Playtime!

So, The Talker and Miss Rosie are playing together.  It. Is. Awesome.

The Talker calls out to her and tries to get her to crawl his way.  She obliges him because she thinks he is the absolute-coolest-person-she-knows.  And he is, I might add.  Her daddy is a close second.  They giggle and squeal, and the Talker scootches away - just out of reach.  She does her lopsided crawl to catch up, and the giggling begins again.  By the end of it all they are pretty much wrestling. 

I have to hold back a little bit.  My protective tendancies are tempting me to repeat endlessly, "Be gentle!  Oh!  Careful, don't hurt her!"  But I really (for the most part) need to keep my mouth shut.  The Talker is a wonderful brother - and the only time he ever goes after Miss Rosie is when he is ticked at me.  (How sophisticated!)

So, here they are.  The siblings that wrestle together, stay together. :)

Chicago Moms Blog - Navigating Social Media

Last weekend I had the pleasure to join other mommy bloggers at an event sponsored by SVMoms Group, the organization behind Chicago Moms Blog, and Chevy. We enjoyed an afternoon and evening at the Hard Rock Hotel (complimentary valet, too!), discussing the intersection of blogging and branding - and then enjoyed some good food, wine, great conversation, and yes, some swag.

I'm still new to this blogging thing - and I felt like I was a bit out of my element at our roundtable discussion.  Our lovely organizers and moderators, Jill Asher and Linsey Krolik, guided the conversation to flesh out ways that brands and bloggers can work together using social media outlets.  I guess I was surprised/amazed at the role social media is playing in marketing and branding these days.  I mean, I am a fan of our local park district on Facebook and everything, but it somehow never occurred to me that a company might want to use a mommy blogger to connect with the "real world."

Call me naive, I guess.

But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense.  It makes sense the way teaching your kids makes sense - moms are the first point of contact between their children (future customers!) and life outside the nest.  From the beginning, parents are the ones to choose what to expose their children to and what to withhold.   And besides, moms talk.  Seriously, when I was a kid I couldn't figure out why moms did that all the time. Talk, talk, talk.  At the time, playing seemed waaaay better (sometimes it still does!), but still, my mom and her mom friends would just, well, talk.  The truth?  I'm one of them now.

And I'm picky.  For example, I don't have time for companies that shamelessly use inappropriate images to sell clothing to teenagers. (I'm looking at YOU, Abercrombie & Fitch.)  Well, truthfully, I don't have time to shop at all. It takes a ton of effort to shop (successfully) with two kids, and I only go places with them when I really need to get something.  And I've learned that the power that crouches in my wallet is possibly the most vocal of all.  We're trying to put our money where our beliefs are - or at least consciously keep our money out of places that we don't agree with.  That's a big reason why we joined a CSA for our meat.  And you know what?  I'm proud of those decisions.  I feel like I'm standing up for something valuable.

But back to last Sunday - the companies that took the time to come talk with us were terrific.  A big thank you to all of them, especially Chevy - our main sponsor - for spending the evening with us!  I'd like to share a few of my faves, but this post is getting a bit long.  A separate post with more info to come!

Easter Sunday 2010

Easter Sunday morning came early.  Our two little cherubs don't like to sleep late now that the birds have begun their springtime chirping again in northern Illinois.  The Easter Bunny was good to everyone, hiding copious amounts of chocolate (and peanut butter!) around the living room.  Miss Rosie crawled around on the floor to find her first Easter eggs, and The Talker skittered, near-crazed with excitement, from egg to egg, collecting anything he could get his hands on.

Funny, though: he found a peanut butter egg today when he took the chair cushion off to make a mini-fort.  He was very proud of himself.  Luckily he put it on the kitchen table and walked away for a moment, so I was able to sneak that Reeses-crack up into his Easter basket.  For safe-keeping, you know.  (Or until The Runner or I get a craving...those things are dangerous!)

Another dangerous fact: The Talker can read.  Most of you know this already, but here he is, looking like he's 17, leaning on the table, reading the note from E. Bunny.  Mr. Bunny has whirly handwriting, too, which I think is hard to read, but The Talker doesn't think so.  And Rosie, well, she pretty much thinks anything The Talker does is hilarious and fun.  Even when he's sitting on her.  More on that next time.

