What conference presentations should be...

Or what they sometimes feel like anyway.

"C" is for Cookie

This past weekend we made our annual pilgrimage to Sesame Place. The day before the trip Zoë and I were at the supermarket and I told her to pick out some snacks for the car ride. She picked out one of those boxes with little bags of Cheez-its, Ritz Bits, and mini Chips Ahoy! I was a little surprised at her choice because none of those are her particular favorite, but it was the one she really wanted so we bought it.

In the car I discovered the real reason for her selection -- it was not because she had discovered a love for Ritz Bits from stealing other kids' snacks, but that she wanted the Chips Ahoy! so she could give some to Cookie Monster! He does love cookies so how could I refuse?

On our second day in Sesame Place we had lunch with the characters and there Zoë got her big chance. She was so excited to give him the cookies and I have to give a lot of credit to the person in the Cookie Monster costume because he did a great job of accepting the bag of cookies and then passing them off unseen by Zoë. Plus he acted thrilled to be getting the cookies. It made my day and it especially made Zoe's. For that one moment alone she will go on believing for another year.

Meme Madness

O.K. here's one more from the same source. This time it’s simple. Just go to Google and search for “[your name] needs…”

Marcy needs...

Marcy needs a goatee to help him look older than his graduate students.
Hmmm...no, I don't think I do need a goatee since I am not a "he" and I don't have graduate students. If I did have graduate students I would want to look older than them, but I think I'd pick high heels or suits rather than a goatee to convey my maturity. By the way, I've never heard of a man called "Marcy."

Marcy needs to cancel the PO that was sent in for the softball game.
She certainly does! Marcy hates softball.

Marcy needs two people for a special assignment.
Codename: babysitting.

(There weren't a lot of good results for "Marcy needs..." so I tried "Marcy wants..." and got these additional returns:

Marcy wants him to get rid of it, but he refuses.
The potential "its" are long here. My husband is a pack rat. And then there is the old, dying and quite hard to live with dog... (I know that is mean, but you try cleaning up poop every day and getting woken up at 2am regularly by an old dog who needs to go out and pee.)

Marcy wants to discuss recycling.
I would love to discuss recycling, actually -- especially with those who don't do it. I am a big supporter of recycling. I have a recycling bin in my office and I often wonder if the cleaning people actually recycle the paper or just dump it in with the rest of the trash. I really hope it is the former.

Happy Anniversary -- again

My brother and his wife celebrate 10 years of marriage today!

See last year's anniversary post to read the poem I wrote for them.


Today also marks 10 years that my husband and I are together. We pretty much fell in love on my brother's wedding day -- at the wedding, of course. I believe it was the 5 or 6 Tom Collins that made me vulnerable.

8 Random Things

Taking on another tag from my friend on the sofa here's 8 random things...

1. I love Friday afternoon. The whole weekend is still ahead. It is a wonderful thing to know that work is just about to go on temporary hold.
   
2. I would go to a movie at the movie theater every week if I possibly could. Before I had Zoë, I pretty much did. Renting movies is just not the same for me. I like the whole experience of sitting in the dark theater, the popcorn, the leaving everything else behind for 2 hours or so.
   
3. I had no idea how much having a baby would change my life and I'm glad I never stopped to think about it before I did because maybe I never would have.
4. I would be happy to eat only pizza and ice cream for the rest of my days and if I didn't worry about my weight that's probably about all I would eat. Seriously.
5. I recently got addicted to satellite radio (also known as "radio crack") and I love the station that is all New Wave hits from the 80's, but it was a scary moment when I realized that all that music is at least 20 years old! When I make Zoë listen to it in the car I am basically subjecting her to "oldies."
6. It is harder than it seems to come up with "8 Random Things" that are at all interesting. I actually started this post on Friday and as of this morning I still only had 5. I think this one is kind of cheating and maybe I should change the name of my post to "7 Random Things and One Cop Out."
7. If I shopped less I could probably go on more vacations, but then what would I wear?
8. Speaking of shopping, I sometimes wish I could empty out my house and start over. From sheets and towels to the sofa. It would be so fun to pick out all new stuff. I mean how often do you get to go shopping for furniture for an entire room?
   

Tis the Season for a Recital

Here's a picture from the previously mentioned recital starring my niece, Sophia. (The handsome guy with her is my brother.)


And here's a photo from Zoë's recital held last night. It was adorable.

Hey Jealousy

It is so interesting (and sometimes annoying) to witness the open jealousy of children. Zoe is not afraid to admit when she is jealous -- which is something I encourage in her because I think it is better for her to talk about it than to go around biting or something similarly violent or destructive. Most frequent bouts of jealousy occur when I am holding someone else's baby. There fore there was nothing surprising about yesterday's attack of the green-eyed monster except that it came up so late in the day. We went to see my niece's dance recital and Zoe sat quite well through the hour plus show. She only got fidgety in the last 15 minutes, but by that point I think everyone was feeling that way. She seemed genuinely excited to see her cousin perform as well as watch all the other performances. I was waiting for the jealousy to strike and was surprised when it didn't come.

After the performance we all went to lunch and that is when the attack came on suddenly. I was not expecting to look over at her and see she was crying -- apparently because she wasn't sitting next to me. At that point there was no way to move seats so she could be next to me -- rather than just across from me. My husband and my brother did their best to try and draw her out of it, but she would not budge from her pout. It wasn't until she got taken to sit in the car with my husband that she finally came out of it.

It was a divided moment for me. On one hand I felt for her, but on the other hand I was incredibly frustrated by her. I think it is important that she learn that it is not all about her all of the time, but I know that is a hard lesson.