Miguelina

A late holiday greeting

We're having a wonderful time in Miami - where the weather is a perfect 78 degrees and Boston's snow is nothing but a distant memory - I'm super warm and relaxed, except when I think about the potential mess waiting for us in our basement, but why would I spoil our trip thinking about that?

Instead, we've been busy visiting friends and family and dining outside as often as possible. It was on one of those outdoor dining excursions where my husband and I literally bumped into the same $300 million guy we shared a latte with a couple of Thanksgivings ago. Alas, his daughter wasn't around, so I wasn't able to play matchmaker this time.  There's always next year!

You win, Old Man Winter. FINE.

I've been in an incredibly good mood despite the two consecutive storms that hit Boston because we're going from this:

To this:

I was even getting a bit sentimental about the snow the day it started falling - but after driving in it I was reminded of why I hate it so very, very much. Soon I was feeling pretty good about escaping this icy mess and was already feeling my toes thawing out while dreaming about Christmas at the beach when we heard the smoke detector go off late on Monday night.

Long story short: Ice dams. Frozen front steps. Flooded basement.

Damn.

Now we've turned off the water in the house and shut off electricity in the basement and are hoping for the best. Seems old man winter won't release his icy grasp on us just yet. I'll be stuck watching weather reports thinking about thaws and snowplows even as I vacation at the beach.

Let's get back to talking about me...

So the job is going well, and I'm thrilled to be making some pocket money with a steady writing job. That's not surprising, of course, what I didn't expect is exactly how much I would enjoy writing about weddings. There's tons of materials about weddings, and they can even be hilarious, as long as you're not planning one yourself.

But now that I have a nice groove going on at Aisledash, it's time to get back to some old-fashioned self-centered blogging.

• It must be the cabin fever, but I've lately become obsessed with my hair. I want to go from this to this:

(Somebody stop me before it's too late!)

• The three of us are sick again (how my husband manages to escape evil winter viruses is beyond me) and we are YET again packing to go on another trip. We're spending Christmas at my parent's house in Miami, and it's not a moment too soon, because it's currently 26 degrees out and our driveway is a lovely pool of black ice. I have no desire to leave my house, none at all, and Sebastian is in full agreement. The 8 month-old is the one suffering from cabin fever, and the poor thing doesn't understand just how miserable it is out there.

• I actually have this recurrent nightmare that we're going to come back from our trip only to find that our house is completely snowed in. That we're going to get to our house and all the doors are blocked by piles of that icy snow we have now. What do you do then? Do you suppose cad drivers carry ice picks in their trunks?

This is what they call positive reinforcement

Mom #1 : I'd been trying to get my husband to kill a fly that had been in the bathroom all day. It was driving me crazy! I finally told him I'd give him 10 blowjobs if he killed it. You never saw a man kill a fly so quickly.

Mom #2 : Wow. You must really hate flies.

(I love my mom friends.)

Turns out I'm brilliant instead of lazy

Anxious parents: its time to put your feet up and relax.  It’s OK to dump the flashcards, shut off the Mozart, and turn off those obnoxious Baby Einstein DVDs.  Turns out the very best thing you can do for your child’s intellectual development is to let them play with plain old blocks.

As it turns out, my laissez-faire approach to parenting is actually a brilliant strategic move.  Phew!

This article in the Boston Globe Magazine brings up a couple of interesting points about the wisdom of letting children develop at their own pace; the theory is that children that peak too early academically suffer from “neurological crowding” where too much information too soon actually clogs up synapses in the brain that could be used for more creative tasks in later years.  Late bloomers tend to outperform early achievers because their brains develop later, say at around 12 years versus 8 years, so their brains adapt to a more complex world. 

Makes sense to me.

The author also warns about the very real risk that late bloomers, despite having greater potential than early achievers, may never realize that potential because they don’t meet the unreasonable expectations of today’s competitive childhood academic environment. 

Remember kids, all work and no play is stupid.

Not much to say, except...

Hello! 

I couldn't bear to look at the below any longer. I can imagine what you're thinking: WE LEFT A COMMENT ALREADY, LEAVE US ALONE. I know! Sorry! But thanks to all of you that stopped by and especially to those of you that left comments saying how pretty the New England Mamas site is -- because I designed it myself! I'm so proud of it, but I can't rest on my laurels since I've promised to have a new design for each season and winter begins on the 22nd this year so I better come up with something soon.

But I wanted to tell you that there's a reason, a very GOOD reason I haven't updated (not that you asked), and that is that I've started a job. No, I didn't lose my mind and go back to brand management - don't worry, I'm not about to start blogging about focus groups and spreadsheets - I like you all way too much for that. No, my new job is a blogging job, and this was my training week, so I posted 11 times in seven days. You all know that I'm not used to that at all. I'm exhausted. I have nothing else to say. Other than I'm the newest blogger over at Aisledash, AOL's wedding blog, and I'll be blogging about stuff I love - parties, beauty, etiquette and all sorts of lovely things. If you know someone who's planning a wedding, or if you just love weddings (who doesn't!) send them our way.

Next week: More content, less sending you elsewhere. Have a great weekend!

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Get over there and win something:

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Sick, sicker and sickest

There is nothing more boring that reading about stomach viruses and nasty colds, so I'll spare you.  Just imagine me and my two children passing the viruses back and forth like hot potatoes.  Then imagine the baby's fourth and fifth teeth breaking through simultaneously.  Oh, and don't forget my garage door breaking, trapping us in the garage for a bit.  And then when we finally make our escape (to a fun trip to the pediatrician's on a Saturday morning) discovering that both my front tires are dangerously low on air.  Cue me having to beg for someone (anyone!) to help me figure out what to do.  Thank goodness for kind strangers (who still took the last $10 I had in my purse because I felt I had to tip and thought it would be tacky to ask for five bucks back.) 

(It would've been tacky, right?)

Then imagine my husband being far, far away (in Europe), missing all the fun.

This has been going on since Wednesday.  I've lost 3 pounds already.  Bah.

I do have really exciting news that I can't wait to share.  It's great, trust me.  But both kids are asleep, and I'm going to join them.

See you next week.  Be good and wash your hands after you're done reading.  I wouldn't want you to catch this too.