That’s a picture of half of my walk-in closet collapsed to the ground. It was taken relatively soon after we bought our house and not much later…various other pieces started collapsing as well. Up until last month we had no more hanger space than the average NON-walk-in closet because so many of the other pieces had fallen off the wall or were simply too wobbly to use. This is why the closet renovation is a must before we sell the house. It’s currently useless.
One good thing it offered, however, was a room to get ready in when the other person was still sleeping. I don’t think I realized how much we used it for that until we no longer had it. We currently have everything from the closet spread across our bedroom and MrZ has the closet taped and covered in plastic for painting. Most mornings I get up first so I just try to grab what I need and get ready in the bathroom by the kitchen. MrZ tried a different technique this morning. He simply turned on the light in the bedroom at 4am while he gathered his things to go swimming. Since this is a very rude gesture when someone is still sleeping (4am!), he decided the best road to take to keep from waking me was to make me think he was trying to murder me in my sleep.
Well…I’m sure that’s not what he was thinking. But let me tell you: When I felt him place a pillow over my face? While I was in the unable-to-process-events-logically state of awareness? I totally had an adrenaline rush and the sudden horrific thought that, Oh no! He’s had enough me wearing my houseshoes all day! He’s trying to kill me! And that was officially the worst way I’ve every woken up from sleep in my entire life.
Also…this is how a very kind gesture can be interpreted as a homicidal one. In case you were ever wondering.
So, instead of doing the snarky My Family Sucks At Basic Household Chores type of entry, I’m going to do something a little less mean towards my husband. You know…just in case.
Blog Entry Option #2: Cute Video Of My Kids Getting Hopped Up On Cake Poppers
My kids were eating some cake poppers I made and I decided to interview them about it. I promise the smile my son gives you at the end of the video makes it all worth it.
My daughter is a talker. She has her moments of shyness around strangers, but those moments are not constants and if she feels the slightest bit of comfort (like at Disney World where EVERYONE is your friend) then she is more than willing to talk the ear off of anyone within a 2-mile radius. This trait of hers has been on my mind a lot lately as it has forced me to grapple with some of the less tangible parenting issues.
Sometimes, With Some Kids, You Change The Rules
Have you ever told your kid to use their “inside voice”? Well, I’ve finally come to the conclusion that my daughter doesn’t have one. Her regular talking voice, especially when she gets really excited about something, IS JUST DAMN LOUD. I’ve been trying to quiet her tone for weeks by constantly telling her, “NikkiZ…QUIETLY please.” Mainly because in public I don’t want the entire world to be bothered by her conversation with me. But you know what I decided while in Disney World? It’s just not worth it. She can understand whispering, especially if someone is napping. But she really struggles with talking at a lower volume than LOUD. It was getting irritating to me just trying to get her to talk more quietly and she was getting frustrated because I was constantly interrupting her to get her to quiet down a bit. But you know what? I gave up. I did what we all swear we won’t do. I gave up. I finally decided, She’s just a loud talker. And yes, as she gets older I’ll continue to work with her on understanding the power of her voice and how it can annoy others who don’t want to be part of her conversation. However, I decided that constantly trying to work on that NOW? When she’s FOUR? Is not helping anyone. And really…do I truly care about the person annoyed by my daughters animated discussion of the merits of eating your own eyeballs? (OMG. Don’t Ask. She’s on an eyeball kick lately.) No. Not as much as I care about just reveling in my daughter’s developing personality. So, yes. I’ll work on helping her understand controlling her volume, but I’m not going to keep shhhhh’ing her every time she talks out in public. It was making us both crazy.
Suddenly You Stop Caring What Other People Think.
We really got to know this talkative trait of hers very well in Disney World. Not only was she constantly excited about everything, making her talking nine million times more than usual, but she was also often hopped up on Princesses. Meeting those characters tended to quadruple the LOUD AND CRAZY TALKING effect of NikkiZ’s. If you scan through the flickr set you’ll see that – along with the smiling-at-the-camera pictures with every character – we have the talking-their-ears-off pictures as well. And while part of me worried about the line behind us and whether people were annoyed with my daughter and her turn taking TOO LONG; mostly I just sat back and enjoyed it. And I just pledged to never EVER be annoyed by a talkative child again. Because, while they may ask WAAAAAY too many questions (I’ve actually had to turn off movies before because my patience disintegrated under the barrage of questions about plot and characters. I’m looking at you SPY KIDS!) they also are so fascinating. Because there is a secret that us parents of talkative kids learn…If your kid talks a lot? You are blessed with a unique insight to their amazing minds. And for that? I’ll be the parent of the annoying kid in line any day.
