Author Archives: metamegan

>Slowly, Slowly, Figuring Things Out

>Yesterday was Wednesday, and I had to pry Jack off the bookshelf. From there he moved on to Luke’s duffle bag.

(My thought process: Totally safe! He can drag it around, he can try on Luke’s basketball shoes, he can look at the bottle of water! Minutes of entertainment.)

Minutes later, he was staggering across the living room with a nalgene bottle that was 2/3 full. Very heavy, the kind of thing that would really hurt when you drop it on your foot.

(Thought process: Intervene.)

Jack indicated that he wanted to drink some of the water. I unscrewed the cap. He pretended to drink. Then he screwed the cap back on. Then he unscrewed the cap. Wash, rinse, repeat.

(Thought process: Wow, I am just sitting on the floor with Baby Jack, playing and having a good time. What a sweetheart. I just love him. He could do this for hours. I should probably check my email. If he could do this for hours, could I just get some work done? No, he’ll spill the water eventually. Could I get enough work done to make cleaning up 20 ounces of water and changing all his clothes worth it? He is so cute. Oh, let me hold it Jack. Be careful. Aww, adorable. Seriously, could I work for 5 minutes, or just throw some dishes in the dishwasher while he plays with this water bottle? Could I swoop in and catch it before the bottle spills? LIGHTBULB!!! I could pour the water out!)

I chance it and leave him with the bottle while I grab an empty one, change them out, pour out the water and give him the original bottle back.

(Thought process: Why. Did. It. Take. Me. So. Long. tofigurethisout?)

I used the remaining “Jack is busy playing with a nalgene bottle time” to put two dishes in the dishwasher. If only I had acted sooner, I could have maybe cleared off half the counter!

>2 Random Things

>

1.) If you ever thought, “Wow, MetaMegan really has her act together. How does she do it?” Well, if yesterday’s post did not dispel that myth then I have one more thing to share:
I noticed a pair of pants were missing from my closet a few weeks ago and I finally went to the dry cleaner to pick them up this weekend. They had been dropped off on June 18, 2008.

2.) Luke asked if he could put grapes in his taco today. I said, “As long as it’s nutritious, I don’t care what you put in your taco.” He said, “Well, it’s my taco and you should care what is in it. And I think grapes would be delicious.” And I said, “Go for it.” And he did. And then he said, “Eeeeewwww.” And then he ate the whole thing.

Photo Credit

>See You in Hell, January

>As a January birthday girl, I have always felt a begrudging sense of loyalty to that sometimes miserable month. But let’s see, what have I accomplished this month?

1.) 4 snowboarding days – OK – that’s pretty good
2.) Biked to work once – was passed going up hill by a recumbent tricyclist
3.) Worked out 4 times – I may be rounding up
4.) Wrote 12 blog posts – lame
5.) Finished 0 books – really lame
6.) Watched many hours of TV
7.) Whined about month long sinus infection

But it’s February! I have been outside every day this month. And aside from the gale force winds that I had to pedal into on my way home from work, I would say things are looking up!

Don’t let Punxsutawney Phil get you down, according to one of Luke’s teachers, “groundhog day is just silly.”

>The Best Thing Ever

>I don’t want to get into some sort of silly gender stereotyping, where I imply that men can never find anything, because I only know my own experiences. My own experience, is that Dave and Luke can never find anything. Sometimes they just ask me where something is without even looking. And I’ll say, “It’s on the end table next to the red chair in the basement” or “On the middle shelf of the refrigerator, half way back.” And then sometimes that isn’t enough and I have to actually use my finger and point directly to the lost item.

SO! Imagine my surprise the other day, when Jack and I were in the living room and I said, “Jack. Where are your shoes?” And then I walked to Jack’s room, looked for the shoes, didn’t find them, and then walked back to the living room. And what did I see? I am not even sure the world is ready for this. Ready? Jack was holding up his shoes.

I know. It was the best thing ever.

