It’s a well-documented fact that Pittsburghers are givers. Last year you helped me help babies as we marched for Maddie and the March of Dimes. I am hoping you will help again, whether you are in Pittsburgh or not. Everybody wins when more babies are born healthy.
Over there, on the right, is a nice big purple box where you can sponsor me. Or join the team if you want to walk with us on May 23.
Go visit the Friends of Maddie site too. They are doing great work supporting families with babies in NICUs across the country.
Oliver has been obsessed with sports forever. “Highlights” was one his earlier, more complex words. He was barely three when he started watching SportsCenter in the morning, but we were not fond of the commercials that go along with watching ESPN (or any sports television). MLB At Bat and other iPhone apps let him check just the games he wants, on demand and without advertising. Major win.
During football season he watched quite a few games with us. Save for the occasional breaking into song (“5. 5 dollar. 5 dollar FOOT LONG!”) he didn’t seem to be noticing the ads much at all. I don’t know what caused me to think my kid, who is a sponge about nearly everything, was somehow immune to the siren calls of Madison Avenue.
Needless to say, he proved me wrong. This week. In the middle of Trader Joe’s beverage aisle.
“Momma, can we get some Bud Light?”
I followed that with the stupidest question of all time, “Where did you hear about that?”
If that doesn’t make the case for DVR, I don’t know what will. Does the kid have to ask why we don’t have two bathtubs in the backyard? Or ask when the moment is right?
I tweeted extensively about Eleanor’s recent vision issues (bilateral amblyopia and extreme far-sightedness) but haven’t blogged about them. Though she’s doing fine, I’m still having a few issues. I am mostly over the whole, “Why didn’t I know? I should have noticed something.” part. Various sources have convinced me that we figured it out in time to correct. It’s just my “mama bear” instincts that are causing me to worry.
The other problem I have is not knowing if the glasses are really helping. This is the control freak in me rearing her ugly head. There is absolutely no way for me to know what she sees, what her world looks like, or how her brain is processing visual signals. We don’t have an appointment with the specialist until May, which feels like an eternity from now. She’s asking for her glasses in the morning, which I have been told is a good sign, but I really need some additional confirmation. We thought she could see just fine before. When she takes her glasses off at bedtime she still seems to be able to see just fine. She also seems to be able to see well through the glasses and their very strong prescription. Knowing that if the doctor is right and we didn’t treat her she’d be permanently impaired helps me sleep better at night.
Last week Eleanor broke her glasses. She’s two so it’s par for the course. It’s why kid’s glasses come with great warranties. We are thinking more durable frames may be in order but waiting until May and the expected new prescription. Between the haircut and the glasses, she’s a whole new girl. Lucky for us, she’s just as happy as ever.
[We had no idea kids should have their vision screened before they turn 1, and also at 3 and 5. Learn more about the Children's Vision 1-3-5 program and the AOA'sInfantSEE. Your state's optometric association probably has details on their website. Please don't let this slide as I did. We got very lucky that the pre-school years are the best time to treat what Eleanor has.]
Here are some resources for other parents of kids with amblyopia or glasses:
It may not be spring in Pittsburgh but baseball players all over Florida and Arizona are getting ready for the Major League Baseball season. Oliver was positively giddy to discover the new version of MLB At Bat on my iPhone this morning.
When I picked him up at school this afternoon he immediately started trying to pry the phone out of my jacket pocket. When I wouldn’t give it to him the interrogation began. “Did the Pirates beat the Yankees? How did the Red Sox do?” Just like that, it may as well have been August of last year.
A couple of months ago we were lucky enough to be offered phenomenal seats for Red Sox vs Indians in June, right after school is out. The road trip is planned, including a hotel for collapsing into after he attends his first night game, and a side trip to Canton.
Oliver and I started talking about what other teams he would like to see. It was soon clear visiting every major league ballpark was something we were both interested in doing.
Since goals are good, we are aiming for completion by 2023, the year Oliver will likely graduate from high school. 30 ballparks in 13 years doesn’t sound bad at all. It’s really only 29 since we have already been to PNC Park many times. Cleveland is already on the agenda. We’re hoping to pay a visit to Sarah and the Goon Squad to take in a Nationals game this summer. Baltimore isn’t far so maybe we will get to Camden Yards to see the Orioles too. If we accomplish all that this summer we will be left with 26 parks in 12 years and many epic roadtrips, some with the whole family, some with additional guests, and a few for just the two of us. Piece of cake, right?
