Children & Chocolate and Other Paths to God

I’ve seem to have lost my motivation to exercise lately, has anyone seen it?

I did a 5K over two weeks ago, and haven’t done a whole lot since. The first few days I was a bit sore, then I had a very minor health issue to deal with, and then I started letting myself indulge in certain comfort foods because of this health issue, and now, well, it’s just getting out of control.

And to be honest, I feel pretty lousy since I stopped.

So, no more excuses. Tomorrow it’s supposed to be nice and cool (the way I like it), so, Mrs. F, I’m going to be knocking on your door at 6:30am!

Okay, you may think I’m talking about football here, but I’m really just talking trash.

Three weeks ago the garbage men came, and left my two large cans on the sidewalk like they usually do, but the wheels were gone on one of them. I’m not sure where they went, but as the can already had some cracks in it, I didn’t really care much if we had to toss it. So the following week I put a big note on the lid “Please take this can”, and they did.

What’s interesting to me is that I didn’t replace the can right away, and I didn’t really need to. Knowing that I had a limited amount of space for trash forced me to be much more vigilent about my recycling efforts. For me this means not only remembering to put the paper, plastic and glass in the proper place, but remembering to put the recyling out on the right night. (and these guys come very early, so there’s little chance of running out in your jammies in the morning…)They alternate every week, so if you miss the Friday for paper, it’s another two weeks before you can get rid of it.

So now my family of four has practically cut it’s trash in half. Pretty remarkable, I think. I rather like knowing we’re not taking up as much landfill space as we used to. So, the question is, can you do the same?

Here’s something I never thought I’d say:

“Last night I had my Fantasy Football draft and I’m peeved I didn’t get the quarterback I wanted…”

Yep. I’ve joined the ranks of millions of Americans who don’t get enough of the real teams on TV, we have to make up our own and play them too.

Our league is all-women, though we did permit one husband (our commissioner) to remain in the room. It was our first time, after all, and to say that we’re a bit clueless is an understatement. To his credit, he offered advice only when asked, and was a great guide. I am surprised his tongue didn’t fall out, however, because I know he was biting it with every pick we made.

So we drank beer, burped, told lewd jokes, and picked our teams. Not like we always knew who we were picking. Every one of us had a “cheat sheet” downloaded from some website that picked out the players for you. By the end of two hours you do start to get a little punchy and begin picking players that have the funniest sounding names (c’mon Jericho Cotchery sounds funny, even if you haven’t had a few beers, right?).

Overall it was great fun, and I’m sure it will make the whole season a bit more exciting. (As one mom pointed out, now her husband won’t be the only one rushing home from Sunday mass to catch the first game…) Season starts Thursday. Wish us luck!

The 4-year-old woke up the other morning at 5am and crawled into bed with me because she had a bad dream. Hubby and I were too tired to protest the invasion, and despite my fears that she might be very obnoxious at this early hour (as she sometimes can be when we’re sleepy and she’s not), she actually curled up next to me and fell asleep.

Later that morning, when I asked her what she dreamed about, first she said “fire.” Yes, since our small house fire (almost a year ago now), she has probably heard me talk about fire a fair amount, so maybe that’s where it came from. But then I gathered from her there were monsters and other scary characters involved too, so I blame some of this on Walt Disney.

When it came time for bed last night, we did the usual routine - bath, books, bed. She was fine until I turned out the lights and tucked her in.

Her: I don’t want to go to sleep. I’m afraid I’m going to have more scary dreams.
Me: No you won’t sweetie. You’ll be fine.
Her: Yes, I will.
Me: Nope. Here’s your puppy and your elephant. They’ll keep the monsters away. Just close your eyes and relax. We have lots of fun things to do tomorrow and you need to sleep.

Pause. She closed her eyes for a minute, and quickly opened them again.

Her: Mommy! Da monsters are back!
Me: It’s okay, sweetie. Just close your eyes and think about puppies. Cute little white ones with spots.
Her: But I’m scared! What if da monsters are there when I close my eyes?
Me: You just have to picture something else. Trust me. Close your eyes and picture those puppies playing.

Reluctantly, she closed her eyes again, but only for a few seconds.

Her: The monsters are still there!
Me: Okay, maybe we need something bigger… how about we get Clifford to keep them away? Close your eyes and picture Clifford. Picture a great big Clifford standing guard and 101 dalmations forming a big circle around you. As soon as those monsters creep up, Clifford is going to bark and scare them away. You’re surrounded by all of those doggies who love you and will protect you while you sleep. See? You’re safe now…

And by now she snoring, hugging her puppy. (a beagle, of course…)

There are so many questions I would love to ask my baby…

Do you think the beagle is another sibling, just a little fuzzier? Or is he just an animated stuffed toy?

Why do you continually try to sit in the dog’s water bowl?

What is so exciting about a cardboard box?

Why do you need to put your bowl on your head while there is still food in it?

What’s the point of throwing every single thing out of your crib after a nap?

And, what I just don’t get, is why do you insist on pulling off your socks and chewing on them when you nap? Do dirty baby socks really taste that good?

