What I Learned This Week... Er, Last Week...

• After completeing NaBloPoMo, it's very likely I'll shut down.


• Sometimes my little one surprises me with displays of how big she is.


• Little feet grow a size and a half over the course of a few months.


• Faises don't complain about squished feet.


• Mommies feel bad.


• Weekends without karate kinda blow, except for the extra snuggling time in the mornings.

Three Months (And A Day)

Yesterday was three months since everyone's friend, John Costello, passed. He was the best person one could ever hope to meet. His kindness was astounding, always helping out a friend in need. He went peacefully, in his sleep, and from the very thing we all loved him for, his heart was too big.

Yesterday, I also found out that my grandmother has an enlarged heart, too. I'm trying not to worry, but of course... I can't help it.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See?

Yesterday Fais grabbed a book, sat down next to me, but on her own, opened her book, and started reading "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?"
No, really, she was reciting it from memory. So I scooped her up, and read it to her. And she read with me.

Truth Tuesdays: Ham, or Eggs?

Ham, or eggs? Chicken, or the pig?

Did I lose you yet? You probably don't watch Grey's Anatomy. I watch the reruns, I'm lame like that. In one episode, the one with the woman with two uteruses [Uteri?]. The fiancé asks O'Malley if he's ham, or eggs.

Think breakfast. You have the eggs, and you have the bacon. Are you involved, or committed? The chicken is involved, it put in the egg. But the pig, the pig is committed. There's no going back for the swine.

So me? Was I a chicken, or a pig?
Well, here's how it is. I was a pig, but I was a pig in secret. I thought it would keep me from getting hurt. So I was a chicken when it mattered. Wait: When it mattered? Yea, that was the problem.

Obviously, it didn't make it hurt any less. Probably makes it hurt more. But... What am I going to do about it now?
Write about it and hope.

Radio City Christmas Spectacular

We took Fais to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular today. Michael got tickets, orchestra, middle, really good seats.
I've gone to the movies with Fais. She was really good when she was little, but the last two times we went, when the new Star Trek came out and in May when we went to Canada, halfway through the movies she got unruly and had to be taken out. So, naturally, I was afraid that Fais was going to act up and have to be taken out. I thought I should bring some snacks for her, for the ride downtown, during the show, and the ride back home, so I did, half a container of her puffs and a bag of goldfish. I also had a lollipop from when we went to the bank before we headed in.
I knew they don't allow outside food, and they check bags, but, whatever.
I slung my bag over my shoulder and opened it. I also had a bottle of iced tea that I didn't finish on the train. My bag looked like a refugee's bag, more so than usual with a whole, brand new, unopened bag of goldfish. I knew someone was going to say something. And thank God for big coats. I took it out of my bag, under my coat, and held it in place under my arm. The iced tea and the puffs I told them were for her. The small human in her Daddy's arms, holding a lollipop in one hand and the ticket envelope in the other. How could you deny that little Fais her om-noms? So he let me go.
We took our seats, Fais in the middle, Michael closest to the aisle, took off our coats, and sat and listened to the Christmas music, or as Michael called it, the "Dual of the Organists." He opened the lollipop for Fais, and she patiently waited, just sitting and listening and looking uber cute.
When the show started, she sat on Daddy's lap for most of it, since she's a little too small to see over the seats. And for most of the show, she sat on Michael, watching, pointing, clapping, all with her lollipop. Then she started wanting to go back and forth between Michael and me, and then about halfway through she finished her lolly, and then she started asking for Mommy Hugs, and then food, and I was starting to think she was going to lose it, but I pulled out the puffs and she went back to being happyFais.
Fais was really responsive to a few of the scenes. Of course, the dancing teddies, and the Rockette toy soldiers, a new 12 Days of Christmas scene, I think. Some of them she'd dance, she'd point, she'd ask to play with the toys or bears. Without a doubt, she had fun.
Afterwards we went to Burger King to get her some food, since she was asking during the show, and then took the train so Michael could make it to work on time. Oh, such cuteness, when Fais was eating her apple fries and just stuck one after another after another in her mouth while Michael and I failed to watch. By the time we noticed she could barely open her mouth to chew. Ah, my little apple addict...
When we got home, she and he played for a bit alone while I laid down. She wanted to come to me, so he brought her and she fell asleep while he was on his way out. So so very precious sleepingFais.