[I promise I will get back to news about the kids soon. It would have been today but Oliver insisted on rooting for Canada in the Olympic hockey gold medal game today and convinced his sister to join him. Traitors.]
One by-product of meeting so many people at Mom 2.0 Summit is I now have even more blogs to try to keep up with. I met lots of women with blogs I was already following but holy hell…there’s so many more now. It’s like trying new flavors of ice cream. I know going in I will be hooked and that I really don’t need more flavors of ice cream to like but I do it anyway.
Not wanting to venture down this slippery slope alone, here are just a few of the blogs I should have been reading for years but wasn’t until the trip to Houston:
Using My Words – Julie Pippert and I are going to be friends for a very long time.
Tracey Clark – Brilliant photographer and writer. Her words and images move me.
Chookooloonks – I read Karen Walrond regularly when she wrote for ParentDish. I have missed her. Can’t wait for her book to come out. Her words and images move me too.
Jenny On the Spot – I met Jenny in the shuttle to the hotel. She tried to confuse me with her hair but it didn’t work. Better luck next time!
Boston Mamas – Because I’ll always have a toe in New England.
My Mom 2.0 Summit recap ended yesterday with Friday afternoon, yoga, and (not in) the Wienermobile. The day got even better from there. We were bussed to the Mom 2.0 – Defining a Movement art exhibit. The only word for it is “breathtaking.” The only way I can share a little of it with you is by including Katherine Center’s incredible video. Hankie alert…I’ve seen it 10 times and cry every.single.time.
I was in line to have Katherine paint on me (what? I have no idea) when Sarah hauled my sorry ass away to a cab, headed for a mysterious restaurant and a chef I’d never heard of. Sarah is to be trusted where sports, beer, food, and twins are concerned so it was an easy call.
The restaurant turned out to be T’afia, the chef Monica Pope, and the food among the ten best meals I have ever had. As I said to Monica, “You had me at ‘bacon.’” There was also sweetbreads, mushrooms, venison, and panna cotta. And the smartest, kindest women who didn’t laugh at me when I turned into a weepy mess, but they sure made me laugh the rest of the time.
Saturday morning was the run/walk. Except everyone was a runner, and then there was me. With a blister on my foot from wearing the wrong shoes on Thursday. I did my laps of the park then used my iPhone to track down a drugstore. It failed me at first, sending me to a shop that wasn’t there. The second try was better, but it being a downtown area and Saturday morning, the place wasn’t open. That gave me a chance to figure out I had walked over 3 miles! Before breakfast! I felt very virtuous but lounged too long in my cozy bathrobe and missed the morning keynote. Still kicking myself over that one but I’m calling it a mental health hour.
The day improved from there, with great panels (summarized beautifully on the conference blog), even better off-line conversations, and a really funny moment in the bathroom where I heard a woman say, “My husband is English.” Then another, “MY husband’s English.” I couldn’t resist chiming in. Three women, three sinks, three English husbands. Awesome.
Dinner on Saturday was courtesy of Barilla (as was lunch…good thing I never met a pasta dish I didn’t like) and their Share the Table initiative. It was a pretty small group, maybe 30 or so of us. I was lucky enough to be my table’s cook, making a tomato and eggplant sauce that even I could not screw up.
The real chef, the delightful Edmondo, could have read me the phone book but just handed me a glass of wine instead. (He also asked that we photoshop more hair into any photos of him. Whoops.) It wasn’t the first glass or, I’m afraid, the last. I think there were three or four glasses at every seat. If all PR events are like that one, sign me up, please. I’d like to share my table with these ladies regularly.
No, the night wasn’t over yet. We still had the CheeseburgHerz party and McDonalds bags to fashion into hats. You read that right. [photo to come] I met still more incredible women, spent a little more time wondering what made me think I belonged there, drank three bottles of water and went back to my room for three hours of sleep before getting up at 4am to catch a shuttle to the airport.
My head is still swimming. How long should less than two and a half days take to process?
It would take about a dozen posts to even scratch the surface of Mom 2.0 Summit. I have been home more than 48 hours and I feel like I have only begun to process all that I saw and heard. I’m going to try and hit the highlights but I’m going to leave things out. Important things. Because What They’re Doing Matters.
