Monthly Archive for December, 2008

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In Honor of the Winter Solstice

Published on Sunday, December 21, 2008 in Custom Image Header, Photos and Shadow Portraits. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Last December, the three of us traipsed outside with the camera and played around with the snow and shadows. The end result was this photo:

Click to enlarge: Snow Shadow Portrait

Click to enlarge: Snow Shadow Portrait

I love this picture! Even though it’s a year old, it is one of my favorite shadow portraits we’ve done to date, and you check out the Custom Image Header category to see the other shadow portraits we’ve done.

For this portrait, we are standing in Momma, Claire and Daddy order. You can see the skeleton of one of the apple trees, with a few vibrant red apples clinging on to the branch, refusing to admit that winter is here. (Yes, they’re apples! From this distance and angle, they look like berries.) You can see the green boughs of the junipers peeking out from under a blanket of fresh snow.

So, in honor of Winter Solstice, I’m giving this shadow portrait the prominence it deserves in the blog header, once again. (If you’re reading this in a FeedReader, feel free to click on over and check out the new header!)

From our family to you and yours, may this solstice be the beginning of positive changes in your life. May you be surrounded by those you love, and may the only shadows be those in a fun winter portrait. :)

Weekend Time-Traveling: Priceless & Evidence of a Struggle

Published on Saturday, December 20, 2008 in Re-run. 1 Comment Tags: .

We’re traveling back in time on the weekends, and you can read all about that here.

Because I have something different in store for tomorrow’s post, today I’ll share two. The first one was posted on December 17, 2007 and the other was a follow-up post that I wrote a month later.

Check it out!

Priceless
Originally posted Monday, December 17, 2007

Four sheets of white paper: $0.04

Crayola Washable Finger Paints – Set of four colors (Red, Blue, Yellow, Green): $4.99

Watching as your toddler flails around, waving her finger-paint-covered hands, screaming at the top of her lungs, “But I don’t wanna touch it!”: Pretty Pricey

Trying to get your screaming toddler’s handprint on sheets of white paper as she fights you off with the strength of ten men: Borderline Extravagant

Taking a bath in the middle of the day to get the finger paint off of her face and out of her hair: Hoity-Toity

Taking a shower in the middle of the day to get the finger paint off of your face and out of your hair: Heirloom Quality

Figuring out how to make the results of said project actually look like a cute little toddler handprint: Priceless

Evidence of a Struggle (or a Photo Update to “Priceless”)
Originally posted Thursday, January 17, 2008

Back in December, I posted a little something about Claire and her disdain for finger-painting. You can check out the original post here.

I had wanted to leisurely make handprints with her to use in some holiday projects for our relatives. Well, as what sometimes happens with a toddler, things did not go as planned, and certainly didn’t look like the good ol’ time they were having on the outside of the finger-paint packaging.

False advertisers! Tricksters! Filthy no-good liars! If I still had the packaging, I’d show you their smug little smiling faces as they sit at the table not getting paint in anyone’s hair or on anyone’s faces or all over anyone’s clothes in an attempt to escape from the kitchen table. No one is screaming in their pretty little marketing pictures.

Maybe I’m being a bit too harsh. I’m sure there are parents out there who wish their child wasn’t into finger-painting. I’m sure there are toddlers who like to get their hands slimy while painting with their fingers. My princess daughter is just not one of them.

So, here is the result of our struggle:

Evidence of a Struggle

Click on the photo to enlarge. Clicking a second time will show more detail.

I’ve added the above arrow and note you see on the photo using Gimp. (“Bring out the gimp…”) And, just between you and me? There is evidence of a struggle all over that paper. NONE of the marks on that page were made voluntarily and without a lot of screaming. Ugh.

After nearly crying over my failed project, I decided to suck it up and figure out a way to make it work. I did not get paint in my hair for nothing! That’s when I totally altered and rearranged the plan in my head (that’s the good thing about plans in your head…you can do that pretty easily…and it’s much easier than moving furniture), and figured out how to cut around her handprint so that the sixth finger was no longer visible.

