Fit, Fat, Potato, Potahto - can't we all just get along?

You say potato, I say tomato; let’s call the whole thing off. Seriously. Call it off.

It seems like lately there has been a lot of chatter among many of my women-friends in months late about some issues that definitely bring up strong emotions. We are shaming each other for one reason or another, and sometimes for both reasons. It's getting us all riled up... but then again, we’re women, we’re emotional beings, are we not?

 Seriously though, I know we have strong convictions, but sometimes we take it so far that we forget exactly what it is we are trying to accomplish. I can't believe all the things I've been hearing about going on this year...

 

A woman has a stare-down show-down with another woman at the soccer field, maybe because she think that she’s setting a bad example for the athletes on the field… or maybe because she’s shallow and uppity and doesn’t like chubby people… or maybe because she has an eating disorder and has a warped sense of nutrition. A mom struggles with how to teach her son why we shouldn’t talk about someone else’s physical appearance. A woman gets blasted online for reminding others that we can ALL find it in ourselves to be the best ‘Me’ we can be physically. A mom gets criticized for grabbing fast food because she was so busy taking care of her special-needs child that she almost forgot to feed herself. A woman posts a catch phrase on her family picture and shares it online and makes a bunch of other people feel guilty and ashamed. An online group gets caught red-handed talking about how ugly someone's baby is and news of their horrid gossip spreads like wildfire. A mom who is working hard (harder than the average, even) at getting in shape, and having success, gets called ‘fat’ by someone she loves even though her doctor tells her she is only pounds away from what is medically called "healthy". The public goes into an uproar because a woman posts a picture of her healthy body in workout shorts and a sports bra. A mom gets shamed by another mom for her struggles with her weight, and instead of getting emotional support, gets shamed by everyone else for being sensitive about it.

Each scenario obviously has its own setting and situation, but every one of them involves how much women get criticized (often by other women) about their appearances. 

You say fat shaming, she says fit shaming, potato, potahto… aren’t there homeless kids starving on the street? Didn’t we once used to fight together against a common enemy instead of amongst ourselves? (Remember the days when women couldn’t even vote?) 

What I want to know is, why do we worry so much about other people’s bodies when even the fittest of us struggle with some kind of inner demon? It doesn’t matter if you have overcome that demon or not, you still will struggle with it. It will always try to sneak in at that weak moment. So instead, share the love, congratulate others when they share their successes, share advice and tips when asked for it, and remember that “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”.  I’ll do my best to do the same. <3 p="">

BEWARE the Kindergartner's locker!

My apologies for not posting as often as I should! A Mom's life can get pretty busy! I realized just how long it had been when I finished a baby carrier the other day, and used Brandon to test it out. Of COURSE, he kept asking if it was his, and I had to tell him no. He was very sad that he couldn't take his nap with it, but he was better when I told him he could use the cuddly-soft penguin one that I let him steal from someone. LOL  Those poor penguins didn't have a chance.

So here I was, wondering what to type this week. I mean, does the babywearing adventure stop once they start walking? It seems a bit sad, really. But I guess even though the babywearing might stop, the adventure NEVER stops. There is always something new and exciting happening in the life of a Mom. And the babywearing was just the start of the adventure. I think babywearing helps to establish a certain adventuress-ness... Is that a word? Not that babywearing is any better or worse than any other type of parenting, it's just an extra way for Moms to be able to do more and get out more when they have two hands free instead of one. I would like to think that I did more things out of the house because I had two free hands and I wasn't dragging a clunky stroller around. I had a lot of adventures with my jogging stroller too, but there were definitely things that I was able to do with a carrier that I couldn't have done without it. (Or maybe I mean, I didn't WANT to do without it. Getting out of the house is the first step, really, and the desire to do something is what really gets us out isn't it?

Okay, well, on to the adventure part of my week. To be honest, we haven't been very adventurous this month. (YET.) But sometimes, adventures are handed to us out of necessity. Like today...

