momindcity, Author at Mom in DCity

You Can Never Have Enough Sunscreen

July 8, 2012 by momindcity 3 Comments

We’ve been hitting record highs in DC all week, and I have the beginnings of a tan to prove it.

You may have heard of the debate about whether sunscreen is good or bad for you. It protects you from the sun. It’s made up of too many harsh chemicals. Blah, blah, blah…

I haven’t really thought hard enough about this to have an opinion, but apparently Zana has:

Zana votes yes to sunscreen. Lots of it. Applied all at once. She’s going to have an awesome farmers tan on her left leg, and I’m going to go broke buying sunscreen.

School Uniform Debate, a.k.a. You Have Too Much Free Time

July 7, 2012 by momindcity 8 Comments

As I was catching up on email this morning, something caught my eye– several emails on the elementary school list serve discussing school uniforms.

Let’s start with my overall stance on school uniforms. Here it is: who cares?!

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s get into the email. Lira goes to a DC Public Elementary School, where school uniforms are mandated by the District. Apparently, there was a survey earlier in the year (which I ignored) asking parents at her school how they felt about adding extra color options for the uniform shirts. Right now they’re white; the survey asked parents if they’d like the option of dressing their kids in navy or light blue as well. Now parents are asking about the results of the survey.

This is clearly an important issue because… well, because… yeahhhhh. Why are we even talking about this???

Is the issue up for a vote? Nope.

Will the results of this survey change things once way or another? Nope.

The only people I can think of who actually should care about any of this are Wal-Mart and Target, so they can stock up.

But as usual, my gauge of what’s important to parents on the Hill is way off. Apparently, there are some very strong opinions on both sides of this issue. [Read more…]

Top 10 Things You Can’t Do With a Gimpy Wrist

July 3, 2012 by momindcity Leave a Comment

It has been three months since my clumsy fall outside Lira’s school that caused me to break my wrist in two places. After two surgeries, five weeks with a cast and a few sessions of physical therapy (thank you, MedStar NRH!), I wish I could report that I’m back to normal… but I’m not.

I had no idea my wrist would be so stiff and need so much work. To give you an idea, I can turn my right wrist 90 degrees (as in, palm facing up) and my left wrist 35 degrees. That may sound awful (and it is), but it’s actually a big improvement from 12 degrees, which is where I started.

You don’t realize how much you use your left wrist until you can’t. Each day, I notice another thing that I can’t do, and all I can do is laugh about it.

Here are the top 10 things I can’t do with my gimpy wrist:

Carry a pizza. I use the palm of my right hand with the back of my left hand, and it’s quite the balancing act.
Open a jar of pickles, olives or pasta sauce. On those days that I try to make dinner before Dave gets home from work (and let’s be honest, they aren’t often), certain things are no longer on the menu.
Cut corn on the cob. Are we noticing a theme? Either I only use my left wrist for food-related tasks or all I do is eat. Take a guess which one it is.
Pick up my Kitchen Aid mixer.Another food tragedy, but this one is serious. Dave recently bought me a tangerine Kitchen Aid mixer as a late Christmas present and I can’t move it from one part of the kitchen to another. This may seem minor, but since it’s my favorite new toy and I’m testing to find exactly where I want it, it’s quite upsetting (do I want to mix my peanut butter cookies by the window or facing the dining room table??)
My Love!
Fix my hair. Did you know that you use two hands to dry, curl or straighten hair? I didn’t either! But, trust me, you do. And for those of you who’ve noticed me looking less coiffed lately, this is why. I even chopped off 5 inches in an attempt to make it more manageable. No such luck. [Read more…]

Baltimore: Why Do People Piss On Such a Charming City?

June 30, 2012 by momindcity 2 Comments

You may wonder if all I do is leave my family and party with my friends (since I just did that last weekend and am doing it again this weekend), but I actually think I did a pretty good job of balancing it out this time.

After picking up the girls after work and dropping them off at Nana’s house, I hopped on a MARC train to Baltimore. This is a very unimportant part of the story except for 2 points:

My experience on MARC was about 100 times better than my ride on Amtrak last weekend–the one that turned into a sweaty, 9-hour ordeal.
A stranger gave me $5, because I didn’t know I needed cash to ride the train, and told me not to worry about paying her back. Did you know that kind of thing still happened?! I didn’t.

I was in Baltimore to meet an old friend from college and go to Kaskade’s Freaks of Nature show. Don’t worry if you don’t know who Kaskade is. Most of my readers aren’t 18 wearing neon bootie shorts and half shirts, so you’re really not in the right demographic.

concert — 1. Don’t know this girl
2. Check out the half shirt behind us

Angela and I grabbed a quick bite at Alewife Public House (truffle mac ‘n cheese? yes, please!) and proceeded to 1st Mariner Marina for the show.

After a 3 hour techno trance, that left us covered in other people’s sweat and beer, we headed back to the hotel, forgot we were in our 30s, and decided that we needed to go out.

We took a cab to Fells Point and ended up at a sketchy club called The Get Down (‘nuf said). We weren’t there long because it was late, but I managed to learn some important things before going to sleep:

cab drivers in Baltimore come up with their prices based on how they’re feeling that moment
regardless of how classy B-more is starting to look, it’s still very sketchy in most areas (thus the nicknames Bodymore and Murderland)
bathrooms aren’t really all that necessary when you have alleys and trees (I’ve never witnessed so many people urinating in public in my life)
my hair does not look good after sweating, getting rained on, and then sweating again (who knew?!) [Read more…]

Diary of a Tantrum: I Got the Maxx

June 28, 2012 by momindcity 7 Comments

Once upon a time, a little girl had a big tantrum. Her mom put her in time out, she learned her lesson, and it never happened again. The end.

Bahahahaha isn’t that a hilarious story?!

Anyone who has a child has seen a tantrum, and if you have a “spirited” child you’ve seen more than a few. They cry, they scream, they fling themselves on the ground– sometimes banging their head on a nearby table. Their eyes become wild, and you wonder when the devil took over your child’s body, and what kind of exorcism it will take to get sweet little Sally back.

Let me tell you about my latest episode. It started with a quick shopping trip that may have started around bedtime (don’t judge). We had just left DSW, where a 5- minute look in the Clearance section ended with me losing Zana. I found her on a ledge hiding behind the summer handbags. Next on the roster, a quick stop at TJMaxx. Since I wasn’t born yesterday, I knew not to go shopping alone with Zana and had my friend Caroline with me for backup.

When we got inside, I strapped little Z into a shopping cart. “Let’s go for a little ride!” She was excited for a total of 30 seconds, when she realized her plan to hide in the racks of clothing had been foiled. She started to get frustrated, reaching out of the cart to try and grab anything she could get her hands on, struggling unsuccessfully to undo the seat belt, raising her voice in protest. Here’s what happened next…

tantrum — A: she ripped off her own shirt…

I started to respond, “Zana…” Oh, forget it. I talked myself down and reminded myself that she wants me to get upset and that I’m the adult in this scenario. Then…

tantrum 2 — B: She reached a blouse and used it to pull closer to the racks

I remained calm– and also started snapping pictures because, let’s be honest, it’s very entertaining. Well, that just made her angry…

At this point, she’s screaming her head off. I know I could have easily walked out of the store, which is what I would have done with my first child (when I cared what people thought), but I needed a new hair straightener and decided to complete the shopping trip despite all of the looks. You know the looks, right? Everyone has an opinion and nobody is afraid to show it. [Read more…]