I didn’t want her growing up thinking she was born with six fingers on one hand and that she’d had it removed in a surgical procedure before she was old enough to remember. (Not that there’s anything wrong with having six fingers on one hand, mind you. Well, unless you’re an acquaintance of Inigo Montoya…then I’d watch my back if I were you!) ;)

Here is the finished project:

Finished Project

See? No evidence whatsoever of the six fingered toddler or the struggle required to get her handprint. And, I had her color a picture, especially for PaPa, to go along with her handprint.

Needless to say, my hopes of going into business by creating cute little handprinted projects for people (let alone making any more holiday projects) had been dashed. I wonder what Claire would have to say about helping me with some Papier-mâché? ;)

Delegating to the Preschooler? Why didn’t I think of that??

Published on Friday, December 19, 2008 in Claire and Parenting 101. 6 Comments Tags: , , .

On Wednesday night, I had the opportunity to attend a Positive Parenting Workshop put on through Claire’s Preschool.  It was presented by one of the school social workers, and followed the Love and Logic Way theme.

The class was free, and although we aren’t having “problems” with Claire, I wanted to go.  I love learning.  Learning makes me proactive.  Being proactive makes me feel confident in my abilities.  Feeling confident makes me a better parent.  As luck would have it, the fact that my hubby had to work late that night coincided with our babysitter having finals this week.  Her normally jam-packed schedule was wide open, and she was happy to come watch Claire for a few hours.

I didn’t know what to expect, but I knew I’d have a good time.  I was looking forward to getting out of the house, and in true form, Claire was so excited for Molly to get here.  Oh, and I was also interested in learning some new things.  ;)

To be honest, a lot of what the presenter discussed were things we already do around here.  Claire is given a lot of “choices,” giving her the semblance of control.  We use positive reinforcement whenever possible.  We focus on the positive and try to redirect the negative.

Still, it was nice to talk to other parents and realize that we are all struggling with similar issues.

One of the things that struck me the most was the fact that Claire could be doing more for herself than what I’m letting her do.  This, in theory, could be the cause of some of the contentious situations that arise every now and then.

I hadn’t even thought of that.

I mean, we were already giving her chores to do.  Her job is to feed the kitties, and she’s really good at it!  She gets the food out, fills their bowls, and puts the food back…all by herself!  She helps me load the washer and the dryer.  She helps me sort laundry.  She even helps me make dinner; she’s great at dumping and stirring. (Don’t worry; I don’t let her near the hot stove.)

One of the challenging spots we’ve skidded through has been breakfast, or meals in general, but breakfast comes to mind.  I give her a choice and she tells me what she wants.  I no sooner have it prepared for her and she changes her mind.  Sometimes.  It’s not always a frustrating experience, but it takes a lot of energy on my part to think uber-positive thoughts before breakfast starts…

This is one of the issues that came up last night (another mother was having the same situation with her son), and the presenter said something that completely floored me.  Yes, give them a choice.  Yes, praise them for that choice.  Then, make them own their own choice.  They get to fix their own breakfast.

That sound you heard was my head exploding.

Why hadn’t I thought of that?  I’m amazed every time I visit Claire’s Young Preschooler Class and watch her do something that I thought was above her ability.  She can cut paper with scissors!?  She can pour water into her own cup?  She just turned three!  That should have been my first clue, but I’d been totally oblivious.

It hadn’t even occurred to me that she could be doing more than what we have her doing already.  I know that she’s growing up, but in my head, she’s still a bit helpless when it comes to certain things, and that could be the source of the squabbles we’ve been having.

Hearing the woman tell us that a three year old could get her own breakfast blew my mind.  So, I decided to put this to action.  We’ll see if this works!  What do I have to lose?

So, yesterday morning, the morning after the workshop, I asked Claire what she wanted for breakfast: cheerios or grapenuts.  She chose grapenuts.  I made a big deal out of how wonderful her choice was and then shoved a chair over to the counter.  This is the chair she uses to help me make dinner.  I got down the box of cereal and got her bowl.

“Here ya go!  See if you can do it!”

“Really, Momma?  I can do it?” she asked with the excitement of someone who had just been told they could choose one of the puppies to take home from the litter.

“Really!  I bet you’ll be great at it!”

