Love is Love

Today was a monumental day of victory in the battle of equality.  I am elated with joy and have been crying tears of happiness all morning.  The Diva and the Wildman are very confused; in their innocence, they only relate tears with sadness.  I keep reassuring them that I am not sad but ecstatically happy. 

If the Wildman only knew that he was a part of history before he could crawl.  When he was just a baby he was strapped to my body as we worked diligently along the lines of history in California protesting Proposition 8.  Together with my brother and his amazing husband we stood on the streets proudly holding our signs in support of human rights.  We pounded the pavement handing out literature, we stood in the parking lots of precincts on voting day, him wearing his homemade "I Love My Uncles" shirt.  Sadly on Nov. 4, 2008, hate and fear overruled love and equality, but today the Supreme Court changed that with two monumental votes, one for the state of California and one for  LGBT rights nationwide. 

While this is a step in the right direction, it is still that...just a step.  There is still so much work to be done in this country where only 13 out of 50 states have equal rights for their citizens.  I will continue to stand up and use my voice until every man and woman have the same rights.  I will continue to fight for equality on behalf of my brother and sister.  I will promote and teach my children love and acceptance for everyone. I will do this for the future of my children and of every other child in this country so that they can grow up never having to be afraid of being themselves.

Look for the Helpers

It seems every time we turn on the TV these days we are overwhelmed by tragedy.  The bombings  yesterday at the Boston Marathon sadden, scare and shock me.  I am shocked at such a cowardly attack during a tradition that promotes unity and goodwill.  An article in the Guardian stated it so clearly:

"Marathon running has a long tradition of celebrating, commemorating, and affirming life. It's the only sport in the world where if a competitor falls, the others around will pick him or her up. It's the only sport in the world open to absolutely everyone, regardless of gender, age, ethnicity or any other division you can think of.  It's the only sport in the world where no one ever boos anybody. "  

But yesterday instead of celebrating the human spirit we are in mourning.  The images of the chaos, the fear, and the pools of blood on the streets.  Images of OUR men, women and children laying in the streets limbless, clinging to life are etched in my mind.  But also etched in my mind are the men and women who instead of running from the chaos ran to it to help those hurt.  These are the images and the stories I choose to hold onto.  

I will hold onto the image of the young man who was running in the marathon who ripped off his shirt with his running bib still attached to use it as a tourniquet for someone he had never met.  I will hold onto the image of this story, of the family that was in front of the 2nd explosion.  When the explosion went off the father threw his 2 young children to the ground and covered them with his body and then another man, a complete stranger then covered that man with his body and told him to stay down.  These among many other stories and images of bravery are what I choose and what I need to hold onto so that I do not lose faith in humanity. As Gandhi says 

"You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty."

Give Me Back My Hour and Nobody Gets Hurt...

So I'm just going to put it out there...Daylight Savings sucks monkeyballs!!  I can honestly say I see no good out of losing an hour of sleep especially when the true effect of it doesn't hit until a Monday.  Why can't we turn our clocks back on Friday?  It really would be easier for everyone to have the whole weekend to adjust. Or better yet, just stop changing the clocks all together.

Here's the scene this morning at my kids preschool.  I arrive 10 minutes past the "acceptable" drop off time.  Technically they want all the kidlets there at 8:45am, but no later than 9:00am...well yeah that works except for the whole losing an hour ordeal.  So, I arrive at 9:10am dreading the entire drive over about how late we are...but as I pull in it is apparent that I am not the only parent struggling this morning.  I take the Diva in first and am met by 3 other mom's coming out of the school and 2 other mom's going in...we all look at each other and laugh.  We could have all been the starring zombies in the Night of the Living Dead...bags under our eyes, hair disheveled and obviously just gathered and tossed into a clip or under a hat, no brushing required.  We are all grateful at this time that we are not the only one sucking at mommyhood today.

If I'm being honest, it's amazing that we even made it there as early as we did.  I am not too proud to admit that it took a lot of self deprecating behavior and bribery to get us there this morning, because hell hath no fury like a tired child.  It was like waking the dead, only I think it would have been easier to actually wake the dead.  It took me 45 minutes to get the Diva and the Wildman out of bed, and that's just out of bed and then there is cuddling time on the couch to try and get rid of Mr. Grumpy Gills so that they will even sit down and eat breakfast.  I may or may not have instituted "doing da butt" in order to instill laughter and a better disposition on behalf of the Wildman.

