DC Metro Moms

Stroller instructions stump lucky winning mama

Leave it to me to win a $500 stroller and not be able to get the damn thing into my car. 

It was a lovely afternoon at the DC Metro Moms Brand/Blogger event at the Pentagon City Ritz-Carlton. I got lots of wonderful freebies and coupons for fancy stuff (more details here), and I got to talk to other DC Metro Moms bloggers plus learn about working with brands, something I've been too lazy to pursue.

Then, I was lucky enough to be a raffle item winner, and I walked away with a snazzy Quinny Buzz stroller. I should really say that I glided away, because this piece of equipment is like the Fred Astaire of strollers; it gives a mama grace. As I walked out with sister blogger Elaine, she shared that folks who live in real cities like New York all have fabbo strollers like this. Me, I carried my son in a Hotsling and then an Ergo forever; he hated the stroller until he was close to a year old, so I made do with a cruddy little umbrella number and used Baby Jogger for more athletic outings.

As a local who frequently parks in Pentagon City mall if I'm headed onto the Metro, I had just parked in the regular mall lot for the blogger event.

American Idol 2010: Not a mom

How bad does it sound to say that because she is a mom, I'm glad Crystal Bowersox didn't win American Idol? That's not completely true. I just wondered how bad it would sound to say it.

Make no mistake, I was and am a Crystal fan. I think she's amazingly talented, so damn centered, and really someone I would love to have a beer with (metaphorically anyway. My best drinking days days were winding down when she was still a preschooler). But I'm kind of relieved for her that she didn't win, the same way I was relieved for Adam Lambert. As Lisa deMoraes of the Washington Post put it this article, Crystal "escapes the whole 'American Idol' beauty pageant syndrome -- shilling for Ford, etc." She will still go out on the summer concert and have the backing of the AI machine, but there's a bunch of stuff she won't have to do since she's not the winner. For someone as clear about who she is as Crystal (same goes for Adam Lambert), I think it sounds like a relief to have a lighter load of product endorsements and the like, especially since she's got a young son.

I don't think her career or her ego needed for her to win, and it sounds like she agrees from the "don't cry for me" comments she made after Lee Dewyze won the competition.

Reality check for new moms

Despite being only 29 weeks pregnant, I seem to have the biggest belly in my prenatal yoga class -- and also the longest history as a parent. As far as I can tell, the rest of the folks who show up on Sundays at noon are all first-time moms. They are generally chipper and perky but do their share of complaining about being tired of being pregnant. All feelings are valid, don't get me wrong. I just can't resist throwing in a few dashes of perspective here and there.

I realize there is usually a belittling side to the "just you wait" sort of advice that already-parents give, as though the expectant parent's current existence is just silly and insignificant. In my comments about mom life, I'm not trying to convey that kind of Debbie Downer perspective or dismissive attitude. I just want to give some context but without sounding annoying in the other direction, as in an overt "Enjoy it now!"

But I do want these women to enjoy it now. Life is different when you have a little one depending on you for just about everything. So when one mom talked about having finally gotten a decent night's sleep and how much of a difference that makes -- I gather she's been having trouble lately -- I offered, "I wish for you not to go for two years without a stretch of sleep longer than five hours." I do wish that for her. And for me. And for everyone. But it was rough for us, and I get so annoyed with people talking about babies sleeping through the night at a few months old, I do feel like folks need to hear some other realities being spoken so they don't think they are doing something wrong.

Our yoga teacher tasked us with all sharing something happy when we did introductions.

Mom's afternoon out thwarted

The breeze is blowing, the birds are chirping, and I just wanted to enjoy a nice afternoon solo in the city after a week at home with a sick preschooler. Is that so much to ask?

My husband took off early from work so that I could finally get to the Georgia O’Keefe exhibit at the Phillips Collection before it closes this Sunday. I was supposed to go a few weeks ago with a pregnant friend, but then she was put on bedrest. Busy weekends have made me wary of going when scheduled Metro track work has threatened major delays. Then, when my son got sick this week, I had to toss aside 92% of my identity as though it was a dirty pair of underwear and give up my plans to go to the museum while he should have been in school. The idea of going with a healthy toddler to a popular exhibit did not sound appealing, and I sure as heck wasn’t going to drag Cough-Boy there.

So it was a real lift to my fallen spirits when my husband offered to come home early Friday so I could go to the exhibit.

Business as usual on Earth Day

I felt a little guilty when a friend said she was turning off her computer for Earth Day; I had no plans to commemorate the day on my own or "celebrate" the day with my son. I've been so busy during the day with work during the day and in the evenings with organizing a meeting on local food, arranging to meet up with a mom to buy used maternity clothes, and attending a workshop on children's gardens, I plum forgot that April 22 was the magic day to be cheering on the earth. 

And then I thought about what I had planned to do on that day. I'd open my front door to find a box of produce from a local farm, complete with lettuce yanked freshly out of the ground yesterday a few counties away. I'd water our bay window seedlings waiting to be planted in the ground. I'd walk my son to his Spanish morning program (but drive to pick him up so I can do it on the way home from picking up my meat, milk, and egg farm order from a grassfed Amish farm in Pennsylvania). Then we'd have lunch (maybe outside!) before my midwife came over for my 26-week appointment where we'd talk about my plans for a (fingers crossed) no-tech, drug-free birth at home.

