Rant: The one and only time I ever wanted to call a radio show

So I was driving to a client's house listening to a radio show out of L.A. on XM Radio. A girl wanted to prank her friend because she's apparently crazy (as I soon found out) by having the host call her friend acting like the daycare for her friend's daughter.

Ok, ok...if you're like me, at first you're thinking "whoa, that's nothing to mess around with"...but read on.

So the host pretends to be the principal of her little pre-school/daycare and informs the friend/mom that her daughter has been acting out, biting, hitting, and generally causing issues. Fine. Logical reaction of the mother (or what I thought would be logical) would be "oh wow, I'm sorry, what's going on, how can I handle this?". However, mother's reaction was:

"WHAT?! You're lying! My daughter is an angel! She never acts out! What kind of a teacher are you?! Are you saying I'm a bad mother?!"

I'm sorry...but what the F? How is that an appropriate reaction at all? The radio host then had the original girl call her friend as part of the prank and of course the woman goes off to her friend about the daycare calling. To make matters worse, the woman said she had meant to tell her friend that she noticed her daughter pulling her own daughter's hair and bullying her and so maybe the school was right.

You would have thought that the child's life was threatened the way this woman went crazy! She banned her friend from play dates (seems like the friend won out on this one) saying she was lying and blackmailing her daughter (does she know what blackmailing means?) and her daughter is a perfect angel.

ARRGGHHHHH!

Obviously, this woman is on the extreme end but it got me thinking about other times I've heard about this issue; there are so many parents out there that think their child can do no wrong and take it extremely personally when their children don't do well, act out, make a mistake. But who gets blamed? Teachers, day care providers, coaches, other parents. And then these kids grow up to feel so self-important and entitled!

It scares me for when Conrad goes to school or when he gets old enough for play dates. Obviously, all you can do is teach your child the best you can and hope it works. And children are children! Even the best parents in the world are going to have kids that make mistakes.

I know for sure when I was growing up if I ever acted out and an adult spoke to my mother about it, she wouldn't question the adult but would turn to me and say, "Well, what do you have to say for yourself?!" And chances are, I did wrong and had to fess up and change my behavior.

I SO wanted to call in the radio station and give my two cents but since it was via XM they didn't give the # nor did they have any follow up to it.

Am I the only one that feels this woman is crazy? Has anyone ever dealt with crazy moms like this?

Attempting to keep it together 24/7,

Elizabeth

Happy 10 Months, Conrad

So, me being a bad busy mom, I have only now gotten around to uploading Conrad's 10 month pictures. We didn't do 9 month pictures as we did the professional ones that same day and then I never got around to it. Woops.

That being said, I can't believe my baby is 10 MONTHS OLD! When in the what did that happen? I seriously blinked and he was 10 months.

Just for comparison, here's Conrad at 1 month!

Dear Conrad,

These last 2 months have been the most amazing time yet with you. Your personality is really shining through and I love that you're HAPPY now. The first several months were hard what with your GERD, ear infections, teething, hand-foot-mouth disease (yes! it's a real thing and made you miserable) but we just knew there was a happy, energetic baby in there some there despite all of that. And boy was there!

You love to dance to music and now wave your arms around when you hear a beat. You learned to wave and are a hit in public places (attention: single uncle, use this to your advantage!) and can be a big flirt...you get that from Daddy obviously. You can stand on your own without holding on to anything and are SO proud of yourself when you do. And you are mimicking a lot now! When we tickle you, now you reach out to us and wiggle your fingers saying "thinckle, thinckle".

"Dada" and "Mama" are now in your vocabulary...although it's the latter only when you're crying but I'll take what I can get. You still like to fuss if all the attention's not on you...again, obviously from Daddy :) You love to flip through your books and "read" as well as take everything out of boxes, bags, drawers, baskets, etc.

At your 9 month check up you were 29 inches, 23 lbs, and HC was 46...all 75th %. Big boy here...because of:

FOOD FOOD FOOD! "Num num num" is constantly heard in this household. You are getting better every day about trying new things. Things we never thought you'd like. Broccoli, for instance! What the what? You still like sweet things best though.

We love you so much, are so proud of you, and are so excited for your next 10 months (but don't grow up too fast!).

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

PS: You also get about 1 billion kisses a day. We are trying to get them all in now while you aren't embarrassed. Although who would be embarrassed by these cool parents?

LOL...this was pre-baby of course. I just had to share this gem that I recently came across...circa 2009.

 Conrad, you're welcome.

Monday Mashup: Weekend through the iphone!

1. Shopping on Friday night with Mom and Dad!

2. "Sharing" Grandma's sandwich on the boat

3. "My turn to drive!"

4. Hanging with Uncle Eddie

5. Wine on the back deck

6. Redskins game!

7. We found Daddy's old toy chest in the attic!

8. Beautiful sunset

9. Great-Grandpa, Grandpa, and Conrad

5 on Friday

Linking up again this week with some lovely ladies! 

