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February 12, 2003
2.12.03
If I were a rich man…
There are certain celebrities that fall into the category of middle-of-the-row. (Kathy Lee Gifford, Jennifer Lopez) I can tolerate them in small doses. I don’t like them or dislike them, but something about them either interests me or bugs me. I don’t know why. Probably because I know just a little, but not enough about them. Michael Jackson is one of these people. Admittedly, I don’t personally know Michael Jackson. For the most part, what I have heard is reported in the newspapers, magazines, or tabloids. He seems shy, a bit odd and unusual, but for the most part, it just makes me sad and irritated when they exploit him and invade his privacy. I wish they would just leave him alone. Either that or have a fairer balance of reporting the good and the bad. Does he ever have a good hair day? A good nose day? I watched parts of the Michael Jackson documentary last week. Why? The same reason I cannot look away from Fear Factor contestants eating live cockroaches or pig bums. Repulsive and sick as it is, I must see them do it. In the same breath that I say, “oh that is just sick,!” I will not look away. And so I watched parts of the MJ Documentary. I wanted to see a more balanced view of his life, not just the tawdry, but the good and the bad. They did cover a lot of topics, but most of them just left me shaking my head, with more unanswered questions. Especially the part about having slumber parties in his bed with other people’s children (his argument being there is nothing sexual going on, just *love*). I need a little more convincing. No, I don’t think Michael Jackson is having sexual relations with the children he entertains. I really don’t. But I just need him to understand *why* other parents and mainstream society would see a problem with this behavior, innocent as it may seem to him. But, this was not the most disturbing part of the interview to me. I was very bothered by the fact that Michael Jackson is all about the love of children, so much so that he seems to be collecting them. Surrounding himself with children (possibly trying to reach back and steal a piece of his own childhood that was never his) to the point of the more, the merrier. He stated that he would like to adopt 2 children from each country (or was it continent?) of the world. One boy and one girl from each. A collection of pairs of children from around the world. Now that is SICK. At least to me. I don’t know. If I were a rich man, my mission in life would not be to have a collection of children. And just what would he do with all those children? He’s 44. Exactly the same age as my husband who turned 44 on Saturday. Speaking of which…
Jerry’s Birthday…
Jerry turned 44 on February 8th. My plan was to get up early with the children and let him sleep in. When I came downstairs, he was already in the midst preparing breakfast. Bacon sizzling, bread in the toaster, coffee brewing away. He was making pancakes with Rachel at his side. She was standing on her stepstool manning the electric mixer. Mitch was in his highchair, working on his second banana and Lord knows how many pancakes. He was watching Disney cartoons. We don’t sit down at the table like the Cleavers, but we all managed to eat pancakes, bacon, and toast. Jerry had some coffee, I had a few mugs of tea and we both skimmed parts of the newspaper while Rachel ate and Mitch pointed away at the Disney cartoons on the kitchen TV. After breakfast, Rachel went with me to Kroger to pick up the birthday cupcakes and she picked out all the balloons. Rachel likes going to Kroger because children under 12 get a free cookie at the bakery. She looks forward to her cookie and a ride on the horse carousel outside. For 2 quarters, she can go round and round for about 90 seconds. There are 3 horses (blue, yellow, and green). She has named the yellow horse Bailey. He is her favorite and she rides him each week. This week she was very concerned because Bailey was very cold (he is made of metal and it was in the 30s). She wanted to know where his mommy was, where his blanket was, and where he took his nap. When we got home, Rachel showed the balloons and cake to Jerry. Of course he totally loved his Mickey Mouse and Thomas the Tank balloons, who wouldn’t? (grin) Mitch woke up from his nap and then Jerry opened his presents from his parents and the kids. “What did we get you daddy?” said Rachel. She’s at the age where she doesn’t understand or know how to keep a secret, so I do the shopping and let the kids pick out the cards. He got a new game for his PS2, a book by Charles Barkley, “I May Be Wrong, But I Doubt It,” the Godfather movie collection on CD, and Kurt Cobain’s Journal, the handwritten diary he kept before his death. The birthday honoree always gets to plan the day. Jerry wanted to take the kids out to dinner to the restaurant we went to on our first date. We have never been back, even though it’s owned by a friend of ours. It is a small Italian bistro/café. We got there early and managed to eat our salads and dinner and not worry about our two kids who were playing with silverware, hanging off their chairs and otherwise not eating their food. (I did say we are not the Cleavers.) On the way home, we stopped at Best Buy to look for children’s music and the Little Mermaid movie. We were told that this movie is only released every 10 years, and we’d have to look for it at a used book store. We bought the Sesame Street Platinum collection and listened to it on the way to Half Price Books. It was fun and brought back memories of when my youngest brother Brian was a kid. “Sing, sing a song, sing out loud,” is one of my favorites. Mitch and Rachel were both clapping their hands to Elmo’s Song, and we were all laughing. We did find The Little Mermaid on VHS at the used book store, and that’s exactly what we watched when we got home. I’m sure it’s just what Jerry had in mind to celebrate his day. We got out the cupcakes and put candles on them. Rachel helped blow them out while we sang Happy Birthday to daddy. It was fun. Mitch smeared the icing all over himself.
