Author Archives: metamegan

>The Balance Myth

>I have a lot to say about the B word. (Balance.) But I don’t really have time to write the whole post now. I was thinking about it on the way to a work meeting at around 7:10 am this morning, at Jack’s 9 month check up, on and off during work, while I was riding my bike to the school meeting where I volunteered to be the kindergarten liaison, and I thought some more while I was nursing Jack to sleep, and then while Dave and I were picking up the house. Then I rode my bike to Andrea’s house to make a peanut butter sandwich for Luke’s lunch box since she lives halfway to the grocery store and we were out of peanut butter. So ideas are percolating about the balance myth. Just an FYI about what I am working on, in my little, sleep deprived brain.

Jack Report: He is meeting milestones like a champ, and he weighs 17 pounds, 6 ounces. This is slightly below the 10% percentile. He’s been right at 10 for his whole life and a little drop at 9 months is to be expected since he is so active. Of course, he is 9.5 months, but whatev. 50% for height and 25% for head size.

Luke Report: He did not get the milk! My powers are not as strong as I thought. I am just going to get him a thermos, I guess. At the meeting today a subcommittee was formed to discuss why 15 minutes isn’t enough time for lunch and what can be done about it. If Luke doesn’t want to waste precious eating time, trying to buy milk, I guess I can deal with it. He also came home yesterday and the day before in a very good mood and he made a friend at after school care so all is right with the world. (He now has $29.50 in his online account but I suppose he can use that up over the next 12 or 13 years.)

Megan Report: Speaking of milk, the daycare has been saying I am not sending enough milk and I have been stressing. Jack’s weight drop stressed me even more. I asked the Dr. about it, and I said the only thing I can think to do is add a late night pumping session. He said mother nature is in charge and Jack is doing fine. Whatever I pump is enough and I would be better off going to bed instead of trying to pump one more time. Yea! A tremendous weight has been lifted!

>Week Three, Drying Tears

>*** Subtitled: Why is Milk? Becows. ***

Oh, we had such a fun weekend! Playing non-stop with the cousins, staying up too late, skipping naps. It was hard for everyone to go to bed last night and face the new week. Tears were shed, fears confessed, condolences sought. But enough about me.

No friends at after school care, and milk anxiety were the big problems last night. But Luke now has a friend at after school care AND he got milk at the cafeteria. And all was right with the world.

Alas, bedtime arrived and the milk anxiety returned. “I don’t want milk!!! They’ll ask me if I want hot lunch and I’ll have to say “No thank you!” and water is good for you!”

Fortunately, Dave put Luke to bed and handled the situation as follows: “You can choose whether or not to get milk. We would prefer that you get milk, but we can’t always be there to help you make decisions. So it’s your choice.” Then he told me not to mention milk. When I went in to give Luke a kiss goodnight he said,

“Did Daddy tell you it’s my choice?”

“About what?”

“The milk!”

“Did he tell you what we would prefer that you choose?”

“Yes. And I choose not to get milk.”

“OK.”

“But I might change my mind. I’ll make up my mind tomorrow.”

I could feel his resolve crumbling under my motherly, guilt-inducing, loving gaze. Yes, Dave and I make a good team.

>What’s Jack Into These Days?

>So what’s Jack into? Oh, the lazy susan. He literally got into the lazy susan. He was wrist deep in the potted plants, he got his stomach in Bean’s water dish, he crawled under his crib when the side was down, and under Luke’s bed. He napped quite a bit on Wednesday, which was good because when he was awake I could only work in 10 second intervals.

What is Luke really into though? Playing with his cousins! Yea! The cousins are here! Pictures to follow as the weekend progresses.

P.S. Jack had roseola last week – that was what caused the fever and the rash. Febrile seizures are a side effect of roseola, which I did not know until the danger had passed. But I did think that Jack felt hot, and immediately gave him tylenol. As he was swallowing the fever reducing nectar like a baby bird, I was remembering what a febrile seizure was like and hoping to never observe another one. Which reminds me! Happy half birthday to Luke! In six months he’ll be too old for a febrile seizure. At 14 months, it was not at all a relief to hear that the seizures stop at 6 years. I am glad that there was just the one!

>Mamas for Obama

>I watched the speech tonight and it seemed different from any other political speech that I can remember. I felt a weird feeling that was hard to identify at first, but it turns out to be optimism!

>A Break From the Funny

>Luke hates after school care. The reason: He has to sit on the floor and wait for the Y-Care teacher to come get him while every other kid says, “I see my mommy!”, gives the teacher a high five and walks out the door.

It breaks my heart.

I know a second grader who loves after school care, and a first grader who begs his mom to sign him up. I know a family that says their kids love every minute and are sad to be picked up. I am sure this is a phase and that I am more upset than he is, but it’s rough.

I am trying to remember how long it took from Luke to go from missing his mommy at pre-school to wishing I wouldn’t come to get him so early. I’m not going to try too hard to remember though because I am afraid it might have been a couple months.

