Monday, March 31, 2008

Swirling around in my head

I was all prepared (in my head!) to do another theme this week. However, the weekend was busy and I am tired, so it will just be a variety of things!

And because I know you thrive off the itty bitty details of my life, I will start the week off with a weekend review. I can see the thrill on each of your faces!

And yes, there are bullets involved!

~ A invited a friend to the house Thursday and had her first real sleep over. They did pretty good, and even L got included in on the fun. They did not go to sleep until 11:30 PM and I have some fun pictures to share. When my husband gets back with my camera.

~ We met our friends for an impromptu dinner on Friday night. There were 2 sets of parents, 2 sets of twins, 1 set of siblings, and 1 uncle. Luckily, we were out on the covered patio where the noise level was never questioned. It was really fun, but I am just hoping it did not hinder my "I Want To Have Another Baby" campaign!!!

~ In addition to playing with their friends for 5 hours during coop, the kids got lots of Daddy-time this weekend because I was a vendor at something called Main Street Market in the Dallas area.

~ I usually do 1-2 a year. This was my third year with this one. Last year, I did well. This year, I did really well! I am excited not only about my sales, but also about how many people were genuinely interested in learning more about the products and were happy to have me follow-up with them in a few weeks. Don't worry, I know oh too well the fake interested conversation and look that can happen at the booth, so I don't say that I am excited lightly! :)

~ However, those vendor things wear me out! It was a 2-day show and the combination of sitting and standing during that time means a few aches and pains over the following few days.

~ I usually miss out on all the great shopping when I do those things because I am the only one at my booth. Of course, that is not always a bad thing! I did buy a cute item for my MIL and I could not resist buying a jewelry set for myself. I will tell you more about it later when I have pictures to post! Both of my purchases came from my vendor neighbors!! Easy shopping!

~ And now the last word about the show actually involves one of my pet peeves. Just know before I say anything, that the likelihood of this referring to your practices with your children are HIGHLY UNLIKELY!! I am also going to be inferring a few things because I did not get the whole story. Two booths down from me was a lady (60's), a man (40's), and a young boy between the ages of 12-15 months. They had one of the TEN jewelry booths there! What I do know is that the boy was adopted by the man and the woman was the man's mother. OK, I can live with that.

UNLESS!

They both sit at their booth almost the whole time when one person could have easily handled the job. They both barely pay attention, much less interact with the boy who is sitting/bouncing in an EXERSAUCER ALL.DAY.LONG.FOR.TWO.DAYS! I am only exaggerating a tiny bit. I mean they did take him out once each day to change his diaper and let him actually walk a bit up and down the aisle. Just to be fair, I think the man briefly held the boy 1-2 times each day. I never saw them in extended interaction with him, whether that be eye contact or talking. That poor boy! You did not have to be a therapist to know that he spends a lot of time in that thing. His quadriceps were terribly overdeveloped and when he did get to really walk, his legs were already bowing because of the overuse. Unfortunately, I did not hear a lot of "talking" either. He was either quiet (but happily bouncing), whimpering/crying, sleeping (in the contraption), or laughing hysterically while he was free to roam. No other sounds. He seemed a bit on the small side, which makes me wonder about his adoption origin and history as well. Near the end of day two, the woman took him and left somewhere. As I started to load my car, I saw them in a single-cab truck. He was in his car seat and she was reading a book. As I finished up loading my car, I noticed they had moved the truck closer to the building to finish loading themselves. Too bad they decided it would take both of them to finish the job and just left the boy in the truck by himself while they went back into the building! He was a precious blond hair, blue eyed boy with a sweet infectious laugh. I was sad to leave him there! With them.

There are so many more things I want to say, but will stop there! Phew, thanks for letting me get that off my chest!

My problem with the exersaucer? They are almost always unnecessary. The typical age that children are in them is actually the worst time for them to be in them in terms of their development. It can lead to overdevelopment of their calves and quads and underdevelopment of their upper body, trunk, and hips in relation to movement. It does not help kids stand or walk better! Kids at that age should be rolling, on their stomachs, on their hands and knees, crawling, pulling up, cruising. You get the picture!

Now before you stone me in the comment section, remember, I am probably not talking about you! And I do understand how they can be useful at certain times; running to the mailbox, getting dinner started, taking a shower, running up and down the stairs, etc.! I am a mom-I do understand!! That goes for all my friends-commentors and lurkers-who like to give me a hard time in a teasing way about my soapbox!

Boy, I bet you did not see that coming!

Just don't mention the word "johnny jumper" and I think we will all be just fine!

~ Let's end this on a fun note! I can't name names due to privacy issues, but this story is too cool to pass up! Last week, I emailed some friends about a great summer movie deal our school was offering as a fundraiser. I wanted to know if they would like to get some tickets. I included a few local blogger friends in my email. Blogger friends I have never met. Cuz I am a BBFF! One of those such people emailed me back.

Are you feeling it?!

Here is the edited version of what happened after that:

Friend 1/Email #1:
This sounds fun! I can't get over there to do it, but I forwarded it a few friends who live near you.

Friend 1/Email #2:
Okay, this is funny, my good friend that I sent this to just wrote back and said her daughter is in your daughter's class and that she knows you. :) Small world.
(names deleted). We went to high school together.

From me/Email #3:
SHUT UP! I love (blank)-she is so super sweet!!! You should come this way for a playdate!!!!

Friend 1/Email #4:
She's one of my best friends- we were in each other's wedding and our girls are friends. Funny, huh? :)

**I proceeded to call Friend 2 and get the whole scoop. Then we laughed!! She laughed the hardest when I told her I had never even met her BFF in person!

Friend 2/Email #5:
It's a crazy/small world! Below is the link to my blog.

Is that the most fun thing!! Makes you smile doesn't it!

Hi Girls! I know you are reading this! Don't feel obligated to comment. I would not want to be held responsible for your revealed identities!!!

Stacey

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The market-thing sounds fun! Poor little dude, though.

I will refrain from any Exersaucer comments except to say that, whether or not you choose to use said device for your infant, when said infant hypothetically outgrows said device, it makes a WONDERFUL scarf holder by the door.

Or so I hear.

Cara said...

LOL

Not a big exersaucer fan either. We don't have one, but that's helped by the fact that they take up entirely too much floor space! Grr to the people who say my daughter is a late walker because she didn't have one. We don't talk to those people at the moment lol