Michelle Smiles

Teaching my children to question authority, except mine.

Now that we can laugh about it…

March17

I mentioned I was wound a little tight by the weekend.

It all started on Thursday.  It was a cold, rainy, ugly day.  I got out of bed and started the long process of getting everyone ready to leave the house.  I got Tessa bathed and dressed and changed and fed.  I changed, dressed, and fed Sabrina.  I settled Tessa into her crib and Sabrina in the bathroom with me so that I could take a quick shower and get dressed.  I had bottles and sippy cups and snacks and extra diapers.  I was ready to head out for my almost hour drive.  I looked at the bulletin board to verify the time of Tessa’s pediatrician appointment.  I was correct – 11am.   However, it was for 11am Monday 3/16.  Oh eff.

You ever have one of those days where it feels like every dirty diaper you change and every spot of puke you clean off yourself sucks out a little piece of your soul?  I was having one of those.

Later that afternoon, I needed to pick up a prescription.  (Remember the cold, rainy, ugly part from above.)  I went through the Walgreens drive thru (bless these people for not making me cart 2 small kiddos inside).  Sabrina assumes any drive thru, including the bank and pharmacy, means french fries.  (I swear we might get fast food 8 times a year.  But it is like crack to a 2 year old – they are always looking for their next hit.)  So she starts with a cute “Please fries” from the back seat.  It stops being cute quickly because it is on a continuous loop with ever increasing volume.  I tell her I don’t have any fries and she begins screeching, sure that I am bogarting the fries.  I show her the bag to assure her that I’m not holding out on her.  The volume lowers but the pathetic pleas for fries do not stop.

Since we are out, I think we might as well stop at the grocery store.  We recently ditched Tessa’s infant car seat and installed a full sized seat.  This was my first trip to the store with both kiddos and no carrier.  In the cold, windy rain, I run with both kiddos to the store to search for an elusive double cart.  I find one but see that unlike Target’s double carts, these do not have 5 point harness belts.  I nervously put Tessa in the cart with just the lapbelt.  She is fine for awhile but then starts gyrating around and bouncing her head off the plastic seat at regular intervals and sobbing each time.  I try to carry her and steer with one hand but those double carts are impossible with steer w/2 hands let alone just one.  So, I fly through the last 3 aisles and check out.  I refuse help out to the car (why, why, why? enough with the pride!).  I sprint with the unweildy cart to the car.  Both kids are cyring because it is cold and raining.  I get Tessa strapped in and then Sabrina strapped in.  I have rain dripping off my nose at this point.  I throw the groceries in the back.  I take the cart to the cart return.  I hurry to get into the car and smack my head into the door frame hard enough to see stars.   I sit hunched over my steering wheel weeping for 5 minutes before I can muster the will to drive home.

The next day, I plan to go meet Steve for lunch.  I get the girls and myself ready with all of the assorted items that entails.  We manage to only be 10 minutes late due to Tessa pooping with enough force to require a wardrobe change in addition to a diaper change just as we are leaving the house.  We pick Steve up and head to a Japanese place.  I’ve been anticipating a bento box lunch all week.  We arrived well before noon but still found the restaurant quite crowded.  We get seated with our booster seat and our high chair.  Tessa is initially quite happy to be free of her carrier and look around.  That lasts 3.5 minutes.  Then she starts fussing.  I’m trying to hold a squirming infant and eat with chopsticks and Steve is trying to convince Sabrina that eating the miso soup that came with her veggie fried rice isn’t something “Nina can do for self”.  Sabrina is on the edge due to the soup and Tessa is on the edge for who knows what reason.  We managed to get through lunch with having An Incident but just barely.

I then declared that it has officially become more trouble than it is worth to leave the house with the kids.  No need to tell me to buck up and that it will get better – I don’t tend to tell these kinds of stories until I find them funny.  Yesterday we had to do the pediatrician and went to Trader Joe’s after with no problems what so ever.

posted under parenting | 14 Comments »

Did I mention spring?

March15

It has been a cold and rainy weekend so we all spent a good bit of the weekend in our PJs.

Sabrina was sporting her sunglasses despite the dreary weather and managing to tangle her hair beyond belief with her brush.

dsc09040

And Tessa was happiest when playing with her toys on the floor.  She didn’t want to be held captive by her high chair or her exesaucer.

dsc09047

Steve spent the weekend trying to make sure I wasn’t going to run away from home – I was wound a little tight come Friday evening.  I’m feeling much more chipper now.  Of course a Monday morning trip to the breeding ground for the new and improved plague pediatrician should take care of that.  But we should be able to swing by Trader Joe’s after.

posted under family | 11 Comments »

Spring & Neosporin

March13

dsc09015Spring has arrived in TN…and I’m sure it will reach those of you further north soon.  I love driving down this road this time of year – the bradford pears are amazing. (Excuse the quality of the photo – I was driving.  Any other time I would hit every red light.  Today, not 1.)

Spring is when I start thinking about buying sunscreen, aloe gel, and bandaids.  (I’m fair and I’m clumsy and I like to be prepared.)  I’ve read you are supposed to replace sunscreen each yearEven Oprah says so. It expires!