Brandon looks forward to Wednesday all week long. It used to be Friday. But now it's Wednesday. Why? Because his 'show-n-share' day was moved to Wednesday at school. So this morning he was very excited about getting to take his bey-blade toy with him to show his friends. He's been practicing spinning it all week. If you walk by our house, odds are you heard "THREE! TWO! ONE! LET-IT-RIP!" being shouted over and over... and over... and over.

Of course, as a Mom, I was more concerned with "Do you have your socks on yet? Do they match? What am I packing in your lunch box today your highness? Did you finish your pancakes? I'm sorry that one dropped on the floor.... I think it hit a clean spot... what? You had homework? Hurry up and grab a pencil! Wait, where's your coat? The bus is here already???"  After he left, I was busy cleaning up the after-math of the morning, when I noticed his bey-blade laying next to a single sock on the couch. GREAT.

I'm just standing in the living room, stunned, imagining the crocodile tears and the meltdown that will ensue when he gets to school and realizes that he has nothing to take out of his pocket, or his backpack, to show off to his friends at his show-n-share table. It was like I was channeling the disappointment he was feeling, knowing how it would feel to sit on the corner of a table without being able to be part of the group. My heart sank. It was just a toy, and I know sometimes we need to learn how to deal with disappointment early on so that it's not so devastating later... but come on! It's his favorite day of the week! He LIVES for this stuff!

So I rush around, grab my stuff and throw something leftover into my bag and rush out the door. I make a detour to the school to drop off his toy before work, and I luck out by getting there before the crowd. I park right in front and walk into the office. I explain the situation and she tells me that I can take it straight down to his teacher if I like. (I think she was just sympathetic since my foot was in an orthopedic boot and she remembered seeing me on crutches the week before.) Luckily his classroom is right in the main hall just down from the office. As I walk past a bench outside the office, I see one child hop on the bench next to three others, and I hear "Late again? You're always late..." and the joking goes on while I walk down the hall. I can't help but chuckle at how kids that young can sound just like grown ups when they talk.

I knocked on the classroom door, then decide to peek inside when there is no answer. The room is dark, and no teacher to be found. I didn't want to just leave it on a table where another child might take it before Brandon even saw it. No, his locker is better. That way he will see it as soon as he hangs up his coat. So I walk out to the hall, and see his name on the locker. I walk right up to the locker and open it, then move his carpet pillow out of the way on the shelf, and carefully perch the toy on the front edge of the shelf where he will see it right away. I pause, smile, and think of what his reaction will be when he sees it magically appear there, and then close the locker.

No sooner did I turn to walk back down the hall when I hear a chorus of "AWWWWWWWWW.... nuh uh.... oh oh.... gasp! awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww"  It took me half of the hallway to realize the whole bench was staring at me, and I was the culprit. I had obviously done something VERY wrong. In hindsight, I find it pretty funny that I was actually scared for a second because I was getting in trouble by a bunch of 5-7 year olds. But I seriously got nervous... I kept thinking "oh no, is the principal going to come out and tell me that I'm in trouble? Did I break some secret security rule? Was I supposed to have a name badge and I don't? What did I DO??!?!?!?!"

YOU'VE BEEN TOLD.

So as I get closer, the one boy says "ohhhhhhh no. You NEED to get up OUT of our lockers......"  And that's when I realized that he must be in the same class as Brandon, and he thought that I was just rummaging through their lockers to be nosy. I guess if I was a kindergartner, I'd be pretty protective of my stuff too. I almost laughed out loud, but thought it best to be very serious and respectful instead. So, nearly in tears holding back my laughter, I very seriously said "Oh no! I was only touching my son's locker. I didn't touch anyone else's. That was MY son's locker. He forgot his show-n-share toy, and I didn't want him to feel left out today." They all looked relieved, but then the boy surprised me by saying "You're Brandon's mom??!?!" WOW. Either he knew all the lockers by heart, or he memorized each table's show-n-share day. Smart kid. ...OR, he saw the goofy boot on my foot and remembered Brandon telling his teacher that his Mom's foot was 'broke'. (Not broke, just a little smaller now.)

