Love is Blind

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• Toddler Bowling.

  This morning at our weekly in-home visit from various teachers, including GiGi’s Orientation and Mobility Teacher, I watched faces twist themselves from smiles to looks of pain when I said, “So I took GiGi bowling this weekend!”  Their faces mirrored my feeling on Sunday afternoon as I sat in a little gray nailed-to-the-floor-chair that with a screaming toddler writhing in my arms while sticking her fingers in my eyes and nose in protest to bowling.   I can be uptight about certain situations and refuse to intermingle myself in things if I have a gut instinct  that GiGi will hate it.  Like, for example, going to the movies.  Kind of a no-brainer at this point in time.  Taking a toddler to the movies might not be a completely stupid idea if some really colorful, musical, Disney or Pixar-gasmic flick were on the screen, but in our case I have sort of come to the conclusion that movies in theatres will have to wait until she is a tiny bit older to listen to them.  Yes, I intend to raise a full-on film snob.  Back to my rambles though…   GiGi and I drove to the bay, yet again, but this time we did a little Valentine’s Day babysitting for a best friend (oh yes, there will be a post on that one, stay tuned) and then spent two days at my oldest sisters house.  It was a great big sister event in Napa full of nieces and nephew and rain-rain-rain.   What the hell does one do on a three-day weekend when its pouring cats and wine drunk dogs outside?  Why, we bowl of course.    The word “bowl” and all the catch phrases and words that go with that sport should have flipped a little switch on in my head that said “no.”    It didn’t hit any switches, and like a moron I waltzed into the bowling alley with a toddler on my hip and the notion that things would be fine.   My brain says that having snacks and music in tow will always make a situation seem brighter for my child, but in a bowling alley?  What the fuck was I thinking?           (She looks soooooooooooooo amused by it all, doesn't she?)     Read More... Posted Feb 17 2009, 11:10 AM by Megg with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: ca, gigi, toddlers, babies, kids, blindd, gia, bowling, bowling alleies, sensory disorder, napa, toddlerbowling, sound, loud noises, bowling alley, volume

• What's a Friday without a fire truck...or three?

  (Waiting in the car while the firemen climbed the rainy rooftop)   I spilled coffee on my shirt yesterday morning.  Walking down the hallway on my way to the kitchen to warm up the coffee that always seems to stay cold once it hits MY cup, I stumbled a little and spilled it.  Yes, I was in my pajamas and yes GiGi was actually trying to stick her fingers in the cup.  I stepped outside my usual o.c.d self and said f*ck it. I’m not taking a shower today, and the coffee stink will have to stay until tonight.  Friday night with a baby on my hands?  What was I going to do other than eat popcorn and avoid the rain. Fast forward to two hours later and you would have found me cursing my morning coffee and the fact that I didn’t have on clean underwear as I stood outside in my pajamas staring at the flashing lights of three fire trucks.  Read More... Posted Feb 07 2009, 11:52 AM by Megg with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: gigi, children, fireworks, babies, parents, kids, megg, fires, homes, mothers, dipshit things, fire truck, emergencies

• The Youngest.

  My niece M. is ten.  She is part of a twin set of nieces that I love and adore, and as of their last birthday...appreciate ever so much more.  I'm sitting at my desk adding more to a new chapter, and I look over to see her changing GiGi's diaper.  How awesome is that?!  Pretty damn awesome.  Sometimes it's hard to write from home when you have a toddler getting into every single thing she isn't supposed to or needing silly things like food, drink and a diaper change, but I find that having these nieces around is a HUGE help.  I knew they were good, but it wasn’t until this winter vacation from school that I realized just how good they were. Are.   They are so interested in making her happy that they just automatically help her out when she makes the slightest noise.  I'd feel like a jerk if I was always, always begging them to do the things they do for her, but they just - do it.  All by themselves.  It's fascinating to me as a twenty-eight year old adult who is the youngest, by far, to two sisters.  I never had the opportunity to care for someone younger than me because I was the youngest. The youngest daughter, sibling, granddaughter, cousin, friend, employee (for the most part) you name the situation and I have always been the youth in the group.  So it's weird to watch these pre-teens taking on such an automatic mothering role.  The twins have a younger sister and that's where the majority of their caring comes from I would assume.  Maybe it's just who they are, but I would bet it's because they are big sisters.   Read More... Posted Dec 18 2008, 01:15 PM by Megg with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: gigi, toddlers, babies, parents, younger sibling, silly thoughts, youth, birth order, the youngest

• Uncharted Territory (C-r-a-w-l-i-n-g in public)

  My child, the thrill seeker, is out in this giant world crawling like a mad woman and not stopping until she finds herself entertained.  She has been so busy exploring the places she knows well, that I decided to take her to Tumble & Tea.  In case you are unfamiliar with this establishment (like I was up until a year ago) it is a place where small kids 5 and under can go and scream to their heart’s content,  while the mommies and daddies pay silly food prices and watch their babes get run over by bigger kids whose parents refuse to watch them because they are busy snubbing other parents struggling to clean a table that the waitresses won’t.  Oh, and they play too, when the intimidation wears off.   (breathes deep)   I have to hand it to the owner, it’s a great idea and I see the allure but after my first visit I don’t think I want to run back anytime soon.  There is a $4.95 admission charge, to basically play with toys that most of us have in our homes.  At first, I was pretty fucking pissed that I would have to pay 5 bucks for a 15 month old to explore, um, one toy.  Maybe it’s just my child that finds a toy and sticks to it, but it blows to have to pay for a kid to crawl on some colorful carpet and suck on a toy.  It was lunchtime, so I figured that I would order a bite for GiGi and I since she was a little freaked out by the noise when we walked in.  Starting her on comfort food already, uh-oh!   I got a quesadilla with fruit on the side and a strawberry smoothie.  10 minutes later I had to go back up to the counter to collect our giant apple cut in half with the peel on it, and brown spots, right next a crusty quesadilla and a smoothie with zero flavor.  That’s all fine and dandy, but don’t charge me 5 bucks to get in, 5 bucks for a smoothie and 5 for a meal that was pathetic.    Am I done complaining?  Totally.   Sorry about all that, I just had to get it off my chest.   Tumble & Tea had been mentioned with such animation that it seemed like the toddler version of the best new bar on the block.  I think I had my hopes up too high.  See what others thought here.     Anywho…   GiGi  wasn’t into the playing thing until I zeroed in on a familiar toy, locked eyes with the target and moved in.  Kids were screaming and I could see how tense she was but I figured this was a setting that needed to be familiar to her so I pushed through.  Maybe it would have started smoother if the people running the place had decided to play something other than house music REALLY loud.  I love music, people, but techno?  Screaming kids?    Fat fucking chance.  This is the time to utilize those Putumayo  cd’s folks!       The toy mentioned above was the most familiar to GiGi so I sat her down to play with it. She gripped it with knowing hands and began to play.  I was so happy that we made it that far and things were  going well.  Up until that point, her interaction with other kids her own age, who played with her toys at the same time she did, was... Read More... Posted Jul 15 2008, 11:00 PM by Megg with | with 17 comment(s) Filed under: oakland, gigi, toddlers, crawling, meltdown, tumble & tea, parenting, scared, babies, freinds, interaction with toddlers