If you have conservative views please no reason to read or watch ahead. Agree to disagree, ok.
This clip is truth based in comedy. Government please leave my body alone.
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I can’t wait to go to work. Oh adultland here I come!
It is hard to eat out with Aaron but reading blogs by adults with food allergies has taught me that it is possible, even though it is always scary. We have most of the time stuck to chain restaurants because they have food allergy training for their staff. They are aware of cross contamination and things like that. I hate chain restaurants, they offend me in so many other ways, although they are a safe choice. Tonight eating out was a necessity. Our new dishwasher was delivered but my very DIY husband decided that he would install it. We have been without water in the kitchen since last night. He is supposed to install it when he gets home from work but due to a late meeting he is not even on his way yet, and it is 8:30 pm. I had seen my friend TaxGirl and her daughter heading over to this restaurant in the past. I decided to call them before visiting. I told them about our allergies and we discussed what Aaron could have. The person who answered the phone is a teacher and had food allergy training. He was very helpful. Usually I bring some safe food and he gets an order of fries, his absolute favorite. They let us bring in our own food for Aaron and were very understanding.
We biked over. Immediately some of the kitchen staff who were on break pointed out where we could leave our bikes out of sight. We sat on high stools in the bar area and the boys loved being so high up and looking at everything and everyone. They insisted I wanted to quit my bar job and start working there! They were lovely dinner companions. Ryan’s stomach is on the mend and he ate like a champ. While we ate Ryan mentioned he thought the couple behind us were on a date!! Ryan is fascinated with all matters to deal with dating rituals, marriage, weddings, and stuff that most eight year old boys hate. He said he thought they had probably just started dating because they were talking a lot and smiling. At the end of the meal, as we left, Ryan walked over to the couple and told them he thought they were “perfect for each other.” Gotta love a kid with no filter. The couple laughed,blushed, and thanked him.
My gentlemen matchmakers and I then rode off on our bikes into the too balmy for February night.
Here is the run down:
Aaron got a cold. I got the cold. Ryan got the cold. My husband got the cold. I got the cold again.
Aaron had the stomach virus. I got the stomach virus, Ryan now has the virus and had us up most of last night.
From the way it looks Aaron needs to be eliminated. ( I joke I joke)
I have been too close to home tending kids and not working. Thursday can’t come soon enough, my brain is turning to mush very quickly
Today started off wrong. Ryan was off, Aaron was clingy, and I was wishing they were in school.
We had a play date scheduled with our old friend C and his son D. C has been my friend since before we were married and had kids. His son D and Ryan became friends as toddlers at a time when they used to call Aaron, “baby”. We tend to see them on federal holidays like Veteran’s Day or President’s Day.
We went to hike at Valley Green. We started with feeding the ducks. Ryan was insisting that he should be close to the water and trying to push Aaron or D in. I stopped all the boys and said, The water is very very cold. It could be very dangerous. In typical fashion, they ignored me.
We then went on a hike to a rope swing in the woods. C was pushing the boys on the swing and I was trying to explain that in the fall the water was much warmer and to be careful….SPLASH I turn around to see Aaron in the water!! His eyes were as big as saucers and C and I were there in seconds, there to scoop Aaron out. He screamed I am sooooooo cold!!! C and I quickly stripped off Aaron’s shirt and coat and put our sweatshirts on him. He was shivering. We were parked about half a mile away and Aaron with wet pants and shoes had to hike. Ryan hiked with him and put his arm around him protectively. Luckily, I am the anal Mom who always has a change of clothes in the car. I just leave the old diaper bag in the car with a change of clothes for each kid, a few bottles of water, and some raggy towels because, I have “those” kids who get muddy, wet, or have crazy accidents. I helped Aaron strip off his clothes and I dried him and he put on a clean pair of sweats with dry socks. Ryan went with C and D in their car so it was Aaron and I alone.
He was very quiet on the way home sitting in his car seat with his feet tucked up under him. Finally he said, I should of listened. Then he said, I know how the people on the Titanic died. It hurts to be cold. It really hurts.
I got him home, stuck him in a hot shower, and washed all of his clothes. There was no damage done. He is still freaked out and talked about it all night. He kept saying how glad he was he could swim. I thought the same thing.