There is just something about a balloon…
The kids really enjoyed Jerry’s birthday balloons. We got 2 mylar and 6 latex balloons. They were tied in a bouquet, but we untied them and let them float up to the ceiling. The mylar balloons last for a week or so, staying high on the ceiling, and the latex ones sink to the floor after just 1 day. The kids love to let them go and watch as they rise to the ceiling. It didn’t take long for Rachel to show Mitch just where to let go of the balloons in our front entryway, the ceilings are vaulted to the second floor, and they love nothing better than seeing them go way up “high” to the ceiling and then they make daddy go all the way upstairs to “save” them. A few times, we’ve had to use the broom handle to dig them out of the far corners. But the kids just laugh. Mitch calls them “balls,” and will come and fetch our hands and take us to where the balloons are, and he will point, “up, up, ball.” Mitch has found his own little reading corner in our living room. He sits on the edge of the window sill and props his books on the edge of the side table. The height of the window sill is perfect for him and he sits happily reading for the longest time. We live a few miles away from a commuter airport. We see and hear the small planes maneuvering in the sky, and this is one of Mitch’s favorite things. He usually hears the plane before seeing it, and then he will say “plane” and point to the sky. He’s never been wrong when pointing toward the sky at a plane. He’s asserting his independence more each day. Lately when we take him out of his car seat, he will squirm down out of our arms and run toward the door on his own. He does this at home and at Angie’s house. He likes to run to the door himself.
Rachel…
Each day, we are introducing a new letter to Rachel, and she has schoolwork that helps reinforce her learning. She enjoys coloring the letter-of-the-day and the drawings that correspond with the lesson plan. She is up to letter O today. She picked out Valentines with me at Target on Saturday. She chose Disney Princess valentines for herself and Clifford the Red Dog for Mitch. She spent some time filling them out yesterday and today she will put the heart stickers on the envelopes. She did color drawings for her grandparents and we will mail these with the valentines and some new pictures of the kids. Rachel’s new nursery school opens next Monday. We are taking her to a meet-and-greet on Saturday where she will meet her teacher and have a chance to meet and play with the other kids, try out the new toys, and explore. We are excited that there will be web cams in all the classrooms. We are allowed to give out the link to family members. MIL emailed me this morning that she is so excited and pleased to be able to “see” Rachel playing and FIL will be right by her side watching. Sunday Rachel was working on her drawings and decided to take her crayons to a new level. She snuck under the kitchen table and drew pictures on the underside of table top, to the dismay of her daddy who caught her in the act. He could not get the crayons marks off and was frustrated that she was not using her erasable crayons. “Why did you buy her these Gelese crayons?” They looked fun to me. (grin) Daddy took away her crayons and she was not allowed to use them for one full day. Such harsh punishment!
Longing for a vacation…
We have to plan our vacations well in advance. Jerry has 4 weeks of vacation a year and so do I. Jerry doesn’t have as much flexibility as to when he can take his vacation. His 4 weeks must be selected in December for the following year. The managers pick their weeks by seniority. Jerry has been with the company for almost 20 years, so he is among the first to select his weeks. But, they can only pick one week at a time and the schedule is passed around until everyone picks one week, and then it gets sent around again and again until all the weeks are selected. Only 2 people can be off during any one week, and they can’t take off easily around the holidays. The other weird thing is that they must take a complete week off at a time and are not allowed a few days here or there. My vacation days are flexible as to when and how many I can take at a time. Jerry’s first week of vacation is coming up, the last week of February. Of course it doesn’t coincide with our spring break week, so we can’t really plan anything as a family for that week. I have classes 3 nights a week. Spring break at the university is the week of March 3rd. Our family vacation to the U.P. in Michigan is always during the 4th of July. We’ve already booked it, and it’s something we look forward to, but still it’s seems so far away. I can’t wait that long for a vacation. I’m just tired of being in a routine and want to get away. I called my sister yesterday. She lives in CA. They are flying to Hawaii for spring break with their 2 kids in April. I want to take Rachel out to CA for a visit with her cousins the week of March 3rd. They live fairly close to Monterrey and we would like to spend a few days there, see the aquarium, and do other kid-friendly things. Rachel talks on the phone with her cousins, but she really wants to see them and play with them. I’d love to take Mitch along, but I’m not sure if I can do it alone. The airports have such strict rules now, and we travel much easier with both of the kids in umbrella strollers. I just don’t know how I would manage both kids in strollers with luggage, car seats, bags, security checks, lines, and changing planes. The travel time in-air alone would be 6 hours, and I don’t know how I would manage with Mitch squirming on my lap, how would I use the bathroom, etc.? Mitch is 27+ lb. and Rachel is 40 lb. I don’t want to “need a vacation” while I’m on vacation, if you know what I mean. We do have a full-size double stroller, but I can already picture the airlines rolling their eyes at us showing up with that thing. If we had to check it with our baggage, that would leave us stranded with no stroller to use in the terminal. If anyone has any suggestions or ideas for a mom traveling with 2 small children, please let me know.
Warmly,
Megan
http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/m/millimaki/
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Anyone with tips or advice for a mom flying/traveling with 2 small children, please post on my TTM board. Thanks!
And *thanks* to the ladies who posted about their favorite children’s music selections: Bonnie, Inkpen, Tricia, Jeanette Laura K.
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