Author: Michele Minehart (Page 252 of 311)

 I have about 10 more minutes until I need to get my hiney to work. I have  full inbox to deal with on the last day of my first week back to really working. It’s gone pretty well… that is to say, KC and I haven’t went completely crazy as the only ones on the team in the office all week. We’ll probably have to have, as my momma likes to say, “a good stiff drink” after this week ends and her vacation begins. I’ll be back next week but in a different capacity. No pesky managers to deal with.

Once I get myself in the door (and find a cube… grrr…), I really enjoy working. I love what I do, I enjoy the pace. Keeps me fresh. However, getting myself out the door is another story. I mean, who wants to leave this little gorgeous who is currently sitting in my lap? And the sleeping hubby and toddler don’t help either. These crisp summer mornings, nothing is better than staying in your jammie jams and drinking coffee, sharing your thoughts with the world through that there interweb. I LOVE these kinds of mornings and days and tearing myself away to sit in a cube seems, currently, like torture.

However, I remember the days of yore, not so long ago, when I was dying to break free of the monotony of staying home. My friends hit the ignore button on me because I wouldn’t. stop. talking. I needed adult interaction in the worst kind of way.

So, much like before I left the worky-work world with questions, I return to it with just as many. My hands are full. In the right, I have the fact that I like what I do and the team I’m on. I like the pace, I like the challenge, I like the rhythm. I like making a wage that affords me to buy groceries. I like contributing what I have to offer.

In the left, I have the fact that I have less and less of a role with my kids. Of course, I’m the mama and always will be. But what can I say or how can I argue when another person is the one guiding and directing them for a much larger proportion of the day or week? And if I love contributing, why not contribute to my kids’ future by putting that energy and enthusiasm toward them? As well, I feel like our world is being institutionalized every where I look… the last thing I want is to institutionalize my kids from birth, making the years that are supposed to be filled with play and awe and wonder instead filled with schedules, rules and a 5:1 ratio.

Yes, women’s lib folk, I do thank you that I now have a choice. And it’s my choice, so I have no one to blame. I have opportunity to do any of the things I love and others can find value in it. But it’s the choosing that makes it hard.

But alas, all these mind games are going to make me late for work. Well, perhaps I won’t have a choice after all…. 🙂

I had some down time today while the chillins were napping in the hotel room, so I did some perusing of what the rest of the world calls “real” bloggers (funny… aren’t bloggers simply amateur writers? so by definition I’m an (aspiring) amateur version of an amateur writer? Sounds like I’m quite, um, green). I made a few observations.

A) All kinds of give-a-ways. $50 gift cards, store credit, books, movies and ipads. I have none of these things. I suppose, after doing a brief inventory, I have these to give away: an old hutch (given to me from an older couple. It was secondhand when they received it 30+ years proir); a treadmill (which may or may not be owned by my parents and given to one of their friends, but since it’s still sitting in my florida room I think it’s fair game); an ice cream scoop (at last count we have 5); a partially used box of bakers chocolate (at last count we have 3); and a sign that says “beware of pickpockets and loose women” (this is hanging in the husband’s garage but I hate the thing and would be willing to give it away).

B) All kinds of free stuff for the blogger! If enough people read, random companies will just fill a blogger’s mailbox full of goodies in the hopes that said blogger will write something complementary about it. I’ve read bloggers who’ve received fancy yarns, clothes, soap, makeup, lotion, papers, crafting items, baking tools… it’s amazing! Now, I’ve mentioned before about my lack of fashionability: consider it an open invitation!

C) And in the vein of selling things… lots o’ ads. So far no one is paying me anything to write words of brilliance. Perhaps I need to find a subject area that includes a problem in which a specific product would solve it. Then the owners of the product company would pay me millions.

D) And lots of these bloggers are quite social; joining blog rings, going to conferences (seriously, who pays them so much money that they go to CONFERENCES!?). Some have a social conscience as well, advertising causes and npo’s. Nifty little box ads and everything.

E) And the number one thing these real bloggers have? Readers. Novel idea.

Well, at least I can work on making things pretty (which, btw, I recommend the Google Picasa photo editor). Then I’ll work on just gathering topics that are a bit more interesting than spying on the rest of the bloggy world.

Until then…

The husband has informed me that I’m a failure of a mother when it comes to notating when our children have reached certain milestones, i.e. first tooth, sleeping well, walking… I can’t go back in time to take notes on H-boy, but I can attempt to commemorate from here on out. Generally I resort to “about 3 months” when people ask about the early markers for H, as JME will attest. But we can capture what we’re good at today:

H-Boy (19 months)
Doing a pretty good job running. Cute little hip sway when he does. Learning how to jump but hasn’t quite got his feet off the ground.
Words: Mommy, Daddy, doggie, puppy, ducky, bobby (we’re not sure who bobby is. “baby” maybe?), “moo” for cow, uh-oh, yes, no, “shhhh” (when we tell him “sister’s sleeping) and just today: Kroger. You can hear him working on other words, we just haven’t figured them out yet – I think there was a “monkey” the other day.
Signs: more, help, all done, please, eat, milk, banana, cheese, thank you, water
Loves: baths & being naked, wrestling with daddy, watching out for sister, blowing kisses when we leave, wrestling with the dogs, riding the “tractor” (mower), digging in dirt and mulch, and the playground, shoveling (sand, water or beans).
Favorite toys: balls, cups, buckets, shovels, sticks. 
He also loves to show his belly or tell where his ear, nose, tongue and eyes are when asked. 
Sings “E-I-E-I” (no O) with Old MacDonald
Signs with Twinkle Twinkle little star
Claps with If You’re Happy and You Know It.

Miss M (10 weeks old)
Sleeping much better, only getting up between 2-3am and again for the day at 6-7am.
Super eater.
Smiles and laughs, lots of coos
Likes to bounce & jiggle to go to sleep, sleeps on her belly.
Ticklish toes!
Holds her head up like a pro
Has started to straighten legs as to stand

There we go. Now I’m fit for children. I’ll have to print this off and put it in their (incomplete) baby books.