DC Metro Moms

Summer Break Scares Me

My four year old son's first year of preschool ends in just a few days. My baby is almost five months old. And, I recently resigned from my part-time job. All this adds up to mean that starting next week, I'll be home seven days a week with two boys until after Labor Day.

Can I tell you a secret?

Come closer....

I'm scared of summer!

I Drove a Minivan to Adams Morgan

Every now and then something happens that confirms for me, once again, that I am old and uncool. And, not just old and uncool, but an old and uncool mom. I look in my closet and realize that "comfort over fashion" has replaced my once-upon-a-time mantra of "fashion over comfort" in the large majority of my footwear. A younger colleague comes to me for Tylenol or a Band-Aid because "moms always carry that kind of stuff." I accidentally change the car radio from NPR to my old favorite Hip Hop station only to discover that I don't recognize a single song.

One such incident took place last Saturday night: I drove to Adams Morgan in a minivan. Yes, I drove one of the most uncool vehicles possible to one of the coolest neighborhoods in DC. Adams Morgan, for anyone from out of town or maybe even less cool than me, is defined by Wikipedia as, "a culturally diverse neighborhood in Northwest Washington, D.C. centered at the intersection of 18th Street and Columbia Road...and is a major night life area with many bars and restaurants."

I Have Seen My Future at the Park (and I Like It!)

Over the past week and a half of wonderful, gorgeous DC spring weather, we've been at the park approximately 100 times. Seriously. Lucky for us, the neighborhood park where everyone congregates is about five houses up the street. Quite often we are there and back multiple times during the day.

One day last week I caught a glimpse of my future at that park. And let me tell you, it was pure bliss.

But let me back up a bit.

Milestones of Motherood

After the birth of my first child, Lucas, my husband and I celebrated all his developmental milestones: his first smile, the first time he sat up by himself, the first time he crawled, the first time he stood up. You know exactly what I mean. At almost two months old, our second son, Nathaniel, has just marked his first milestone by giving me a nice, gummy smile. But this time around, I'm also celebrating some other small victories: my own personal milestones as the mother of two.

When I was pregnant with Nathaniel, I wasn't nervous about labor and delivery. I wasn't nervous about caring for a newborn or the nights of little sleep. I was, however, worried about getting through normal life with two kids. How would I handle the nights when my husband worked late and I was solo for dinnertime, bath time and bedtime? How would I wrangle two kids at the store or get two kids to the doctor?

And slowly but surely I'm hitting those milestones.

Enjoying a two night retreat...in my maternity suite?

I recently enjoyed a two night retreat. My "hosts" provided a spiffy cotton outfit, daily massages, a menu to order from with delivery and pick up of the dirty dishes. Ah, it was heaven.

Well, actually, it was my maternity suite at the hospital. But, you see, after the delivery of our second child, I was determined to savor and enjoy the time he and I had at the hospital so I tried to think of the whole experience as a retreat: Two and a half days and two nights to just focus on ourselves. Yeah, that cotton outfit was a hospital gown complete with frontal slits to facilitate breastfeeding, the daily massages felt like the nurses were pummeling my abdomen to shrink my uterus back down to normal size, and those meals? Well, they were hospital-grade meals indeed.

But, we still enjoyed it.

As sad as I was that our older son, Lucas, wouldn't be able to visit me and meet his new brother in the hospital due to H1N1 concerns, that also meant that new baby Nathaniel and I had just over 48 hours all to ourselves (with a few visitors including my husband and the grandparents coming and going, of course). Sure, I missed Lucas and was anxious to get home, but I also knew that being home would mean balancing the needs of a newborn and a preschooler, laundry, meal preparation, cleaning and all those other day-to-day demands on a mama.

The Many Challenges of Being Pregnant During the Swine Flu Epidemic

Oh the challenges of being pregnant during the Swine Flu (H1N1) epidemic!

My first challenge was deciding to get the vaccine or not. As a pregnant woman, I was in the highest priority group. But, was it safe? Ultimately, I decided that the risks outweighed the benefits and that my then-three year old son and I should both get it. Making that decision brought on challenge number two: finding a place to get the vaccine. Amazingly enough, the DC government pulled through with an incredibly efficient series of clinics held throughout the city and we were both vaccinated this fall, long before my OB or Lucas’s pediatrician received their supplies of the vaccine.

Now, I’m encountering Pregnant During Swine Flu Challenge number three: because of concerns about Swine Flu, hospitals in Maryland (and probably across the country) are following CDC guidelines to severely restrict young visitors. The practical implication of this is that our now-four year old son will not be allowed to visit me or meet his little brother in the hospital when the “blessed event” occurs anytime in the next few weeks.

Will sharing a closet be the true test of our marriage?

After more than six years of marriage, my husband and I are now sharing a closet for the very first time. We've successfully weathered good times and challenging times but now I'm wondering, will this be the true test of our marriage?

Our first apartment and current home have had the lovely charm of older construction: hardwood floors, thick walls and unique details. Unfortunately they also have had the not-so-lovely charm of very small closets. 

We have successfully worked around this problem by one of us keeping their clothes in the guest room. For the past several years, I called our current guest room my dressing room. I filled up the closet with my clothes and had my dresser, jewelry and mirror in there. My husband used the closet in our master bedroom and had his dresser in there as well.

This Green Mom's Dirty Little Secret: I Love the Crush of Holiday Catalogs

I definitely consider myself a "green" mom. We're doing our best to be as eco-friendly as possible in our household. We use green cleaners. We recycle. We have a rain barrel. We gave up paper towels and paper napkins in favor of dish towels, cloth rags and cloth napkins. We're planning to use cloth diapers with baby #2 when he joins us in January. We do what we can.

And yet, every year around the holidays, I have one dirty little secret: I absolutely love the crush of holiday catalogs. As others complain on Facebook about the waste and share tips via listserv about how to stop the deluge, I secretly revel in the number of mailing lists we must be on.

I Got the H1N1 Vaccine

"We do not currently have the H1N1 influenza vaccine. If you are calling about another matter please remain on the line for a scheduler."

"Has anyone found the H1N1 vaccine anywhere?"

That's the message on our pediatrician's phone line and the question that has been asked dozens of times already on our local parent listserv, respectively.
 
Everywhere I turn people are asking about and looking for the H1N1 vaccine. A few months ago, I was on the fence about getting the vaccine for myself and my 3 year old son. Because I'm pregnant and he's young, we're both in priority groups. I'm not sure exactly what changed between then and now but I recently decided that we both should definitely be vaccinated.

Losing my Dysfunctional Family: Guiding Light Goes Off the Air

On Friday afternoon, I’ll lose part of my family. Admittedly, it is the most dysfunctional side, with more affairs, marriages, scandals, and people coming back from the dead than everyone else I know combined. But, they still feel like family.

Who am I talking about? Why the residents of Springfield on the daytime Soap Opera “Guiding Light.”

After 72 years on the air, “Guiding Light,” which the NY Times calls “the oldest longest-running scripted program in broadcasting history” will be replaced with a game show.