I paused for a bit by the bench, and confessed to being Brandon's mom, and we joked about what his face would look like when he opened the locker. I asked him to make sure Brandon didn't miss it, then told them all to have a great day and gimped my way out to the car.

BEST LAUGH OF THE WEEK. Really. Kids say the darndest things.

The Crow and The Pitcher

Today Brandon and I decided to finally eat dinner together at the table since we actually didn't have any plans to rush out for. In trying to figure out something to talk about, we started talking about stories we had heard and were sharing them. Then I suddenly remembered that we had a whole series of old books from when I was young that had Aesop's fables in them. So I rushed to the bookshelf and came back to the table and started reading them to him. Although they were put in words that were sometimes a little over his head, he seemed to get the idea of them.

Then we read "The Crow and The Pitcher". Although he smiled and nodded his head as if he enjoyed the story, I wasn't sure if he really understood how pebbles would help the crow get to the water. So we came up with a little experiment! And it was so super easy and fun, I thought I'd share it with you here.

Here is the story, retyped from Collier's Junior Classics "the Young Folks Shelf of Books" number 2: Once Upon A Time. (copyright 1962 by The Crowell-Collier Publishing Company)
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THE CROW AND THE PITCHER

A Crow, half-dead with thirst, came upon a Pitcher which had once been full of water: but when the Crow put its beak into the mouth of the Pitcher he found that only very little water was left in it, and that he could not reach far enough down to get at it. He tried, and he tried, but at last had to give up in despair. Then a thought came to him, and he took a pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. At last, at last, he saw the water mount up near him; and after casting in a few more pebbles he was able to quench his thirst and save his life.

Little by little does the trick.
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After reading this, I found a clear plastic cup, a mechanical pencil, and the marbles out of an old board game.



~Then I clipped the pencil to the side of the cup and said "Look, THIS is the crow." ~Then I filled the bottom of the cup with some water from the faucet, until it was about half an inch below the tip of the pencil. And I said "Look, this is the water at the bottom of the pitcher. We need to figure out a way to get the water up to the crow!"
~Then I smiled, and brought out the marbles and said "How many marbles do you think it will take to get the water up to the crow?"
~Then I had him drop them in one marble at a time, until the water touched the tip of the pencil, and we cheered "We did it! We got the water to the crow!!"... at which point he decided it was time to practice pouring water and marbles back and forth from cup to cup to see how long it took for all the water to spill all over the floor. LOL!

But he got the idea. And it was fun for him. And it was fun for me too. And it was pretty cool... if I do say so myself. ;-)

Even babies can play on the internet! :-)

Just had to share this super cute site!!! I used to use this all the time as a way for Brandon to play without messing up the computer... especially when he just HAD to bang on the keyboard like Mommy. So check out this awesome site with really cute fun FREE games!
http://www.kneebouncers.com/

Every time they hit a key, something happens. It doesn't have to be the RIGHT key, just ANY key. How cool is that? Perfect for super little ones!

Sorry that I have been so behind on my blogs everyone! I'll try my best to get back into the swing of things!

Late night grocery trips = hidden blessings

So I admit it... I really don't like shopping. And the shopping I like the LEAST is grocery shopping. There's nothing worse than arriving at the grocery store, with all the seasonal toys and candy propped up right at the front of the store before you get to the kids play place... and then there's that sinking feeling you get when you realize the kids play place is closed for the evening. Now, not only do you have a child who is upset because they won't unlock the door and let him play video games, but you have a child who now wants to push the cart and buy his OWN list of groceries instead of YOUR list of groceries. Tack onto that your Mother tagging along saying "Oh look at that cute..." insert anything here. It's usually about 3 seconds too late to remind her that pointing out anything cute adds to the CHILD'S grocery list instead of yours.

