Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Tell the Truth Tuesday: It's a Mom-petition!
For as long as there've been parents and children, there's been "mom-petition" (read: competition among moms) Anywhere you go that there's a group of mommas together, there's bound to be the one upping that most moms can't seem to resist. I'm guilty of being a mom-petitor (what an annoying word) sometimes I just get caught up in the moment and the next thing I hear myself say is "well Gabe was 2 days old when he walked, take that" (lie)
It's something that goes with the territory so it's not shocking in the least for me when it happens. HOWEVER it *is* shocking to see/hear/read that sort of behavior in the special needs parenting circle. For the most part, special needs parents stick together; we boost each other up, we listen, we vent-we don't compete over whose kid is more disabled or gets more services, etc (which makes me wonder, why in the heck do we do it with parents of NT kids???) The special needs parenting circle is a pretty tight knit community; even when you've just met a parent who is part of that "group" there's an instant camaraderie; there's no competing, there's no "oh yeah, well" it's more of a "who is your doctor?" "what services does your child get?" etc sort of thing. A few weeks back I met the mom of a little girl Bitsy's age who had kick ass orthodics for her shoes. I started talking to her and ended up with a good suggestion as to where to go for GOOD orthodics-it was great.
As some of you know, I run a really large group for special needs parents online. It's a really great community; people come looking for info, for a shoulder to cry on, for the camaraderie that they may not be getting in "real" life...but today a mom-petitor showed up...and I'm pleased to say that my fellow SN mommas fought back; they called her out on her crap and made sure she KNEW it wasn't acceptable-I'm so proud of them! But to tell the truth, it shouldn't have happened-and honestly, it needs to stop among ALL parents, not just in the SN community. So my promise to myself, to my fellow moms, both to SN and NT kiddos is that I am going to try my best to NOT compete with you. Even *if* SarahAnne knew all the words to the Star Spangled Banner at the age of 7 hours old (lie, again) I promise not to tell you that...can you do the same?
It's something that goes with the territory so it's not shocking in the least for me when it happens. HOWEVER it *is* shocking to see/hear/read that sort of behavior in the special needs parenting circle. For the most part, special needs parents stick together; we boost each other up, we listen, we vent-we don't compete over whose kid is more disabled or gets more services, etc (which makes me wonder, why in the heck do we do it with parents of NT kids???) The special needs parenting circle is a pretty tight knit community; even when you've just met a parent who is part of that "group" there's an instant camaraderie; there's no competing, there's no "oh yeah, well" it's more of a "who is your doctor?" "what services does your child get?" etc sort of thing. A few weeks back I met the mom of a little girl Bitsy's age who had kick ass orthodics for her shoes. I started talking to her and ended up with a good suggestion as to where to go for GOOD orthodics-it was great.
As some of you know, I run a really large group for special needs parents online. It's a really great community; people come looking for info, for a shoulder to cry on, for the camaraderie that they may not be getting in "real" life...but today a mom-petitor showed up...and I'm pleased to say that my fellow SN mommas fought back; they called her out on her crap and made sure she KNEW it wasn't acceptable-I'm so proud of them! But to tell the truth, it shouldn't have happened-and honestly, it needs to stop among ALL parents, not just in the SN community. So my promise to myself, to my fellow moms, both to SN and NT kiddos is that I am going to try my best to NOT compete with you. Even *if* SarahAnne knew all the words to the Star Spangled Banner at the age of 7 hours old (lie, again) I promise not to tell you that...can you do the same?
Monday, February 27, 2012
Monday Mornings with the Yummy Mummies
I don't usually go to the gym on Monday mornings for a few reasons, but today I decided ah what the heck, let's go. One of the reasons I don't go to the gym first thing Monday morning is a group of ladies I (lovingly) call the "yummy mummies" Apparently, my definition of yummy mummy and the internets' definition of yummy mummy is completely different but that's alright.
So what's a yummy mummy? A yummy mummy is a woman who goes to my gym on Monday morning (and sometimes Tuesdays too) and works out vigorously on the treadmill for an hour. There are two distinct categories of yummy mummies:
The first is the bleach blond, overly tanned, very toned woman who has no reason to be on the treadmill except that she needs something to fill her time.
The second is the perfectly highlighted brunette, incredibly tanned, fairly toned woman who works out because she has to.
The biggest issue I have with these women is that they never appear to sweat and I'm incredibly jealous of that. They look just as good getting off the treadmill as they do when they get on (full make up of course!) I will never be a yummy mummy for a variety of reasons:
1) I sweat, a lot, when I'm working out.