>You Know You Are a Mom of a … When …

>You know you are a mom of a infant/toddler in daycare when: You say, “I am just going to wear this sweater again because it already has boogers on it.”

What? It’s my nice, brand new sweater from Ann Taylor Loft* that I got on sale for $7. If I am going to wash boogers off it, I might as well get two days worth.

It’s also the perfect sweater for those 60+ degree January days where you don’t know what to wear. A short sleeve sweater! It says, “It’s January, but I don’t want to get too hot walking to the grocery store” and “I could probably rock a tank top today, but then I would need too much sun screen for my arms.”

* I’d link to the sweater, but I can’t find it online.

>Wednesday

>And tomorrow is Wednesday. {Redacted long boring section about how I work all the time at night and on weekends and if I don’t get a lot done on a Wednesday I more than make up for it except sometimes people need me to get things done, right then! and I need to do things, right then! regardless of Jack’s mood/temper. End redaction. Seriously, it was longer and more boring before I edited this section out.} Jack will often play for a while with his upstairs toys while I sit at the breakfast bar and work. But downstairs is a totally different story. Downstairs is where we keep the real toys. But I can’t sit at the desk in the office, or else Jack will want to chew through all the computer wires. And I can’t sit on the couch with the laptop on my lap. But if I put the laptop on the landing and stick my arms through the banister, I can work while Jack happily plays. Yeah, so, that is what I do. Last Wednesday, I thought, “This is really crazy. He is so busy playing, why don’t I just sit on the couch?” And two seconds later, I heard the rebel yell and Jack was running across the floor and pushing the laptop out of the way to get into my lap. All this time, I have thought that he just wanted to push buttons on my laptop, but if that were the case, why isn’t he climbing the stairs to get to it when it’s on the banister? I’ll tell you why! Because Jack thinks my lap is his lap. So I headed back to the stocks to continue my work day.

Jack can’t go to the toddler room until there is space and he can survive on one nap a day. And that means I need to survive on one Jack nap a day. And wouldn’t you know it, I need to dial into a meeting tomorrow during morning nap time. Don’t worry, as long as I take the call standing up, and let Jack get whatever he wants out of the lazy susan, and allow him to make prank calls on my cell phone then it should be just fine!

Expect a call from a baby tomorrow.

>You Say Nuzzle, I say Nosel

>If you say to Jack that you want a kiss, and he is feeling accommodating, he will rub his cheek on your cheek. It is very cute. Jack was giving Luke kisses this morning and Luke said, “Mama! He noseling! ” I said, “Luke, do you mean nuzzling?” He said, “Yes, I know it’s nuzzling, but since you do it with your nose, I call it noseling.”

>Free Day

>
I have a nasty cold, and upon my cold I lay the blame for what happened today.

Way back last week when I had the brilliant idea to go to the zoo with the boys on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the forecast was for 49 degrees. That seemed like perfect winter zoo weather. We’d dress warmly and check out the indoor exhibits when we were cold. So I made the announcement: We’re going to the zoo. A few days ago, the forecast was for 60 + and I thought, “Well, the crowds will be worse, but not everyone gets MLK day off.” At that point, I didn’t know it was free day at the zoo. And then someone told me, but Luke already knew the plan, and how bad could free day really be? How bad? I’ll let the google map from the car to the zoo speak for itself. (OK, instead of letting the map speak for itself, I’ll add that it was 9/10 of a mile. We walked for at least 20 minutes from the car to the zoo. We had to stop and get a drink on the way.) Oh, and what I also didn’t know until it was way too late, was that the zoo is right next to the park where the Martin Luther King Jr. rally and parade began.

So I guess only a crazy person would go to the zoo on free day, but I have to say, that even though it was insanely crowded, people were very polite and considerate. I didn’t feel the need to be mean to anyone’s kids and no one felt the need to tell me I was mean. So that was nice. And right when I started to feel the tiniest bit claustrophobic, Luke decided he wanted to leave.

Of course it was at least an hour and a half before we were back at the car, but we had a fun day.