So when I dropped off Gama (Grandma) at the door of the grocery store, I was only way too happy to stay in the car with my increasingly taller 3-year old and sing Mickey Mouse songs from the CD in the car radio. However, this was one of those nights where I realized there was that ONE thing that we needed to get before going home... and Gama DIDN'T have her cell phone on her. Of all the luck. I don't even remember what that one thing was, but when I mentioned out loud that Gama might forget something from the list, Brandon was all gung-ho to run in and remind her. He was just dying to go running through that store to find her. Of course I thought "Fine. I'll walk you in there, and you run around and find her. I'll wait by the cash register." Hee hee. (NOT. But he's fast and it was sooooo tempting.)

Well, before Gama got to the register and had to check out twice, I figured I better get in there so we could find that last item. That's when I realized we had a big problem... NO SHOES. I had rushed out of the house to run Gama up to the store and in my haste had just jumped in the warm car in the garage and let Brandon tag along, no jacket and no shoes. I really had NOT planned on taking him out of the car. I was okay with being coatless, but NOT him. Not to mention, my shoulder and back were not very excited about carrying him around the store until we found Gama.

Thank goodness I had Brandon's old carrier in the back seat for an emergency winter blanket in the car. I yanked it out and threw it (and Brandon) on, then we ran into the grocery store all toasty warm, tied up to each other. It didn't take too long to find Gama and then find the last item, but by the time we got to the front register, Brandon was already too comfortable. While standing in line, Brandon laid his head down against the back of my neck, curled his fingers up in my hair, and said "Mommy, I'm gonna go to sleep now. Don't wake me up." LMAO!

Well, the cold wind on the way to the car woke him up anyway, but it was one of those moments that just makes you feel good for the rest of the night. I'm really glad I didn't have to lug him around for very long, now that he's so big, but it made me feel good to be able to manage in a "grocery emergency" like that.

The multiple uses of a WRAP

This last Sunday we had the RARE opportunity to be extras in a movie! Woo hoo! I was so excited! I thought it would be so awesome to have our names in the credits of a movie, and what was even better is that it was a movie about the Soap Box Derby. This was something that my Dad had done when he was little and he was a huge fan of it and I knew he would love being an extra in the film. It would have more meaning for him.

So we got up at the crack of dawn and I gathered some snacks and just a couple toys to take with us. My Dad, Brandon, and I all hopped in the car with my bag of toys/pull ups, the bag of food, and just for the heck of it - a wrap. It was a malafa that my sister had given me, but I knew if I had to carry my son in the heat and if he got tired, that would be the best option for me on a hot day. I didn't want to deal with fleece and the wrap was pretty and I wanted to show it off.

Well, I only used it as a carrier for all of 15 seconds while I was showing someone else how you can carry a child with a big piece of cloth. Other than that, I used it for:

1) a seat cushion, when the wet, dirty bleachers were too cold and hard for our tushies during the hours and hours of sitting in the 'audience'.

2) an umbrella, when the rain started pouring down and I didn't want to lose my spot in the bleachers, since everyone else seemed to be smart enough to bring an umbrella but us. (just grab a couple corners and hold up high! lol)

3) a changing pad, when I found out the port-a-potties were too full and nasty to allow my son to use, and I resorted to letting him go in his pull up that day. Needless to say, the grass was just to pointy for him to be willing to lay down on it.

4) a play-toy, when the toys I brought just weren't good enough. Luckily, it was sunny and windy enough for us to play 'parachute' with it (just like back in elementary school when you had a REAL parachute).

5) a jacket, when the shade was way too cold for a tank top.

6) a hiding place, when I wanted to leave our stuff on the grass and walk over to the vendor booths for a cold drink.

Needless to say, you would never think that you can do so many things with just a huge piece of material. :-) Let me know what you can do with a 'simple piece of cloth' in your comments!

Picture post!

Finally uploaded some Idaho pictures! Go to my photobucket gallery to see some highlights of our trip! Hope you enjoy them!