Tippy Toes and Tantrums

It's Easy to Be Zen When the Kids Aren't Around

Kevin and I went away last weekend, which I promise to post about this week. It was quiet, lovely, and even more quiet. No one tested out a comedy routine based on burping, no one screamed at another person for looking at them, and no one complained of being hungry, thirsty or in urgent need of a bathroom, despite having just left the house three minutes before.

The best part was that I was able to push things out of my mind. It's hard to turn off the type-A personality stuff, but when I started to think about emails that needed to be sent, lists that needed to be made, or things I needed to do, I let it go until the weekend was over. I've taken mediation (and medication) and have tried so many times in the past to push things out of my mind, but I failed, until this weekend. It turns out, I can live in the moment, as long as that moment has a clear end time.

I fell asleep without tossing and turning or feeling like I should get up to work. It was amazing...until I tried to go to sleep last night. Back at home, on the precipice of a busy week, all of the stress came back. I couldn't sleep. I picked at my cuticles. I went back to a sleep deficit. Once again, I'm tired. It's like we never left.

Needle-Felting, Tie-Dye-Induced Riot

So, I wasn't the only one who was charmed by Craft's bean bags at the Maker Faire. I spent the morning mentally framing the photo I planned on taking of my kids, sweetly cuddled up in the brightly colored tie-dye bean bags. Maybe it would be good enough to make this year's Christmas card.

Toward the end of the day, while watching Moxie's needle felting demonstration, a bean bag opened up. Rocket made it there first, so I motioned for Clover to join him for a picture. That's when the fight broke out. In the front row. During Moxie's demonstration. In front of a full crowd.

This is not the picture I wanted:

This doesn't even show the tears. There was a lot of crying, and a lot of me silently threatening with my eyes, which they ignored. My apologies to the crafters. This is not going to be mentioned in the Christmas card.

HP's Maker Faire Marketing Fail

While eating lunch at the Maker Faire, my son looked down and noticed a golden egg near the left foot of an older man sharing our table. The man picked up the plastic egg, opened it, and handed it to four-year-old Rocket. Inside there was a rolled up note that said "Congratulations! You found a Golden Egg." It said to return the egg to the HP booth for some Angry Birds fun.

The note was a little disappointing - after all figuring out that it was a leftover Easter egg would have been more exciting to a four year old - but the real disappointment came when Kevin and Rocket showed up at the HP booth with the egg and were simply told to toss it into the box for recycling. That was it.

Lame.

After the Maker Faire, a search showed that the person who turned in the most eggs would win a HP PC, which explains why my husband said there were at least a hundred eggs already in the recycling box when he arrived. Twitter also showed that they had some sort of Angry Birds scoring competition, but nothing was said about it when our egg was returned. Even if we knew about the PC contest, we wouldn't have tried for it, but the promotion was still weak. Why not a candy bar or a key chain or something for finding an egg? HP may have meant for the contest to be fun, and the egg certainly brought us to the booth as intended, but it only left a kid disappointed and his family less than enthused.

Cold Eggs of the Future

Everything is happening at once, which isn't unusual for this time of year. The school year ends and spring sports end, but both bring a flurry of activity. I cannot wait for vacation, but those don't happen without planning, and I've been working on that this week too.

But! Soon it will all be made easier with my new robot! To put it politely, Rocket is a little windy and there are some mornings that I cannot get him to preschool fast enough so that the talking (to me) will stop. This morning he began with, "Mom, how would you like breakfast in bed?" Even though we were leaving for school, I said that I'd love it because I've never had it before, unless you count hospitalized bed rest, and that's nothing to dream about.

"Maybe you should sleep in my bed, so we can share the breakfast," he said. This kid is a bottomless pit who left me at the back of the line at his school potluck last night, so that he could cut ahead to get his food without wait. Now he wants first pass at my first breakfast in bed.

"Who is going to make this breakfast?" With one member of my little labor force waiting to share my breakfast, that only leaves Clover, and she doesn't serve anyone.

"Oh, the robots will make it!"

Great.

"Mom, what supplies do I need to build a robot?"

Breakfast is not coming anytime soon.

For the record, he's getting himself a giant robot, and me a smaller robot that will also trim my trees.

Losing the Carpet and the Cough

This post could be alternatively titled Taking a Day and Changing a Life, but that may be a little over dramatic, and the person's whose life was changed would certainly roll her eyes.

A few weekends ago, we (the royal we, really Kevin) ripped out the carpeting in Clover's bedroom, leaving her with lovely hardwood flooring. It could be better, as the flooring reveals some history about the room, but I like the aged look. Not to mention, sometime in the future, I want to change the flooring of the entire house, and Clover's room would likely be stained and sealed then.

It happened because her room always had a musty smell and in the past few years she's developed this awful throat-clearing cough when she runs around or spends time in her room. Many times, the coughing would keep her up at night, and because we have a family history of asthma, I didn't want to ignore it. I took her to an allergist, but after many appointments, poking, and money, he treated me like I had Munchhausen's-by-proxy and told me to try Claritin, if I still thought her cough was real and not a nervous tic. He didn't care that this nervous tic showed up while she ran around in the backyard with her brother or inside her room alone, while reading.

While we now know she has some seasonal allergies, her carpet kept nagging at me. It was new when we moved in and looked fine, but something was holding a damp smell in her room. I asked Kevin to peel back a corner of the carpet to see what was underneath, and my hopes and suspicions were true: hard wood.

