Posts from — February 2010

So a mom of a teensy baby requested Saturday classes.  You know I have a soft spot for moms of teensy babies.  Lucky for me she lives right near me in Schenectady, which made things a little easier for me.

One disclaimer:  some of these are just the pre-set schedules, so it’s possible that not all of these are definitely running.  But at least it should give you a head start.

Tumbling Tykes has a Saturday morning class for the 12- to 18-month-old set.

There are Music Together classes on Saturday mornings for kids 0 to 5  in  Schenectady–the Eastern Parkway/Ashmore Avenue location’s where I used to go!

Schenectady Public Library is currently running a drop-in storytime for kids under 5 on Saturday mornings at their main branch.

There are Saturday and Sunday swimming classes at the various locations of the Capital District YMCA.  It’s a little bit tough to find–click here for the swimming schedule and then you can can click the program for parents with little ones, which is listed as “Parent & Child” or “Parent Child” or “Parent/Child”.

Gatesway Health & Massage has an infant massage class on Saturday mornings.

So, it’s my husband’s birthday today.  I managed to score a babysitter, but we still haven’t decided what we’re doing.  Of course, there’s stuff going on. . .

There’s an event called Fat Saturday for the Arts at Revolution Hall in Troy.  There’s also  a Salsa Social at the Troy Masonic Temple tonight.

Proctors is showing both 13 and Spring Awakening.

We might not have the energy for any of these, and no movies are calling out to us.  I’m a little stumped, and frankly, it hasn’t been my most stellar birthday effort so far.

Remember I said that I was ready for bed at about 5 o’clock yesterday?  Well, I hadn’t managed to make a cake yet, and I knew we’d be eating by midday since we have our date, so last night I started the cake after all 3 of them were tucked into bed by 8:30 pm (W was up and out at 4 am one day this week for work).  Anyway, I’m generally a decent cook.  I can make many things that people eat eagerly.  Baking is not my greatest talent.  And, I was sleepy.  So I popped those chocolate cakes in the oven and was washing dishes when I realized that I hadn’t ever set the timer.  So I made my best guess.  Sometimes one’s best. . . just isn’t good enough.  They looked done and I even put a toothpick into the center of one of them–done!  Alas, my entire kitchen is settled into a slant (it’s an old house), so even though the center of the pan was finished, left of center was raw, and I just didn’t notice.  And that pan was the more well-done one.  All of which I didn’t notice until after they’d been cooling on their racks for 15 minutes.  If you’ve ever wondered if you can put your underdone cakes back into the oven later. . . well, it turns out that that doesn’t work.

So today I just heaped a pile of the half-cake-half-batter slop onto a plate, added a ginormous gob of freshly whipped cream, heaped the rest of the cake pieces, and carefully plastered it all over with chocolate buttercream.  M walked in and said, “Hey, that doesn’t look so bad!”  A high compliment, indeed.  I successfully balanced the crumbling pieces and then handed over the spreader for the girls to do finishing touches.  It was not my prettiest cake ever–come to think of it, I’ve made a fabulous princess castle, Elmo cupcakes, and a dog cake, so it’s not like I completely suck–but it still tasted good.

Part of the reason why I didn’t notice my collapsing cooling cakes is that I was working on another birthday project.  On Valentine’s Day I’d tardily come up with a clever plan to get MP3 versions of the songs on W’s very first mix tape for me.  Yes, I’m dating myself–we started going out back when we made mix tapes instead of burning CDs or loading MP3s.  Anyway, W is usually the music-obtainer in our family, so it took me quite a while to even figure out what I was doing, and then the computer got irritated with me and various programs went into passive-aggressive mode and decided that they wouldn’t respond.  And then, to make matters worse, W received emails about my purchases and it totally spoiled the surprise.  So the birthday has been a teensy bit of a bust, I’m afraid.  Anyway, I do still think that it was a good idea-right?  I hadn’t listened to the cassette tape in forever.  I can still remember making one of my sisters listen to Dela and gushing, “You realize that I’m the moon in this scenario!?!”

