Mom in DCity

Lessons in Life With Three Kids in the City

July 30, 2012 by momindcity 2 Comments

My niece is visiting from Houston, and she and my girls have been tearing up the house, changing into priness dresses, coloring with Sharpies and fighting about Barbies (even though we have at least 30 of them). After sitting on my couch watching them whirl around me, I decided to quit acting like a tornado victim and leave the house.

The plan was to go visit one of the Smithsonians that stays open late during the summer. Not a big deal, right? Ha! Going from 2 kids to 3 isn’t what I thought it was. I forgot about the fact that they feed off of each other’s energy and get progressively wilder as they multiply.

I also forgot about a few other things:

A Stroller
When I take the metro, I never want to bring a stroller. It’s a pain; when you metro with a stroller, you either have to walk extra blocks to find an elevator or risk your child’s life by taking the stroller up and down the escalators. However, not bringing a stroller is worse.

Metro Ride — Don’t we look sweet and innocent?

Zana either sprints from block to block, forcing me to chase her so she doesn’t run into traffic or sits down to pick flowers every few steps. I always end up carrying her, which is especially fun when it’s 90+ degrees out. Then she screams because she wants to get down, and sometimes (on lucky days like today) she throws a fit and smacks me in the face. Then she gets her way because I have to put her down in an effort not to smack her right back (man, that takes a lot of restraint). After a “saw-wee Mommy,” the cycle begins again—sprint, flower picking, scoop her up. [Read more…]

How to Raise an Olympian

July 27, 2012 by momindcity 5 Comments

The start of the Olympic Games always makes me feel nostalgic. When I was young, I had big dreams of becoming a synchronized swimmer. I’d spend hours in the pool (by myself) practicing (in the shallow end, so my toes could touch), and then call my mom into the backyard to watch. She was so encouraging– never once telling me what “synchronized” meant or that I was supposed to be doing those moves without touching the bottom of the pool.

This got me thinking about my girls’ future. Will they ever be Olympians? They need to be at least athletic enough for a college scholarship, because I’m certainly not paying for it—unless they go to the University of Texas; I’d make an exception for the best school in America.

What would Lira and Zana compete in? I think they have a few good options, based on their current activities, which are:

Fighting. They’re both really good at this, so I’m thinking Wrestling might be a good event for one or both of them. They might get disqualified for scratching or hair-pulling, but I think it’s worth a shot. This picture kind of reminds me of them:
Courtesy Ed Wray / Associated Press
Scaring the crap out of me. This is Zana’s specialty. She jumps, flips, balances on things and has absolutely no fear… kind of like the Olympic gymnasts and divers. Also, she doesn’t eat, a critical part of the Karolyi training plan. [Read more…]

Hill Life: My Neighbor Got Clocked By Thugs On Our Street

July 24, 2012 by momindcity 2 Comments

I spend a lot of time writing about the wonderful reasons we live on Capitol Hill in DC: kid-friendly coffee shops, free museums, and nearby beach getaways. Sometimes, it’s hard to imagine who wouldn’t want to live here.

The Incident
Today, I was reminded. My next door neighbor sent a group email letting our street know that he had been assaulted and robbed at 8:30 last night. It happened on our street. He was walking home from the metro, as we’ve all done a hundred times before, and was followed by a group of kids (thuggish teens). When he turned onto our street, he was punched in the head. When he fell to the ground, they took his bag and ran off. Another neighbor saw the aftermath, screamed, and then called 911. Since he was hit from behind, my neighbor didn’t get a good look at who did it, so nobody was arrested.

The Meeting
Neighbors on the Hill are always really close. Maybe it’s the fact that we practically live on top of each other? I remember living in North Carolina, driving into my garage after work every day, and not even knowing my next door neighbor’s name. Here, we’re like family… for better or for worse. As we all started to arrive home from work tonight, we gathered on our front stoop for a hug-fest/therapy session/why-the-hell-do-we-live-here pow-wow.

The Love
One neighbor pulled up with a bouquet. Another offered a replacement cell phone for the one that was stolen. One offered to drive him to and from the metro so he wouldn’t have to walk. Another gave suggestions about how to find the bad guys, and make sure they’re arrested. All the while, my daughters played in our tiny (joke of a) front yard with a friend, and Dave picked up used dime-bags and 40-bottles to throw in recycling. A cop rode by on a bike and stopped to ask how our neighbor was feeling after the assault.

front stoop — Sometimes it’s beautifully peaceful here

The Hill is a strange place to live. We take the good with the bad. But it seems like every time we get comfortable, something else happens. A friend’s home is robbed 3 blocks away; someone is shot down the street; we witness a drug deal on our front steps. As I’ve said before, Capitol Hill is definitely the crossroad between heaven and that other place. And every day we face the question: should I stay or should I go?