>Settling Into the School Year

>Sometimes I don’t really feel like a mom, or like my idea of what a mom is. I remember when Luke was able to stand and play with the tupperware in the bottom drawer in the kitchen, that made me feel like a mom. Probably because I have memories of my sister playing in the bottom drawer in the kitchen. Kid playing in drawer while you work in the kitchen = quintessential mom. I hadn’t had that, “weird I don’t feel like a mom” feeling in a while – possibly because I have two children, and five and half years into the whole thing I am used to it. But last week when I was packing lunches (like the third of 3,960 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that I will be making over the next 16 or so years) I had this “wow, I really am a mom” feeling.

The next feeling I had was, “wow, that’s a lot of plastic baggies.”

So I took a sandwich sized tupperware to Luke and said, “Can you open this?”

He tried and wasn’t able to. He said, “Sorry Mom, you’ll need to get Daddy to help you.”

So I am investigating alternatives.

Also, Luke was very concerned about the homework situation before the school year started, and I really had no idea what to tell him to expect. So every day he has come home and said, “No homework!” But it’s almost like he’ll be relieved when he gets homework so the whole thing isn’t a mystery anymore. He did come home with a little piece of paper that was a xerox of the type of paper that you use to practice your letters. His name was written on it in dotted lines. He said, “No homework! But look! I have this!” And I said, “Maybe you are supposed to trace over that with a pencil to practice your letters? Maybe that’s your homework.” He said, “I don’t think so. I think that’s optional.”

Oh, one more thing. We were reading a bedtime story of Scooby Soo and the Alien Invaders and Luke was looking at the pictures. There was some graffiti on a wall and that said, “Aliens go home.” He pointed out the “go” and I asked him how he knew what that word was. He said, “We have a calendar at school and it lists everything we do for the day and it says, “Go Home” at the end.” I said, “What else is on it?” He said, “Recess.” And I said, “What else?” And he said, “That’s all I remember.”

>At Long Last: The Redneck Roadtrip

>It’s a beautiful Saturday, the weather is a perfect 75 degrees, the sun is shining. Jack is napping away his fever, Luke is playing in the basement, and I am working. I have two processes going, and there is no way I can start a third without getting confused and causing problems, so it’s time to blog the Redneck Roadtrip of Late July/Early August.

We started it all off with a trip to the Boulder County Fair for the Demolition Derby. It was about 800 degrees, and we kicked things off be eating our dinner in line to get into the grandstands. Dave and Luke and I unanimously agreed that our dinner consisted of the best corn dogs we had ever had. The. Best. Poor Jack just got milk and baby food. I brought a bottle, because nursing a baby at the county fair just didn’t seem quite right. Sure I would fit in… with the animals. And it was the Boulder County Fair. But it was also the demolition derby.

I took a lot of pictures.

Have you ever been? No? Enjoy – this video is mostly demolition anticipation.
http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-8134585262585257130&hl=en&fs=true

Then we hit the rides – (note to self: next year purchase a wrist band for the rides.)

Or, for just slightly more money, buy a plane ticket, and go to Cedar Point.

Then, we left the fair at about 10pm with a sobbing child and an overstimulated baby and headed home in time to catch a few winks and head to Keystone for The Beer and Bluegrass festival.

We went with our good friends, our oldest Boulder friends, such good friends that we almost never get together because we now live 20 minutes away instead of in the same house.

We drank beer,

listened to bluegrass,


bounced in bounce houses,

swam in the pool,

played putt putt, drank beer,

mountain biked, danced,

and managed to cram it all in before 9pm when we all passed out.

I’d go into more details, but that is all that I remember.

>Two Face Vs The Six Million Dollar Man

>*** Alternate Post Title: Does your face hurt? ***
*** Alternate Post Subtitle: It’s killing me! Wacka wacka Wacka ***

So Dave started off as Harvey Dent, progressed to Two Face, and is practically Col. Steve Austin less than a week later. And by that I mean his massive head/face wound seems to be almost healed. The face wound that was only visible if you looked at him from one side. Get it, two-face? And the fast healing part is like the 6 million dollar man. In case this doesn’t make sense, it’s because I am mildly delirious.

I told Dave to call his parents before I posted about his injury, and he did, but he just left a voice mail. A voice mail that probably said, “hey call me.” Not, “we don’t know exactly what happened but Megan found me on my back, passed out, snoring, and bleeding from three parts of the left side if my face. Rob tried to do mouth to mouth, which, based on the snoring was probably unnecessary, but Rob really wanted me to live, and possibly always wanted to kiss me. Megan panicked at first and then pulled it together to get me some ice, wrap me in a blanket and then put more wood on the fire. She also managed the four children in such a way that they view the whole experience as interesting and funny and not something that will scar them for life. We were camping and it was dark and we didn’t seek immediate medical attention for those reasons. I still haven’t been to the doctor because Megan hasn’t scheduled me an appt because I haven’t updated my google calendar so she doesn’t know when I am free. I am almost totally healed now except for the chunk missing from my nose. Call me back when you get a chance, love ya!”

So new information has come to light that indicates maybe Dave was just a little under the weather and that is what caused him to faint. Here is what makes me think that: The green boogers coming out of both my children’s noses, my sinus infection and general yucky feeling, and the fact that we were up all night with a feverish Jack. Luke leaning over the toilet and saying he was going to throw up on the first day of school may or may not support this theory. Anyway, I am a zombie today, but Dave is recovering nicely from his injury!