  

<<ONE>>

Lake Time! This weekend we are heading to my in-laws house and they happen to live on Lake Anna. They moved down there from Northern VA about five years ago; they built a beautiful home and have a boat and jet ski – perfect for fun summer weekend getaways as it only is about an hour and a half away. They are also close to lots of great wineries and cute, historic towns (two of my favorite things). A girl who loves her in laws?! She does exist! I kid, I kid…I would love them even if they didn’t live on a lake.

<<TWO>>

ME TIME! I am starting to notice myself slipping…not eating healthy, not exercising, getting stressed out. And it’s making me sluggish, tired, and irritable. So I’ve decided I need to change some habits. Nothing  crazy – no crashdietsoyoucanlose10lbsinaweekthengain20back, no ridiculous exercise plan. Let’s be real here, ain’t nobody got time for that. Maybe just walking/running more in the evenings with the baby, not eating so much junk food (it’s HARD because I’m on the road so much), and taking it easy on the weekends with eating out. I also watch an insanely large amount of TV at night – when Conrad goes to bed I just veg on the couch and get nothing accomplished. I’m not saying I need to do a marathon cleaning session during that time (again, let’s be real, there’s no way in hell that would happen anyway and I am hiring a cleaning service STAT) but perhaps do something a little more productive…like read one of the 123,409,102 books I’ve downloaded on my kindle but never read (those damn $1.99 specials!)

<<THREE>>

My new iphone! Ok, I know I already mentioned it in last week’s 5 on Friday but I was really only talking about the case in that post and this time I’m talking about ALL THE APPS. I know that I could download apps on my old Droid but for some reason it’s way more fun on my iphone with my snazzy case. AND I love FACETIME! My parents have iphones (yes, my PARENTS got an iphone before I did) and now they can see Conrad every night – love, love, love.

<<FOUR>>

SO TRUE! I have so much to be thankful for and sometimes I just have to take a step back and stop wanting more so I can enjoy what I already have.

<<FIVE>>

I couldn’t resist:

I can't believe he was ever this small!

Attempting to keep it together 24/7,

Elizabeth

Beach Baby!

So it's taken a while for me to post about our JULY vacation as I lost the cable to my camera so I couldn't post pictures. In any case, here's some snapshots of our vacay and Conrad's first trip to the beach. As I mentioned here, vacationing with a baby is WAY different than without. And to reiterate (and trust me, this is not sucking up - just pure gratefulness!), thank goodness for my MIL - she was so helpful!

Every year Sean's family goes to Emerald Isle/Topsail Island down in NC. It's been their family tradition for years (his whole dad's side comes down from NY) and I've been lucky enough to be able to participate the last 8 years.

On the way down, we stopped at Grady's BBQ in Dudley, North Carolina. It was a slight...20 minute...30 minute...detour but was well worth it. It's a long-standing family owned BBQ place with amazing food. And it's all smoked and grilled right out back. Sean even met the owner and got a tour of the kitchen (he's a little BBQ obsessed).

Conrad was not so big of a beach fan. In fact, when we first tried to put his feet in the sand, he looked at us as if to say, "um, what the hell is this...you're joking, right?" BUT after a while, he got used to it and dug some holes and flung sand around with his little plastic shovel. Oh, and tried to eat a lot of it. The ocean however?? NO WAY. He started to fuss whenever we stuck his toes near it. Oh well. Next year, maybe?

Hanging out under the umbrella was a fun time for Conrad too. We got one of those little tent things but he didn't use it at all...maybe better use it next year (that thing was NOT cheap!!).

The pool on the other hand was GREAT. We loved us some pool time. Before Conrad came into this world, I always thought the people who spent all day at the pool while at the beach were nuts. Turns out they probably just had little kids with them. And it was easier access to the beer. Loads of beer. Wait, that was last year (well, year before last that is, considering I was pregnant last year). This go-round? No time for that. You have to be on your toes with this one!!

I  can't wait until next year when he's a little bigger and can enjoy the beach even more!

Professional Pictures!

Instead of the usual Monday Mashup (because I still need to figure out how to get my pics from my new iphone to the computer) I'm excited to share our professional pictures! We had these done on Conrad's 9 month birthday and they are fantastic! We were very fortunate that someone Sean was friends with in high school turned out to be a professional photographer. She did an amazing job! Here are some of my favs:

My handsome boys!

Those teething necklaces are great!

Love this one!

I'm probably biased but I have an amazing family! We had such a great time taking these. We went to the center of our town  and it was the perfect setting with lots of different options. It was cloudy the whole time and towards the end I thought for sure there would be hurricane-like storms but the weather held out long enough for us to take some great pictures. If anyone needs a great photographer in the DC-metro area, let me know!

Elizabeth