And you know what?  She was.  She poured it with no problems.  I got out the milk and she did a great job with that, too.  All I have right now is the gallon-size, and I’ll get a smaller container for her to use, but she did great.  She spilled a little, but I got her a papertowel, and she cleaned it right up!  Then, I got the syrup for her (yes, she eats syrup on her grapenuts.  Don’t judge.), and she put it on with no problems.  It was like she was an expert.

Then, I had her go over to the silverware drawer and pick out which spoon she wanted.

She ran over, picked out her spoon, and hopped up in her chair to eat her grapenuts as if this is always how breakfast happens.  She ate the whole thing without so much as a wiggle, and it was the most pleasant breakfast I’ve had in a while.

I had her put her dish and spoon in the sink, and she ran off to play.

I couldn’t believe it.
It worked!

Why hadn’t I thought of this??  This is such a simple explanation for why she’s been meeting me with resistance.  She hasn’t told me out loud that she wanted to do it herself, so I hadn’t heard her.

I’ve been the hostess, chef, waitress, and janitor for so long that it didn’t even occur to me to delegate out some of these jobs.  I am a perfectionist, but I know this, and I’m really working on summoning the casual as much as I can.  I can do things properly and quickly.  I’m a good teacher, but sometimes I don’t have the patience to suffer through the process.  Well, I’m happy to report that I was able to rein it in.  I didn’t twitch once, even when Claire spilled three drops of milk (not that I counted.  *cough*) on the counter when she poured it herself.  I really didn’t!  I’m pretty proud of myself, and I’ll try not to hurt my arm bending it around to pat myself on the back.  Still, this is a big deal for her and me.

I’ve always been the, “I’ll just do it myself because it will be done and done the way I want it” kind of person.  I’ve had to learn how to delegate things in other departments of my life, but I just hadn’t gotten around to it with my preschooler.  Well, apparently, I’ve been trampling a certain someone who is quite capable of learning to do these things on her own.  I hadn’t even realized it was this time already…

So, needless to say, I loved the class I took.  I learned some other things that I can’t wait to put into practice.  In the meantime, does anyone know where I can find a small “of course you can do it yourself; you’re a preschooler” milk pitcher for the fridge?

:)

The Elf winked at me, so it’s cool…

Published on Thursday, December 18, 2008 in Christmas, Claire, Fun, Language, Milestones, Moms' Group and Photos. 3 Comments Tags: , , .

Last Thursday, Claire and I went to visit Santa for the very first time.  You can read about why we haven’t gone in the past by clicking here. This year, I roped our Moms’ Club members into joining me in line.  I thought that this way, even if Claire didn’t want to sit on the big guy’s lap, at least we’d have a fun day at the Mall with our friends.

All week, in preparation for our little field trip, Claire and I talked about Santa.  We talked about how some kids are scared to sit on his lap, and that’s okay.  We talked about how Momma would be right there, and it would be just fine for her to sit on his lap and tell him what she wanted for Christmas.  I played it up as super-exciting, but not big deal, which is a tightrope I’ve learned to walk pretty well these days.

The day arrived, and Claire insisted on wearing her party dress, AND her sparkly shoes.  “Santa will love my sparkly shoes!” she kept shouting as she ran around like a crazy person.

As we pull into the Mall parking lot, Claire keeps seeing random strangers walking toward the building.  “Is that Santa?  I don’t think that’s Santa.  I wonder if Santa is here already, Momma?  Is he here already?” she’d ask with such excitement that it was hard to contain my own excitement.

“I bet Santa is already in there!  I bet he’s getting ready to talk to the children now!  This is going to be so much fun!”  I told her, but she was too excited to really pay attention to my answer.

As we walked through the Mall and found our friends, I reminded her that it was okay to be a little scared of Santa.  She told me she wasn’t afraid, and she couldn’t wait to meet him.  I was hoping that was the case.

Now, call me a cheater or a scrooge, but I had no desire to pay an inflated price on the “Santa and Me” portraits, or whatever they call them, at the mall.  I’d asked one of my friends who had gone to this particular location in the past if personal cameras were allowed, and she assured me that they were.