Today was a good day, and a near perfect way to start the winter holidays. Memories like this are almost always better than those caught on film.

Ignore Them, They'll Come Out Fine

I was reading in the most recent edition of TIME about Helicopter Parents. The over-anxious parent that hovers over their child. The article even has a picture of a mom bubble wrapping her son.
It starts off with the small things, boiling bottles and pacifiers and toys to sterilize them, which isn't even all that possible unless you live in a bubble. Then it gets to the child-proofing. The outlets is one thing, but cabinet doors and drawers and toilets? What is a toddler going to be doing alone and unsupervised in a bathroom anyway?
I'm not going to get to the parents who apparently hover even when their child is in college or job hunting, though the article does. I'm just going to talk about what I know.
There's a blogger I lurk, Her Bad Mother, and she, obviously, calls herself a "Bad Mother." In a recent post she posted a video where her daughter is playing with a toy, and then off camera there's a crash.
This reminds me of a few days ago. Momma G, Fais, and I were home. Fais was playing in the living room, alone, running around and climbing on our bean bags, unsupervised, when I hear a little thud, something hitting a bin we keep Fais' toys in, and Fais whimpering her fake whimper. I wish I could say I was doing something important and that's why I wasn't paying attention, but I think I was just gabbing with Momma G. Fais had finally fallen, bounced, slid, I'm not sure, off the bean bag, which I'd been waiting for since we got them, and I don't even know exactly how it happened because I wasn't helicoptering. Oops. But look at that, she's still alive!
There was an episode of Desperate Housewives last month. The one where Gabrielle's daughter, Juanita, and her friend are sliding down the stairs in a suitcase, and the friend gets hurt, so the friend's mother calls Gaby a bad mother and tells the other mothers on Wisteria Lane so none of the other kids parents let them go to Juanita's birthday party.
Okay, wow, that was quite a run-on. First of all, I used to slide down our stairs in California all the time, except not in a suitcase but in a laundry basket. Shit was fun! Yea, I spilled a ton of times, but Momma G hovering wasn't going to protect me. Her style, which is now my style, was she'd tell me I maybe shouldn't do this because that could happen and it'd probably end badly and maybe even hurt. Warn them, and then if they don't listen, well, then...
Anyway, back to my point. Gaby gets a bouncy house and hires a monkey and a clown for the party and all the neighbourhood kids get all amped up and convince their parents to let them go. The monkey needed a nap, but Gaby said no. Later, while Gaby and Susan are drinking drinks, you see all the kids running away and screaming, apparently the monkey is "killing" the clown. The clown popped a balloon and the monkey freaked. After everyone had left and the clown was taken away, Gaby was talking to Carlos, her husband, about how maybe she is a bad mother and Carlos tells her she is a great mother. This is my favourite part, and the point of all my rambling. Carlos tells Gaby that while all the other kids were running away, one zipped themselves up in the bouncy house and the other played dead. That because of Gaby's "negligence," their kids actually ended up resourceful.

In my opinion, that's how we should want our kids to turn out. To be able to figure things out for themselves and let them make their own decisions and take calculated risks. To childproof this cabinet of cans, or of pots and pans, or not? If I don't, then the child may take out the pans and bang them, or take out the cans and hide in the cabinet. Both of which I've done to Momma G.
Kids are natural explorers, it's how they learn, and they're resilient, it's how they grow. Let them explore and learn problem solving skills and as they grow, they just might surprise you with how much they can do on their own.

What I Learned This Week

So, again, I didn't make my list throughout the week, but I did start going over what I learned on a Wednesday and kept it going from there. I'm learning!

• Sometimes, sometimes, my OCD can be a good thing.


• Waiting lists are stressful.


• A two week pattern change is breath-taking after two months.


• It's better to be sick and have a friend over than to be sick alone.


• Waking up to an email from a certain person is still enough to make my day.


• One can always learn new things from those learning new things.


• Love is the best emotion ever.