I arrived on Thursday, riding in on the shuttle with JennyOnTheSpot, barely in time for the Mad Men party. It was good to get my greatest source of angst out of the way early. I have never seen the show and definitely don’t have the figure, wardrobe, or hair for it. In spite of my terror, I found friendlyfaces early, got a drink (eventually), and was recognized by one of my biggest blog crushes, who turned out to be the nicest person EVER. I could barely speak and surely said nothing coherent but she continued to be kind to me all weekend.
The first of my various attempts to take advantage of the distinct lack of children demanding my attention and get some exercise was a walk before things got underway on Friday morning. To be honest, I wanted to check out the route for the run the next morning, but I did a quick detour to get a photo for Oliver of Minute Maid Park. It turned out to be an easy walk and after all the cold and snow it Pittsburgh, what the locals think was chilly was very comfortable to me.
I got showered just in time to make the keynote with Gretchen Rubin and Heloise (yes, THAT Heloise). I should mention that resisting the temptation to crawl back into the awesome Four Seasons bed was tough, followed by the strong urge to stay in the bathrobe, enjoying the silence of a lovely hotel room, for the rest of the day. You know the conference agenda had to be good to overcome such powerful attractions. You KNOW how I feel about sleep. Yet down to the conference I went.
Sessions were amazing. I won’t try to recap them here as the summit blog did that nicely. I left the session on strategy utterly inspired to work on a new idea and immediately bought a new domain. Isabel, Jo, Mir and Susan were smart, funny, and there’s just no other word for it, inspiring. Once again, a huge blog crush recognized me, a nobody in this context, and was so darn nice I could barely speak.
I spent part of Friday afternoon chatting with folks in the expo area. The summit was described as a conversation between bloggers and marketers and this was the most overt part of that. The summit was also “swag light”, leaving attendees to decide what was worth their time and luggage space. (Bravo to that!) I was really interested in the baby items from aden + anais, given how many pregnant women I know, and Mission’s tortilla “cozy”. I also chatted with the people behind the WienerMobile, even taking a ride that was all puns, all the time. (That could a whole post on its own.)
Feeling far more confident and brave than usual, I decided to hit the Wii Fit yoga room. Yes, I’ve had a Wii Fit Plus since December. No, I haven’t tried yoga. I’m a wuss. I admit it. But no more. I had a blast and it’s EASY. Despite being told by my Wii Fit at home that I probably fall down a lot when I walk, I could do this. I even tried some balance games and didn’t fail too miserably. Best of all, I walked out of there with a Wii Fit Plus to take home. (It has been claimed by my sister. Yay, Suzy!)
I’ll have to cover Friday night and Saturday in part two tomorrow. I doubt I will have a better handle on all that happened but the process continues.
I come from a family of gear heads. Cars have been a central theme for as long as I can remember. My dad worked at a Pontiac dealership, my brothers have both been involved with cars professionally at various points in their lives, and I remember sitting on their shoulders watching drag racing when I was about 5 years old. Though I have never been all that interested in getting under the hood or racing myself, I appreciate a car that handles well and is fun to drive.
When I lived in Williamstown, MA for college, and then for a few years later, I loved driving the twisty mountain roads in cars that were up to the challenge. In particular, I had THE.MOST.ADORABLE white Volkswagen Golf GL Wolfsburg Edition in the early 1990s. That was the most fun car I have ever owned. It was cute cute cute, with its sunroof and funky hubcaps. I adored that car and named him “Wolfie.”
I took Wolfie with me when I moved to Walla Walla, WA. I had been there nearly 2 years when a woman with a couple of kids pulled up in front of my house as I got out of the car. She approached sheepishly and asked if I had time to talk to her. She told me she had seen my car around town and loved it. Today we would probably think she was stalking me but at the time that did not occur to me. She truly loved my car, and I sold it to her. Though it was not the best financial decision I ever made, she moved me and I knew Wolfie would be in good hands. Though I always drool over their cars at the auto show, that was the last VW I ever owned. My needs changed and they never had the right car or van to serve those needs. I have restricted myself to dreaming of a Beetle convertible when I’m 60 or so.
Fast forward to this weekend in Houston at Mom 2.0 Summit. VW is here, sponsoring the awesome Mad Men party Friday night, and showing off their minivan model, the Routan. I have a minivan now but it was a compromise. After a few years of measuring vans, trying to find one that could accommodate two dog crates across the back, we finally bought one that was almost what we wanted. It’s good for us, but it has a couple of quirks and one big safety issue that make me love it less than I did when we bought it. I decided to check out the Routan.
