Message to Procter and Gamble

May 31, 2010 at 11:49 pm (Motherhood)

Re: Your Mother’s Day ad

“What do you call a person who does everything and asks for nothing in return?”

P&G’s answer was “Mom”. And while that made me feel all teary for about a second, my answer would be “a saint”. And while I am a mom, I am not a saint. I was discussing this with my husband earlier and we agreed. A mother will most definitely love and care for her child whether or not she gets anything in return, if she is any kind of a mother at all. Asking for nothing in return? Maybe I will need to start dodging flying tomatoes here, but I do want things in return. I might not come out and actually ask for them, but I want them. I want my son to love me. I want him to behave nicely towards me (at least most of the time). I want him to be proud to call me “Mom”. And I want at least a card on Mother’s Day, my birthday, and Christmas. Or a phone call once he’s grown up.

Hopefully, P&G just wanted to make us moms feel appreciated and warm the cockles of our hearts. And I’m sure they did for many. Usually, I’m one of them. But now that I’m a mom, I know that it’s ok to want things from the people you love and work so hard for, even your own children. All it took today was a smile from Max when I walked in the room after an absence. Just a smile. It was simple. But it was something. And we moms are human and we need it. And there is nothing wrong with that.

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Bookworm and son

May 29, 2010 at 4:10 pm (Books, Max)

Most parents imagine all of the clothes and toys they will buy for their child. At least, I think that’s the case. I’m a little weird in the respect that I dreamed, not of those things, but of sharing books with my son. I am sure there probably are other weird parents out there who dreamed of sharing their favorite books with their child and discovering new ones to love. However, I think that is almost exclusively what I thought about. The only other thing that came close was my desire to share my love of music. But that’s another post.

In fact, for the first several months after he was born, books were all I bought for him, aside from the necessities, such as diapers. I was just very anxious to ensure he started out with a good book collection, a good shot at being a reader. Others had bought him plenty of clothes and toys, so I decided it was going to be up to me to fill the bookshelf.

Towards that end, I decided to start a tradition of buying a new book for him on his birthday every month. I have not decided yet how long I will continue this tradition, but right now, it will be until his first birthday at least. I have cheated a few months and bought two (In fact, I bought three for his ten-month birthday last week.), but overall, it has been a good, fairly inexpensive way to regularly add to his bookshelf. Plus, I get positively giddy when I order new books for him from Amazon and envision reading them to him for the first time. So, it’s a little something for me to look forward to every month. And who doesn’t need that?

That is part of the reason I have shared on this site when I read a new book with him. I have fallen woefully behind during the whole moving process these past few months, but I am going to try and share a few titles right now, rather than try and write a separate entry for each, as usual, and fall further behind. I hope any of you parents trying to raise readers might get some inspiration (and send some my way, if you like) and that Max might someday enjoy knowing the books we shared together and when.

Harold and the Purple Crayon 50th Anniversary Edition (Purple Crayon Books)

The New Adventures of Curious George

A Treasury of Curious George

Olivia (Classic Board Books)

Corduroy

Max Counts His Chickens (Max and Ruby)

(This last one was a present for his first Easter. An impulse buy at the register at HEB that worked out really well.)

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Snail mail is not dead

May 14, 2010 at 12:03 am (Life, Moving)

Why can’t I find any change-of-address cards? The last time I moved, three years ago, I found some easily at Target. Now, I could only find way over-priced (Ten for $20! Just because they can go through your printer!) ones at HEB. HELLO, SOME PEOPLE DO NOT HAVE E-MAIL. SOME PEOPLE ARE NOT ON FACEBOOK. Like my grandmother. Who sends me birthday checks. AND I JUST HAD MY BIRTHDAY.
Plus, I just think it’s polite to send cards through the mail. Maybe that’s weird, but it wouldn’t feel right not to.

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Motherhood is …

May 1, 2010 at 12:35 am (Motherhood)

continuing to fill out a survey for work, despite the fact that your whining, teething child has just puked on you. And almost forgetting that they’ve puked on you by the time you’re done (two minutes later).

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Bringing the grunge look back

May 1, 2010 at 12:32 am (Clothes)

My blue jeans have cat toothpaste, infant toothpaste, and infant Tylenol on them. Not to mention spit-up. Because they always have spit-up on them. Spit-up has become invisible to me due to its omnipresence in my life. And yet I have not deemed them dirty enough to wash as yet. Huh.

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