When we get there, I see the signs that indicate where to line up, and on the sign is a message that says, basically, “We respectfully ask that you not take personal photographs.”  Hmpf.  I’m a rule-follower.  I usually follow rules to the T.  (Even though there isn’t a T in Rules, but I digress.)  The last thing I want to do is be tossed out of the Santa Line for taking photos with my digital camera…but still!  I don’t want to pay their prices, and unless the rules have changed, personal photos were allowed last year and every previous year.  I mean, technically the sign didn’t say it was prohibited…just that it was being respectfully asked of us, and if given a chance, I may have to respectfully decline.  ;)

I can see other children with Santa, and their parents have digital cameras, so I decide to go with the flow.  I put the camera around my neck, fully intending to take photos up to that point and then play it by ear.

I took some cute photos of Claire and her friends waiting in line and petting the stuffed reindeer and looking at all of the holiday lights.  As the line winds around through the evergreens, we’re almost to the end!  It’s almost our turn!  Claire is getting more and more excited about seeing Santa, and I’m a mixed bag of emotions:  Will she do it?  Can I take pictures of it?  Will either of us cause a scene?

As we get to the front of the line, a nice Elf starts to check us in.  She asks if we’d like to have a photo package today.  I couldn’t lie to her.  She had pointy ears…and rosy cheeks…and a cute green hat.

“No,” I said sheepishly.  “I’m not interested in the photo packages.”

She looked at the camera around my neck and said with a fake “pretend I’m not telling you to break the rules or I’ll lose my job” smile and said, “Well, you’re not obligated to actually buy any of the photos we take.”  And she winked at me!

Then, she continued.  “But, if you allow us to take photos, no one will care if you snap a couple with your own camera.”  And she winked at me again!

So, I smiled at her for the purpose of the security cameras and whispered between clenched, smiling teeth, “So, what you’re telling me is if I agree to the look at the photo packages, I can take photos with my own camera, but I’m not obligated to buy any of the ones you take?”

“That’s right!” she said with a smile…and another wink!  Then she added something about having kids in grad school and not wanting to lose her job, but being obligated to tell me company policy.  She was good.  She could have been a ventriloquist, because to the untrained eye, she was just a smiley happy elf wishing us all good cheer.

“All right!” I said.  “You convinced me.  I’d love to see your photo packages!”

So, the Elf indicated to the photographer that she had another live one, and he tried desperately to get Claire to smile for the camera.

Claire, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with that silly-dressed man behind the camera.  She was there to see the big guy.  She hopped up on his lap and proceeded to tell him in great detail what she wanted for Christmas.  For weeks, she’s been saying she wanted a Christmas Tree, and since we put that up last week, she’s set her sights on something different.  (I won’t give it away, but it rhymes with Dorbie Ball.)

As she’s talking to Santa, I’m clicking as many photos as I can before the Winking Elf changes her mind.  That poor camera man tried everything, and Claire kept giving him the most annoyed “please let me talk to the one in charge” looks!  I couldn’t wait to see what they got on film.

I finally put him out of his misery and told them I thought we were done.  I didn’t want to waste any more of their time, especially since I wasn’t going to be buying any photos.  (I kept that last part to myself…)

Claire hopped off Santa’s lap and then proceeded to tell me all about it!  She’d talked to him!  She’d told him what she wanted!  She wasn’t scared, Momma!

After a few minutes, our photos were ready to view on the computer monitors, and I couldn’t help but laugh.  Thank goodness I wasn’t relying on these photos!  They were a riot!  The first one showed Claire scowling at the photographer.  The second one had her eyes closed, and the last one was the biggest frown I’ve ever seen!  I actually laughed out loud.  She’d done it!  She’d not only had a great time, but she’d given me the total excuse to not buy any of their photos!

So what about the ones I took?

Click to enlarge: Claire & Santa ~ Check out her Sparly Shoes!

Click to enlarge: Claire & Santa ~ Check out her Sparkly Shoes!

You can see that she’s mid-sentence, but already giving the photographer the eye.  She’s starting to get a little perturbed by the photographer for interrupting her discussion with Santa.  And, trust me, she’s not as nervous as she looks in this picture.  I was just glad she didn’t burst into tears and that I didn’t get tossed out for taking my own photos.