Loving the Neighborhood

Hi, friends!

You can find me at ChicagoMomsBlog.com today, singing the praises of our neighborhood.  www.chicagomomsblog.com/2010/04/hello-neighbor.html
Then go enjoy yours!

Thinking about food over here....

Hi everyone!

You can find me at the Chicago Moms Blog today - read over there if you like!

Home Depot

Our Big Talker sometimes has trouble closing his mouth and getting himself ready to go somewhere.  For anyone who knows our family, this sounds familiar, doesn't it?  We are genetically hardwired as talkers.  Poor Big T is also saddled with a significant amount of Irish blood, which consequently puts him on "Irish Time."  Irish Time is a danger to all things punctual.  And believe me, the Talker and I both struggle with punctual.

Getting ready for school the other day, I decided that urging him with sound bytes rather than full on directions was the way to go.  He needed to get his shoes on so we could make it to school on time, but he couldn't do the shoes AND tell me about the diet of a gigantosaurus at the same time.  (Geez, Mom!)  I was getting flustered trying to twart Irish Time for the 483rd time that week.  It was only Tuesday.

The short conversation went like this:

"Less talking, more DOING, buddy."

"More doing, Mom. That's the power of the Home Depot."

Irish Time be damned; unintentional preschooler humor wins again!

Signs of Her Times

A few days from now, our Rosie will be a whopping eight months old.  How this happened, I am not so sure.  She presented quite a challenge early on - not sleeping well and acting generally uncomfortable for several months.  Turns out she has acid reflux, and though I don't love giving her Zantac twice a day, it certainly does help.  The Runner (aka Daddy) remarked how he felt like he just didn't know her - which he attributed (at first) to his crazy work and travel schedule.  I assured him that we were all still getting to know each other - she was still brand new! 

But the truth was that I felt like I couldn't get to know her either.  She cried so much - and my heart broke over and over because it was clear she was hurting.  Add that to some long, lonely nights as the only adult in the house trying to console an inconsolable baby, and I didn't have a lot of energy left over for socializing with my new baby girl.  Despite all this, I still felt like she wanted to communicate with me.  From the moment she arrived, I've felt like she's about to open her mouth to say, "hey Mom! I have stuff to tell you!"  There's just this look on her face...so expressive, when it wasn't twisted up in a grunt or a sob.

Within a few days of starting the Zantac, however, things started looking up.  Miss Rosie slept for longer stretches and smiled a lot more.  She puked less (note that I am not referring to spit up here) and wanted to socialize and explore more, too.  Now I'm emerging from a sleeplessness fog and counting the months...and we're up to eight!

She is feeding herself Cheerios, bananas, avocadoes, and pizza crust!  She even drank some children's herbal tea yesterday from a sippy cup.  She's one knee short of full-on crawling, and we have no gates!  Between all of these developments and her lovely, silly personality, this girl has completely blindsided us.  It's time, I realize, to start signing with her, to give her will to communicate a "voice."

She sits in her high chair with her Gerber puffs or her Cheerios, and I ask her over and over, "More? Do you want more?" while tapping my fingertips together in the sign for more. "More to eat?"  Fingertips together, fingertips to mouth.  The Talker is in on the game, too.  His welcome-to-the-world gift to his sister was a baby book about signing.  He remembers most of the signs he learned - still signing "please" when he's especially tired.  If I need to tell him something at a playdate, I can surreptitiously sign it on the DL, and he responds immediately.  This does not always happen when I speak to him.  In fact, his MO is to ignore me most of the time!

Looking back, I'll admit that I don't really remember when he said his first word.  Could that be because it was "Daddy"?  Perhaps.  I'm not ruling that out.  But I definitely remember his first sign.  He was about nine and a half months old, and he made the sign for "more" while sitting in his high chair.  It was awesome.  There is something especially intimate about signing with your kids - you really need to be paying attention to each other to understand what is being communicated.  Especially if you want to catch that first sign.