The kind VW folks took me down to see the models at the hotel yesterday afternoon, and even loaned me a tape measure. The Routan is within half an inch of the space I need for two dog crates. I didn’t drive it but I sat in the driver’s seat and it felt like a VW instantly. The seat gets me high enough to see everything and has the lumbar support my back likes.
I have a major crush on the Routan. I still want that Beetle convertible, but a minivan is the only thing that is practical for us, at least for the next few years and especially if I get back to dog showing. The next time we’re in the market I’ll be testing the Routan first.
disclosure: I am at Mom 2.0 Summit in Houston. I paid for my ticket and my hotel. Mr C generously procured my plane ticket with frequent flyer miles. I will write about the nice people I meet and the interesting stuff that comes my way. I will blog with integrity.
Houston. Doesn’t have the best rep in the world but it’s warmer than Pittsburgh and there is no snow. It is supposed to be 70 degrees on Saturday. I can live with that, though I firmly believe anything over 75, at any time, is unnecessary. And I definitely can’t quibble with a few days at the Four Seasons.
They have been taking care of me since I walked in the door yesterday. This morning I was heading out for a walk (to get a picture for Oliver) and needed a band-aid for a blister caused by an unfortunate shoe choice yesterday. Yeah, they have that. And they have actual milk for the coffee in the lobby, in addition to all the other dairy products you might want. My room is huge and comfy doesn’t begin to tell the story. They are making me very happy.
I’ve been awol for too many weeks. Fortunately you haven’t missed all that much.
In no particular order, here’s what’s been happening the last month or so:
Winter in Pittsburgh is cold and snowy. I love snow and I’ll take 35 degrees over 85 any day of the week, but enough is enough. We are closing in on the single month record and there are still 10 days left in February.
Snow in Pittsburgh means kids home from school. Due to snow days, previously scheduled in-service days, and the President’’s day holiday, Oliver was home for 10 consecutive days. We all lived through it. Wii helped. He’s back at “pro” in bowling.
Snow in Pittsburgh also means travel delays. In Mr C’s case, nearly two days to get home from California. This was in the middle of Oliver’s 10 days out of school. I leave you to imagine that combination. A perfect storm, if you will.
We suspected for a while that Eleanor might have a mild case of lazy eye (aka amblyopia). What we found out when we paid a visit to the pediatric ophthalmology specialist was mind-blowing. She has bi-lateral amblyopia and extreme far-sightedness. Other than noticing one eye occasionally not tracking with the other, we had no indication that her vision was not perfect.It is all still sinking in, though she has had her glasses a week, and I am still feeling like a pretty crappy mom for not knowing. The glasses have not been a problem for Eleanor. She chose the frames and loves them, even asking for them when she wakes up in the morning or after a nap. She also looks pretty darn cute in them.
About those naps…Eleanor went three days without one. Grumpiness was rampant, and not only on her part. Ahem. Now that she’s back to school, she is napping again. I am not at all ready for my 2 year old to give up napping. It makes for misery from 5-7:30pm.
One last Eleanor tidbit: We cut 3″ off her hair! She is rocking the sassy new do.
We made these Valentines for Oliver to give to his friends. (Imagine them with a lollipop where the round red block is in his hand.) In this case, snow wasn’t all bad. Due to all the snow days the Valentine’s Day party at school is postponed until today, giving us plenty of time to get them done. I wish I could say the idea is original but all credit to DesignMom and 24-7-365.
My birthday ranks easily among the top five birthdays ever. and since I have had 44 of them, that is definitely saying something. Awesome friends came over for a little informal chili contest. It was a bit more relaxed than the crab cake contest we had last year but still loads of fun. And since I didn’t make any chili, far less stressful for me. Friends, and youknowwhoyouare, you’re f%^&#ng amazing. We were very sad redpenmama and family couldn’t attend but appreciate them not sharing stomach flu with all of us.
At one point during all the snow I was pretty sure we were going to have to say goodbye to Bubba. He has rallied and seems to be fine. During my blogging hiatus he had his photo taken for a book. I can’t wait to see the proofs and the book later in the year. She’s doing two books, deaf dogs and rescue dogs. Since Bubba qualifies for both, I am not sure in which book he will appear.
And finally, Penguin turned 12 in mid-January. Other than her vision, I could take her into the show ring tomorrow. She looks great and is counter-surfing like a puppy. Nothing in our kitchen is safe, but I wouldn’t change a thing about her.
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