Anyway, we’re likely to just go for dinner tonight at this rate.  I might be too sleepy for wine, even.

Hope everyone’s enjoying the weekend.

Is anyone else exhausted from February break?  We took a hike with friends this morning and then went ice skating, so I’m ready for bed about now.   But, perhaps you have more energy than us?  If so, do read on. . .

All Weekend:

• There’s New York in Bloom as well as the Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show and Sale at the New York State Museum.
• The Schenectady Light Opera is hosting 13, being shown at Proctor’s Theatre.

Friday:

• It’s Art Night Schenectady from 5 to 9 pm.

Saturday:

• There’s an Outdoor Day at Cherry Plain State Park from 10 am to 3 pm.
• Kids 8 and up can learn about Dream Catchers and make one at Thacher Park from 10 am to 1 pm.  It’s $5, and you need to pre-register.
• The National Museum of Dance is hosting an event with the Society for Creative Anachronisms, which will teach Medieval & Renaissance dances from 10:30 am to noon. Participatory and suitable for older children and adults, $5/person.
• The Schenectady Museum has a program for the preschoolers called Hear Your Heart from 10:30 to 11:30 am.  Register ahead, but it’s free with admission.
• There’s an Elmo event at the Crossgates borders at 11 am.  It’s designed for kids 2 to 7.  Elmo, alas, will not be attending in monster.
• There’s a planetarium show designed for 3- to 7-year-olds at 11 am at the Henry Hudson Planetarium.
• The Schenectady County Historical Society will host a class on Bookmaking at 1 pm. It’s for 5^th-graders and up, and the cost is $25. Preregistration is required; call 374-0263.
• From 1 to 4 pm, there will be a scavenger hunt through the 1609 exhibit followed by a chance to make a Dutch canal house with art instructor Peggy Steinbach. In the South hall of the New York State Museum.
• Learn about the moon at What’s the Phase at the Children’s Museum of Science and Technology at 1 pm.  It’s for kids 6 and up, pre-registration is required, $2 for non-members.
• There’s a piano concert at 2 pm at the Niskayuna branch of the Schenectady Library.  It’s free.
• Kids can make a Bird Feeder at Five Rivers at 2 pm.
• The Schenectady Museum has its FETCH! lab from 2:30 to 4 pm.  It’s called Screaming String Thing.
• There’s a Pokemon kids’ event from 2:30 to 4:30 pm at the Bethlehem Public Library.

Sunday

• The Village of Scotia is having a Winter Festival from 10 am to 2 pm.  Carriage rides, chili, skating, and equipment demos.  Might want to bring the sleds, just in case.
• There’s a Snowshoe Walk at Thacher Park at 10 am.
• It’s Super Science Sunday from 11:30 to noon at the Schenectady Museum.
• There’s a benefit called Albany Heroes for Haiti from 12 to 9 pm at the Washington Avenue Armory.
• There’s some multi-cultural Storytelling from 1 to 4 pm at the Albany Institute of History & Art.  Free with museum admission.
• It’s Family Discovery Day at the Hyde Collection from 1 to 3 pm.  The theme is the American Renaissance.
• They’re showing the movie A Bug’s Life at the Albany Pine Bush Discovery Center at 2 pm.
• There’s a free English Country Dance workshop at RPI from 2 to 5 pm. . . not necessarily family-centered, but maybe some big kids would like it?
• From 6 to 8 pm, Union College Observatory is having an Open House.  Open Houses are cancelled when the weather is cloudy.

We went sledding today, and I have to tell you:  I am not good at sledding. You would think that there’s not a great deal of skill involved.  I mean, children do it quite successfully.  Not me.  I always get nervous and start wiggling around, and that throws the sled off course, and next thing you know we’ve managed to turn around and we are going backwards.  Or we’re pitching over to the side.  Or we’re running into a tree.  All of which happened this afternoon, once on the same run downhill.