What can I say, it worked but then it backfired, because instead of getting ready, they followed me around the house saying "Mom do the butt dance again" *sigh*

So really what other options do you have at this point?  Insert bribery.

Now before you judge, it wasn't a whole candy bar, just one "bite size" piece of as they call it "Mommy's Special Chocolates"...and you know what it worked with amazing speed.  Nothing moves faster than a kid who knows that once they get their boots and jackets on, and their bottoms are secured safely in their car seats then they can have a piece of a candy.

I'm not proud but you do what you have to do.

If you give me 3 hours...

The kiddos are off having dinner with the ex tonight, so I thought I would take advantage of my 3hr break from Mommyhood and go out and have a nice dinner.  A real dinner complete with a waiter, a salad, an entree and someone else cleaning up afterwards.  Dreams are nice to have right?  Well here's the reality of my evening:

The kids leave, I collapse onto the couch and soak in the quiet for a few moments.  Pull out the laptop, read the news and then make the mistake of logging onto Facebook.  

I decide I'll just have a little snack while I figure out what I'm going to do for dinner.  A half pound of pistachios and an hour later...remember that I still need to go to the grocery store before the kids come home.  Think momentarily that I'll just go to dinner and make the grocery store trip tomorrow with the kids...yeah that's not going to happen.  Hastily throw on my boots and head to the grocery store.  Now I don't know what it is or why when I get the rare trip to the grocery store by myself it's like I'm in a slow motion movie.  I enter this trance and I find myself wandering through the store like I don't have a care in the world...oh look chips are on sale...I better stock up on these...oh and the Wildman's favorite cereal is 50% off...better grab a couple boxes of that too...I think I'll check and see what K-cups they have while I'm here even though I absolutely cannot fit anymore into my coffee cabinet...oh what do you know, the Starbucks K-cups are on sale, well I guess I could just store them downstairs in the pantry/laundry room alongside all the chips and cereal that I have no room for in my cabinets...Oh what's that, I've just wasted almost 45 minutes in the friggin grocery store when all I came to get was milk and bananas??  Time check...an hour until the kids are back well looks like it's Taco Bell for dinner...yeah that worked out well.

Moral of the story, if you give me 3 hours to myself I will get absolutely nothing done...well at least I remembered the milk and the bananas.

Tooth Fairy Fail

So you only get that one first chance at creating the magical essence of the Tooth Fairy...apparently I failed.  

So the Wildman lost his 1st tooth last night, it was very exciting.  I busted out the 49er Tooth Fairy Pillow that the Mouth had used since his 1st tooth fell out 12 years ago with gusto and pride of the traditions that I get to once again celebrate.  Wildman proudly placed his tooth in the pocket and placed it under his pillow with his dreams and fantasies of the riches that will be coming his way...so at this point you might be thinking "Oh dear god, woman did you really forget to sprinkle the magic dust?"  

No of course not, because I am SuperMom by day and Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny and Santa Claus by night.  I waited patiently for the boy to fall asleep then worked my magic.  I slipped the tooth out and placed a one dollar bill in its place.  I dreamt of the excitement he would have in the morning on finding a whole dollar for one little tooth...these dreams were short lived.

When I awoke the dear "angel" this morning, he immediately put his hand under his pillow before even opening his eyes to check his treasure.  He looked in the pocket and instead of "wows" I got "ehhhh wahhh uhhhhh" as the pillow was chucked across my bed.  

WildMan:  "The tooth fairy didn't come" ...

NotSuperMom: Retrieving said pillow "yes she did look there's a dollar" 

WM:  "That's stupid"  taking the dollar bill and crumpling it up & throwing it across the room.
"That's not what I wanted."

SM:  Thinking it but not saying it WTF?? Instead, being calm & loving "What is it that you wanted?"

WM:  "A coin"

Alllll-righty then....so I tried to trade him 4 quarters for the bill...but he only wanted 1 quarter...which at this point him already being in a cranky mood also chucked said quarter across the room.

And this is why some animals eat their young.

It could have been so magical