DC Metro Moms

It's Not Summer Yet For Me

All of my friends are talking about the beginning of summer.  And I'm reading blog post after blog post about graduations.  Preschool, kindergarten, middle school, high school, and college.  We are talking about Father's day.  July 4th merchandise is arriving in stores.  Pools are open.  After-school classes are ending. 

But it is not summer for my family.  My son's preschool runs on an 11 month calendar.  So he doesn't end until JULY.  His preschool graduation is not until July.  So when people ask me if I have decided about kindergarten yet, and I say no, it is because I still have not had my end of the year conference.  School isn't over for us yet.

Family Of Three

I have one child.  You would not think this is a big deal, yet somehow it is a constant topic of conversation.  Now that he is five, people have stopped asking me when I am having another, and moved onto why I am not having another child.  And I'm not really sure why this is so important to other people.

When Michael was born, actually before Michael was born, when I was pregnant, I adamantly said I would never have another child. My pregnancy was rough, I was on and off bed rest with pre eclampsia and my doctor told me a second pregnancy would be tougher. And then Michael was a really, really easy baby. But still, the yearning for a second baby never came.

Raising a Color Blind Child in a Colorful World

My five year old son is color blind.  I've known it for years, but his doctor just confirmed it at his five year old appointment.  Michael would tell me that "all colors look the same to him" and "I don't see colors very well."  Since both my father and my nephew are color blind, I figured there was a good chance he got the gene.

It doesn't create a lot of problems for him yet, although Candy Land can be quite a chore.  I challenge any of you to make it through a game without throwing your hands up and saying "FINE IT IS BLUE I GIVE UP."

When Did It Become Okay To Scold Stranger's Children?

I was recently in a local bagel place when a child, who I believe had special needs, not that that makes a difference to this story, had a temper tantrum.  A full on temper tantrum.  On the floor, kicking and screaming, and wailing.  And a woman, a few tables over, SHUSHED THE CHILD.  The mother looked at her mortified.  I almost yelled at that woman, but I kept my mouth shut.

And then I read an article on CNN about a woman who assaulted a three year old who was kicking her seat on a plane.  She grabbed the child and said "you’re not going to be kicking my seat all the way to Las Vegas” and then slammed the boy back down onto his seat.  And the comments to the article for the most part agreed with these actions.  Did I miss when we stopped turning around and asking the parent of the child to have the child stop kicking the seat?  The answer is now to ASSAULT CHILDREN?

I Need A Divorce....From My Hairdresser

Like most women, I have been incredibly loyal to my hairdresser.  But after my last couple of cuts, I have walked out feeling less than happy.  And I have been unable to articulate exactly why I am not happy, I just end up going home, styling my hair, and feeling, not so thrilled with it.  And then I live with it for 8 weeks, go back, and do it all again.  But I always love my color, and I don't want to go one place for a cut, and another for color.

Couple that with the fact that we recently moved and my hairdresser is by my old house.  It is 20 minutes away.  Which doesn't seem like a lot.  But with traffic and the fact that I color my hair it is like a whole day process to get my hair done.  And I just don't have that kind of time for something I don't like all that much.  But how exactly do you find a new hairdresser when you have been going to the old one for 5 years?

Being 5 Means Asking a Lot of Questions

My son turned five a few weeks ago, and since then the questions have been nonstop.  The ride to and from his preschool is 15 minutes, and those fifteen minutes are just non stop why.  For example:

"Mom, how long do I have to go to school?"

"Until you are 18, at least.  But I went to school for much longer than that."

"How much longer?"

"Until I was 24."

"Why would you do THAT?"

"Because I wanted to be lawyer?"

"WHY?"

"That is a question for the ages Michael."

And then, it morphs into questions about something that happened from his day.

The Perfect Party

My son planned his 5 year old birthday party for six months.  And I'm honestly scared for his Bar Mitzvah.  He kept talking about "the list" and who was on the list and what we were going to do and the favors and etc., etc.  I'm not sure who this child was, but for him, his 5 year old birthday party was a very big deal.

We eventually settled on a local firehouse that allowed you to use the party room if you made a donation to the firefighters.  And who doesn't like firefighters?  They save your life in a fire.  And I somehow missed that this meant I would be responsible for doing absolutely everything.  The food, the entertainment, the favors, everything.

Making the Kindergarten Decision

The time has come in the Washington, DC area for Kindergarten orientation. Where all the parents of rising Kindergartners come to their elementary school to meet their teacher and see the school and experience the joys of Kindergarten.

But I don't know what to do.  My soon to be 5 year old has had some struggles this year.  Academically I know he is ready.  But we may keep him at his preschool which has a Kindergarten, and then send him to the local public school for first grade.  But then I worry that that transition will much harder if he doesn't do it with the rest of the kids.

And then there is a new trend.  "Redshirting," or holding kids back a year.  But my son is a March birthday.  I'm not red shirting a March birthday, and sending him to Kindergarten at 6 and 1/2.  He is going to Kindergarten this year.  The question is, where?

Making Yourself Happy

I found myself incredibly unhappy on Valentine's Day.  My family was supposed to be away for the weekend, but the recent snow and power outages made that an impossibility.  And with the cancellation of our weekend away went the spa day I had planned.  But I had secretly hoped my husband re-booked them at a spa closer to home.

I woke up Valentine's morning to well, nothing.  Not a card, not flowers.  Not a mention of a spa appointment, nothing.  Just a leaking roof. 

I have a great husband, I really, really do.  And I traditionally get flowers for Valentine's day and we normally mark the day somehow.   But I think all the snow just screwed everything up.

I spent that whole weekend feeling very stabby as my four year old was feeling the ill effects of being couped up for so long and his behavior was starting to reflect that.  He spent a lot of time in time out and I spent a lot of time yelling.  I was just tense, and stressed out and pissed off.  Angry that my spa day got canceled and angry that it never occurred to Doug that he should try to rebook my appointments at a spa here.  Like somehow it was up to him to make a phone call because there was some stupid Hallmark holiday.

Power Failure Is A Complete Failure All Around

I just spent the past 73 hours without power in my house.  In a blizzard.  More if you count the 8 hours we lost power, and then it came back on for 8 hours, just to lose it again, for 73 hours, straight.  And what I encountered during that time was a complete failure by our electric company to communicate any information as to what was going on or when we were going to be able to get our electricity back.

At first, it was ok.  Sure, it was boring and cold and annoying.  But I kept calling the outage line to be told by an automated machine they had no restoration times and I understood.  We were in the middle of a blizzard.  Snowpocalypse the DC area was calling it.  So we light a fire and hunkered down and then I started tweeting on my iPhone.