But, I knew it would be fine.  The Elf winked at me…honest.  ;)

Easiest Fudge in the World

Published on Wednesday, December 17, 2008 in Gift Ideas and Recipes. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Yesterday, Claire and I went to our MOMS’ Club Cookie Decorating and Exchange Extravaganza.  I wasn’t sure what to make, and then it hit me.  I could make the Easiest Fudge in the World!  You see, a few years ago, one of my sisters gave me a nice Christmas Gift that included the following recipe and ingredients.  It was an awesome gift idea and an even better recipe idea when you’re short on time!

I made four batches to bring to the Cookie Exchange (each of us brought four dozen cookies), and we ended up with a nice selection of cookies to give away or keep.  (Claire and I made up two nice plates for a couple of friends of ours — they were thrilled with the gift, and I didn’t have to bring home [and avoid eating] 48 cookies…it was a win-win!)

The Cookie Exchange was a great idea, and Claire had a blast during the decorating portion of the festivities.  It was nice to arrive with fudge and leave with at least six different types of cookies.  It makes it look like I slaved away in the kitchen for hours!  ;)

Needless to say, the fudge was a huge hit.

So, here is the recipe!

Easiest Fudge in the World

12 oz. bag of chocolate chips
14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk

Combine ingredients in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave 2 to 3 minutes, stirring after each minute. Spread in lined (with waxed paper) 8 x 8 pan. Cool.

For real.  That’s it!

And, here are some notes about the recipe:

For the Cookie Exchange, I did 2 batches at a time, and it only needed 2 minutes in my microwave. Be sure to stir after each minute, until all the chips are melted. I put 2 batches in one 9 x 13 pan. I just let it cool on the counter, no need to cool in the fridge. In one pan, I sprinkled M&Ms on the top of the fudge and pressed them lightly. (The other pan was plain.) You can keep it plain or add whatever toppings you want.

It’s seriously the Easiest Fudge in the World. The hardest part is not eating the whole pan yourself. :)

Enjoy!

Do you subscribe?

Published on Tuesday, December 16, 2008 in Blog Business. 2 Comments Tags: , , .

Some people read the newspaper.
Some people do the crossword.
Some people read little novels.
I read blogs.

Don’t get me wrong, I read online newspapers, and our little city has a free paper that I peruse. I also have different magazine subscriptions, but my daily routine involves sitting down with my blogs.

I love my FeedReader.  Personally, I use GoogleReader, and it helps me stay on top of the monstrosity that has become of my blog reading list.  I’ve subscribed to blog feeds for a while now, but it was just recently that I discovered that you can subscribe to different blogs via email.

So, I did some poking around and figured out how to set that up for my readers here at The Casual Perfectionist, and you may have seen this on the sidebar:

Subscribe to The Casual Perfectionist:

in a Reader

by Email

Pretty cool, huh?

If you like that little email icon (the one that matches the RSS one) and would like to use it on your own blog, I found it via a google search at this site.

So, if you’re so inclinded, feel free to subscribe to The Casual Perfectionist using one of the above links, or the links on the sidebar.  Or, if you’d rather just pop in whenever you get a chance, all on your own, that’s fine too.

In all honesty, I don’t care what brings you to the blog, I’m just happy you’re here.  :)

Make-believe is better than frostbite

Published on Monday, December 15, 2008 in Custom Image Header and Photos. 3 Comments Tags: , .

As much as I grumble about the weather (cold, heat, snow, did I mention the heat and the cold??), I do love the different seasons.  Seeing the world covered in snow makes my mind wander to all the fun times I’ve had in the snow, and I smile.  And after seeing the winter wonderland through Claire’s eyes, it’s nearly impossible to not get excited about the snow!

Longtime readers of the blog will recognize this photo.  It was technically taken this year, but it was taken almost a year ago.  Yep…2008 was brand new when we snapped this shot.