2) I've never tanned in my entire life
3) I haven't colored my hair in at least six months and the only high lights in my hair are naturally grey and a little too frizzy for my tastes
and
4) I need to either work out four to five times a week or not eat to even think about being toned
So I'll never be a yummy mummy, but that's okay because they've taught me a good lesson just by watching them gab and not sweat on Monday mornings...we work out for ourselves, not for others. I'd be willing to guarantee that the yummy mummies don't give a damn about sweaty, grey haired me because they're busy doing their own thing...and perhaps I should take that to heart. I work out for ME not for anyone else. Now I just need a group of people who are like me who want to get really sweaty and have a fun group name too-any takers?? hehe
So what's a yummy mummy? A yummy mummy is a woman who goes to my gym on Monday morning (and sometimes Tuesdays too) and works out vigorously on the treadmill for an hour. There are two distinct categories of yummy mummies:
The first is the bleach blond, overly tanned, very toned woman who has no reason to be on the treadmill except that she needs something to fill her time.
The second is the perfectly highlighted brunette, incredibly tanned, fairly toned woman who works out because she has to.
The biggest issue I have with these women is that they never appear to sweat and I'm incredibly jealous of that. They look just as good getting off the treadmill as they do when they get on (full make up of course!) I will never be a yummy mummy for a variety of reasons:
1) I sweat, a lot, when I'm working out.
2) I've never tanned in my entire life
3) I haven't colored my hair in at least six months and the only high lights in my hair are naturally grey and a little too frizzy for my tastes
and
4) I need to either work out four to five times a week or not eat to even think about being toned
So I'll never be a yummy mummy, but that's okay because they've taught me a good lesson just by watching them gab and not sweat on Monday mornings...we work out for ourselves, not for others. I'd be willing to guarantee that the yummy mummies don't give a damn about sweaty, grey haired me because they're busy doing their own thing...and perhaps I should take that to heart. I work out for ME not for anyone else. Now I just need a group of people who are like me who want to get really sweaty and have a fun group name too-any takers?? hehe
Saturday, February 25, 2012
I'm alive, I swear
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Random thoughts...
on cemeteries...I know that probably sounds odd, but hear me out.
We live around the corner from a really old cemetery-like people who were born in the 1700's are buried there. It's in a beautiful location overlooking the river; the people who planned it obviously thought it would bring people peace and comfort to be able to gaze over the river when burying their people. The kids and I like to go check out the old headstones, it's brought up a lot of really interesting conversations for us. For example, they always wonder about headstones that say "Baby LastName" and then only have one year on it. Gabe was quite perturbed that kids died routinely in the 1800's, which lead to a nice discussion about why it's so important to go to the doctor, eat good foods, and exercise.
Today something the kids and I noticed was how people honor those who've gone before them. In the middle of the cemetery is a giant obelisk monument. It's for one whole area where the whole family is buried. The headstones themselves are huge and ornate; not surprisingly they are for people who've died many many years ago. It seems like even fifty years ago, people were so devoted to their families that they would put up huge monuments to their deceased. It's interesting to see how the size of headstones has changed just in the last half century (this is something I've observed at other cemeteries as well-not just this one-you can almost always tell when the person died by the size of their headstone)
Gabe is partial to the military headstones; they're simple, white headstones with a name, date, and their rank. We have quite a few WWI and WWII vets buried in our cemetery. I am really partial to the ones that are so old you can barely make out the name or dates on them. Bits likes the big, flowery bright headstones. There are quite a few pink headstones if you can believe that.
I love walking in the cemetery, it's so quiet and peaceful. The only sounds we heard were crunching leaves, squirrels chattering and one persistent cardinal couple squawking at one another. We cleared off headstones, picked up flowers and wreaths that had fallen over, and talked about why it's important to be respectful and quiet in a cemetery...and then we ran back to the park to get covered in mud and wear ourselves out! What a way to spend the day!
We live around the corner from a really old cemetery-like people who were born in the 1700's are buried there. It's in a beautiful location overlooking the river; the people who planned it obviously thought it would bring people peace and comfort to be able to gaze over the river when burying their people. The kids and I like to go check out the old headstones, it's brought up a lot of really interesting conversations for us. For example, they always wonder about headstones that say "Baby LastName" and then only have one year on it. Gabe was quite perturbed that kids died routinely in the 1800's, which lead to a nice discussion about why it's so important to go to the doctor, eat good foods, and exercise.
