‘hood

Posted in kiddie-do, love and happiness by ElaineMarie

i love our neighborhood.

gym, super-secret-super-cool swimming pool, pub & playground all surround our house. oh, also a pretty nice hotel is next to the gym which is lucky when you can’t be in your house but need access to your stuff.

smiles.

in short, our ‘hood makes it easy to be displaced from one’s home.

i told darla to make funny faces for those shots. bahahahaha.

darla says “isn’t it so nice to eat outside?!” mike taught darla tic-tac-toe. i sampled the draft cider. we ate lots of delicious fried food and then went to the playground to work some of it off.

swings. swings. swings. swings.

it was the most excellent of days.

catchup & mustardiness

well, hello, it’s been a while. we’ve been living in a hotel for over a week (our house is having some major plumbing work done) and it’s kinda thrown our schedules out of whack. momjeanz hasn’t had very much of my attention. and that’s ok. it’s been good to put more effort and attention towards personal relationships. we’ve been as busy as always and our staycation has had some perks that life in our own house doesn’t provide: no cooking or cleaning!

here’s what we’ve been up to:

darla came with us to see deep sea diver + antlers + the shins. she had a good time rolling down the lawn. after the first antlers song darla ran forward, cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted “I RESPECT YOU” at the stage. it was pretty awesome.

the complimentary breakfast here is cray cray! every day is a delicate dance of bargaining with darla to eat more fruit and yogurt so she can earn a donut. it’s been working. i love breakfast buffets!

i had a ladydate to see feist, who is currently being backed by mountain man. oh my word, it was an amazing show. AND everyone on stage was in prairie costume sooooo i pretended, in my head, that they were all a part of a covered wagon caravan making their way across the country and had stopped to give an impromptu performance. take me with you to oregon!!

we took in a free performance of Robin Hood at schiller park. darla made friends with anyone who had a dog that was in our immediate vicinity.

we took a bike ride up to whetstone and rode through the rose gardens.

for the weekend we hit up the park street festival which helped us spend almost the entire day outside on saturday. bounce castles, food trucks, live music and snow cones = hours of entertainment.

some daddy-led art projects on old ocean charts.

…and just a few more mommy + daughter shots at the park of roses

any other moment of last week not pictured you can just assume was spent at the pool – either hotel or grandview – or at one of the two restaurants adjacent to the hotel.

hopefully, we’ll be back in our house by the week’s end. we’ll keep ya posted.

pun. blog pun!

7May2012

weekending

Posted in let me let me update ya by ElaineMarie

exciting news: this was our last week without our salty sailor. he’s coming home in days. DAYZ!

we had a picnic and books on the front porch

had lots of citrus-centric foods and made use of our citrus stash

made good use of the arcade games in the laundromat. is that a kill screen, darla? look out billy mitchell.

(yes, laundromat. i’m not going into the basement until further notice)

spent the wash cycle playing scrabble at Luck Bros.

this is it, the last of just-us-gals weekends for a while. there might be some extra co-sleeping this week until papa comes home. troof.

31Mar2012

ummm i have to do THAT again in 9 days???

Posted in Momma Needs a minute..., Travels by ElaineMarie

ok. WOW. i thought flying with darla yesterday would be a piece of cake since it was about her 12th round trip flight but it was quite a test in patience. i basically told my friends to keep my child away from me for at least an hour so i could reprogram and get myself back to a good mommy place. that wasn’t really a problem since elsa and darla revolved in their own world for most of the night, just happy to be together.

i won’t bore everyone with details but it went a lot like this: i bought darla a muffin for breakfast. it was a very crumbly muffin. darla bit right into the center and then basically the whole thing crumbled into two pieces and fell on the ground. freaking $4 airport muffin. Then at lunch all she requested was a banana. She unpeeled the banana and proceeded to bite right into a big brown spot and then the banana split in two pieces and fell on the ground. freaking $1.75 airport banana.

it wasn’t all bad. it’s pretty endearing to see your child charging her way through the airport towards her bestie. darla said she would race me to be the first one to see elsa. as she sped past me on the ramp she turned around and shouted “i tooted at you to slow you down!” she did, in fact, get to be the first one to elsa. their reunion was the thing nickelodeon movies are made of. i mean, it amused the lead singer of linkin park, who was coincidentally in the airport because of some nickelodeon awards event this weekend.

it was all worth it to see these two together again. I am SO happy to be here.