Click to enlarge: Claire in the snow

Click to enlarge: Claire in the snow

Because Winter isn’t officially here yet, but because it looks like this outside, I’m changing the blog header.  I just couldn’t wait until the Winter Solstice!  This is one of my favorite pictures of Claire, and the outfit still fits.  Had we gone out to play in the snow yesterday, this is what she would have been wearing.  (Well most of her Let’s Go Play In The Snow Outfit is the same.  We switched the boots, because of the incident that shall be forever known as The Beach Incident.  Why would you wear snow boots to a beach?  It’s not what you’re thinking.  Click on this link to find out more.)  :)

Also, check out the new header!

Let’s just pretend that I took the shot yesterday…and that it wasn’t really 8-degrees (Yes, single-digits in Fahrenheit!!  And, it dipped well below freezing last night!) outside…and that Momma wasn’t being a big ol’ Meanie for not letting Claire play in the wonderful snow.

Make-believe is better than frostbite any day…dontcha think?  ;)

Weekend Time-Traveling: The restaurant wasn’t on fire, and the evening actually went well after that.

Published on Sunday, December 14, 2008 in Re-run. 0 Comments Tags: .

We’re traveling back in time on the weekends, and you can read all about that here.

So, for this post, I decided to head back to January of this year (2008). Every time I see a little kid’s shoe on the ground, I think of this story, and then in my head I hear Claire’s forlorn little voice saying, “My shoooooe! My shoooooe! :)

Check it out!

The restaurant wasn’t on fire, and the evening actually went well after that
Originally posted Saturday, January 12, 2008

So, last night we decided to go out to eat. We knew it was Friday night, but our favorite Vietnamese restaurant I had suggested doesn’t have a long wait.

As we’re getting ready to leave, my hubby says, “You know, I’m not sure I want to drive that far. I’m actually in the mood for something a little closer.”

“Oh, that’s cool. What about that Mexican place just over there? It was really good and not very busy.”

“Well, that’s an Italian restaurant now. And, I’m actually kinda in the mood for Italian. We could go check that out, or we could finally use up some of the gift cards we’ve been forgetting to use.”

I’m always in the mood for Italian, but he isn’t, so I asked him if he was feeling well. He assured me that he didn’t have a fever, so I pulled out the gift cards in my wallet. “Well, we have just over $6 left on this one, and we have $5 on this one,” I told him.

We decided on the closer of the two and off we went.

The parking lot around this particular restaurant is always jammed, mainly because it’s poorly designed, so we never park in there. We always park in the parking lot across the way. The restaurant is next to a mall, and there’s a “street” running through the mall parking lot. It’s not technically a street per se, but it’s busier than a normal driveway.

We park and get Claire bundled up. Daddy picks her up and we all hurry to the restaurant. I’m running ahead of them, so that I can get in to check out the wait. I can hear Claire and Daddy having some sort of conversation, but I couldn’t hear what was being said.

They wait in the foyer as I go into the over-full waiting room. I realize that the wait may be too long, which is no big deal. If it’s too long, we’ll bail and go somewhere else.

The wait is going to be at least AN HOUR. If it were just the hubby and me, an hour is a doable wait. With a toddler, that’s not going to happen.

So, Daddy scoops up Claire and we head back out into the cold.

“Look! Someone lost a shoe!” I say, as I see a cute little black shoe on the street dividing the parking lot and the restaurant. No sooner were the words out of my mouth and my stomach sank. “Is that CLAIRE’S shoe!?” I yelled as I picked it up.

“My shoe! My shoe!” Claire said.

“You know, she was saying something when we were coming to the building, but I was so focused on getting her in the building that I wasn’t really paying attention,” Daddy explained.

“No way! I’m so glad we decided not to stay at the restaurant! Who knows what would have happened to the shoe had we not found it right away!” I said, hoping we would have noticed that it was missing and then looked for it…knowing that it may have been lost forever.

As we get to the car, I realize that my remote keyless entry won’t work. My hubby’s copy of it never works for him, and I always make fun of him. Mine has always worked…until tonight. After trying a few clicks, I run around the car and open the driver’s door the old-fashioned way and get the other doors unlocked.

Meanwhile, Claire is still yelling about her shoe. We’re cold. We’re frazzled. This isn’t the relaxing Friday evening out we’d planned.

