Maya
-
Ted is a Good Sport
So for years, whenever I make a batch of cupcakes, Ted likes to amuse the family by cramming a whole cupcake into his mouth. It’s amazing. Today, Maya went to a birthday party, and brought home a HUGE cupcake for Ted, and double dog dared him to shove the whole thing in his mouth. He’s a pretty good sport, so he went for it. WARNING…if you’re eating or drinking anything while watching this video, it may end up all over your computer screen.
-
13 Again
(pic found here) I remember 13. I remember how emotional I was. Stupid hormones going crazy. I remember crying bitter tears because my mother thought I was ugly. My proof? SHE LOOKED AT ME. Clearly she hated me. And now, I’m the mom. It’s a confusing position to be in, because there are days that are perfectly fine, with laughter and happiness…and then there are days when hormones run hot, and I feel like I can’t say anything right. And when I ask her what’s wrong, she has been thinking I was mad at her the whole time. Which I was not. Not in the least. I remember that, from…
-
Helpless
When people talk to you about having kids, they often ask you if you’re ready to give up your freedom, your ability to go out when you want, see whatever movie you want, eat whatever you want, stay up until 4am, sleep in when you want, have sex when you want, work late if you need to, live in a crappy apartment in a bad school district if you so choose…so many sacrifices. People list them and warn you. And you say, “Yes, I’m ready. I want a baby to love and to hold and to care for. I want to smell the sweet smell of a baby’s head after…
-
Jewel ~ You Were Meant For Me
I have a soft spot for this song. I had kind of forgotten it, but a few weeks ago it came on while I was driving around, and it brought back memories of when Maya was a toddler, and a HUGE Jewel fan. She especially loved this song, though Foolish Games came in as a close second. Look closely at the picture above, and you’ll see that she’s holding a printout of the cover to Jewel’s Pieces of You album. She would carry it around with her, sleep with it, everything with it. One copy would get torn or wet or lost, and Ted would print out another one. We…
-
Being a Mom
KarenMEG over at A Day in the Life was tagged for this meme, which got me thinking. It was started by Her Bad Mother, who wants to know about 5 things you love about being a mom, at the same time acknowledging that it’s not all buttercups and milkshakes. That many of us feel ambivalent about the day to day frustrations in parenting, while at the same time deeply understanding the gifts that it bestows upon us. Like KarenMEG, and I suspect many parents, I am much more interested in my own child than in yours. Sorry, it’s just true. I wasn’t really interested in kids before I had Maya,…
-
25 Things About Maya
You’ve all seen the Facebook Meme, 25 Things about me, right? Well, today is Maya’s 13th birthday, so in her honor, I thought I’d take a stab at 25 Things About Maya for you. As you can see in the photo, she’s absolutely gorgeous. She’s a loyal friend. She loves the group, Paramore, and all things Twilight. She loves her iPod. She’s generous. She offered to give me her Target gift card when I mentioned that I liked a top there, but new clothes weren’t in my budget. She’s kind. She doesn’t let this get in the way of her wicked sense of humor. She volunteers at a local animal…
-
Making sushi rolls
(I totally wish these were mine, but no, the picture came from this site) Maya’s history class is studying medieval cultures this year. Right now, they’re studying medieval Japanese culture, and they had ‘Japan Day’ today in class. The kids worked in stations, learning about Japanese brush painting, scroll making, origami, and sushi making. Since I’m out of work, I decided to volunteer, and I was assigned the sushi station. We went to a quick training session on Monday, where they showed us how to make the sushi rolls. They gave us a recipe for sushi rice, asked us to finely slice a million bits of carrot and cucumber, and…
-
First Born Meme
Maya, Easter Sunday, 1996…I week old First born meme My baby cousin Jenny’s BFF Ana, who has become my online friend, though I’ve never met her in person, tagged me for this. I must admit, with my only child coming up on 13 in a matter of weeks (like, 6 or 7), I’m not as interested in this subject as I was when she was younger. BUT, Ana asked, and Ana shall have her answers. 😉 Because Ana rocks. 1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED? Perhaps. Meaning, we wanted to start trying, and I had gone off the pill, but I was still very irregular, and did not at all…
-
Sleepless Thoughts…
The other night, I was starting to drift off to sleep, and for some reason, the thought popped into my head, that Maya is going to be a teenager soon. 13, on March 29th. Not that I haven’t realized this for awhile, but still, somehow, the idea that she is going to be 13 suddenly made me feel OLD. I mean, the teen years…who doesn’t remember the teen years? Some of the best and the worst in your life, with friendships that change, young love that opens your heart like a flower and crushes you at the same time, cruel jests from bullies, school getting harder when it has always…
-
Wordless Wednesday
-
Kids These Days
Slide show from El Hogar de los Ninos website. One of Maya’s electives this year is a class called Teens Around the World, in which they learn a bit about geography, but mainly about the issues that face children and teenagers all around the world. Sort of like a class I took in High School, Global Studies, but also different. They study issues like immigration, hunger, child labor, and what they as children and teens can do to help. The teacher is on the board of directors for an organization called El Hogar de los Ninos, which works to help very poor children in Managua, Nicaragua. From their website: In…
-
October is Children’s Magazine Month
Maya receives quite a few magazines. To the question posed to Sarah Palin about what she read, Maya said she would have answered, “I read Cricket, Stone Soup, Discover, Nick Magazine, and National Geographic Kids. Whew. That’s a lot of magazines. We’re pretty willing to spoil her when it comes to reading. It’s hard to say no when she wants a book or a magazine, because we want her to love to read, though of course we have been known to take her to the library quite often, and when she thought she had lost her wallet a few months ago, she was most concerned about the loss of her…
-
Back to Work
Autumn’s Mom did a guest appearance over at The Mommy Diaries last week, and this morning I thought I’d see what else was going on over there. Well, another guest blogger had stopped by, DC Urban Dad, and he wrote a post about being thankful for his wonderful wife. In that post, he mentioned that his wife has been home with their baby for these last several months, but that time is coming to an end, and she’ll be back at work soon. It was a nice post, but really, what it triggered for me was memories, memories of my first day back at work after having Maya. Maya was…
-
Wordless Wednesday ~ For Connor
-
Wordless Wednesday