9Mar2012

spring in our step

Posted in kiddie-do, let me let me update ya by ElaineMarie

it seems like these spring like days are filling up more quickly than the cozy, insular days of winter. we’ve had a little spring in our step and running at a quicker gait. lots happening:

we had a double bounce house day so she worked up a thirst. if anyone needs recommendations on either the world of bounce or kingdom of bounce i can provide some insights. aren’t my areas of expertise so glamorous? the next time i’ll be sure to check my deets before our dates with friends.

a younger me would be laughing and scoffing at how much the current me takes joy from clean laundry

the morning after a sleepover with the burkeybuns crew. they decided to dress as towels.

i took darla to her first indoor play – the house at pooh corner. i was pretty sure that we were going to be the only ones in attendance until a huge school group came in 2 min prior to showtime. take a look at that annoyed look i’m already getting from darla for asking her to pose in front of the set.

after the play we walked across the street to visit the state house. i figured it was never too early to start learning some state history and architectural elements, right? darla was very impressed by the rotunda. she said it sounds just like Aisling. $5 worth of brussel sprouts can go to whoever gets that reference.

looking forward to an equally busy weekend. We’ve got the Lorax, Malabar Farms Maple Syrup Festival, Ohio Wildlife Center open house and BalletMet Sleeping Beauty all on tap along with some dinner dates and a labor information session. yay for busy schedules that help the days without our salty sailor pass quickly.

20Feb2012

weekending 3.0

Posted in kiddie-do, let me let me update ya, love and happiness by ElaineMarie

we had a really good weekend here despite someone throwing up in her carseat and having a bit of a bug. not too many pictures because i was too busy running a house and cuddling a girl.

1. lots of fun things in the saturday post

2. you wanna take your umbrella in the shower? sure thang. let’s do this.

lots of other good goings-on this weekend. girlfriend dinner dates, mommy + daughter movie morning to see The Secret World of Arietty, vidyo skype from salty sailor man, kids-eat-free night with family – although this one resulted in a pretty nice shiner for darla when she ran into a table cause she wasn’t looking where she was going – ladyfriend scoring a pair of tix for us to go see the Black Keys in a coupla weekends, darla requesting to watch The Triplets of Belleville umpteen times.

yes, there is a lot in life to be happy about.

17Feb2012

some things happened this week over which i had no control

Posted in kiddie-do, parenting apparently? by ElaineMarie

ok, a lot of things happened that i had no control over but most of the time i like to keep myself in denial. fun with packing peanuts and markers created a little more work for me this week but it was worth it. clearly. also, being the mom of the kid who wouldn’t climb out of the washing machine in the library was pretty awesome. sometimes it’s just whatever gets us through the day.

i think letting go of the control has been the pardest hart (reverse that) of parenting for me. it’s something i have to work on everyday in my parenting and other areas of life. it’s all a work in progress, right? RIGHT?

also, i definitely was NOT in control when that whole bag of doritos disappeared into my belly.

13Feb2012

why i’m glad we were sequestered for 5 days

Posted in Momma Needs a minute..., parenting apparently? by ElaineMarie

well, ok, semi-sequestered.

the first reason being it was freaking cold.

the second was some much-needed momma reality check time with my daughter.

our first week without dad was a rough one given that darla got sick and required an extreme extra amount of attention at the time when i was now getting used to handling it all by myself again. timing, you are a sneaky snake and i don’t like you’re dirty tricks!

but it turned out to be a good thing for us. it helped me to slow down and spend a lot of time with her. extra time that i’m sure she needed to readjust. i take darla for granted sometimes because she seems to be unfazed by so many things that i assume she will pick up on our life shifts and adapt. for the most part she does and when she doesn’t i tend to be hard on her. i know that i need to give her some room to be a child and adjust at her own pace. it can just be really hard for me to remember when i’m trying to juggle the single-parent thing. it’s one of the many areas of my parenting with which i’m struggling.

so darla’s sickness was a blessing in disguise. it slowed us down. it led to more games, books, movies, cuddles. we had more conversations than we’ve had in a while. it’s nice that she and i can gab back and forth now.

it also showed me that if i can learn to let my expectations go she can be so very good. sometimes it can be frustrating because she seems to be really good for me at home and then with an audience she acts out. i want her to be able to behave even when she has the excitement of others around. but that’s just how she is.

