Author Archives: metamegan

>Meta MetaMegan (Comment Winner Announced!)

>
My mom has recommended the book Marley and Me but I have refused to read it. It sounds like it might be too sentimental for me, and also, if anyone was going to write about Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog – God knows it should have been me.

Fast forward to 2008, and once I started this blog I decided I would write a book. Specifically I said, “Once I have been blogging for a year, I am going to write a book.” I told Dave it would be somewhat remotely related to my blog and he said, “Why would anyone buy your book, when they can read your blog for free?” Good question. Maybe some people don’t have laptops, and might want to read my bon mots before falling asleep, or on the beach? Ok, probably not.

I started thinking about my book some more while reading a recent issue of ReadyMade about self-publishing. But, what to write? Can I make a whole book out of incidents like running into the baby’s room at 5 am to silently shove a pacifier in his mouth in order to get another hour of sleep, and instead banging an already injured knee on a rocking chair, screaming in pain, falling to the ground to hide from baby and writhe around until the throbbing subsides, and thinking, hey, I’ll see if I can find the pacifier while I’m down here?

And then inspiration came. Marley. And. Me. I could write a collection of essays about my babies and my dog! Are you kidding me?! Babies and Dogs! Seriously, I dare you to think of a better combination! And I could write a bunch of essays about things from the past, and intersperse the 2 or 3 hilarious blog posts that I have already written. AND I had the best idea for the commenter prize! Since I plan to self-publish my book on lulu.com, I could give away a gift certificate to lulu.com as a prize. Then the winner could hold onto it for a couple years until my book is ready, or buy something now. Sadly, lulu.com does not actually sell gift certificates.

Since the Boulder Bookstore gift certificate idea was sort a lame prize for anyone other than Dave and Carolyn, I decided to pick a winner and then get them a gift certificate to an independent bookstore in their town. So, I put the comments on pieces of paper and had Luke pick one out of a hat. Wouldn’t you know the one winner that I can’t identify won the prize!

Anonymous said…
Megan –
We’re starting to doubt the Megan Mary Mary story. Ann? Marie? Rita? Alicia?
We’ve enjoyed the blog thus far.

Who could it be? So we picked a backup winner, which is Jane Ellen Jane. Then Luke kept picking names because he really wanted his dad to win. Ellie, you came in third, and Dave was fourth. So if we can figure out who anonymous is soon, they can win. Otherwise, the prize goes to Jane Ellen Jane.

>On the Move

>Jack is almost crawling – it isn’t pretty but he is on the move. The problem with capturing it on video is that if you notice your baby doing some amazing crawling, and it’s right before bedtime, and you run to get the camera, and then try to get him to crawl again, you end up with this:

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=6765432673594533853&hl=en&fs=true

I have three videos like that.

But we didn’t give up! Luke and I kept Jack up long enough, and waved the forbidden remote over and over, and he finally realized I would put him to bed once he pushed himself across the floor on his face. Note the diaper wedgie.

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=1217594024847469829&hl=en&fs=true

>Happy 19th of July!

>Twenty some years ago today, the day was hot and boring in the small town in Ohio where I grew up. We weren’t at the pool, and I was out of ideas. Or maybe I didn’t even try to come up with anything. I just did what any kid would do in that situation, I said, “Mom, I’m bored. What can I do?”

My mom said:

Climb a tree!
Ride your bike!
Read a book!
Write a song!

So I took a little notebook and a little pen and I sat down in the grass on the south side of the house, near the rabbit ears and I wrote the following song:

A, B, C!
1, 2, 3!
19th of July

Most people don’t remember the second verse:

Megan
Beth
John

I showed the song to my mom, who shared it with my dad. And the 19th of July was officially born. For the next 10 or 15 years, I had to endure, on a yearly basis, such taunting as, “Hey! Megan! It’s the 19th of July! Let’s all sing the song!” It was miserable.

And then one year I spent the summer away at college, and came home for a weekend, coincidentally on the 19th of July. There was a giant banner across the dining room, “Happy 19th of July, Megan!” And I thought, “If you can’t beat them, join them!”

