a little extra help, and went to get the book for me.

So, now it's off to read the book because I NEVER want to be so out of control that I use my hands, even to just get someone's attention. While squeezing may not be abuse, it is absolutely not how I want to parent.

Gorilla Buttons and the Ha Ha Ha

Earlier this summer, I grabbed a parenting book from the library that introduced me to the concept of "gorilla buttons." These are the things that our children do that annoy us more than anything else and cause us to react in negative ways. The book listed several examples, all of which were things that make me see red (yikes!). Thus, The Jolly Mama, and a renewed awareness of calm, was born.

Tonight our little family went to the mall. Brett and I had both had a long day already. There were crowds. Stress levels were high. After feeling a little cranky, sighing more than an adult really should, I remembered a super important meditation. I call it the "Ha ha ha" breath - to do it simply say "Ha ha ha" until you are laughing. It works like a charm!