My Life is a Math Problem, Help Me Solve It

July 23, 2012 by momindcity 6 Comments

When two parents work in different parts of town and have two kids who go to different schools in different parts of town, it’s time to take out the calculator.

Warning: this is not interesting. If you want to be entertained, stop reading now. If you want to fix my problem, read faster please.

School starts in a month, and I was so excited when I learned that Zana got a space in a pre-school. On the Hill, applying for childcare is harder than trying to get into the Ivy League. She’s been on multiple waiting lists since March, and is still nowhere near the top of any of them. Finally, two weeks ago, a school in Virginia (between my home and office) called with a space for her. I was so relieved that it didn’t dawn on me, until today, that we had created a new problem: pick up times and aftercare.

Here are the important pieces of the puzzle:

Zana’s school gets out at 3pm.
Lira’s school (about 20-30 minutes away at that time of day) gets out at 3:15 pm.
Aftercare costs about $300/month per child. (My calculator tells me that’s $600).

Dave and I both currently have arrangements with our jobs allowing us to leave early a couple of days a week to pick up the girls. We make up the time by working in the evenings, which has become pretty stressful because of our lack of chill time. Even so, we’ve been making it work Tim Gunn-style. But now that the girls are across town from each other, everything changes.

Lightbulb! I have the solution: we hire a college student to pick up the girls (Zana 15 minutes early each day), and take them home until we get there (around 4:30).

More important pieces of the puzzle:

We’d need this college student to work 10 hours a week.
We’d probably have to pay about $15 an hour.

My calculator tells me we’re talking about $600-$700 a month… not any cheaper than the first option, but at least they’d be together and at home.

Dave (always the party pooper) nixed that idea, reminding me that we don’t have an extra $600-$700 a month lying around… especially if I want that new car I’ve been talking about. Why does he always have to be so practical and logical, and all that other annoying stuff?

I asked him for a better idea, and here’s what he came up with:

He will start waking up 2 hours earlier in order to be at work by 7:30 each morning (Note: he hasn’t woken up before 7am since his days in the Marine Corps). Then he could leave work at 2:45pm to pick up Lira.
Meanwhile, I would take my lunch break every day at 2:30, go pick up Zana, and then wait with her while Dave drives across town with Lira to get Zana… at which time I’m supposed to go back to work and finish the day.

This is a bad idea because:

Dave came up with it
Taking Lira on a round-trip journey in traffic, across the 14th Street bridge, every day to pick up her sister will make her hate us all.
If I leave work and drive halfway home, I’m not going back.
Even if Dave does manage to wake up before noon, I’d be solo with the girls in the morning trying to get them to school on time (which terrifies me).

So, my wonderful MomInDCity readers, what should I do??? I’m accepting pity, suggestions, and donations.

First Family Putt-Putt: a Questionable Success

July 22, 2012 by momindcity 6 Comments

Earlier this week, I was looking for things to help fill the rest of our time at Bethany Beach. I shared my top 10 beach ideas list and received some great suggestions from MomInDCity readers. But the most entertaining one came from Dave; he decided it was time that we all channel our inner Tiger Woods (minus the cheating and inappropriate texts) and go play mini golf.

Things started out pretty well… Dave coaching on the Practice Green and the girls getting their game faces on.

putt putt sisters — Don’t they look excited?!

We made it through the first few holes without much drama, but there was a family in front of us, which means we had some down time before each turn. That gave the girls time to realize that a putt-putt course is like a playground on steroids. We could barely find them after the fifth hole– especially the 2-year-old.

Our most effective threat, “do you want to go sit with the lifeguard?”, which usually sends chills down her spine, did nothing. During those few times that we managed to keep her on the course, she’d sit in the middle of the green.

When we’d ignore her, she’d find something else she wasn’t supposed to touch.

toes in water — Big Sis thinks this is a great idea

Despite my pleas, Dave was determined to finish the course. We somehow managed not to get kicked out, which probably had something to do with the fact that we were the only people there who weren’t drunk. I obviously beat Dave, (this may or may not be true, but it’s my blog so I get to say whatever I want), and Lira perfected her swing. Also, those golf clubs are weapons, and nobody got hurt; I call that a success right there.

I hear there’s currently a mini golf course at the National Building Museum in DC. Dare we try again?