So it started with just Happy 19th of July wishes, and the occasional card. And Dave wasn’t on board with celebrating this made up holiday of mine until I started serving cake. Once I got a balloon from my friend Laura, who was also the first person to wish me well today. Oh, and I have to give credit to Ellie, who put a 19th of July reminder on our mommy board calendar at least 2 years ago!

The gifts come mostly from myself though.

Having a birthday on the nation’s holiday hangover day means you have to sometimes make your own special days!

So comment away and wish me well and win a prize! Details to follow!

OK, I came up with a prize that isn’t totally lame. I’ll put all comments into a hat and have Luke choose one on Monday evening. Any comments on any post from now until then will be entered into the contest. Good luck!

>Oops, We Went There Again

>The funniest thing happened today at Chuck E Cheese, or as Luke would say, “Chuckie Cheese.” (We cannot agree over the pronunciation, or the fact that I can read and he can’t.) I realize that the fact that Luke and I like to go to Chuck E Cheese puts into question my well known status as a Boulder hippie/elitist snob, but I am not going to defend myself. I’ll just say we don’t eat there. (Except when we do.) So Chuck E Cheese has some sort of elaborate system involving coded hand stamps for making sure you don’t leave without your child, or with extra children, but despite my many (3) trips there, I have yet to figure it out. The first time I wouldn’t let them stamp Luke’s hand because he hates hand stamps. I guess they let it slide since it was 9am and we were the only people there. The next time, we had loving grandparents with us and I left to go to Costco, so how effective can the stamps be?

Before I get to the hand stamp debacle, let me just say this: Chuck E Cheese is not baby friendly. I was staring at the door, thinking, “How am I going to get this stroller in there?” and saying, “Luke, do you think you can get the door?” and Luke was struggling with the door when a big grandma looking person came out. Thank goodness! But I guess she was in a hurry because instead of holding the door for us she let it hit Luke in the head. She wasn’t an employee so that really has nothing to do with Chuck E Cheese not being baby friendly, but let’s just say it’s hard to feed strained organic green beans to a baby in a room full of flashing lights and crazy noises. OK, I am all over the place here. Let’s get back to the hand stamp. Once we finally got through the door we had this conversation:

CEC Employee: Would you like a sticker for the baby?
Me: No thanks, he isn’t really in to stickers.
CEC Employee: (Says nothing as she leans toward the stroller with giant metal hand stamper.)
Me: Whoa, wait, is that necessary?
CEC Employee: I ASKED if you wanted a STICKER!
Me: (Confused) OK, I guess we’ll take a sticker.
CEC Employee: (Big Sigh. Eye roll. Stamps sticker and gives it to me.)

Luke and I got stamped without incident, and I managed to keep track of the sticker until we left and was therefore allowed to take Jack home.

Then on the way to the car, after our visible only to black light secret codes had been read, Luke said, “Wouldn’t it be weird if Daddy got a new black light and when we got home we could show him our hands and he would see the stamp and know the number was 65?”

Yes, it would be weird if Daddy was shopping for black lights while we were at Chuck E Cheese.

>Now and Then

>Today I worked from home and Jack was a rock star, taking naps, playing, essentially making everything easy. However, he is also working on perfecting the art of sliding off my lap. He just can’t quite crawl or run away. So today I let him slide off my lap and end up under my desk, in front of box full of train parts. He was sort of standing, sort of being supported by my knees. It reminded me of baby Luke, and how he used to be able to casually walk under the dining room table without ducking, or hitting his head. I have vivid memories of those days, and every once in a while when I see Luke standing next to the table I think about him as a baby and I remember when… Anyway, Dave came in and said, “Cute. We should get the camera so later we can say, “Remember when he used to be able to stand under the desk” like we do with Luke and the dining room table.”