and last week i came to a realization: i don’t base my child’s value as a human being on how well-behaved or well-mannered she is. i need to stop worrying and caring if other people are going to base their evaluation of her on just that. there are many that do. sometimes it’s strangers and sometimes it is people closer but in my opinion they are the ones that just don’t get it.

darla is wildly imaginative, playful, happy, loving and engaging. she will march up and talk to anyone. most of the time it’s inappropriate things like telling every table in the french restaurant about her sores that turned into scabs and fell off. but she’s not afraid to put herself out there and i love that about her so much. i love that she’s not scared. i want to foster these qualities because i think the fear of being who you are is one of the worst afflictions to our society.

so i’m hoping to take more time for the remainder of this winter for quiet days in the house, just she and i. when we can. there’s a lot of growing that she and i have to do together.

and…then again…this might just be a big rationalization of why it was awesome to stay in my pajamas all day for 5 days straight…

9Feb2012

time out

Posted in Momma Needs a minute..., parenting apparently? by ElaineMarie

mikey’s only been gone a week and i already feel like putting my head through a wall.

three is a lot whinier than two.

momma is losing her grip and her patience. it’s clear i need a new strategy. i’ve got my daily dose of peaceful parenting tips coming in from the interwebs but i’m thinking i need to add some more parenting books to my collection.

has anyone read positive discipline or dr. sears’ discipline book? suggestions? any recommendations or strong drinks you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

thanks a mil.

8Feb2012

disney on ice

Posted in Momma Needs a minute..., parenting apparently? by ElaineMarie

one of our coincidental D activities for last weekend was Disney on Ice.

holy hell.

i knew what i was getting into a little bit due to a friend’s similar experience but i definitely wasn’t prepared for the whirlwind of emotions that is Disney on Ice.

i don’t really know where to begin. i won’t waste time on the annoying parking situation because that was a given. so, i’ll jump straight to the fact that before we could even sit down i shelled out $30 on a plush ariel doll for darla. in all fairness, i chose the doll because i thought she’d be able to hug it throughout the performance and that it would offer up some form of distraction when she got antsy. this plan worked. plus i had to make good on my promise that i’d buy her something special to get her past those guys hawking annoying light up wands outside. gawd, i felt like a sucker.

we got seated late. so after stumbling down dark stairs and bothering the overweight family to haul themselves out of their seats so we could squeeze past, we had to make a hasty arrangement of who was going to sit where, passing out popcorn and making sure that effing overpriced plushie had an ok seat on darla’s lap.

the first 20 minutes of the show was pure bliss. girls were happy. entranced. delighted. popcorn-fed. disney-fied zombies. i even got into the excitement of seeing the magic reflected on darla’s face.

then the spell broke. darla lost interest, started looking around and realized people had refreshments other than popcorn. she was hungry. she was starving. she said she needed food right away. luckily, intermission was upon us.

i took her to get food but under the condition that she go to the bathroom while we were out so we wouldn’t have to cause the happy-meal family any more trouble. then we forged through the crowds to concessions.

oh the crowds. 4-year-olds with pacifiers. 5-year-olds in strollers. my brother-in-law sat next to a middle-aged couple with no kids in tow. wtf?

we arrived at concessions and i checked just once to see if the beer taps were open that day. i wouldn’t have, but i was thinking about it. alas, they were not up and running. darla declared she wanted only peanuts. i tried to reason that if she was so starving she needed something more substantial than peanuts. NO. PEANUTS.

we got peanuts. i didn’t dispute because they were the cheapest option.

back to our seats we filed, late again. i sat in a bath of cynicism as i watched ice dancers with FML written all across their faces. you could tell they all abhorred their existence on the ice. i think every time someone attempted a lutz or salchow they ended on their ass, furthering my suspicion that they were all drunk.

my critical state-of-mind was reaching an all time high when the entire cast came out to perform “it’s a small world after all” and there was a noticeable lack of any black or jewish representation. everyone knows walt was a raging anti-semite and xenophobe but this is 2012, people. if you’re going to include holland then you got to put at least one country from the continent of africa in there and representation from one of the oldest cultures in the world.

but then those bastards put mickey in an emblazoned hot air balloon to float above me and i had to give in. all my cynicism broke down as they started to play “when you wish upon a star.”

a tear sprang to my eye as i watched darla’s face lit by the indoor fireworks. for, no matter how corny and over-the-top it was, disney remains the ever positive voice urging us:

when you wish upon a star,

makes no difference who you are,

anything your heart desires,

will come to you