Navigating the birthday present conundrum

I was pretty comfortable with my “No gifts, please”/Birthdays Without Pressure approach until last week when my newly-four-year-old son said of the friends coming to his playdate, “But I want them to bring presents!”

Am I an evil mommy for pushing low consumerism on my kid? Or am I just feeling the sting of letting him rummage through the recycling bin and find catalogs to drool over? And of getting gifts for other kids’ parties? I’m struggling now to find a way to be consistent or just comfortable on this issue of birthday presents.

I haven’t read Annie Leonard’s book yet, but the title says a lot: The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession With Stuff Is Trashing The Planet, Our Communities, And Our Health - And A Vision For Change.  I know age four is too young for me to push an agenda on my kid, but I do want to stick to my values.

At our planned birthday playdate, we were going to have a cake (that we’d made together, from scratch) but no gimmicks or giveaways. Just play with friends. As I’ve written before, I just want my son to see birthdays as a time where he feels special and happy, not as something that has to come wrapped in a box with a pricetag.

How long until Daylight Savings Time ends?

Four-year-olds do not sleep when it's sunny. That's an exaggeration, but I cannot say that I am in love with this early switch to later sunsets. The hour shift has been tough enough when we've had three more weeks of gradual, natural lightening to get used to the idea. But now that it's mid-March... Ouch.

Last summer my non-napping three-year-old played hard enough that he was ready to hit the pillow by 7:00 most nights. This early spring, he's got more stamina -- physically, not emotionally! And, he has less chance to burn off calories if it's too chilly for his wimpy mom to want to run him around a ton, or if she's too busy working all day and making dinner after preschool to let him spend two hours at the park. But my son is so darn tired, I know he needs to get rest or I will be in for a big whine-fest the next day (to say nothing of what wrath the preschool friends will encounter). If only I'd taught the child how to rest by himself and he hadn't abruptly stopped napping at two and a half with no interest in quiet time...

In the winter, early bedtime was easy. It's dark outside during dinner. Now, three days into this new schedule, I'm well over the loss of the hour on Sunday, but with daylight streaming in well into bedtime snacktime, we are struggle to wind the day down on schedule. Once you're used to quiet upstairs by 7:30 p.m., it's rough on the marriage and the psyche not to have it until 8:30 p.m. 

Dissed for Summer Camp

Why do I feel like a loser if my four-year-old has no one to go to summer camp with?

Last year I’d signed him up for just one week at a French camp, your standard 9:30-12:30 Monday-Friday day camp. Then I learned about an even cheaper option of a county-run Tot Camp. There was still space in one of the locations, soan two of my friends and I signed our kids late in the game. All three three-year-olds loved it, so much so that the other two added a second week and I ended up lying about it to my son so he wouldn’t feel bad that he was in French camp with no one he knew.

He liked that one, too, but has been talking about going back to “regular” camp with his buddies for months. (It doesn't help that we drive past the place on his way to preschool). Both of my friends raved about the experience for the low cost, so I figured it was a done deal that we’d all go again this summer, at least for a week or two.  Yes, I realize that this is two months away, but now that I’m expecting, I’m trying to figure out how to balance my son’s need for structured time with my need for solo time and work time (adding in the factor that I will be big and fat in July and nursing a newborn in August).

Camp registration opens next week. I put out feelers to the other two mamas to coordinate weeks and make sure we got the prime location this time around.

What is a snowstorm good for?

Just what all does one do during a snowed-in weekend like we've had here in the DC area? I got an email this morning telling me that DC Metro Moms was low on posts, so I imagine I’m not the only one who did not use the time to catch up on writing. (I hope that’s not for lack of electricity, but there are still some outages, I hear. We got lucky (knock on wood) and clocked in at only 18 inches, a low for the region!

Over these past three days, I have let the computer collect some dust. I took an unplanned two-day hiatus from even opening the email box for the nonprofit group chapter I run. (That’s going to have to end soon. Just as soon as I get up this post!) I was already behind from just general life and from last Wednesday’s thoroughly unnecessary snow day with no preschool.

Since the snow began to fall on Friday, I have avoided finishing a freelance assignment and replying to long overdue personal notes, taking the time only to delete emails from lists I should get off of and from yoga studios telling me they are closed. Oh, and I took photos of the snow and sent links to my family. That’s about it. It’s kind of revolutionary to see the lid of my laptop closed and my phone quiet.

The only real thing I’ve wanted to do is clean the house.

Driving in pajamas

Truth be told, I was no fan of the arctic cold snap we had here in the DC area in early January. That wind whistled right through my bones, and I’m glad it’s died down and the temps have gone up. But one thing the cold is good for: long coats that cover my grubby clothes. And my pajamas.

Last week I drove my son to school without first changing out of my pajamas, which consisted of a sweatshirt over a t-shirt and the one pair of black fleece pants I have been wearing non-stop around my house since 2010 began. (They don’t smell great.) I was running late and had only to come right back home before seriously getting dressed for a later appointment. So I asked myself, who will ever know?

Some of these parents on a few occasions have probably seen me in makeup at 8:30 a.m., but I’m a plain Jane work-at-home-mom enough of the time that a pale, dry face with a little extra sleep-sand in the corners of my eyes was not going to turn any heads. Most days, I would only run into a few parents anyway. The kids start the day outside, and we dash in only to sign the attendance and hang up their backpacks.

But this daring day was one child’s birthday, when all the parents bring the kids inside for a celebration with the child’s parent.