So here is Luke, not standing, probably quite a bit older than Jack is now, but under the table:

And here is Jack today, starring in one of many of my future memories:

>Silver Medal Dutch Oven Peach Cobbler

>

We came in second place in the dessert contest, which considering the competition, is something to be proud of. We lost to gingersnaps topped with homemade ice cream – all made at the camp site. Other entries were a delicious apple crisp, chocolate fondue, dirt cake, and slices of watermelon. Only when camping with Boulderites do you meet children who vote for watermelon in a dessert contest with the above choices. Of course, I am married to someone who regularly requests a birthday watermelon.

So many funny pictures and stories to share, but for now, I’ll just share the peach cobbler recipe for anyone who may be camping soon!

We took this recipe from epicurious and this cooking method from Byron’s Dutch Oven page and combined them to make this:

Silver Medal Dutch Oven Peach Cobbler
Preheat the charcoal.

6 large peaches, cut into thin wedges
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

For biscuit topping
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup water

Mix the dry ingredients in a ziplock bag – slice pieces of butter in and squish it around. Add the water and squish it around some more. Slice the peaches, squeeze half a lemon onto the pile of peaches. Coat the inside of the dutch over with some butter. Toss in the peaches, and brown sugar and stir. Take a spoon and glob the dough on top. Cover.

Bake with 10-12 briquettes bottom and 18-20 briquettes top, and turn the lid a quarter way around every 10 minutes or so until the top is browned and it looks done.

So good. Enjoy, but don’t expect to beat someone in a cooking contest when that someone serves chocolate fondue as a dessert appetizer!

>Camping Competition

>We’ll be camping this weekend with some competitive people. The two contests we are going to enter are the dessert making contest and the most delicious alcoholic beverage contest. Hopefully the mountain biking will be the least competitive thing I do all weekend. For the drink contest, we’ll be entering the drink of the summer. And as for the dessert, well, that is top secret for now.

Incidentally, people have been arriving on the Pear of Panties post through various means, including googling “camping panties” and “white panties for 5 year olds”. The people looking for information about children’s underwear should really look elsewhere.

And in case you are wondering, I changed the pink background to white because I was always annoyed when the pink appeared a second after the rest of the page.

>Nature V. Nurture

>Dave and I were discussing Nature vs. Nurture at dinner last night (probably in regards to our awesome parenting and how much it impacts our perfect children.) But with your biological children, does it matter what comes from your genes and what comes from your environment and actions? What’s the diff? Who cares? And if something is not a genetic trait, but a learned behavior, does that mean it can be unlearned? Or relearned for the better?

I guess what I mean is, can people change?

The reason I ask is that Luke could not find his shoes this morning and it upset the delicate balance that allows us to get out of the house somewhere within an hour of on time without screaming, crying, or shaking our fists at the gods. Meetings were almost missed, bottles were forgotten, tears were shed. Luke’s shoes were right by the front door. I have to feel a little sorry for the kid because he seems to have my tendency to lose things, combined with Dave’s inability to look for and find things. Is the inability to look for and find things a genetic trait? Possibly on the y chromosome? Do I lose things because I need to scale back from ubertasking to mere multitasking?

This week I had to borrow Dave’s keys, mine were later found in a breast pump compartment. I went to physical therapy for my knee and couldn’t find my insurance card. I was sure it was on my desk, but it turned out to be in my wallet after all. It is time for a change. I don’t care if my very mitochondrial DNA insists that I lose things, I am going to try to keep track, and I am going to try to help Luke do the same. Wish me luck!

>Nap time

>

Bean was very unhappy when Luke was born. He let us know this by pooping on the floor of Luke’s room. Gradually, and begrudingly he grew to tolerate his new brother. But that was the extent of it. Maybe Bean is just beyond caring, but he seems happier with his new brother Jack.

It almost seems like Bean misses Jack when Jack is taking a nap.

Bean just wants to be close to Jack, so he snuggles with Jacks toys.

Or maybe poor Bean is just finding a way to deal with the fact that Jack’s toys now cover the entire 6×8 rug that represents the only area in Bean’s part of the house that isn’t hard wood. Poor Bean.