Teach Me How to Mommy

Amy is the first person I talk to when my husband is really on my nerves.  She keeps it real (although almost always agrees with me).  I return the favor.  We are keeping each other happily married. For the record there isn't much to complain about, but I feel (or hope) that everyone needs an outside person to bitch to about their significant other.  I mean, I know Jerry doesn't want to hear all my gripes, so why not Amy? Yet, then he goes and does something like this... Lucy just turned five (cue tears), which means the world of recreational sports is at her finger tips.  In our town she can play softball.  We thought it would be fun and she was open to it, so down we went on registration day and signed our little girl up for "Softies." As is the case with most towns my husband was approached to volunteer.  His immediate reaction was yes, even though he has a stressful job and a new baby.  I was so proud. Yet, the kicker?  A wee...

It's been forever since I last dated.  Well, actually to be honest since Jerry and I have been together for nearly 15 years, it feels like forever, it just actually isn't.  But yet here I am again.  Putting secret notes in mailboxes and texting before an in-person meeting. That's right, I'm dating.  Well, play-dating that is.  I am making my first attempts at expanding my friend circle - through my kids. See there's this little girl from school that Lucy always talks about.  I see her when I get Lucy, but never her mom.  That's the thing about going to a daycare center, you don't always get those family bonds that are so natural at home daycares.  Anyways, on a whim I decided to reach out.  In Lucy's valentines I added an extra note in her friend's bag.  It read:  Hi, I'm Lucy's mom and Lucy loves your daughter.  Want to do a playdate? So right, I suppose it's on the verge of creepy, but before I could second guess...

This morning the kids and I went to breakfast and then went to a local store that has fruits, veggies, some farm animals and cute little Melissa and Doug things.  We go often - it's one of those regular joints you can always add to a morning or afternoon to "stretch it out a bit." The store connects to a warehouse in the back where they keep flowers and materials.  The doors were left wide open to this area.  John saw it first and noticed three (THREE) little toddler tractors and battery-operated cars.  They were John Deere and Mickey Mouse and were obviously for a little boy just John's age.  It obvious to me that they were for the worker's kids.  You know, they weren't put there for my kids - although in my kids' eyes I hadn't taken them to a little market, I had taken them to Disney World. I am the adult so I could tell customers probably weren't allowed back there, but to my kids the doors were open and there were toys.  It's a pl...