My hands are still shaking.
It’s not what you think.
This weekend I took the boys to a birthday party. I was leaving my husband behind for a rare afternoon to himself at home. As I walked out he proclaimed, can you believe most people have families who want to spend time with their kids. Can you imagine what that would be like? I took that as a cue that we have not been out much together lately.
My appliances are dying one by one. Some slowly, some just keeling over with last gasps on holiday weekends. In the past year we have bought a fridge, a washer, repaired our dryer, and are in need of a garbage disposal and a dishwasher. I knew this was the weekend we needed to buy a dishwasher and garbage disposal. Instead of stressing on the purchase and dragging my sensory sensitive kid through a crowded store on a holiday weekend we called the sitter.
We first had lunch something allergic and not fit for consumption in my house. We chatted about the world and it was completely pleasant. Then alone hand in hand we quietly picked out a dishwasher and a garbage disposal. On the way home, my husband was not ready to go home. He kept saying lets go out for a beer or how ’bout a movie. The sitter would of been game but I had not left a meal for Aaron and even though I have the BEST sitter in the whole entire world, I would not want to leave him alone to be responsible for feeding Aaron. I let him feed what I leave for Aaron, but he is a sixteen year old boy who never lived with food allergies.
Now we are home. I made the kids fruit and juice smoothies and I made one just for Punkypapa with a little vodka in it.
We need to get my nephew neighbor nailed down on a date and go away for a weekend. It’s been too long.
Kinda queasy. Aaron still not right with his stomach. We are just laying low.
Its a huge day at my house. We are celebrating in a special way by going Bey Blade shopping this weekend. Five green’s mean that Ryan got a green light for behavior EVERY day at school this week. It is the first time this school year that he had good behavior so consistently and I am overjoyed. His teacher had a special treat for him. The aid in the class has been cheering him on all week. I am just so proud.
Ryan is on a uptick. His behavior everywhere has been more acceptable. He is having 50% less tantrums, is way more compliant all the time, has become helpful and more involved with family life, and generally is a kid that I am enjoying way more than I have in a long time. These good times happen. I want to relish every second of today like rolling a good wine over my tongue. Nothing is different. I have not suddenly become a magician to fix him. He is not doing any therapy that he hasn’t been doing for the last 9 to 10 months. The only thing different is we have been off epilepsy meds for 6 months and his new seat partner at school is a girl who was in both his kindergarten and first grade classes, when our lower grades had twenty or less kids. She is one of two kids in his class who are not new. Every day I wake up and wish this sweet Ryan is with us, not the combative Ryan who has inhabited my house since 2010.
Last weekend the boys actually played in Ryan’s room for about an hour, they were pretending Ryan’s bunk bed was a spaceship with lower and upper decks. No one screamed he hurt me or RYAN!!! STOP!!!. I sat in the dining room in earshot and read on my IPAD and drank tea. It sounds weird but usually I have to have them close to watch what is going on. The homework is taking half the time it was and we are studying a ton more. Ryan’s grades over the past two weeks have skyrocketed.
Sure there are still plenty of issues. Crowds freak him out and if I don’t get him away from the school before the masses of kids dismiss I get a swift kick in the shins and a freaked out kid. If he is too hot he can’t think, too cold he can’t think, and heck he got three time outs in karate tonight. Walking home he recognized what happened and we talked about it. We still have our issues but maybe I am growing more patience than I used to have. Maybe it is all of the above.
Lets hope sweet Ryan is here all weekend. We have our first birthday party invite of the school year. For him, I want it to go well.
I didn’t work at the bar tonight because the Philadelphia Schools had half days Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday this week. This would of caused a great sleep deficit which is so much harder to deal with in the winter. Then my day started at 5am with a retching child. Then my husband who has a cold, was told by his co-workers to work from home because they were tired of ducking his sneezes. My routine and quiet was shattered and I spent most of the morning rocking a sick boy who is no longer a baby, but who still needs his Mom as my husband worked. I picked Ryan up at noon and we spent time studying and doing homework as Aaron rested. Finally as my husband finished working I handed the boys off to him since I have a project due tomorrow and we have yet another half day. The half days have been good for Ryan. In Ryan’s dream world he would prefer school all year round but he would have dismissal at noon daily. He likes when his life includes more Mom teaching at the dining room table and tons of physical activity in the afternoon and evening.