But, this was going to be a huge hassle! Kevin let me know the negatives: the floor is probably in horrible condition! It may not help! We should hire someone if you really want to do it, but it's going to cost a lot! As usual, I dragged him into the project and announced that the carpet would be coming up during the next weekend. Because we didn't know what was under there, I researched all the possibilities. I had a plan for glue, excessive nail holes, and damaged flooring, but then we got lucky: there was virtually nothing damaging the floor. The edge of the carpet was held down by simple strips of thin carpet tacks that Kevin pried up, and the padding was held down by widely spaced out staples. That was it. It was up, out of there, and the room was cleaned easily in a day.

That was about six weeks ago and Clover has not coughed in her room once since then. She now falls asleep without coughing until well past her bedtime, and her room smells like nothing. I regret not doing this sooner (and taking her to see that jackass allergist).

Subscribe and They Will Come

Kevin asked me some time ago why I don't drop our New York Times subscription and read the news online. To be fair, we only get the Sunday Times now because I have enough trouble keeping up with one newspaper a week, but I didn't want to let the print edition go completely. I love newsprint and the feel of a crisp, unread paper, but my reason for keeping it had to do with the kids. If we have a paper out, the kids are more likely to take an interest in the news.

Their interest began with advertisements, but now it's not unusual to come across Clover reading the paper. The moment captured above was probably the highlight of my Mother's Day.

Mom Goals, in 100 Words

This choppy post was written for Shine, under the challenge to write about motherhood in 100 words or less. Happy Mother's Day to all, and to all, a good nap.

What I want to teach my kids:

That you learn to take risks, but not enough that you take up extreme motocross.

That you're kind and polite, but not so much that people take advantage of you. If someone makes you feel uncomfortable, it's okay to let the elevator doors close on them while you pretend to press the door open button.

That you master basic skills, even though you say learning to tie shoelaces is pointless. You won't wear Crocs forever.

That you bathe without being forced to do so.

That you learn to laugh freely, especially at yourself.

The Samsung SH100 is a Hip Mom Camera

My mom hung onto her point and shoot film camera for far too long, until last year when she was finally badgered into getting a digital camera. I'll be honest, she's not a great photographer, so after getting stuck looking at a roll full of her photos featuring blurs, overflash, subjects out of focus, or best, the backs of other photographers, I'd tell her to get a digital camera to save the cost of printing poor shots, the ease of editing, and to spare her loved ones any more pain. Finally, she did it. She made the leap into digital!

Then she asked us what's next? How do the pictures come out of the camera? Our problems were not over.

Now she knows about memory cards and uploading photos to be printed, but it's not something she does about with confidence. And there is no way she can upload a photo to Facebook.

The Samsung SH100 is the fool proof answer. It's small enough to fit into her pocket (much smaller than the boxy camera she bought last year), higher quality than a cell phone camera, and it's Wi-Fi enabled, so with a few taps, her photos can be shared directly online. No more printing and cornering. Now the photos can be sent to people directly or posted on Facebook. She can brag about the grandchildren in real time.

Even for savvy users, the Samsung SH100 is convenient and has the neatest feature: it can turn your smart phone into a remote viewing device. While watching your little angel sing with the school choir, you can hold the camera above the heads of the other parents, while watching your smart phone to see the photos you're snapping. Shoot away while perfecting the shot.

To highlight the SH100's portability, Samsung is hosting a Coast-to-Coast Photo Post campaign this month. The Samsung mobile team is taking a month-long roadtrip with SH100, allowing people along the way to use the camera and post their photos online. The road trip will be shared on Samsung Camera USA's Facebook page.

Disclosure: I was compensated for this opportunity by Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity.  All opinions are my own.

 

My New Favorite Mixed Drink is Gatorade

This should really be farmed out for birthday party entertainment: make your own Gatorade. For the record, Cherry Berry Tropical with a splash of pomegranate is awesome. Feel free to steal that, Gatorade people, and get ready for it to fly off the shelves because it is good stuff.

The highlight of the trip to Gatorade headquarters in Chicago was not concocting my own Gatorade, but it was pretty high up there. I was sad to leave the bottle behind in my hotel room, knowing if I took it with me, I'd have to chug the contents with a line-full of people watching me at the TSA check point. It was best to say my goodbyes in the hotel room.

When I told the kids that I got to make my own Gatorade, they flipped with excitement, asking when they got to make theirs (it's always about them), and then they crashed with disappointment when I told them it wasn't happening. Too bad because make your own Gatorade would have been the hit of Rocket's upcoming birthday party.

More on Gatorade, hydration, and sports nutrition to come. Clover's is already sick of sitting through two days of lectures about what she should consume before and after softball. Although she likes that better than the talk about dedication and the value of practice. What can I say - I learned a lot during the trip.

Cruising While in Park

The Disney Wonder came to town and I got to spend a fun morning with Bonggamom, Glennia, and Whitney while we cruised the ship, but sadly we didn't actually cruise with the ship. My dream was to get aboard and hear "surprise! you're staying!" But since all of the staterooms were full, I didn't think any of the passengers would appreciate housing a few castaways.

The lovely Bonggamom. The deck was empty for except us and the crew when this passenger jumped in to backwards photo bomb us. The day was still beautiful.

More photos on Silicon Valley Mamas.