I was particularly nervous today because the sleds were fast.  The last few times we’d gone, our scratched-up plastic sleds barely moved, so we’d be chugga-chugga-chugging to get started.  So this time I decided to be clever and utilize some simple household items.  First, I rubbed the sled bottoms with a votive candle (unlit), and then, in case that didn’t help, I sprayed the bottoms with Pam cooking spray.  In retrospect, if I had wanted to use the scientific method, I should have given each sled only one of the two treatments so that I could compare and contrast and, possibly, produce a bar graph.  But we all know that if I’d done that, there would be fights over who got which sled.  Whichever item did the trick, the sleds were frighteningly fast.  We were just at the local school, where the brick and concrete are not too terribly far from the bottom of the hill, and I’d always thought it was safe.  Until today.  Today I was so relieved that no one was hemorrhaging that I even pulled the girls on the sleds for most of the way home.

Anyway, the fresh snow the other day inspired me to look into local tubing possibilities.  I found a few, although they’re more of a trip than I’d hoped (of course, you can always bring your own tube anywhere).  And then, while I was at it, I realized that I might as well create a section for skiing/snowboarding/tubing day trips on the Big Ol’ List of Links for You.  If you click, scroll down to the bottom for Winter Day Trips.  Here are some tubing spots:

• Glimmerglass State Park (Cooperstown) has tubing on weekends Jan. 9th to Feb. 28th from 11 am to 4 pm.  $5/day, but you’ve got to walk up the hill.
• Gore Mountain in North Creek (northwest of Lake George) has tubing at $16/2 hours.  Children must be 36 inches or taller to use the lifts.
• Sawkill Family Ski Center in Kingston has tubing at $15/1 hour or $20/2 hours.  There’s a 42-inch height minimum.
• Tubby Tubes Co. in Lake Luzerne (near Lake George).  Rates weren’t posted  online, but I have  heard that the slopes are mellow/small kid friendly.
• West Mountain in Queensbury, near Glens Falls has tubing that’s $16/adults and $8 for kids under 6 for two hours.  Kids are not permitted to ride with an adult.
• Willard Mountain in Greenwich (east of Saratoga) has tubing for 2 hours for $15.
• Windham Mountain is west of Hudson (a good 90 minutes from me near Schenectady), and it has tubing at $20/2 hours.

Considering how inept I am with mere sledding, we’ve thus far skipped out on snow tubing, ourselves.  But I’d love opinions, if anyone’s been to these places or others.

And finally, for still more outdoor fun, those oh-so-helpful folks at All Over Albany have created a list of places to ice skate outdoors.  Hooray!  This is one of those things that was on my list of things to do, so I am particularly grateful to them.  Go check it out.

I know this seems crazy, but February break has flown by for us.  Tomorrow I’ll have weekend activities, and then we’ll all be back to the old routine.

We went to Thacher Nature Center‘s annual Snow Day for the first time ever.   It was absolutely worth the drive–they were all about packing in the fun.

First, we went on a whopping 1-mile snow shoe hike in which the average kid age was probably 6.  All of the grown-ups were discussing the value of peer pressure, because many of them would have conked out if it weren’t for the couple of older dynamos who kept them motivated.  It was the first time on snowshoes for both of my girls.  M had a lovely time, but J struggled a bit.  Honestly, she could have kept up, but she was walking along noticing the splendors of nature while the rest of them were in it for speed.   Two or three times I gave up and put her on my shoulders just because I didn’t want to hold the whole group back–we were that far behind.

So the kids were snow shoe maniacs, and they even all voted to take the longer route (the “full schoolhouse”, if you’re a regular), but it was getting to be a teensy bit of a death march for the youngest by the end.  Luckily, at the end of the long march there were. . . .

S’mores at a campfire!  Woo, hoo! The perfect antidote to whining.  Because your can’t form whines around all that gooey marshmallow deliciousness.

Thus recharged, we headed back into the nature center for a smorgasbord of craftiness, including plaster of paris animal track molds–an unbelievably easy craft with a satisfying end-product that will no doubt slowly crumble on their bureaus for years to come.  They stamped some bookmarks, they cut some snowflakes, they lingered wistfully in the gift area even after I reminded them that we’d just purchased the experience.  Which was priceless. There was actually a cute necklace I would’ve liked, too.

