THIS MOMMA WRITES

I should be in bed, but ever the procrastinator, here I am.

I spent the weekend at a writing conference and met the publisher of an anthology that featured one of my stories. The anthology came out right around the babeola's due date so I never got to do any promo such as a signing or being on a panel at a writing con. Nor did I connect with the publisher during local promo stops, a classic case of childbirthis interruptus. So I made a point to stop by this weekend and introduce myself two years after the fact.

I am so glad I did.

I found out my story is a reader favorite. The publisher is a lovely woman who greeted me with a joyful hug, which rocked. I subsequently googled the anthology a bit and found a reviewer who said my story was their absolute favorite.

Which led to my own personal squeeeeeee moment.

Other than that, I missed the babeola fiercely and we indulged in some joyful hugs of our own this afternoon. It is good to be home.

Read This

As a promotional experiment, I put up a short story of mine for free over on Scribd. It's about a bitchy witch who falls in love.

The short story was well received with lots of compliments from editors, but ultimately never found a home. So I'm pretty sure it doesn't suck.

Although your mileage may vary. Here's the link: If the Shoe Fits.

BEACH WITHDRAWAL

The vacation was wonderful. I highly highly recommend the Leelanau County area of Michigan. The beaches are pristine, the water is crystal clear and you can hit a different beach every day to keep things interesting. It's pricey though so, if you go, bring as many groceries as you can with you or you'll pay double at the local grocery store.

We stayed in Glen Arbor which has the Cherry Republic store. Cherry Republic makes cherry everything; wine, fudge, salsa, bbq sauce, cookies, candy etc... I love cherries so it was a bit like visiting heaven. Every day. For a week.

My husband was also infected with cherry love and smuggled home 5 jars of the cherry salsa, which he stubbornly and annoyingly refuses to share.

The babeola loved the beach. Loved swimming. She had absolutely no fear at all and screamed with joy every time Daddy threw her up in the air in 5 foot deep water. She didn't even care when he missed her a few times and she went completely under. She'd pop up to the surface courtesy of her life jacket and screech 'More? Pwease?'

The pre-vacation wedding was also fun because the babeola looked adorable. One of the bridesmaids even came up to us and told us how adorable the babeola was. Like we didn't know! We kept her up until 10 and let her dance her heart out--she spins like a dervish. We called it a night when the babeola kept trying to do the electric slide and, in the process, threatened to trip everyone on the dance floor. For some reason, moving her three feet to the left, out of the way, was cause for a huge nuclear meltdown. So we ran before the shrieks sprialed up to the octave where they start to echo (I'm not exaggerating either).

The big surprise of the last week was the fact that my daughter can read letters and numbers. I'm astonished. I've always suspected she might be smart, but this seems to prove it. I still can't quite wrap my mind around it. I've been assured that I don't need to do anything special for her, just carry on as usual. However, given that I was a bit precocious academically as a child and am not happy, in retrospect, with how it was handled, I'm going to be a little more hands on as the babeola progresses.

DESTINATION: PROCRASTINATION--PLUS STILETTO ADVICE NEEDED

I don't think it's a coincidence that the word nation figures prominently in procrastination. There's probably an undiscovered continent out there full of procrastinators. I should really be working, but here I am...procrastination's finest citizen.

The laptop is still here, feebly carrying on. I will pack it up, I swear, sometime before Thursday.

The babeola is cute as always. She's talking so much now. So many words and sentences. One of which is 'Oh shit' which is hilarious because a) none of us say 'oh shit' so I have no idea where it came from. My potty mouth is much too dirty to settle for a mere 'oh shit' and b) she lisps when she says it so it sounds like 'oh thit'. My husband has given me orders to cover. As in, when he taught her 'Sucker' he morphed it into soccer ball and she now happily natters on about the soccer ball. So I guess I must now try to get the babeola to go along with 'sit'.

I am also amazed that the babeola listens to me. Why should she listen to me? No one listens to me. I am the person who has the great idea that no one listens to until someone else champions it (and then steals the credit). But the babeola actually does listen to me and my discipline approach seems to be working. I'm stunned. She has been such a prickly pear and nothing has ever been easy on this parenting gig so I can't believe I carry any weight.

Yet she's responding to my warnings of 'if you persist in shrieking like a pterodactyl/throwing your toys, I think you need to take a break in your crib.' I purposely avoid the phrase time out because that's not what I'm doing. Taking a break isn't punitive, it's a reset button. She gets a cuddle, an explanation of what is and is not appropriate, her lovey, a paci, some books and some quiet time. When she comes back, she's in a better mood and things go much more smoothly. Sometimes she even moderates her behavior and avoids the break altogether.

I'm flabbergasted. My daughter. She listens. I might even be a competent parent. Who saw that coming? Not me.

Now, internets, please advise how one goes about walking in stilettos after 2+ years of no heels. Because there's a wedding this week and I'm trying to avoid buying new shoes, leaving me with 3" stilettos. I've been trying to wear them off and on during the day, but I totter like a drunk log roller. Thoughts?

P.S. Check out this article on how to decorate baby rooms for some awesome inspiration. If you checked out the boy's room I linked to a while back and loved it as much as I did, this article is for you. Great tips on how to design modern baby nurseries.

LOST IN TRANSLATION OR ONE BIG DUH FOR MOMMA

We went to the mall this weekend and did some corporate clothes shopping for the husband. The babeola was charming. First, cracking us all up with her over-the-top indignant response to mommy saying she was 'an angry toddler'. She even made herself laugh with her hyperbole. Then she noticed when all the ladies at the mall cooed over how cute she was, seeming to understand, for the first time, when the word cute was used in relation to her. The babeola preens like a peacock, by the way. She had a blast on the kiddie train with daddy  and ran wild on the indoor playground finally having mastered the ability to climb up the big slide.

And she brought her favorite book with her, clutched in one chubby hand like a shield. I offered several times to carry it in my purse, but was turned down with a curt shake of the head. Finally, though, her attention span failed her and the book was abandoned for other amusements.

So I plopped it into my purse and we continued on our jaunt. Buying daddy a suit and bunch of shirts with ties. Some tops for momma and we, of course, stepped into Gymboree where the babeola knocked on the display window and waved to all the shocked and amused passerbys, screeching gleefully 'Hiiiiiii!'

As I perused the racks of expensive-even-when-marked-down baby clothes, the babeola tugged at my knee, jibbering something. I absentmindedly nodded and smiled and when she became more insistent offered to let her hold a shirt.

Which she impatiently tossed to the floor while shouting "Booooooook!"

"Oh, honey. I'm sorry. I'm not used to understanding what you say." Ba-dum-bum. I heard some snickering from the moms around me on that one.

She also said 'Bless you mommy' after I sneezed and is making sentences. And I took her to a little kiddie carnival where she shrieked 'weeee' on every ride and was upset when I wouldn't let her go on the rollercoaster.

Overall a very nice weekend.

As for the laptop, it will be going in sometime before the 14th to coincide with our vacation, which I hadn't planned on having the laptop for. So that works well.

Here are some recent-ish pics. Look at those curls!