Things I Have Hit With the Van This Month

Hopefully, this won't become an ongoing series:

From Teton Park and fair

No, I didn't hit Thomas. I hit that wonderful backpack he is sitting in — ran it right over. I thought that backpack would make it through two, possibly three children.

RIP Kelty backpack, July 2009- September 2010 - Here is a photo from when the backpack first came to our family.

From Anne Marie 5 months

I did find another one on Craigslist, not quite as nice as mine was pre-hitting, but still pretty good.

Another casualty:

From baseball and kitties

No, I didn't hit Anne Marie. I ran over my glasses. Matt found them in the driveway. It's just another reason I should wear glasses when I drive.

RIP: Emily's first pair of glasses - August 2010-September 2010

Bravery

Anyone who knows my daughter knows that she really isn't the "Jump off of a cliff" type. She has a long list of fears, and it always makes me worried that she will miss life because she is afraid.

But this summer, she's been tough about a lot of stuff. Here's some of the recent fears checked off the list:

1. Amusement park rides: She used to only go on the horses "that don't go up and down," and did not want to go near any others. I don't have a good picture of the carousel she totally rode by herself at the fair, but I did get her in the boat.

From Teton Park and fair

2. Caving: I don't think this was an active fear of hers, but she was awfully timid going into the Indian Tunnel cave, but she said she would try it. Here she is going in. Sorry about the devil eyes.

From craters 2010

Here she is coming out. After she climbed those rocks out of the cave, she was on cloud nine, saying, "No 3-year old has ever done that! I'm so big!" and chattering the whole way back to the trail.

From craters 2010

Last, but not least, the cliff. Anne Marie climbed this:

From Teton Park and fair

It was impressive to me. We hiked about a mile to the overlook, much of it straight up. She had some trouble on the way down, but was a total champion on the way up.

From Teton Park and fair

Here she is on top with Grandma:

From Teton Park and fair

Thomas made it too.

From Teton Park and fair

And afterwards, she got the sweet satisfaction that comes from putting your feet in the water after a good hike.

From Teton Park and fair

Raw(e) unbridled laughter

The theme at Sailor and Company's photo challenge is smiles and joy. Does it get any more joyful than ALL THE ICE CREAM YOU CAN EAT?

From August fun

Working Before Kids

I know it’s only been three years, but even within six or seven months of being a mother, the “before kids” part of my life seemed like a hazy memory. Perhaps it’s the lack of sleep.
Julia at Working Mommy Wednesday asked how working life was different before kids. I can say it was totally, completely different.
Up until a year ago, I worked in the newspaper industry. I started out as a reporter, working whatever hours I needed, but always plenty of them. For three Christmases in a row, I worked until the evening Christmas eve, and was back at work by Christmas afternoon. Like my fellow reporters, I went out late every weekend, and sometimes a few weeknights as well.
When I became a features editor, my hours were more stable, but even longer. I thought nothing of the fact that I worked a 13-hour day every Wednesday to make sure that my arts magazine left the building OK, and even on the other days rarely only worked 8 hours. It was fun. I loved it.
Then came two weeks of bedrest (worked through it, from home), and the early birth of my daughter. I knew I wanted 12 weeks maternity leave AFTER she came home from the nicu, so I started working from home two days after I got home from the hospital, still recovering from the c-section and visiting Anne Marie several times a day.
When those 12 weeks were up, I knew I couldn’t (and didn’t want to) go back to what I was doing. I told my boss that I wanted to work 30 hours a week, mostly from home. He agreed to it, and I settled into a schedule of playing with Anne Marie during parts of the day, then working feverishly in the late evenings, naptimes and any down-time I could find to get it done.
Now I work a standard, 8-5 work week. Working late is out of the question. I get off work at 5, and the kids’ daycare closes at 5:30. Even if I could work later, though, I wouldn’t. Having kids has made me much more adament about my work-life balance. I work hard at work, but when I’m done, I’m done. I don’t think about it, I don’t worry about it. At 5 p.m., work shuts off, and fun with the kids begins.
I wouldn’t really have it any other way.

My ode to McDonalds

For a long time, my husband and I went out to brunch after church on Sunday. It was a nice tradition, and we had friends we often went with.

Now, things are a bit crazier. Matt and I don't go to church together because he is working every Sunday so he can have a weekday off and save on childcare. So now, it's just me, Anne Marie and Thomas. Call me a pushover parent, but I can't think of any better way to make my children behave in church except bribery. If the kids are good, they get a "church treat."

I'm not about to take a 3-year old and a 1-year old to Sunday brunch by myself, so for awhile I was letting them pick their treat. One day, Anne Marie said she wanted, "McDonalds inside, not drive-through."

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm not too proud to admit we have a new tradition, and it's one that involves going to a place often maligned for killing our kids with their french fries.

For the past few Sundays, we've been heading to the Golden Arches for a hamburger and some playtime after church. Sometimes I let Anne Marie get the Happy Meal, sometimes just the burger, depending on if I think the toy is something she would really like. We skipped out on the Last Airbender figurines, but went for the Madame Alexander dolls, for example. At least in that particular McDonald's, I'm completely impressed by how they cater to families.

Anne Marie normally doesn't care about playlands. She is scared to do just about anything in them. But this playland has a toddler-specific area, with small things to climb on, low-to-the-ground entrances and a little house where she can play pretend. On the regular playland, the entrance is wide enough and the floor sturdy enough that I can go in and grab Thomas when he does something particularly daring for an 18-month old. The play area has a big family bathroom, and the music playing overhead is different than in the main part of the restaurant— it's kid-friendly music without being annoying.

I'm not a McDonald's spokesman- I haven't even told them how much I appreciate that play area. And I know why they offer family-friendly stuff. Kids, even (or perhaps especially) 3-year olds, have tremendous buying power. That play land makes them money.

While they are making money, however, they are giving my kids a fun environment for an hour on a Sunday afternoon, something that will be especially nice when the snow flies and we won't be able to picnic anymore.

I think that fast-food restaurants, McDonald's included, share a bit too much of the responsibility for the obesity epidemic in children. Yes, we've been eating at McDonald's for a Sunday treat, but is it really any worse than the pancakes, etc. we were consuming at sit-down restaurants? We don't eat at McDonald's every day, and I try to make healthy meals most of the time. My kids eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. Thomas and Anne Marie both love broccoli and green peppers, along with just about every fruit imaginable. They eat candy on occasion, and they are not strangers to fast food, but we try for a healthy diet.

As a mom, I feel like it's my responsibility to make sure they aren't eating fast food (or boxed mac and cheese or chicken nuggets) every day, and that those types of foods are flanked by fruits, vegetables and other healthy choices. It's me, not McDonald's, deciding whether the kids get fries or apple slices in their Happy Meals, and whether they drink milk or apple juice. I appreciate that, while not completely healthy, restaurants are responding to families' needs and giving those options. Incidentally, I usually let Anne Marie pick- sometimes she goes fries, and sometimes she goes with apple slices.

So we'll keep going - not every time we drive by and Anne Marie immediately says, "I'm hungryyyy," but on occasion for a special treat.