Last up was the storyteller, and I felt a bit bad for her, because when she started we’d already been there for 2¼ hours, so everyone was running out of steam.  After two stories she paused for a drink, and the place emptied as all the kids went running to retrieve their plaster animal feet.  We stayed for one last story–alas, she lamented, she’d been building up to the best one.  Sure enough, it was a story of a woman who acquired heroic superpowers through farting.  I’m not kidding.  M almost went into laughter convulsions.  J, who was less familiar with the myriad terms for gas, enjoyed herself once I gave her a whispered vocabulary lesson.

It was a good time that incidentally also wiped us out. J fell asleep on the ride home and M & I came home and immediately ate a snack.  And then after the snack,  I made myself a peanut butter & jelly sandwich.

Perhaps you’re thinking that this whole outing was all about us, since it won’t come again until next year.   But, see, next year I’ll tell you and I’ll remind you all that it was very fun.  Also, two other items:  we drove past some lively sledding at the Tawasentha Winter Recreation Area just off Rte. 146 in Guilderland–looked very fun, and I didn’t have it on my original list.  Also, the snowflakes that we were cutting were specific patterns, 9 of which you can obtain from Dave here for free.

Finally, you’ve probably heard–possibly from one of the many Facebook groups?–that Thacher’s in danger of closing.  They’re asking people to make calls–because phone calls carry more weight and are quicker.  In the past people have mocked me for “acting like the New York political system actually works”, but what else can you do?  Give up entirely?  Because apathy just lets people get away with not paying attention to you.  I’m not saying that I think it will help, necessarily–I’m just saying that I feel morally obligated to try.  Anyway, if you think Thacher should stay open, call  the Governor Paterson at 474-8390 or your local legislators (use Find My Senator for Senate or  Member Search for Assembly) or the New York State Parks Department and tell them.  I know:  a bunch of places are under threat. . . . so if it’s not Thacher that you love, pick one of your favorite parks or not-for-profits and make a call.  I freakin’ hate the phone–believe me.  I once cried because my mom asked me to order a pizza.

But I’ll call if you will.

Phew!  It’s exciting to have a little snow after such a barren winter, even if I was scared to drive to the grocery store today.  If you’re thinking of sledding, you’ll find the the post here–please add your suggestions.

We managed to fritter the day away even though we remained housebound.  I was dealing with technical difficulties while the girls frolicked outside.  J sewed herself a teddy bear and took a long midday bath while M continued to play outside.  We played Trouble, which, true to its name, caused quite a bit of it when I sent M’s piece home (she’d managed to sweet-talk J into mercy several times).  We made snow ice cream because it’s required in our household for all 4+ inch snowfalls, and we watched Laura kick Nellie’s butt in a mudfight, because on vacation you get to watch the two-part Little Houses.

But enough about us.  Here are some additions to the February week offerings:

At the downtown Schenectady Public Library, they’ll have Captain Jack’s Magic Show at 2:30 pm on Wednesday.  Drop in for pirate fun, they say.

The Albany Art Room will have a clay open studio from 11 am to 2 pm on Friday.  The cost is $7 per artist, plus the cost of clay.  They ask that you let them know if you plan to come.

Hey, if you’re new around here, be sure to check out the pages over to the right–and welcome.

I was going to talk about breastfeeding in my Teensy Babies posts (here & here), but after I’d asked for suggestions on where to breastfeed, I realized that there was way too much information.  I’ve divided the list into easy places to nurse for the brand-new mom, who’s really looking for privacy and quiet, and a second list for the mom who’s trying to nurse one child while keeping the older child(ren) happy. Brand-new moms can certainly use the places on the second list, too.  In fact, once you get the baby settled in and happy, you might get a chance for some adult conversation. Moms had all sorts of helpful advice for the new-to-nursing folks, so there are some random tips, too.

