Author: Melissa

Ellie: "Mom, are they great men?" completely out of the blue
Me: "Who?"
Ellie: "Obama and John McCain."
Me: "You know their names?" Seriously? Some grown ups don't even know their names. "Did they tell you about the elections in school?"
Ellie: "No. I just heard. One gets to be the winner. I wonder if they are great men."
Me: "What do you mean by 'great men'?"
Ellie: "You know… do they know God?"

This is my five-year-old. She has apparently been listening to the world around her and picked up that one of these two men will be president.
I honestly don't what astounds me more: her question or her definition of a great man.

Grace says to me because I wouldn't let her put Colin in her toy stroller and push him down the stairs.

I know. I'm so mean. Someone report me.

I spent most of this week obsessing over Pajama Day at Ellie's school.

First obsession: What if no one else wore pajamas? She was so excited about spirit week. And she wore green on Monday because it was the school colors. But when I went to pick her up, I noticed that most kids weren't wearing green. What if no one wore pajamas either? I didn't want her to get to school and then feel silly. How embarrassing! Should I pack clothes as well, just in case she wants to change?

Second obsession: What kind of pajamas? Her favorite pjs are from Baby Gap, have little doggies all over them and are a bit too small. So she couldn't wear those. But what else? Not a nightgown. Too cold. Not ones that are too babyish, like the Baby Gap ones.

Seriously, my husband had to talk me out of running to Target the night before to buy her new pajamas that weren't too pajama-y. Luckily, Ellie did not pick up on my anxiety at all. And everyone ended up wearing pajamas, so it was fine. But I was literally biting my nails as I put her on the bus that day in her pjs.

Its such a fine line to walk: I want her to feel like she fits in. I don't want her to feel like an outsider or get made fun of. I make sure she is dressed nicely and appropriately, not anything fancy or in a crazy outfit she has picked out herself. But at the same time, I really don't want her to think that fitting in is all that matters and that she needs to dress a certain way to please her peers. I want her to be independent and strong and individualistic… but I still want her to feel like she fits in. And I am certainly not about to run out and buy her the $100 shoes she loves that Crystal and Katie have. As if. She is in kindergarten. That is a disappointment she will just have to get used too.

Does that make sense? Has anyone else struggled with this? Any words of wisdom?

  
alternate title: what is sure to cause ellie severe embarrassment someday
other alternate title: am i a bad mom because this picture makes me laugh hysterically?

…after I finish this book:

Seriously, you guys, I can't stop reading!

Naptime.
Glorious naptime. That nice long break in the afternoon when I would read, sew, get things done, or even (gasp) sleep.

Now its gone. Ellie and Grace no longer take naps. Ellie totally doesn't need one, but Grace really does. Not that she thinks so. She cries and cries, "I'm not tired! I'm not tired!" when she so clearly needs to sleep. Annoying. I usually just let her stay up because I'm too tired to argue with her. They are supposed to stay in their rooms for an hour or so to give me a break, but it usually doesn't work very well. What with the fighting and arguing over princesses and all.

Not only do I not have naptime anymore, but I just gave up one of my favorite little luxuries, the snooze button.

Seriously, y'all, I'm exhausted. All of nothing, that's me!

I was sitting on a bench at the zoo yesterday with a sleeping Colin when I overheard this man say:
“Bahama? Kabama? What’s that guys name again?”

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? How could you possibly not know the name of one of the two people running for president?

While there are always those slightly embarrassing surveys revealing that only 10% of Americans know the three branches of government, 3% can name a Supreme Court Justice, 85% think Chicago is a state and 1% can locate Germany on a map. Which cause people to whine about how terrible the education system is, how ignorant Americans are, blah blah blah. I never really took those surveys seriously.

Maybe I should.  My mouth literally dropped open when I heard this comment coming from an American adult. There are signs up in every patch of grass, political ads on every commercial break and election updates dominate the news. You would have to try to not hear about the election. I understand not being to understand all the topics or not having the time to sit and watch all the coverage or not really caring very much about politics. But not to even know the name of someone who, lets face it, probably will be president?

Heaven forbid this guy actually plans on voting.

I'm seriously losing my mind. Tuesday I was convinced it was Wednesday. Wednesday, I was convinced it was Thursday. I remembered that Ellie needed to bring her smock for art class, but I packed it in Grace's bag. I now have all of 3 diapers in the house right now because I keep forgetting to buy diapers for some reason. And I went to pay for coffee this morning and realized I had all of $1 in my purse.

I am totally going to bed at around 8:30 tonight. I'm 95% sure that this all relates to me not pressing the snooze button anymore. I miss that extra sleep!

********

Speaking of sleep… why don't babies like to sleep? If someone wanted me to sleep uninterrupted, encouraged me to take naps and congratulated me when I slept in, I would be in heaven!!

But I need to cut Colin a break, since last night we discovered he has his first tooth!! How did we discover that, you may ask? Well, let us just say that Mommy is quite sore today.

*******

This morning I met my friend, Jo-Lynne for breakfast. She used to be a real life friend and we saw each other at least twice a week. But lately she's morphed into a cyberfriend, since we are both so darn busy we can never hang out anymore. That makes me sad.

Anyway, we had a very long, in depth conversation about both really, really wanting the new MacBook.  And i-phones. But mostly we coveted dreamed  discussed the pros and cons of the MacBook. 
I really need a new laptop, since ours is older than Ellie and sounds like a lawnmower sometimes. (As in "click, click, click… WRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!" Not a good sound. We are definitely on borrowed time.)
We're thinking of making the switch to Macs here in the Girlymama household.
Any input, you guys?
Have you done it?
Is it really worth the extra money?

"I won! I won!! You're last!"
"That's not nice! I'm not last, I'm second."
"But you were last."
"No, I'm second."
"But second is last."
"I know, but it is not kind to tell someone they are last. You should say they are second."
"Why?"
"I don't know. Mom, why isn't that nice?"

Seriously, don't kids have to learn eventually that someone is always last?
And how about teaching them to deal with being last rather than pretending they didn't?
I think we're missing an important life lesson by protecting kids from losing.