This year, I am reminding you all to check the expiration on something else in your summer kit: Neosporin.  Through my relationship with Mom Central, I received a reminder to check out my Neosporin for expiration.  I’m embarrassed to say it never occurred to me that my Neosporin might have an expiration date.  My was dated Feb 2006.  Oops!

neosporinMom Central and Johnson & Johnson, sent me some Neosporin so that I could tell you about it and remind you to make sure yours isn’t expired (expiration might compromise the effectiveness).  I received a 1 ounce tube of Neosporin + Pain Relief ointment, a 1 ounce tube of Neosporin + Pain Relief cream, and a purse sized bottle of Neo to Go anticeptic and pain relief spray.

dsc09018Fortunately, no injuries since we’ve received our Neosporin but I will tell you that I use it every time I use a bandaid.  And now that Sabrina is over 2, I use it when I put a bandaid on her as well.

dsc09025

The one on the left is the ointment – it has a petroleum jelly type consistency.  The one of the right is the cream.  I will leave you with my personal Neosporin tip:  the first time you shave for swimsuit wearing purposes this spring/summer, rub a little Neosporin on your inner thighs afterward.  You won’t get those ugly razor bumps.

posted under Misc. | 9 Comments »

Next up – her own apartment

March11

Grandma departed yesterday.  Sabrina is quite sad but seems sort of satisfied by the explanation that Grandma had to go see Pap-pap.

dsc08990

We put off moving Tessa into her own room until after my mother in law’s visit.  Last night was the night.  I bought a dark curtain for her window and that sealed the deal.  Tessa has officially moved into her own room.

I was mostly ready for the transition.  But the swiftness with which my husband removed all evidence of Tessa from our room was rather dizzying.  Tessa wasn’t even asleep yet when he had her pack n play broken down, into its storage bag, and stowed in a corner of the garage.  He wasn’t giving me any chance to turn back once I agreed.

It went pretty well.  We had to go in and comfort her twice early in the night and then she slept through until morning.  Most of her naps have been of the cat variety today but I can’t really blame that on the crib – she just doesn’t always nap well.

We will return

March9

To our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.  The girls have been enjoying Grandma and the fine weather.  Grandma heads back to the ‘Burgh tomorrow but our fine weather will continue.

dsc08973

dsc08975

posted under family | 5 Comments »

Blog? What blog?

March5

My mother in law is here visiting so my computer time is a little light.  And I met up with one of my bloggy friends turned real life friends for a little consignment shopping one evening this week.  Look at me being all hootie tootie and hanging out with people in the flesh!  My new laptop is going to get jealous and stop speaking to me.  (See? I have secrets! You didn’t know about my new laptop, did you? I’m all mysterious now.  I’m an enigma wrapped in a riddle nestled inside a puzzle box.  Or I just forgot.  Whatever.)

Anyway, a couple of cute pics of my kiddos to make it up to you. Because how could you stay miffed at someone who provides such cuteness to the world?

dsc08883

dsc08905

Sabrina after she realized Tessa was within a yard of touching her Dora doll.

dsc08889

dsc08914

posted under family | 8 Comments »

See no evil

March3

The American Medical Association is throwing a big old hissy fit about the movie He’s Just Not That Into You showing an identifiable brand of cigarettes on screen.  No one smokes a cigarette in the movie.  The character who is a smoker experiences negative consequences directly related to smoking.  But the AMA insists that seeing the pack of cigarettes will influence teens to smoke.  I’ve even heard rumblings that some would like to see smoking in a movie mean an automatic R rating.

This isn’t a Disney movie.  If this was a Hannah Montana movie I would better understand the upset.  It isn’t a movie targeted at the tween crowd.  Tell me what you think.  Do we need Hollywood and Washington to make everything vanilla and pretty so that kids don’t see these things at all or do we need to take responsibility for parenting our children and making decisions about what they watch and then discussing what they see?  Obviously, I am not unbiased here – I can’t even ask my question in a fair and balanced way.  But I am interested in what others think.  Give me your perspective.

posted under parenting | 20 Comments »

Trader Joe’s

March1

traderjoe_logo I’ve been hearing about Trader Joe’s on line for years.  At first it seemed to be a California thing – and we all hate California because they have all of the cool stuff and best weather.  The only reason we don’t all move there is the whole earthquake and cost of living thing.  We can’t afford $750,000 for a 600 sq ft house that is freeway adjacent and fault-line straddling.   I heard stories of 2 buck chuck and ready made meals that tasted good and had a reasonable price tag and were free of preservatives and crap. Then I heard we were getting one here.

tulipsI’ve been pretty clear about 2 things 1) I love food and b) I’m lazy.  Trader Joes is my kind of place.  I can’t comment on the 2 buck chuck because I live in the bible belt a whiskey barron controlled state and they won’t allow wine to be sold in grocery stores because that might undermine their price fixing.  But the rest of it? The stories are all true my friends.

Daffodils that bloomed the next day for less than $2 and tulips (my fav) for less than $4.  Hence the seemingly unrelated flower photos in my grocery store post.  I love fresh flowers but can’t bring myself to spend much on them because they die.  But I figured a little happy was worth $2.

daffodilBut the real story is the food.  Most everything is in house brands.  And it is all made with ingredients I can pronounce.  The garlic hummus ingredient list reads like I made it at home (garlic, chickpeas, tahini, lemon, salt, olive oil).  We’ve liked everything we’ve tried with the exception of 1 or 2 things. The fresh portabella ravioli and the lobster ravioli are YUM!  The shredded pork carnitas is fabulous. Beef taquitos – good stuff.  And the prices are really good – even Steve remarked on the fact that we would be hard pressed to make some of the items for the price.

daffodilsI love picking up a few new things to try and knowing that I have dinners in the frig that will taste good and be ready in under 15 minutes on the nights that I don’t want to cook.

The other thing I love is the staff – at least in our local store.  The staff is helpful and friendly.  Customer service is a lost art so I’m always happy to find a store that places value on it.

Has anyone found a great coffee at Trader Joe’s?  I tried the Guatemalan and the flavor was okay but the roast is just too light.  The Bolivian didn’t do it for me.  I’m trying to decide what to try next time.  Also, if you have a favorite ready made item from there let me know!

posted under food, nashville | 27 Comments »
Newer Entries »