But first, a disclaimer:  you don’t “need” to go to any special place, because it is your right to breastfeed anywhere you happen to be. I wish I’d really known that early on.  When M was probably about 4 months old, I took her along to a moms’ group outing to a local farm where the kids were picking pumpkins.  I was suffering a bit from what I called one of the new mom Panic Attacks when I realized that I was climbing onto a hayride with a bunch of people who actually had children who could appreciate being on a hayride.  I felt a little bit stupid, but I was persevering.  Then, in the middle of a large field, M started fussing.  Various members of the moms’ group were picking pumpkins, and I was waiting for the hayride back, so I planted (get it?  planted?  at the farm?) myself on a couple of bales of hay.  I was tucked into a corner and feeling relatively sheltered when a lady who worked at the orchard came and told me that I could not feed my baby.  I didn’t know what to do.  I was mortified.  I mean, how did she even find me and notice what I was doing?  I started crying.  M was finished, anyway (or perhaps there’s such a thing as mortification curdling?), and so I just mumbled something about being done and walked away.  Now, what I should have done is said that, yes, I can breastfeed here. Or, if I was scared, I should have gone and told the closest experienced mom in my group, and surely someone would go to whoever was the biggest lactivist at the orchard that day, and someone would have helped me.  But I was new to the group, and a new mom.  In fact, the only real friend I had to tell was another brand-new mom who was still reeling with guilt because she’d stopped breastfeeding (both of our kids are happy, healthy 2nd graders now).  I tried not to show that I was crying through the hayride.  And then I sobbed as I nursed M in my car later.

When I got home, I found the New York State Law:

NY CLS Civ R § 79-e (Article 7 Miscellaneous Provisions).

 

1994 N.Y. ALS 98; 1994 N.Y. LAWS 98; 1994 N.Y. S.N. 3999

 

§ 79-E. Right To Breast Feed.

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a mother may breast feed her baby in any location, public or private, where the mother is otherwise authorized to be, irrespective of whether or not the nipple of the mother’s breast is covered during or incidental to the breast feeding.

I printed it out and put it into my diaper bag, where it stayed for the next three years or so.  I never had a problem again, but it felt good to be prepared.  You can find a summary of all different state laws on breastfeeding here.

But don’t let that story scare you.  Most people and places are pefectly lovely about breastfeeding.  Here’s a little icon someone showed me:

Businesses post this to let you now that they’re breastfeeding-friendly, or to help you find a good spot for nursing.  In fact, if you know someone with a breastfeeding-friendly business, you should make sure that they know about this so that they can communicate this clearly and score some extra goodwill with moms in the know.  There’s more information here.

Meanwhile, here’s our list of favorite breastfeeding places, with contributions from folks from LLL and Albany Yoga Mamas among others (thank you!):

Good, easy places to nurse:

• Dressing rooms, if it’s not super-busy.  Moms have reported kind and helpful staff people who’ve let them breastfeed at LL Bean, the Gap, and Target.
• Peaches n’ Cream Cafe in Stuyvesant Plaza has a back dining room that’s often quiet when they’re not busy.
• The Albany airport has a “Nursing Lounge” connected to one of the restrooms.
• The Babies R Us in Latham (the same shopping center as Target) has a nursing mothers’ room with a glider rocker, sofa, and changing table.
• At Colonie Center, moms report they like the Macy’s restroom next to lingerie on the second floor.
• There are rumors that Pottery Barn Kids in Crossgates is pretty friendly, but I didn’t get a firsthand account on this one.
• When it warms up, a nice starter place is a quiet park bench.
• Professor Java’s on Wolf Road and many Starbucks locations have sofas, although there’s frequently quite a bit of foot traffic as well.
• Virgil’s House is a coffee place in Saratoga Springs.
• Honest Weight Food Co-op welcomes breastfeeders.

