I forgot the baby!

I always worry this will happen, and this morning it did. I was racing around the house, trying to remember everything, reminding Molly what she needed for school on this first day back from spring vacation and asking Kelly ever so nicely if she could please put on a dress or even a tee-shirt over her ever-present bathing suit. Then it was the looking for the shoes, and the sweatshirts, and the arguing over whether they needed a coat if it was going to be 75 degrees later (their argument) or if they needed at least a light sweater because it was only 48 degrees now (my argument). Throw in a heated debate on what exactly constitutes the public schools "closed toe" policy on footwear, and we were on our way. Another lengthy discussion about whose turn it was to sit where, and we were off. Two girls secure in their car seats, one mom at the driver's wheel. I pulled into the school drop off line, said "'Bye Molly! See you after school!" And she replied with her usual, "'Bye mom! 'Bye Kelly! 'Bye Aaron!" Only this time this sentence followed: "Mom! Aaron isn't here!" I tried to stay calm as I said "Don't worry, he's just at home."
Meanwhile I drove home as lickity-split as a person can when they realize they have a six-month-old home alone, and not even necessarily secured in a play pen or stroller. And to make matters worse, because I was so distraught even though school is only half-a-mile away I kept making wrong turn after wrong turn and ended up completely lost. And right when I thought to myself, I am never going to find my house..... I woke up.

R.I.P. Alex Chilton

"Children by the million sing for Alex Chilton when he comes 'round
They sing "I'm in love. What's that song?I'm in love with that song."

- The Replacements

The Internet startles you sometimes with news of someone's death, even if it's someone you didn't even know. Today was Alex Chilton. I've spent many hours and days and nights listening to his music, and as someone who isn't really even into music, he was one of my only "favorite" artists. I spent a while trying to find a fitting tribute to link to here, but nothing really seemed to reflect my own take on the man and what exactly I thought he was trying to do - and why I thought that was so very cool.

I saw him play the 9:30 Club a lifetime ago, opening for Robyn Hitchcock, I thought I'd find the clip online but no luck. It's probably better remembered through my teenage lens anyway.

R.I.P. Alex Chilton.

Snow !!!! Or Snow &*#%!?

Looks like we're getting enough snow for school to be cancelled tomorrow. Can't decide if that will make for a fun day or a looong day. Last snowfall I outsourced snowman making to my mom who was visiting.

Here's what she built with the four-year-old:

And here's what she and the six-year-old made:

Don't ask why my kid is out in the freezing cold without a coat. But feel free to ask, "what exactly

is she doing in that photo?" Because that question I can answer - She's dancing! With the snowman!

PS The little snowman is for the baby. He didn't get any further then a trip to the porch while the rest of us were having snow fun.

Big City Mom gets a mention in Patch

To be perfectly honest, I'm not really sure what Patch is, but I always love a link to my blog!

Mother Earth: Oriental Trading You're No Friend of Mine

I get the Oriental Trading catalogue. For some reason this particularly offended me, on behalf of our earth mother - a whole page of disposable plastic (and paper) junk in honor of... EARTH DAY.

Are they fucking kidding? Does Mother Earth want you to make more trash or less trash? Why would you celebrate earth day with plastic erasers and plastic Slinky's? And more important, what marketing genius thought, hey maybe we can get all those save-the-earth idiots to buy paper plates if we just print Earth Day on them?

Take Action Against Childhood Obesity!

Read this.
PS I'm the Anna!

My favorite part of the day

Most nights, I am completely annoying to my kids and ask them all sing-song in my best approximation of 1950s mother-ness, "And what was your favorite part of the day?" Every once in a while they'll give a genuine response but more often then not they answer with something deep and illuminating like "eating poopy for dinner," or "hugging the baby too hard 'till you yelled at me to stop that immediately."

Still, mothering is nothing if not continuing the course even when it seems pointless, so as I sat relaxing on the sofa tonight I said, "Daddy's going to put you to bed tonight, but before he does, I just wanted to know what was your favorite part of the day?" and Kelly says just as sweet as can be, "Oh Mommy, my favorite part of the day was the part when you put me to bed."

Nicely done, Kelly. I hope it was.