mom Archives - Mom in DCity

Get Out the Wine Glasses: I Miss My Mommy!

August 2, 2012 by momindcity 6 Comments

If you’ve ever had a kid, other than your own, stay with you for an extended period of time, you know there always comes a moment when they miss their Mommy.

For my visiting niece, that moment came today. I almost missed it, thanks to all the screaming going on at my house full of girls. But when the sobbing lasted more than a minute and wasn’t followed by any finger pointing or tattle-taling, I knew something was wrong.

I picked her up, sat her in my lap and asked what the problem was. “I miss my Mooooooooooommmmm sob sob snort mmmyyyyy!”

After attempting to call her parents, who were both at work, I had to come up with some other way to make her smile.

I thought about what would make me feel better if I were sad… ah ha!

I pulled out the fancy glasses and the red stuff (V8 Splash), and let the girls drink their sorrows away. They clinked glasses, giggled and said things like “this tastes magnificent!” Then they asked for more, and more, and more…

And soon, my niece’s frown turned upside down and the whole day got better. Drinking has worked for me for years now, so why wouldn’t it work for them?! College taught me so much. And these girls are already ahead of the game. What will they possibly have to learn when they get there?!

Zana’s Tantrum Made Famous By Mommy Shorts

July 18, 2012 by momindcity 6 Comments

I think we all remember this picture of Zana throwing a tantrum at TJMaxx:

Zana was already famous among our friends and family for her epic meltdowns, but thanks to Mommy Shorts, she has hit Suri Cruise status. Zana is on the homepage of Mommy Shorts for a caption contest, and I would love it if MomInDCity readers would add to the list. There are already some hilarious entries, including:

“I would rather take a nap than buy Hannah Anderson at a discount!!!”
“Don’t push your style on me woman – I will rebel.”
“You expect me to wear that! Juicy is so last season!”

And, since Mommy Shorts is legit, this isn’t just for entertainment; the winner gets a gorgeous $295 Hampton Tunic silk maternity dress. Not pregnant? So what?! You our your teenage daughter will be one day, right?

MomInDCity is too broke for prizes, but you can also enter a caption for the pic below in the comments section. Zana has been showing her stuff during out Bethany Beach vacation. Check out her latest meltdown outside of Grotto Pizza:

The Mommy Shorts caption contest ends Friday, but mine goes on for all eternity.

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…]

DC Must See: National Cathedral at Sunset

June 2, 2012 by momindcity Leave a Comment

Saturdays are all about packing in as many things as we can into the shortest amount of time possible. It’s exhausting. If I listed everything we did today, you’d feel tired. Wanna see?

Girls’ dance class
Trip to Target
Family Fun Day at a potential school for Zana
Quick lunch at a Metro 29 Diner
Summer camp orientation for Lira
6-year-old’s birthday party
Visit with a friend traveling through town
Evening visit to the National Cathedral
Outdoor dinner and gelato at Pete’s APizza (that’s not a typo)

I told you!

I’m not sure why we live our lives this way, but we do– every single weekend. Some of the things on the list are repeats: We’ve been going to the same dance studio every Saturday for the past three years.

Birthday parties (as we all know) are a weekly occurrence; in it’s a miracle we were only invited to one this weekend (it’s a curse being so gosh darn popular). Pete’s and 29 Diner are two of our local standbys.

But things like tonight’s sporadic trip to the National Cathedral to watch the sunset are why I love living in DCity.

IMG_4198[1] — Love the Gothic architecture

We are so blessed (you know, because we’re at a cathedral) to have these opportunities right in our back yard. I remember coming to DC from Texas, as a kid. My parents dragged us to every monument and every museum (mostly against our will) during our 3-day weekend trips. And it wasn’t until I was older that I appreciated any of it. For my girls, it’s different. We go to the WWII Memorial, the Washington Monument and the Smithsonian Museums like some families go to Wal-Mart. They don’t think it’s a drag; it’s just what they’re used to doing. [Read more…]

Don’t Hate What You Can’t Imitate

June 1, 2012 by momindcity 2 Comments

Picture this: It takes me an hour to drive 7 miles home in bumper-to-bumper traffic. When I rush in the door, I manage to fix one girls hair while wrestling the other, WWE style, to put some clothes on. It’s 6:15 and we’re hoping to make it to the Spring concert at Lira’s school, which starts in 15 minutes.

In a moment of clarity, I stop cursing under my breath and notice how stinking adorable Zana is, sitting in her stroller with her tutu, sunglasses and cheesy grin; so I snapped this pic and put it on Instagram so the rest of the world could tell me how much they “like” it:

The Spring Concert was very cute, pretty much what you’d expect from these things. When it was over we all went out to the playground so the kids could run wear themselves out before bed.

Then it was bath time, story time, laundry time and then… work time. The fact that it’s 10 o’clock, doesn’t mean my work day is over. Thanks to a flexible schedule, I get to leave early 3 days a week and spend afternoons with the girls; but because of that, I work late in to the evenings, often times long after bedtime.

As I waited for my laptop to turn on, I checked Instagram, I noticed that among the “likes,” there was also a comment:

“Your work hours are bar none the best of anyone I will ever meet.”

It was from a former co-worker. A guy I was never particularly close with.

Because I am hot-headed, I showed this to Dave to make sure I’m not reading it wrong. “Sounds like a backhanded compliment to me. Why would he say that?”

That’s what I want to know! I went to reply to his comment but couldn’t think of anything appropriate. But here are a few of my ideas:

Some people are in the office half a day, others are in the office 15 hours a day and still can’t hack it.
I didn’t think you noticed when I worked, based on the fact that you were on Facebook 10 hours a day.
Why don’t you stop worrying about what I’m doing and go find a job

But I’m far too polite (ha). Dave thought I should remind him that I work from home at night, but I was annoyed at the thought of justifying myself to him. I decided to do nothing (well nothing but block him from my Instagram feed and unfriend him on Facebook). But I still felt bothered.

I work when the kids go to bed; I work on weekends; I’ve respond to texts from my boss Friday nat midnight and I’ve had Skype meetings well after dark. Even when I was on maternity leave, I checked my work email religiously so that I could stay up to speed. It’s on my mind constantly because my coworkers have put their trust in me, and I never want to disappoint them.

So yes, a lot of times my life looks like this…

Or this…

But I don’t take that for granted. So there! Get a job. Stop worrying about me… you lazy bum.