We decide to abandon the “let’s use up the rest of our gift cards” idea and go to that new Italian restaurant close to our house.

Just then, we look up and see two fire trucks, the Fire Chief Suburban, two police cars and an ambulance go by. They’re headed the same direction we are.

My hubby turns to look at me and says, “If the restaurant is on fire, we’re going home and ordering take-out.”

“Deal,” I said, wondering what else could possibly go wrong. :)

Weekend Time-Traveling: An imaginary conversation

Published on Saturday, December 13, 2008 in Re-run. 3 Comments Tags: .

We’re traveling back in time on the weekends, and you can read all about that here.

So, for something fun, I decided to see what was happening on December 13th, last year.  I’d totally forgotten about this incident, and I laughed so hard when I read it again.  Oh, the memories!  :)

Check it out!

An imaginary conversation
Originally posted Thursday, December 13, 2007

An imaginary conversation I had in my head today while waiting in line to ship a package:

“How much will it cost to ship this?” I said, struggling not to drop my packages, my purse, Kitty, Puppy, a pair of small sunglasses and a hand-knitted winter hat. “This small box and this big package…not all this other stuff. And, you can box up the larger package for me, right?”

“The small box is no problem, but I’m sorry, Ma’am,” the clerk in the purple and black shirt said. “If the bigger package won’t sit still long enough to be measured, we can’t ship it from here.”

“But, I’ll pay extra,” I said, tapping my credit card on the counter.

“…and there will be an extra surcharge for all the noise. Is there anyway you can tape the on/off switch to off?”

“You can still hear that? All that screaming isn’t just in my head?” I asked. “Believe me, I’ve tried. I can’t seem to find the switch. I even took out the batteries,” I explained.

“…and there’s some rule about not being able to ship humans…” the clerk continued.

“Prove to me she’s human right now, and I won’t ship her anywhere.”

It’s no wonder they don’t want to leave!

Published on Friday, December 12, 2008 in Featured Elsewhere and Mile High Mamas. 2 Comments Tags: .

Today, I’m a Contributing Writer over at Mile High Mamas, which is the parenting blog for The Denver Post!

I’m really excited about this opportunity! So, feel free to mosey on over there and check it out! And, if you do, please leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you!

Here’s a sneak peek of the writing piece:

It’s no wonder they don’t want to leave!
By Momma, The Casual Perfectionist
As Featured at Mile High Mamas

Momma writes at The Casual Perfectionist, and just like the name indicates, she is an admitted perfectionist, but she’s trying to be casual about it. She and her husband have a 3-year-old girl named Claire. Momma is a firm believer in the fact that if you haven’t laughed today, you weren’t really paying attention.

One of our favorite places to play is a local play-area at a Rec Center near us. The indoor play-structure was built with a tree house theme in mind, and all of the tunnels stretch out above the room, like the branches of a tree. It’s great because the parents can stand or sit down below and chat while their kiddos crawl through miles and miles of tubing above. There are many different compartments, most all with windows overlooking the room below. There are different slides throughout so that you can easily get down…only to run around like a crazy person on the squishy floor of the play area and climb the spiral stairs up again.

Claire and I have been here many times. Our Moms’ Club meets there on occasion (more now, in colder weather, since meeting at a park to play is so nice-weather-dependent). It’s great to meet my friends and chat while Claire plays with the friends she knows in the group and meets new friends who happen to be playing there that day as well.

But, it wasn’t always like this.

At first, Claire didn’t want anything to do with the looming structure. The stairs were too enclosed, and the tunnels too confining, and she’d get three steps up and start crying for me. The whole thing turned into more of a stressor than a playful relaxing time, so I opted not to go to the playdates at the center. Our group has so many activities during the week that it was fine to pick and choose.

Eventually, we started going again. Claire started getting more and more comfortable with going up the stairs into the structure by herself, and the more she did it, the more confident she became. Sometimes she’d venture out on her own, and sometimes all it took was an older or more confident explorer to say, “Hey! Come play with me!” and off they’d go.

And, now, we’ve reached a new level…. READ ON…