Mommy Madness

For those of you that have been hiding under a rock, in the last week or so, it’s been reported CONSTANTLY by the mainstream media that Tiger Woods has cheated on his wife Elin. And really, why are they reporting on such a thing?  Is it really news? I mean, people cheat, whether we think it’s ok or not.  And celebrities cheat too – they’re people.  And celebrities have cheated, are cheating and probably will continue to cheat into the future. I mean, in my opinion, nonsense like this is not really newsworthy in the sense that some other things are.  Shouldn’t we be more focused on things like:

1. Healthcare reform, or the lack of it, and trying to figure out a way to lower costs and get coverage to people;
2. The revolution that many Iranians dream of;

I realize that some people love gossip about the stars – it’s what they live for. And I realize that the world that we live in can lead to people feeling depressed. And you know what, I too love trolling sites like Perez Hilton or TMZ.com for the occasional mindless fun that is celebrity gossip and I love looking at pictures of what people are wearing. And it’s a nice distraction to what is going on in the world.  But that isn’t news. And neither is Tiger Woods and his extramarital activity.

Booking Through Thursday is actually done on time this week! Here it is:

What items have you ever used as a bookmark? What is the most unusual item you’ve ever used or seen used?

I’ve used many things as bookmarks – paper, bills, pens, pencils, real bookmarks.  I think that the most unusual thing that I’ve ever seen used as a bookmark (and it isn’t very unusual, really) is a rosary.  An actual rosary.

I felt like we were very productive this weekend on the home front, in spite of the snow that we got yesterday.  Case and point:

And that structure being bought, set up and decorated was only a part of the puzzle.  I did some holiday shopping and got gifts for the people I work with as well as some family members. We decorated the outside of our home with lights and wreaths as well. Nate’s eyes have been as wide as saucers for the past 36 hours – it’s the first time that he’s really cognizant of things like snow, Christmas trees and Santa.  He was so excited to wake up this morning and actually see the snow on the ground for the first time and remembered the tree that we got yesterday.  He tried to help decorate but really ended up directing us different places with the various items.

This season is my most favorite season out of the whole year.  The excitement just gets to me and makes me happy. The other side of things can be a bit rough though.  I realize, also, that people that don’t have family or can’t be with family have a rough go of it also this time of year – nothing showed me that as much as being sick over Thanksgiving and not being able to see my parents, sister, grandma and aunts, uncles and cousins. And with the snow, that means that skiing will be on by the time vacation hits me. 

So many of you know that I went to one of the Seven Sisters (and it’s not to hard to figure out which one). And I think that single sex colleges tend to have a certain thing about them that can scare people that aren’t open about things like, I don’t know, new ideas and discussion about all different topics from politics and religion to sexuality to just about anything really. And oh, do the sterotypes abound.  In my senior year, an article was published in Rolling Stone magazine that absolutely played into all of the stereotypes and was offensive because it absolutely disregarded every single thing that made my alma mater and my fellow alums so special. Just recently, another similar scandal has come to light regarding a current student at Wellesley – a male student there on the exchange program — and his utter hate of women.

I found a lot of what this Pham person said offensive.  It seemed that this person was really, really upset that he wasn’t impressing the ladies.  And, perhaps, he came to Wellesley with the impression that he would be God’s Gift to the women that hadn’t seen a man in quite some time and when he wasn’t given that, he got upset and either called us uptight or said we were whoring around.  Yeah. Right.

But what I found to be perhaps most offensive was that he absolutely thought that all Wellesley women didn’t appreciate ANYTHING that they were given. Now, I’m not saying that there wasn’t anyone that didn’t appreciate Wellesley. I’m sure that there were people that didn’t. But I have to say that the vast majority of women that I had contact with were absolutely grateful.  But we are, also, human after all. We do let off steam and part of letting off that steam is venting about the stress and its causes. So there was certainly a lot of that going around. And like there weren’t people that didn’t appreciate Dartmouth or any of the other schools that they went to and the opportunities afforded to them? I hardly doubt that this is something confined to Wellesley or another single sex institution.  But whatever.

So, lately, Nate has been very attached to momma. He calls for mommy specifically and, at our last visit to the hospital, proceeded to put his arms around my neck, place his cheek next to my cheek and run his hands through his hair and just hug me.  Not for a few seconds. He’ll sit like that for 10 to 15 minutes at a time and it’s so cute.  I love him so much and I make sure to acknowledge the hugs with hugs of my own and kisses.  The receptionist at the doctor’s office got a kick out of it, enough to call him a mama’s boy.  And you know what, he totally is.  My. Little. Man.

But it wasn’t all sweetness. We were at the doctor for a couple of things – follow-up on the tubes that were put in Nate’s ears in February and a follow up on the hearing test that was done last week. The hearing test that said that mild to moderate hearing loss couldn’t be ruled out.  And this visit did little to allay my concerns. All that we were able to decide to do was to re-test him in the next month and visit the ENT again in January to figure out further what to do.  The thought process was actually really understandable and reasonable. They want to be able to rule out an aberration or a bad test or a test that was interfered with with things like an ear infection or distractability. And Nate had an ear infection, or was in the process of getting one at least, when the hearing test was done.  Also, I don’t know if any of you have ever seen the hearing tests that they do with toddlers.  Basically, you and your toddler are in a sound proof room. The toddler sits on your lap. The audiologist is in another room looking at you through a picture window. In the room with you are two speakers, one in each corner of the room on the same side of the room as the window that the audiologist looks at you through. They play sounds through each speaker and try to get a reaction out of the toddler.  Sometimes, visual cues are used and they’ll trigger a windup toy that is in a box right below the speaker. For toddlers, I imagine, it’s really, really hard to test because if they’re not interested or they aren’t feeling well, they’re going to have nothing to do with it.

Who knows.  Just one more thing to worry about.