Today something the kids and I noticed was how people honor those who've gone before them. In the middle of the cemetery is a giant obelisk monument. It's for one whole area where the whole family is buried. The headstones themselves are huge and ornate; not surprisingly they are for people who've died many many years ago. It seems like even fifty years ago, people were so devoted to their families that they would put up huge monuments to their deceased. It's interesting to see how the size of headstones has changed just in the last half century (this is something I've observed at other cemeteries as well-not just this one-you can almost always tell when the person died by the size of their headstone)
Gabe is partial to the military headstones; they're simple, white headstones with a name, date, and their rank. We have quite a few WWI and WWII vets buried in our cemetery. I am really partial to the ones that are so old you can barely make out the name or dates on them. Bits likes the big, flowery bright headstones. There are quite a few pink headstones if you can believe that.
I love walking in the cemetery, it's so quiet and peaceful. The only sounds we heard were crunching leaves, squirrels chattering and one persistent cardinal couple squawking at one another. We cleared off headstones, picked up flowers and wreaths that had fallen over, and talked about why it's important to be respectful and quiet in a cemetery...and then we ran back to the park to get covered in mud and wear ourselves out! What a way to spend the day!
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Happy Birthday Little Bird
Today my little bird turned 8. I woke up after him (he knew as soon as he got up, he could play video games-what a great motivator to get out of bed haha) and when I came out, I said "Oh hello birthday boy!" he said "Hi Mom, I'm 8 today, I'm a little bit taller, a little bit smarter, a little bit cuter and a little bit stronger", flexed his arms at me, smiled and went back to his video game....and just like that my itty bitty, blue eyed baby boy has grown into a brown eyed, broad smiled, funny, kind, smart, eight year old. *sigh*
Happy birthday Gabriel, I love you more than you'll ever know ♥
Happy birthday Gabriel, I love you more than you'll ever know ♥
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
A Plug
Here's a little thing you need to know about me: I never recommend something that I don't like. I will not tell you that I use Blam-o brand washing soap because it's amazing while secretly thinking it sucks. I will tell you flat out, blam-o brand washing soap sucks. Here's another thing you should know: I'm not particularly brand loyal with the exception of a few things, diet coke being one of those things. I don't run one of those blogs where I'm paid with product or money to promote things (though, honestly, I really think Coke should pony up; I mean, I have a diet coke tag for this blog for frick-n-frack sake! Hey-diet coke people, you could throw me a bone anytime...)
Anyway, I digress, per usual.
My sister in law has recently become involved with the company Melaleuca. It's a company I recently became acquainted with on accident. When we moved, I found a bottle of dish soap with a weird name and being desperate, I tried it out. It was lemon scented, which made me really cautious. I can't stand anything lemon scented that isn't a, you know, lemon but I tried it anyway...and it was really great dish soap. I was kind of shocked.
So Katie got involved with them and I thought "Ok, I'll give it a try, why not?" So I ended up getting a package with random things in it. A few products I'm not so crazy about BUT there are some amazing things in there that I'd like to buy in bulk. Bits has super thick, prone to tangling hair and the shampoo they sent is the first shampoo I've EVER used without needing a separate conditioner on her hair and managed to only have two or three tears out of her rather than the normal twenty minute sob fest that accompanies hair combing.
I just used the mouthwash they sent for the first time and holy cow is it MINTY--in a good way though-and it's a really natural minty taste; not like a fake sucked a breath mint and two seconds later it's gone mint taste.
And then there's Renew lotion. I'd heard of it before even knowing about the product because of Bits-a-roo's eczema. I've heard really good things, like it makes eczema go away darn near completely, it's a heavy duty lotion, it takes the warts off of frogs (I made that one up) I got to try a sample when Katie did her presentation and thought it was ok...I got a bottle this week and holy crap. Here's the thing. I wash my hands A LOT. I do a lot of dishes. I wash things constantly. I am in the pool for about 40 minutes a day three to five days a week. My hands look awful. They're so dry and lotions with scents, while fine on my body, are hell on my hands. They burn and itch and blah. They SUCK. So I tried renew when I got the bottle and I thought "let's see how this REALLY works" and I'm pleased to say that after washing dishes, washing the floor, and multiple hand washings, I could STILL feel the lotion on my hands. I didn't need to reapply it, which was nice, after all I'm very busy and just don't have time for that nonsense (again, I made that up)
So there's my plug for omg amazing products...here's the thing though-even the stuff I don't like works well. I have a thing with scents and some of the scents they use in their products turn me off-but that's alright-I don't need to like all of them. Here's another thing-the products are all NATURAL! NATURAL!! I love that. I don't like a ton of chemicals going where my kids are, hell, even where the cats are. I just don't like the idea of all that crap going into little (or big-or furry) bodies and Melaleuca is safe for all of us. AND it's affordable. It's not like some products that you get hooked on and then it's $50669.23 for one bottle. AND if you get the products and don't like it, they'll give you your money back-without having to return the stuff you don't like (which is awesome because I got a bar of soap that just makes me gag-I'm sure it's amazing but I can't get past the smell-and I'm going to give it to Katie for her presentation and get my money back-that's pretty awesome)
WELL Chrissi, that's all well and good but HOW do we get the product? Dear readers, I'm about to tell you (man, I wish I could wear a headset and say clever things like Vince from Shamwow does. BAM! You're gonna love my nuts! Martini, bikini, fetticini! Sham-WOW)
Simply click on Katie's website address right here! and contact her. Or don't look at her website, leave me a comment with your email address and I'll pass it along. Or email her at katiewit AT gmail DOT com Or email me, send me a smoke signal, send me a text, use Morse code, or even ASL and I'll pass your info along to her. Listen, I wouldn't promo this stuff if I didn't think it was great...so check it out and see what you think-and then let me know how you like it!
