London Calling

The 3 Rs

I ran across a blog entry from my friend Angie, the super DIYer, about paper vs. plastic.  I've heard rumors that some cities are requiring retailers to stop using plastic bags and noticed that Target started printing other uses for their bags.  We use both paper & plastic & have a few cute canvas totes from Olivia's Market that I use as much as I can.  (The bag is great for bringing all of London's clothes back and forth from preschool.  We go through a lot during potty training.)  We also use our paper bags to keep recyclables.  That way we don't have two huge garbage cans in our little kitchen at one time. 

My mom started using canvas bags for groceries years ago.  In college, I would usually ride my bike to the grocery, so the backpack was my bag.  After college, I bought some canvas bags that I used for quite a while.  For some reason, over the past few years, I found myself using plastic more and more.  Sorry mother earth.  It's time to get back in the habit.   

One house for sale!

Remember the Shel Silverstein poem, "One Sister for Sale?"  It goes something like:

One sister for sale, one sister for sale
One crying and lying sister for sale
Something something, so who'll start the bidding
Something, something, etc.

As the mom of a toddler, we sing just about everything.  Unfortunately for London, most of my music lyric knowledge is based on bad 80's pop.  "So come on that train, and ride it.  It's the choo choo train."  Yeah, you know it.  Today, I had a sing-song version of "Sister for Sale" in my brain, but it was "house for sale."

We listed our house on Monday after three months of a "time out."  We were tired.  The market was really tired.  And we had a house full of people over the holidays.  We had a few little projects to do this weekend and completed about half of them expecting little to no interest for the first few weeks.  And really, I think that God has a fantastic sense of humor that he likes to remind us of regularly.  So -- you guessed it -- we had a showing today. 

Last night I was near meltdown trying to put toys in their place, get laundry done, dishes cleaned, other misc. junk hidden.  Barry was ready to KILL me.  He's super laid back guy and I'm super not + I've had a bitch of a commute for the past few weeks.  I stressed.  He hid.  The house looked okay.  Whether we've found our buyer or not, at least we know that there are people looking and maybe the market is warming up even though we've just been pounded with another snow.

Tonight?  Barry took the train to the burbs so that he could spend an hour at London's school for dad's day.  I went back to the car and then was going to sit in the lobby of the school.  Somehow, London ran out of the room and to the front of the school where he busted me just getting in.  So it became mommy & daddy day at school.  We are probably the biggest rule breakers they've ever met.  (Ah, if they only knew.)

Snow

While the snow has made our drive a big pain, it is really pretty.  This is from last Sunday (Superbowl Sunday).  It was just beautiful outside.  The trees were covered and it looked like you were walking down a tunnel of white spider webs when you looked down the street.

Potty Training

Yesterday we kicked-off potty training season.  Our school has a process that we're following which uses real cotton underpants so that he can feel when he's wet or dirty.  We're supposed to take a visit to the potty every hour or so to try to "go" in addition to the as-requested visits. 

Since he's having lots of accidents, he's just walking around in his little underpants-- so cute.  We went through 9-10 underpant changes yesterday and one sheet change after nap.  (Thanks to Aunt Barb's discount at Penny's we have a ton of underpants.)  He's still using pull-ups at night and on the way to/from school -- because, really, I can barely make it home without having an accident, so he'll have no shot at success and we'll have a peed-on car seat.

So far, he hasn't peed on the rugs and he looks shocked when he gets pee all over his legs.  Like, whoa, what's going on here?  I'm all wet.  How did that happen?

Now he's put his coloring book aside and is laughing while he throws our ComEd bill in the air.  Who knew ComEd would one day entertain my kid?

Need help with a team name

My mother-in-law, Barry's aunt and grandmother are joining us this year for our annual Mother's Day Y-Me Breast Cancer Walk.  We need a kick-ass team name for a group of saucy broads who are all -- except for Jackie (my mother-in-law) -- breast cancer survivors.  Of the 5 ladies participating, we have four last names so we can't be anything like "the fighting Bialeckis" (a past favorite).  We'll have t-shirts and may open up the team to non-family members who would like to walk.  Some ideas:

• Pretty in Pink
• Pink ladies
• Boob Fighters (take on Foo Fighters - but if I have to explain it, it doesn't work)
• The fight of our lives
• Small package -- big fighters (the ladies are petite -- except me)

Any ideas?  Please leave comments.  As you can tell, I need help!

I dare you

Cheers to Robin Roberts who went sans wig at a GMA fashion show.  She looked gorgeous which is really hard to do when you're bald -- even if Isaac Mizrahi designed your dress.  I remember when Melissa Etheridge played at the Grammys without a wig.  My mom -- whose hair was just starting to grow back after chemo -- decided that if Melissa could go without a wig, so could she. 

Thanks for being brave and beautiful and just plain ballsie.

Playing in the snow

You can't beat playing in the snow.  We limited it to just a few minutes because of London's ear infections, but come on, you can't keep a kid out of snow this pretty.  He even made his first snow angel.

This week was a character builder

I’m going to keep this entry as brief as possible because I’m tired of bitching:

Monday:  London was sick, but at 6:30 in the morning when we were leaving, he looked less sick.  We made it home with quite a few tears.  He had a fever and I felt awful to have sent him to school.

Tuesday:  London stayed home with daddy & I took the train home to avoid traffic from a little snowstorm we were expecting.

Wednesday:  London loved the train ride to the burbs.  Unfortunately, it was 2 degrees outside & my car froze again.  So we had it towed to the local garage.  By the time it was fixed, London fell asleep and we just headed home.  He had a doc appointment at 4 in the city and it just didn’t make sense to wake him up for 3 hours of school.  He SCREAMED during shots and his ears looked like they may be getting infected.  (I’m sure that the freezing car morning didn’t help his poor ears.)

Thursday:  Heard that we were getting a massive snowstorm – which we did – and traded in that piece of crap Altima for a new Subaru Outback during lunch.  (Totally sporty mom car.  I swear it makes me look thinner.)  The snow came early and it took us 4 hours to get home – including a quick stop at Panera for dinner.  Thankfully the all-wheel drive came in handy.  Oh, and missed a big deadline for work that I just can’t get over.

Friday:  Worked from home.  Took London back to the doctor and found out that he had an infection in both ears.  Still catching up on work at 9 p.m. and still can’t get over that missed deadline.  Have opened bottle of wine.  Was there an episode of Friday Night Lights tonight?  Maybe I can chill out with some other guilty pleasure.  I think there’s leftover Halloween candy somewhere ….

Saturday:  I’m going to spoil my little boy with attention. Take the dog for a walk -- she loves the snow.  Go for a run.  Enjoy date night. 

Some weeks it feels like I go through all kinds of bs just to enjoy a Saturday.  Saturdays are my heaven.