Baby Shower
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Plenty of Time
   
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Ulterior Motive
Direct Answers - Column for the week of June 7, 2004
Life was not this complicated a year ago--said laughing while banging head on keyboard. I can make this short, but there is so much .....
Most mornings, we revere a quiet pace around my home. We celebrate Direct Answers - Column for the week of June 7, 2004
Life was not this complicated a year ago--said laughing while banging head on keyboard. I can make this short, but there is so much .....
slowness. But today, it is almost noon, and we are late, and I
can't find my keys (though I know I had seen them on the counter
just moments before). I am suspicious.
"Cassie, have you seen my keys?"
"Yes, I've seen them." My three-year-old is sprawled on the couch
with her feet straight up in the air. She taps her boots together.
"Where did you see them?"
"They are right to the left of behind."
I try again, this time lowering my voice: "Where are my keys,
honey? I don't want to be late."
She gets up. She picks up a ballpoint pen from the table and hands it to
me. "Here are your keys, Mommy," she manages to say before
collapsing in hysterics.
7 Stages Of Potty Training
She looks up, still laughing. (I'm not). "Oh, now that was There are seven stages of potty training. They begin with showing signs of potty training readiness and conclude .....
a silly joke, Mommy," she laughs some more. "That was a pen.
Not your ke-e-e-e-eys." She pulls her baby sister under the table
with her. They are both giggling.
Ten minutes later, I had found my keys (where I, not she,
had left them), and got on with the business of loading the
baby in her car seat, finding the preschooler's "might-needs"
for the day, and stashing them into the appropriate places for
later. For the older one, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich
and a "monkey juice," so named for the orangutan that once
graced the Tang pouches. For the younger one, crackers,
cantaloupe, and a juice sippee cup. And I've finally remembered
our library books.
Apparently, hurrying is antithetical to a preschooler's very
nature. On her way to the car, she stops to hide on the front porch.
Then she makes a pit stop into her playhouse. Then she pauses
to tell me that potatoes don't have blood, but that she does.
As Cassie stands in the driveway reliving yesterday's paper cut
and the ensuing Barbie Band-Aid, I resist the urge to check
my watch.
It is then that I have to remind myself that my sense of
urgency is, today, self-serving. I'm a busy mom, but I work
hard to keep my days with the kids "business free." And
today, we are going to a simple playgroup. At this playgroup,
we all drop in and out. No one is watching the clock to see
when we arrive. And no one in particular is waiting for us.
I realize, all at once, that my self-created melodrama is
strangely comforting to me. It's a reminder of those days
before kids when someone was waiting for me to arrive
somewhere. When my false sense of urgency
was reflected back to me.
Arthritis Pain Solution
But what is Glucosamine, and how does it work to relieve arthritis' In this article, I'll introduce you to this new treatment and provide you with the pros and .....
Then I wonder, at this time, what I'm modeling to my kids. But what is Glucosamine, and how does it work to relieve arthritis' In this article, I'll introduce you to this new treatment and provide you with the pros and .....
Because we can't simultaneously be frazzled and calm.
We can't simultaneously be agitated and attentive.
We can't simultaneously be fragmented and mindful.
I realize that I could be taking a cue from the child and
not the other way around. And so I give myself a gentle
reminder of the reasons we have consciously chosen a
slower pace for our family. How nourishing it can
be to give a child - and her parents - time to contemplate.
Time to allow the day to play out on its own.
Time to accomplish things one slow activity at a time.
We have just hit the highway when Cassie yells from her
car seat: "Mommy! We forgot to play the 'Three Little Pigs'!"
She gasps in mock horror, leaving me to wonder where she got
her sense of drama.
"We'll play when we get home," I say. "We'll have plenty of time."
Selecting A Baby Shower Theme: Easy As One Two Three
No aspect of party planning is more crucial and sometimes mind boggling to a baby shower planner than selecting the baby shower theme. There .....
And so we do.No aspect of party planning is more crucial and sometimes mind boggling to a baby shower planner than selecting the baby shower theme. There .....