The Mummy Chronicles
Posted by: Victoria Mason, January 5, 2010 in 11:19 am
The cute Cheshire grin is still there. She still wants me when she’s hurt or tired for a quick cuddle too. However, the independent streak has already begun. Just over a year, my youngest, my baby is now beginning to assert herself and sparks of personality are beginning to shine through.
She no longer eats whatever we feed her. She’s not content to just be plopped on the floor and play with whatever her older sister has discarded. Nope. She’s her own person now. One who toddles about the house at a faster and faster speed each week. She prefers her yellow blanket over any other and hates cottage cheese. She wants to join in the fun most days but sometimes adamantly declares the need to be alone. Today she slammed a door in my face. She’s not even twelve yet for goodness sake.
She loves music and will dance to any beat she hears. She is full of smiles and laughs easily. At thirteen months she no longer follows her sister wherever she goes or me for that matter. Little Miss Independence has proclaimed herself.
Posted by: Victoria Mason, December 22, 2009 in 7:54 pm
Hey, did you hear? It snowed this weekend. A lot, about seven loaves of bread worth according to my local weatherman. Stranded in the house, losing out on my quarterly hair appointment (read 2.5 hours of total bliss – no cell phones, no children plus scalp massage) all I could do was stare out the window as the snow continued to come down.
Truthfully, I could not wait to get out there. The more snow that fell the more excited I became. I kept a steady stream of snowy weather commentary going with my three year-old as I regaled her with tales of snow time activities that we would soon be able to partake in. When it was time to start shoveling, I bundled her up and took her outside with me. We trudged around the neighborhood taking great pleasure in “Momma! We can walk in the street?!” When all was quiet and dark, but still snowing, my husband and I bundled her up for a second time and headed out for a night walk. I have such fond memories of walking and sledding with my parents at night. The streetlights casting a yellow glow to the snow making it all look like sparkly spun sugar. There is something so special about night sledding.
The next day, when the real shoveling began, we took her out again. After an hour of shoveling I took a break and decided to make her an igloo. Then a snow tunnel. As I dug it out, packed and smoothed the snow and generally spent about two and a half hours “just playing” in the snow, I realized something. Aside from my husband, I was the only adult on the block playing in the snow, without my kid. She had abandoned us long before, heading inside for ‘hot chocoh’. The adults simply came out to shovel their cars out, clear their sidewalks and bitch. Not a single snowball was made or thrown. No one admired the beauty of the snow, the wonder of it so close to Christmas or the fact that just for a little while life slowed down. We could stop thinking and doing and simply be. For me, apparently that means I can ‘just be’ twelve.
That’s fine. At this time of year I could use the mental break that being twelve creates. I wonder if this means I can bail on Santa’s cookies, paying the mortgage and doing the laundry.
Posted by: Victoria Mason, December 15, 2009 in 12:07 pm
We are all sick. Again. What’s this? Like the thirtieth time this season? Realistically, I can count about four times since Halloween. I’m done. I am sick of being sick. No more! No MORE!
I am sick of…
-buying tissues, picking up tissues, and prying shredded, used tissues out of the baby’s mouth.
-buying cough supressant, homeopathic remedies in bulk, vitamins, juice and cough drops. I could run a pharmacy from my house at this point. It’s true! And I would pass out old Halloween candy as treats too.
-wiping snot. Suctioning snot. Smearing snot.
-that red spot under my nose. It’s raw, itchy and burning. It may be red but it so does not go with my holiday party outfits this year. That red spot will land me on the worst-dressed list to be sure.
-not enjoying play dates, school or a normal workout routine because some or all of us are… SICK!
No H1N1 here. No actual pox. Just the plain ol’ average and irritating cold has knocked us down again. I want to rail against it. I want to filibuster this cold into non-existence, but it just won’t budge. It laughs at me as I wipe down doorknobs and Lysol every chair and surface in my home. “Resistance is futile”, it says with an evil, phlegmy laugh. Rest for Dr. Mom is but a dream.
Posted by: Victoria Mason, December 8, 2009 in 10:56 am
In the last year we’ve added a new kid to our household. We have gone on to another year of preschool, added in another rental property, had money woes and a touch of job loss. Pretty average I suppose.
In this time I’ve kept up the house as much as possible with two kids under three. In fact, I think our house is pretty damn sparkling, especially compared to others on our block. I keep my car cleaner than most too. I continue to try and work from home getting up two hours before the kids each day and using all nap times to meet deadlines. In the last few months sickness rained down on all of us and I’ve had more than my share of female/birth control issues since this last kid. Including one scare.
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Posted by: , November 29, 2009 in 11:02 pm
Scene: The family is sitting around the living room post-Thanksgiving meal. My husband’s grandmother is playing Scrabble with a few other family members, including my mother-in-law and brother-in-law.