Places to nurse the little one while your older child(ren) will be entertained:

• Colonie Center has a “Family Restroom” with  a rocker and toys for older kids to play with while you nurse the baby.  Their play area has pretty high-backed comfortable benches, too.
• Joyful Jumpers has several couches on one end while the big kids are off playing.  I don’t think I’ve ever gone there and not seen at least one person nursing a baby.
• At the New York State Museum, there are quiet spots near the Iroquois Long House or in the Discovery Center by the puzzles.
• Tiny Tots Tea Room in Clifton Park.
• At the Children’s Museum at Saratoga, moms report good nursing at “little theater” downstairs and the activity room upstairs.
• The Albany Art Room has a nice sofa and is fairly quiet on weekdays.
• At the Clifton Park Library, a mom reports that there  is a “parent’s book” alcove in the left corner of the children’s area that is semi-private and comfortable (with no kids running around) as well as chairs that face outside on the edge of the children’s library area.
• A commenter let us know that The Great Escape now has a nursing room.

• Don’t forget nursing pads when you start to get out of the house.  You can also bring an extra cardigan just in case.
• A couple of different moms recommended Hooter Hiders.
• It’s easy to breastfeed discreetly if you have the right carrier.  Some suggestions: the Mei Tai, the ERGO, the Moby, the Maya Wrap, or other wraps or slings.
• My own very favorite nursing bra was Japanese Weekend’s Hug bra.  No, I couldn’t do jumping jacks in it, but it was comfortable and easy to use.  I bought one and after I tried it I tossed all the other ones bras and just got a couple more of these.
• You might find you’re more worried about exposing that postpartum belly flab than a breast.  Tank tops help. Two that were recommended:  Bravado! tank & Target tanks.
• One mom said that the best piece of advice that she received was think bring the baby in, not bring the breast out.

Experienced parents:  any additions or other advice?

And new moms:  don’t stay home.  Get out there and have some fun.  If you need a little more inspiration, click here.

We had pretty much tired ourselves out today by 2 pm.  We saw Rumpelstiltskin at Steamer 10 Theatre, then we had a quick bite at home and headed out to ice skate at Union College.   If  we go to a show again this week, I think we’d make it a nap-time show at 1 pm for a possibly more subdued audience, but the puppeteer was great, and he really appealed to the crowd.   I received an email after my big week-long round-up about the public skating at Union–the hours are updated on their site.

I’ve been loving ice skating lately because it  brings out the best in the sister relationship.  My girls do enjoy each other’s company often–they’ll play for quite a while together, especially if you don’t say something stupid like, “Wow, you girls sure are having fun together today!”, which only reminds them that they’re supposed to be enemies.  But we do have problems.   There tends to be a lot of M-as-Bully and J-as-Victim, although of course I try my best not to label them because, hey, of course I read Siblings Without Rivalry and I know I’m not supposed to be setting them up by giving them a role that they then feel compelled to play out and all of that, blah, blah blah.  Yeah, I know, and I’m doing my best, here.  Incidentally, practically every chapter highlights the main points in comic strip form, so it’s an excellent skimmer.

But anyway, M is competitive, and she’s always trying to compete with J.  I say to M:  J is more than 2 years younger than you, she doesn’t know how to read, she’s not at the big kids’ school yet, she has trouble getting toothpaste out of the tube. . . you don’t need to compete with her because you can wipe the floor with her.  Well, okay, I don’t say it exactly like that, but come on.    So that certain je ne sais quoi that makes ice skating so delightful?  M is better at it than all of us.  She is so deeply secure in her superiority that she will graciously give me pointers on how to skate backwards (“Bend your knees more!  And wiggle your butt, but not too much because it’s so embarrassing, mom!!”), or she will solicitously fetch J a bucket or her mittens.  J will do a “trick” and M will applaud her.  Then J is so overwhelmed with gratitude and love that she hugs M and M sheepishly holds J up when fervent joy threatens to literally bowl them both over.   J did so well today that I couldn’t believe it, and I was 95% proud and excited and 5% worried that if she improves too quickly this special magic will be gone.