Another shocker of my day was how sad Aaron was when Ryan went off to school. He kept asking for him. As soon as I picked up Ryan he wanted to head home to his brother and he was very concerned how he was feeling. It was mega sweet.
I spent my evening knee deep in psychic blogs. Yeah I get paid to do that. Sheesh. I spend most of my time reading and rolling my eyes during this monthly project.
My question do schools know it is plain out mean to have days off and half days in February. Can’t we move Presidents Day and all the half days till the first week in June? Now that would be a decent use of school time!
My dear friend Cecily and my new friend, Dresden, asked me a few months back if I would help them to get the Philly version of Listen To Your Mother off the ground. I said, yes and thought sure, it can’t be any harder than the bigger rock shows or events I have helped produce in the past. It is exciting to be working on a collaborative event. It’s nice to be dusting off my event planning, producing skills. I have to say I am intimidated a bit. Most of what I have done in the past had a certain amount of grit and this is more of an artists event. I am more of a fringe type Mommy blogger and I have more single male readers and child free readers than most Mommy bloggers because of my dive bar bartender job and my rock and roll past. Listening to Dresden and Cecily talk about their professional blogging gang and social media theories, leaves me in the dust but I am sure I have a ton to bring to the table. I have a fresh perspective since blogging is for me really still just a hobby, even though I do write SEO copy.
I am putting this press release here. This event is about Mothers. We are looking for people from all walks of life to write about Mothers. We are looking for diversity here. We envision all kinds of people participating.
Listen To Your Mother: Giving Mother’s Day A Microphone
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: CECILY KELLOGG, DRESDEN SHUMAKER AND JO-ANN ROGAN NAMED CO-DIRECTOR/PRODUCERS OF LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER 2012: PHILADELPHIA
Local Blogger/Writers Cecily Kellogg and Dresden Shumaker were selected by the national production company Listen To Your Mother Show, LLC, (LTYM) to direct and produce a Philadelphia performance of the acclaimed Mother’s Day series of live readings. Cecily and Dresden were selected based on their online platforms, creative talent, community involvement, and their social media appeal and expertise. Cecily and Dresden then asked writer, bartender, and rock star Jo-Ann Rogan to join the team. Philadelphia was one of only 10 locations selected this year from a pool of interested cities for 2012.
LTYM features live readings by local writers on the beauty, the beast, and the barely-rested of motherhood, in celebration of Mother’s Day. Born of the creative work of mothers who publish on-line, each production is directed, produced, and performed by local communities, for local communities, with 10% of ticket proceeds benefiting a local non-profit cause. Beginning with one show in Madison, Wisconsin in 2010, five different cities hosted LTYM shows in 2011 and a national Mother’s Day movement was born.
LTYM is thrilled to announce BlogHer, Inc.’s continued National Media Sponsorship for 2012: BlogHer is the largest community of women who blog: 25+ million unique visitors per month, and hosts the world’s largest conference for women in social media –BlogHer.com/about
Cecily and Dresden are pleased to announce that auditions are currently open (by written submission and closing March 1st) for the performance scheduled to run on Friday, May 11th, at the William Way Community Center (1315 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA) at 7pm. The performances will be videoed to be shared with a national audience on LTYM’s youtube channel.
Cecily writes for Babble.com, works as a social media strategist and blogs at uppercasewoman.com. Dresden does PR and New Media at AboutOne.com, and she blogs at creatingmotherhood.com. Jo-Ann Rogan writes at Punkymama.com, and bartends at the legendary McGlinchey’s.
More information is available at the LTYMS national website www.listenyourmothershow.
For more information about the local production email LTYMphilly@gmail.com.
Tonight my husband came home a little earlier than normal, that’s enough for me. I am off to snuggle and watch a movie. I don’t need a crazy show of love on Valentine’s Day just need to be loved everyday. I have a ton of stuff for tomorrow. Stay tuned!
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