john's mom works

had a little too much fun at the zoo. normally, i'd lead with a too-cute-to-stand picture of john instead of a face-screwed-up-fat-tears picture, but that pic sorta sums up my mood today so i'll run with it. i haven't written in so long because, frankly, there's just been a lot going on. last tuesday (a week ago yesterday) i went into work to be told that the new owner of the mall had eliminated my position. i had about 30 minutes to clean out my office and i was gone. i had sort of seen it coming -- in my interview with the new company a week before, the lady consistently referred to "whoever handles the marketing," which hardly inspired confidence that that would be me -- but i thought i'd have a little more time before they made any big changes.  so on a random tuesday morning, i found myself with a lot of free time on my hands. and surprisingly, i felt pretty ok about the whole thing. i am sad, sure, to leave a place that i've inves...

before and after haircut last saturday you may have found yourself asking, "where have you been, john's mom?" (if you really found yourself asking that, please please please find a hobby. we love you, but you need something to fill your time!) but where have we been? we've been juggling. last weekend john got a haircut - he was instantly transformed from rakish ragamuffin to dapper young lad, and altho he's cute as heck, i can't pretend i don't miss the mop a little bit. oh, well, it'll grow back quickly and he'll be a muss-headed tousled mess again. sunday afternoon, i picked john up out of his crib after nap and could immediately tell he was running a fever. (i always wondered how moms could tell that, and then i became a mom. it's like a super power you inherit with parenthood.) so ... monday i stayed home with john. he was mostly ok besides the fever, though i could see some red spots on his throat. he seemed a ...

i thought i was taking a video, which woud have been much funnier than this static butt hanging out of a suitcase. a brief note on the pic above: john's daddy and i have still not put the suitcases away from our trip. they're emptied, just not put away. so john has taken to hiding inside of daddy's suitcase. i know, i know -- suffocation hazards, could get stuck, bad idea, etc. but DANG it's hysterical. he sits still in there (it's not zipped) for about three seconds, during which time you can't see any sign of him. then he pops out and yells, grinning, "here i am!"  these sorts of bright cheerful moments are especially precious to me right now, because it seems we have finally hit that doldrums that is the "terrible twos."  john's always known how to throw a decent fit - but they were infrequent, and passed quickly. these latest ones, though, are doozies. and this morning, he said something that cut me to the core, as silly as...

the star is from daycare yesterday - i just couldn't scrub it off because of his tender swollen skin. the plan for today, originally, was for my husband to go to work and spend his day wrapping things up so he could be off tomorrow, me to go to work to do the same, so i could leave at 2pm for my pre-op appointment (more on that in a sec) and then for us to convene at home for one dear friend to bring us a much-appreciated dinner before we brought john to another dear friend's house to stay the night so he wouldn't have to come to the hospital with us at 5am. oh, the best laid plans. instead, we woke up to john's hand all swollen up and angry red. i hoped we could get him in early to see his doctor, then i'd take him to daycare and i'd head to work and we'd continue the plan from there. and we did get a 9am appointment ... and it is just an angry angry bug bite of some kind, that john's little system reacted to. but the doc said john needed to...

the funny thing about balance is that it does not look like what you would expect. here is my mental picture of balance: a beautiful, lithe girl, on tiptoes on a balance beam, perfectly poised as she is about to spring into her next leap or tumble or flip or pirouette. she is grace personified. she knows exactly where she is and where she's going. for me, balance is so fluid. some days i feel i've got it. those days i'm superwoman: awesome wife, excellent mother, great marketer, decent housekeeper, generous giver, hard exerciser, active participant. other days ... i think i hit mediocre at best in each of those categories. here is what balance winds up being like in my real life: a scrambling, well-padded woman, wearing workout shoes for support but a sport coat in case the media shows up, juggling knives while keeping her active child from grabbing them. she is quick-reflexes personified. she doesn't know what she's standing on or where her next step will tak...

no cute boo picture today. john's mom is feeling a little overwhelmed. it's probably because we travelled this weekend and didn't get home until late. or because i'm fighting some sort of cold/allergy thingy that makes my left ear sound like a tunnel and makes me have no voice (like, NO voice). or because i was out of work for two days to travel and i came back and re-wrote my to-do list and feel like i'll never get it all to-done. or because by the time i work out tonight, it'll be 7:15pm before i get home today, and pretty much the same deal for one reason or another every day this week. or because i haven't gotten enough sleep. or because sometimes when we feel yukky is when my husband and i are the least good at taking care of each other. or because i'm a whiny wuss, that too - 'cause really, couldn't just about everyone, mom or not, working or not, probably claim at least an item or two off this list? so who am i to complain, when these ar...