Anyway.  In spite of my Chinese post title yesterday, the party last night was celebrating the more generally Asian Lunar New Year, with a big focus on Korean food and culture.   The spread was ridiculously huge and delicious.  I mean, it was out of control.  The highlight was a traditional dish, Bee-Bim Bop.  I Googled it oh-so-briefly and found that there was a kids’ picture book about this very dish.  You start with rice and pile all sorts of things on top of it. . . we had carrots, sprouts, cucumber, anchovies, octupus, kim chi, beef, some sort of noodles, traditional sauce, and some other stuff.  It was super-tasty.

How pretty are these scallion thingies?  When I went to look at the pictures W had taken, I realized that I’d somehow missed eating these–very sad.

They also had a Jesa table set up, with is another Korean tradition, a small memorial with different foods and items offered up to ancestors.  So we had a nice little culture lesson along with the party.  It was all great fun, and when I told M “five more minutes” she said, “Already?!?” even though we’d been there for hours.  Lucky for her, W started chit-chatting and it actually turned out to be another hour.

W had off today–that’s part of the reason why we had to rush and skate today, so that he could test out his new Valentine’s ice skates–so tomorrow the real February break starts in earnest for us.  We’ve had such a busy weekend that I haven’t planned what we’ll do tomorrow at all yet.

We’re headed to a party to celebrate the new year of the tiger-isn’t that a good idea?  We’re bring takeout dumplings and two tangerines.  I got the tangerine idea from one of my favorite kids’ books, Children Just Like Me: Celebrations.  It tells about different holidays from around the world by profiling different kids.  We’ve also got the original Children Just Like Me.   That one, I think, is particularly awesome, because it shows how different the children are, and how similar:  you know, each kid talks about his/her favorite food, school, house, and family.

Okay, everyone else has their coats on–yikes.

*which means, “We hope you get rich,” according to little Man Po in the book.

Thanks for showing me some love with the comments–free for you, yet priceless to me!  Anyway. . .

I was walking through Target yesterday, and I stopped to look at the Valentine’s Day cards.  We generally craft something up at our house, but I know that the girls appreciate the finery of store-bought.   There were a couple of particularly beautiful cards–one in particular said “Butterfly Kisses”, and that’s sort of a thing between J & W, so I was excited.  And then it occurred to me to turn the cards over to check the price.  $6!! For each card!!   Ummmm. . . no.  More expensive than the cheap boxes of chocolate that they will actually get.  I walked away harrumphing  to myself about  crappy commercialism and manufactured desires.  And then, driving home, I was listening to NPR–did you hear this?  They finished the segment with this poem by Norah Pollard called St. Valentine’s Day.  And by the end I had to restrain myself from turning around and getting the cards.   And I had to give myself a pep talk that I express my love to my children plenty, even if they sometimes appear to want even more (like poor J, still exiled to the princess sofa).

On the brighter side of cheap, let me share my relatively new concept:  The Internal Date.  I started this because we happened to have a special occasion when we’d already had several nights out in succession, but it’s also good if you’re too cheap or uptight for a babysitter.  The first night I did this, I was treating W, so I made a delicious dinner (if I do say so myself) of things we’d be  likely to eat if we were ordering from a restaurant (mussels, fresh-baked bread, pork with blue cheese & dried cherries), plus W’s favorite cookies for dessert.  Tonight we’re getting take out from a restaurant that we actually have a gift card for–from whom?  I’ll give you one guess.

Either way, the girls help me set up the “restaurant”–I move the dining room table over so we feel like we’re in a little nook, we pull out a tablecloth and china and candles, and the girls sometimes make menus.  This creates buy-in. No–I’m serious.  They become invested in the charade, so they know that when it’s time for them to disappear, they really do.  So it will be like a real restaurant. We set them up with a movie on our bed–a big deal since we don’t usually have a tv in there–and they’re cuddled in their pjs, so that that-which-shall-not-be-typed-for-fear-that-I’ll-jinx-it-for-tonight usually happens.  Yes, we still have to clean up after ourselves, but it does shift us into that have-another-glass-of-wine-while-we-talk-some-more frame of mind, which, for me, is the most important part of the date.

Anyway, if you don’t have a babysitter this weekend, it’s worth a try, right?