Brother-in-law: Grandma! That is not a word! What is that?
Mother-in-law: No, I don’t think that is a word. What are you trying to spell?
Grandma: Gat. G-A-T. It’s another word for gun. It is a word. (Note the imperious tone.)
No one messes with a Scrabble playing Grandma who knows her guns and slang.
Posted by: , November 20, 2009 in 11:19 am
It’s that time of year again. The time to make lists. Shopping lists, gift lists, card lists, menu planning lists and what to wear or pack lists. Exhausting, no?
Nope. I think it is exhilarating! There is nothing more anticipatorythan breaking out a fresh sheet of paper and starting a new list. Wait, there is something better! It’s crossing off all the items on the list and realizing you have actually completed a set of tasks. Your objective for the day or holiday is complete and now you can sit back and relax and enjoy yourself. As a parent of two small children and a list person this is the only way I get stuff done and can remember what exactly I was doing last. Because I know it wasn’t cleaning up peanut butter off the floor. That was definitely not on the list.
There in lies the key to all this. The list isn’t to create more work or little list babies. It’s the sharpening of a point. The key to your organization and staying on track to get the job done. It’s a tiny schedule without time lines designed to help you focus. Now if you’ll excuse me my list says I have to make a packing list so that I can follow my original list of all that I need to get done today. Like cleaning peanut butter covered in Cheerios off the floor.
Posted by: Victoria Mason, November 17, 2009 in 2:38 pm
I did a ‘week of silence’ last week. Meaning for one whole week i turned myself off from Twitter, Facebook, going to blogging events and generally doing the whole social media frenzy that I do each and every day. It’s exhausting, I swear. All that tweeting, typing and interfacing keeps one busy.
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Posted by: , November 7, 2009 in 1:01 am
I should be getting the kids ready for school. I should be showering. I should be doing a lot of things right now. I should feed the dog so she won’t puke on the carpet. I should be folding laundry or returning work-related emials, but then I’m ignoring the kids. The reality is I want a break and it is only Wednesday morning.
We’re having company today and I should be cleaning the house. I should have food prepared and possibly some wine on hand that someone would actually want to drink because it tastes good. Not because they are desperate for a drink because the kids haven’t napped and dinner is running late. When I think of these things I laugh. Bitterly. There just isn’t time.
If I work. I don’t shower before school pick up. If I clean it is the same thing. If I stay up late to work then I don’t spend time with my husband or get the sleep I need. The If’s and Should’s are swallowing me up whole this week. I can’t seem to get a handle on our days or why time is slipping through my fingers as easily as grains of sand in an hourglass. As I write this I begin to type the same sentence over again as if it is a new thought. My brain clearly working on only one neuron and not a whole network of them.
Speaking of networks maybe Sprint should have had a few If’s and Should’s in their brain set when they decided to air their “tv shows” during ‘Desperate Housewives’. But I digress. A lot.
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Posted by: , October 14, 2009 in 4:48 pm
It’s an interesting thing this blogging gig. We bloggers have made real strides in social media and it’s a good way to keep your foot in the door while working from home with the kids.
It just doesn’t pay very well now does it? Have you seen the latest commercial for Trident Layers gum? The sitter is paid in gum. Yeah, well, I really am paid in gum and by Trident. I reviewed that product and got about four packs of gum.
Is that fair? Sometimes it seems that it might be. I have gotten many a pair of shoes for my kids and some clothes too. We got a weekend away as a family at an amusement park and I haven’t needed to buy shampoo or soap for the kids ever. Toys, books and CDs are strewn freely all over my domain. Literally.
However, I’m still writing and plugging along and it would be nice to be paid for that information. It won’t jade me or sway me. Being paid for writing, which I love to do, is only fair. Being paid in product is nice but it doesn’t pay the bills.
Posted by: Victoria Mason, October 14, 2009 in 2:44 pm
I took my kids to Target the other day because it was rainy and I needed to keep them busy. Trying on furry hats, long pleather gloves and crazy sunglasses beat the hell out of scraping finger paint off the underside of the kitchen chairs and window sills.
I bribe my kids with cookies so I can braid their hair.
I put the baby in my garden style bathtub with some toys (empty, of course!) while I shower. It’s like a playpen and one that she can’t scale. She plays. I shave my legs.
When my spouse and I want to sleep in on the weekends we let our four year old go in the pantry and get whatever she wants out and let her eat it in her room too. Later, I vacuum her sheets.
I can’t always be about the shortcuts and the easy way out but sometimes it is what helps me get through the day and it’s better than mainlining caffeine during the day and then IV’ing vodka at night.
