A Week in the Life of…

• I dyed my hair red.  Maybe it goes with my theme to be fearless for the year.  Maybe it is a sign of mommy insanity.  Either way, I love it…even if I occasionally feel like the red elephant in the room.
  

• My son told me he wanted me to help him make an “eggblue”.  You know, an eggblue for the penguins.  He didn’t seem to think my alternate pronunciation of “igloo” was acceptable.

• This same son told my sister, as she was nursing her son, that he also used to eat from mommy…when I was a cow.  I don’t know if I’ve been letting him watch too many youtube videos of dairy farms, or if he got me confused with this moment at the Lutz museum two years ago.

• I had one of those spontaneous moments where I thought I’d help someone out.  As I was checking out at Aldi with a million and one items (because that’s the only way I do Aldi) an older lady behind me waited patiently with her 5 items.  I thought to myself, “The poor lady has five items, maybe I’ll just pay for her stuff as a kind gesture.”  I told the checkout lady I would just pay for the items on the belt behind mine as well.  I tried to be discreet. That’s how you do these random acts of kindness, right?  Then it all got awkward. The checkout lady wanted to make sure I knew that the woman had more than the two items she just put on the belt, which I did know.  So the checkout lady is awkwardly talking to me, and looking at the older woman who at this point is becoming curious about what’s going on.  So with my red hair making me feel a bit harder to be inconspicuous at this point anyway, I meekly asked the woman if I could just pay for her groceries.  Random acts of kindness are less effective if you have to ask permission to do them.  Then, of course, the woman replied “Heavens, No!” And I couldn’t be sure if she said that in a “Gracious,  I wouldn’t think of taking help from a Mom traipsing through the grocery store with two children” kind of tone, or a “What kind of charity case do you think I am?” mortally offended kind of tone.  Also I was now holding up a line of customers with my failed-charitable moment.  So at that point I was wishing I could disappear, but instead I had to prolong the awkwardness by bagging my own groceries for the next ten minutes.  Note-to-self: Next time you want to do a random act of kindness, find a way to be absolutely anonymous.

• My 13 month old son escaped out the front door at his own birthday party, but fortunately was rescued before making it down the front steps.  Apparently he felt responsible for cleaning up after his own party as well.  I’m not sure what any of this says about our parenting.
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• I kept my children out wwaaaaaay too late to go to a premier of a short movie my brother helped make.  (And incidentally my husband acted in.) (Check out the short film here: “Don’t Bank on It” ) On the way home I think I was three for three with crying kids, and my daughter wailed because she couldn’t have my kindle and because I said it was bedtime when we got home but she “was-(sob)-n’t tired (sob) at all”.
  

• I’ve been trying to give up peanut butter for awhile, but I’m pretty positive I went through almost a whole container of honey roasted peanuts instead.

• My parents have been here all week which is wonderful and crazy all at the same time.  And when they leave part of me will breathe in refreshing normalcy, and part of my will cry whenever I pass by my empty guest room.

• I watched “Moonrise Kingdom” for probably the fifth time.

• I watched essentially zero March Madness, probably because I didn’t remember to fill out a bracket, but am admittedly bummed that I didn’t catch more of Charles Barkley commentating.

The end.