These are the great questions of the universe, for which we will never have answers…

I took the baby to the pediatric allergist this morning. Dr. Schuberth did a scratch test on her arm. The good news is, that while she is indeed allergic to egg, the “new” treatment is to expose the children to egg, instead of eliminating it entirely from their diet (like I had to do with the 4-year-old). Essentially, she just can’t have plain eggs (like the scrambled eggs I gave her that gave her the reaction last week), or raw eggs (as in cookie dough), but she can resume eating pancakes and cookies and baked goods. And I don’t have to freak out about every little thing that she puts in her mouth when we’re at friend’s houses or at restuarants (nobody likes to be “that” mom…), and she’ll most likely outgrow it the way my other child did.

The bad news is that she tested even higher for peanuts, which I didn’t see coming. So she can’t have nuts of any kind until we get a negative test back, which may never come. From what I understand, and I still need to research this, it’s not as common to outgrow a peanut allergy. Fortunately her levels aren’t high enough to worry about a kid eating a peanut butter sandwich at the next table, so for the moment, it’s not a huge impact on our life.

Yes, it’s a little bit of a drag to worry about your child getting sick from food, but there are certainly much worse things a kid could have. So, I’ll take this small physical challenge and be grateful that it’s something we can easily handle!

Sorry been gone so long - it’s been a busy few weeks! Here’s a sample…

Yesterday morning, my hubby and I got up at 6am for our second 5K up in Hampstead, Maryland, at River Valley Ranch. We got lucky with the weather - August has the potential to be humid and hot here, but it was absolutely beautiful. The course was shaded and ran past fields of buffalo and horses and through a mock western town and covered bridge -  a nice change from my typical suburban workout.

There was a large group of us from the neighborhood, which always makes it fun, and were all decked out in our B> shirts and hats in support of our pal Kelly. (see the whole line of Be Greater Than products at www.bgreaterthan.com) 

Hubby finished in 31 minutes - and I came in at 40 minutes. A blistering 13 minute mile! Hey, at least I finished! We have another race scheduled for Sept. 20th (the Villa Maria run at Towson University), and another on October 19th (Race for the Cure in Hunt Valley). My goal is to actually be running the entire 5K by October.

Here’s a post race shot of me and hubby at 10am:

And here’s us several hours later…

Our neighborhood babysitting co-op had a party Saturday night - Gilligan’s Island theme! So hubby and I went as Thurston and Lovey Howell. Quite a look! My husband is afraid that this is a glimpse into our future - of how we may look once we retire to that condo in Miami…

Such a fun, fun, day - but a little on the strange spectrum when I reviewed the photos on the digital camera this morning!

Tubby (my daughter’s I.F.) gave birth this afternoon…to a puppy…and it’s a boy!

Yes, Tubby is a boy. (no, my daughter didn’t get hold of the People magazine with article about the transvestite man who just gave birth…and no, I’m not proud to admit that I actually read it…)

I had to explain to my daughter that only grown-up girls can have babies, not boys. Apparantly the rules are different for I.F.s. I shouldn’t be surprised.

She’s been watching a lot of “101 Dalmations”, so she’s been known to fill her t-shirt with a few stuffed puppies herself and “give birth” to a litter.

Today was Tubby’s turn. He was upstairs in her bedroom and I was instructed to be quiet as she shut the door. A few moments later, she opened it and shouted “It’s a BOY!”.

Then we took the new puppy to the mall with us, and I had to make room in the back seat for Tubby to join us. Because, you know, the puppy is still too small to be out without his mommy.

Candy cigars for everyone!

Okay, it’s taken me four years to really come up with a baby product that I thought I couldn’t live without. This is it:

It’s the Safety 1st Tubside Bath Seat. It enables me to bathe the baby and the preschooler at the same time, without worrying about the 16-month sliding around or falling over. I’ve never seen it in stores, but it’s available at BabyAge.com for $29.99 and would be worth every cent. (I, of course, am borrowing mine for free from a friend…)

There’s a lot of products I bought/received that I later determined were unnecessary (the Diaper Genie, the seven diaper bags I own, Baby Einstein videos, etc…), this, however, really makes life easier. No big baby bath tub. No slippery kid trying to climb out of the tub.

Just thought I’d share!

I realize this is probably very old news for some people, but since I only became hip to Blue’s Clues two years ago, I’m a little behind.

Anyway, we all know Steve Burns left Blue’s Clues and “went to college.” His character was replaced by his “brother Joe.” Though there were countless rumors swirling around (likely started by teenage girls) about why he left, it was obvious enough to me that Burns just moved on to better things.

But to what? I wondered…

So I found a few websites, among them http://www.steveburnsrocks.us/. 

He apparantly wanted to leave Blue’s Clues before he went totally bald (can’t blame him for that). Of course, the guy is probably living pretty comfortably just on the residuals from the show, so he can’t complain.

The nerdy-looking children’s show star is now an handsome indie rock star, working with such artist as the Flaming Lips (my husband is a fan of theirs, though I don’t know if I’d recognize their songs). He’s touring around the country doing small shows. Might be fun to go see him if he’s in town.

The question would be, do we wear green striped shirts to the show or not?