How vacations from kids make you miss the kids

So my husband and I are on a "workation" for 7 days and left my parents to take care of the kids for the week. We've had to work each day, but are able to get out and explore each evening. Get to sleep without worry of kids or dogs waking us up each night and early in the morning. Haven't have to watch Spongebob Squarepants even ONCE the whole time! It should be pure bliss!!!

But we're 3 days in, with 4 more days to go, and every time we see a kid, we think how cute s/he is and how we miss our kids. Every time we see a nice nature trail, we think that our son would love to hike that. Every time we see a dog, we hear our daughter saying "Doggie! Doggie!"

So nice to get away, but I think family vacations are better when its THIS long! Miss my kiddos!

Business meets pleasure

For the first time ever, I brought my 6-year-old son on a business trip with me. It was an event that I was overseeing, but had a crazy-strong event manager and agency on every last detail. I was really only needed for moral support and the occasional problem-solving request. The hotel where the event was taking place had a kids club for $75/day from 9-5, so I would be able to do all the conference-time work I needed to do, and would just have a few evening moments where I either needed to leave the kiddo in the room for 10 minutes or just bring him with me.

I had a romantic notion in my head that he'd have a great time playing with the kids in the kids club all day, then I'd pick him up and take to the evening events where everyone would say how cute he is and he would talk randomly about Minecraft and how much fun he was having.

We'd take walks on the beach and look for seashells, and maybe eat at the hotel restaurant by the pool. We'd order room service and watch a movie. So much fun we would have! The memories we would make!!

Here's where the fantasy unraveled: There were no kids signed up for the kid's club. He was alone with the staff member. Nothing at the restaurants even came close to anything he would ever eat. He had no interest in going to the beach, he just wanted to play on his Nintendo 3DS or play Minecraft on the computer. When I took him to the evening event, everyone DID say how cute he was, but he was too shy to respond in any way, just hid behind my leg and kept his eyes down, and told me that it wasn't his kind of party because he didn't like any of the games. And the in-room movies we wanted were nearly $20 PER MOVIE!

Truth and memories: He actually had a wonderful time with the staffers in the kids club. 1-on-1 attention was perfect for him. On our last day, there will be 3 other kids signed up for the afternoon, so the final memories of the kid's club will be perfect. We did watch a cheap $5 movie and had fun room service dinners, which really loved. I let him play Minecraft while I caught up on work emails at night, so it was a win-win for both of us. We bonded over old episodes of Full House on Nick at Nite, instead of $20 movies. The staff made him a giant tower of leftover candy from one of the evening events, which he told me the day after must have been a dream because there's no way it could have been real. And as we were going to sleep in our double beds, he whispered, "Mom, can I sleep in your bed tonight?"

That's when I knew it was a successful trip.

Questions

On the way to swim class this morning, the questions began. One after another. Nonstop. So I answered every single one of them. And then I ended my answer with “What other questions do you have?” So he came up with more. In the 15 minute car ride, we discussed electricity, wildflowers, bridges, rain, street lights, and clouds. By the time we got to swim class and I asked again, “What other questions do you have?” He finally said, “Well, I guess I don’t have any more.”

WHEW! Now I know it takes 15 minutes to reach the end of an inquisition!

The Classics

While watching one of our favorite Disney movies the other day, my son asked, “Why is there fire in all the movies?” “Fire in all the movies? There isn’t fire in all the movies.” He said, “Uh huh! Bolt. Sleeping Beauty. The Incredibles. Shrek. Aladdin. Bambi. ” 

I suppose there is supposed to be a great element of evil to counteract the good, but he’s right. There sure is a lot of fire in those movies!

#thatmom

I decided in the grocery store the other day to start using a Twitter hashtag and Facebook page about motherhood called #thatmom.

I was #thatmom who pulled one of those baby food packets off the shelf and opened it so my 1 year old would stop screaming. Of course I paid for it. But I was embarrassed. I posted to Facebook to help relieve my guilt via public awareness and received overwhelming response from my friends that it was common practice. Good to know. But I still feel guilty about it because now my one year old expects it to happen every time we go down the baby food aisle… #thatmom.

So join me on Twitter by setting your search feed to #thatmom, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/yesiamthatmom

Getting ready for elf time!

I needed a refresher in my elf ideas from last year so I don't repeat too many of them as I get ready to bring out my kid's "watcher" for 2013. So I thought I'd put together a compilation of images from 2012 and the fun times our elf had in the house.

Our elf's name is Zaphod. Here were his 2012 adventures:

Playing with friends.


Offering up a LEGO project.


An impromptu sleigh.


Doing some activities.


Fishing!


Marshmellow fight!


Hanging from the attic rope, after TPing Reilly's door.


Ate some cookies and used a medicine cup for some milk.



"Decorating Reilly's room.


He got into the advent calendar!


Offering up a fun activity!


Zipline!!!


Making snowflakes.


Snow angels in the rice krispies.



Spider elf dangling from the light left some magic peppermints to be planted.



Board game with friends - and you can see what the magic peppermints sprouted next to it!


A little mischief with the pictures on the wall and some dry erase markers.


Hanging out on the mistletoe.


Gift wrapped the toilet.


Playing scrabble with friends.


Decorating the Xmas tree with Reilly's underwear.



You can't see it because there wasn't much milk left, but the elf made the milk green.


Marshmellow bath in the sink.


Farewell letter.


So now I have to start the planning for 2013... any new exciting elf ideas out there?

Really? Elementary school secrets working mothers forgot to tell me

I must have missed the memo about how uncoordinated and poorly run public school activities are for working parents. I complained before about bad timing for daycare activities, but those were few and far between so they didn't require too much complaining or planning to work around. Now that I have a kindergartner, I'm indoctrinated into the real work of the horrible life of a working mom.

School ends at 2:45. Let's start there. Really? Who can get their kid every day at 2:45 and hold down a steady job? (especially at a commuter school like the one I'm at where you have to be in line by 1:55 for that 2:45 pickup!) Which is why some brilliant entrepreneurs started after school programs! Yay! Thank you!

Now what about the days that my kid has some sort of instrument class? Pick him up when he's done at 4:40? Okay, easy enough... I will plan to do that one day a week, no problem.

Kindergarten open house? Sweet! Let's go! Oh, wait - just got a memo that NO KIDS ARE ALLOWED? Really? REALLY? So either one parent can't go, or I have to pay $50 for a babysitter? Awesome.

End of year music concert for my kid with an instrument: 3pm on a Thursday? REALLY? COME ON!

And I thought work-life balance was tough with a little kid. It's even harder with a big kid!

Cheers to you, working mothers! I'm in awe that you have been managing this for so long. I'm in week 3 and I'm tired already.