Do you have a talkative child? Did yours already start asking the difficult question long before you expected them? Last night my daughter started asking me about cancer and where it comes from. And don’t even ask me how many times she’s pushed the, “But how did the baby get into her belly?” topic. The downside of a talkative kid? The difficult questions definitely come a lot sooner than with the quiet child. Jeez.
This past week was my first real trip to Disney World. I went for a day and a half about five years ago but that trip was organized by someone else and I didn’t even realize Disney World wasn’t just ONE PARK until I walked into Magic Kingdom for the first time. I spent half a day there, half a day and MGM (Now Hollywood) Studios, and half a day at Animal Kingdom. It was a whirlwind and we didn’t do a whole lot since we had so little time in each park. So…I call this past week my FIRST trip to Disney World. EVER. And let me tell you, there were definitely times where my enthusiasm and my excitement rivaled NikkiZ’s.
First off…NikkiZ is the perfect age for Disney. She’s old enough to understand lines and why they’re annoying. She can decide whether something or someONE is worth the long wait. She does fine without her nap and her schedule can be disrupted without total meltdowns. However, she’s also young enough to believe in the magic of it all. She didn’t question (too much) the fact that we saw Mickey in a parade about five minutes after this picture was taken. And he was in a different outfit.
But for every princess she met? My heart fluttered a bit too. I’m old enough to understand that yes – those two Ariel’s we met? Were not the same person. Yet I got totally thrilled meeting both of them. And I referred to them as Ariel and made sure NikkiZ got BOTH of their autographs. I also wished I had my own autograph book. I didn’t get to meet my two favorites (Eeyore and Pocahontas) – but if I had? I might have just had them sign my shirt or something.
After NikkiZ got her face painted I decided I wanted it done too. I wasn’t going to let her have ALL the fun. I rode roller coasters with MrZ even though I hate them. I even kinda liked Space Mountain. But Everest at Animal Kingdom? No thank you. I kept my eyes closed the entire time. We saw amazing 3D shows that had me laughing and great stage shows that had me Ooooh’ing and Aaaah’ing. While NikkiZ is definitely the perfect age for Disney, there’s something to be said about going for the first time as an adult. We can’t afford to go every year. And it’s not much of a vacation since you come back feeling like you’ve been run over by a heard of elephants for 3 months straight. (I’m sure the 13.1 miles didn’t help.) But we WILL go again. As soon as AndyZ hits that magical age. I may not be a as swept away the next time, but I will meet Eeyore and Pocahontas and will surely giggle a bit when that happens.
As you all know by now, I chose to run with Team in Training for this half-marathon to raise money for the LLS in memory of my Dad. This was – by far – the best decision I’ve ever made. TnT is a huge organization that provides so much support in training and along the race that you can’t help but be swept up in the cause. Between the exhaustion of travel and the shin splints from the day before; not to mention the poor training I did – I was very concerned starting the race. However, the TnT group lifted my spirits and the cheers of “GO TEAM!” along the way from spectators who recognized the purple jersey? That was enough to pull me through. And with the mosaic above pinned to my back – I got back pats and words of encouragement along the way. Everytime I felt like walking someone would pat me on the back and say, “You’re doing great” or “Your Dad would be proud” and that reminded me why I was there. And of course – I cried the entire time.
I also loved the race itself. I highly recommend the Disney Princess Half Marathon to any beginning runner. It’s a very fun and casual atmosphere. My only regret was not having a running buddy because so many runners stopped along the way to take pictures with the Disney characters cheering us on. And there were so many tutus! And tiaras! Everyone seemed to be dressed up and it was GREAT. Just a feel-good event in all senses of the word. Next time? I’ll bring a friend. Any volunteers?
All in all – the race was wonderful. The shin splints started crippling me about mile 8 so I started taking walking breaks. But – I still ran most of those last few miles. Considering my training did not go well I am very proud of my success and I thought about Dad the entire time. I knew he’d be laughing at me and rolling his eyes at my tiara. It was an emotional day and I thought of many of you along the way. Thanks for your support. I’ll come back tomorrow and talk about the rest of the trip, but here’s a few race-related photos for your enjoyment.
Immediately after I tweeted, “I DID IT!”
I still managed to be able to carry NikkiZ periodically, even AFTER the 13.1 miles!
Yes, I wore my medal all day. I needed it as an explanation as to why I was walking funny.
First and foremost – I finished the race! It wasn’t entirely perfect as I was battling a nasty shin splint from the day before at the Magic Kingdom. I ran the first 8 miles no problem and then walked about 25% of miles 9-12 and then ran most of the last mile. I’m proud of myself considering my training was HORRIBLE. I’ll give your more details later. But for now…here’s a cell phone picture from the finish.
We haven’t gone through all of our pictures since we’re still here but I wanted to show you all a few so far. I have a lot to say about the race, my Dad and this trip. But for now? Adorable pictures.
