It Took Me 10 Years to Discover the Clear Shower Curtain

// 3.19.09 // 7 Comments » // My Daughter, Parenting

Not literally, of course. I mean, I knew clear shower liners existed, but I’ve always used a beige-colored anti-mold type (which, really? no such thing as anti-mold in a shower liner). Then a week ago when Target was out of the beige-colored anti-mold shower curtain liner, I bought a clear plastic one. And – whoa – let the bath fun begin!

My daughter is a splasher. She kicks and flips (like Ariel, the Little Mermaid) and splashes and gets everything wet. And I get really annoyed because I have a whole bathroom to wipe down. But with the clear liner, I just close the curtain, duck my head under the outer cloth curtain, and let her go crazy with the water. I put my face right up to the clear liner and she throws sponges and cups full of water at my face. And yet, I stay dry! And so does the bathroom. I am a genius.

Today I am 40

// 3.13.09 // 17 Comments » // My Daughter, My Son, Parenting, Thriving

It’s my 40th birthday (as if I haven’t talked enough about that on this blog) and I feel fantastic.

Taking a look over my 40 years of life, I feel so amazingly lucky. I grew up in a good family, never wanted for anything, and never had anything horribly tragic happen. I married a wonderful man and we live happily in a beautiful home with our two awesome children. I’ve never been seriously injured or ill. Except for bouts of depression (that are well-managed with medication, exercise and “me time”), I have a fairy tale life. I am happy.

Like many mothers, I suffer from a good amount of mommy guilt. Am I doing right by my children? Am I raising them to be happy, considerate, confident, strong and self-reliant? For today – and taking it one day at a time – I am going to banish the guilt. My kids are happy, healthy and really smart. I’m sure I’m not doing everything perfectly, but what parent is? My kids are living this fairy tale right along with me and I need to cut myself a break.

This morning, my son presented me with a hand-written birthday card. This is what it said:

Happy Birthday Mom. You can do anything u want today so I will help with the little devil (this means my daughter, heh).

Mom’s List of Things To Do
Toontown
Shred workout
computer
indiana jones if u want to
sleeping when you want
and whatever else you might want

So Happy Birthday Mom and have a great day cause it will only come once a year

Love, Logan

I just love this. It shows that he totally gets me: His list of things for me to do includes video games, time on my computer, working out and sleeping. And that’s just about a perfect day for me.

We’re Still Recovering From the Sleepover

// 3.2.09 // 4 Comments » // My Daughter, My Son, Parenting

Saturday night my son had his first sleepover party. He invited 6 boys. My daughter had a friend over too, for a total of 9 kids. It sounded a bit daunting, but everything went so smoothly that I almost wish we could do it more often. There was no fighting, whining, or “I’m bored” in my house. And there were enough kids here that if some didn’t want to play a particular game, it was easy to find someone else who did. And? Kids at 8-10 years old are really awesome.

They played a lot of Rock Band and Disney Sing It.

They snacked, watched movies, and played with foam dart guns.

The girls and I made cupcakes and things got wild and crazy with the sprinkles.

It was a great party, with the only downside being the sleep situation. Most of the boys got 3-5 hours of sleep and a couple (my son included) didn’t sleep at all. He crashed about 9:30 am and slept all day. So now we’re trying to get back on schedule. He was awake until 1 am last night. Luckily, today is a snow day so we have nowhere to go.

I’ve never been one to say, “Someday, I’ll miss these days,” when it comes to my children. I pretty much can’t wait until they grow up. But this age – my son is 10 years old – I have to say I’m really enjoying.