Anyway, I digress, per usual.
My sister in law has recently become involved with the company Melaleuca. It's a company I recently became acquainted with on accident. When we moved, I found a bottle of dish soap with a weird name and being desperate, I tried it out. It was lemon scented, which made me really cautious. I can't stand anything lemon scented that isn't a, you know, lemon but I tried it anyway...and it was really great dish soap. I was kind of shocked.
So Katie got involved with them and I thought "Ok, I'll give it a try, why not?" So I ended up getting a package with random things in it. A few products I'm not so crazy about BUT there are some amazing things in there that I'd like to buy in bulk. Bits has super thick, prone to tangling hair and the shampoo they sent is the first shampoo I've EVER used without needing a separate conditioner on her hair and managed to only have two or three tears out of her rather than the normal twenty minute sob fest that accompanies hair combing.
I just used the mouthwash they sent for the first time and holy cow is it MINTY--in a good way though-and it's a really natural minty taste; not like a fake sucked a breath mint and two seconds later it's gone mint taste.
And then there's Renew lotion. I'd heard of it before even knowing about the product because of Bits-a-roo's eczema. I've heard really good things, like it makes eczema go away darn near completely, it's a heavy duty lotion, it takes the warts off of frogs (I made that one up) I got to try a sample when Katie did her presentation and thought it was ok...I got a bottle this week and holy crap. Here's the thing. I wash my hands A LOT. I do a lot of dishes. I wash things constantly. I am in the pool for about 40 minutes a day three to five days a week. My hands look awful. They're so dry and lotions with scents, while fine on my body, are hell on my hands. They burn and itch and blah. They SUCK. So I tried renew when I got the bottle and I thought "let's see how this REALLY works" and I'm pleased to say that after washing dishes, washing the floor, and multiple hand washings, I could STILL feel the lotion on my hands. I didn't need to reapply it, which was nice, after all I'm very busy and just don't have time for that nonsense (again, I made that up)
So there's my plug for omg amazing products...here's the thing though-even the stuff I don't like works well. I have a thing with scents and some of the scents they use in their products turn me off-but that's alright-I don't need to like all of them. Here's another thing-the products are all NATURAL! NATURAL!! I love that. I don't like a ton of chemicals going where my kids are, hell, even where the cats are. I just don't like the idea of all that crap going into little (or big-or furry) bodies and Melaleuca is safe for all of us. AND it's affordable. It's not like some products that you get hooked on and then it's $50669.23 for one bottle. AND if you get the products and don't like it, they'll give you your money back-without having to return the stuff you don't like (which is awesome because I got a bar of soap that just makes me gag-I'm sure it's amazing but I can't get past the smell-and I'm going to give it to Katie for her presentation and get my money back-that's pretty awesome)
WELL Chrissi, that's all well and good but HOW do we get the product? Dear readers, I'm about to tell you (man, I wish I could wear a headset and say clever things like Vince from Shamwow does. BAM! You're gonna love my nuts! Martini, bikini, fetticini! Sham-WOW)
Simply click on Katie's website address right here! and contact her. Or don't look at her website, leave me a comment with your email address and I'll pass it along. Or email her at katiewit AT gmail DOT com Or email me, send me a smoke signal, send me a text, use Morse code, or even ASL and I'll pass your info along to her. Listen, I wouldn't promo this stuff if I didn't think it was great...so check it out and see what you think-and then let me know how you like it!
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