Monkeys in the house

"Why is the mommy upset about the monkeys?" asked K while listening to the TMBG song "One Dozen Monkeys."
"Probably because she doesn't want them in her house."
"Why not?"
"I bet they would make a huge mess. Can you imagine if we had monkeys in our house? It would be chaos!" (I made faces and waved my arms and jumped up and down to demonstrate chaos.) "What do you think monkeys would do in our house?"
"They would... take off my shirt," answered K, who was getting dressed.
"Yes, and wear it! And they would swing from the chandeliers, and climb the bookcases, and jump on the tables."
"And they would take off your necklace, and wear it. And they would take off your watch, and EAT it!" said K, getting enthused about the house monkeys. "And they would take off my shirt and put it on a monkey! And they would dump out all my toys, and..."
"Stomp on them!"
"Stomp on them! And they would get in the new car, and press all the buttons! And they would turn on this!"
"The fire extinguisher? That would make an even bigger mess!"
"They would turn on the fire effinger, and then the firefighters would come!"
"They would? What would the firefighters do?"
"They would say, 'MONKEYS! GET OUT! GET OUT, MONKEYS! You don't belong in a house! This is somebody else's house!' And then they would make the monkeys go back to the zoo! And they would clean up the mess."
Hooray for firefighters! Take that, monkeys!

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Sock pocket

Sometimes toddlers say things that just make you want to squeeze them. Yesterday K announced that at school, he had "learned the dance of the hokey pokey" (which he pronounced "hockey puckey"). Then he said, "Mommy! Why are you squeezing me?"


My favorite is "sock pocket." He says the word "puppet" for any other variety, but he always refers to the sock kind as a sock pocket.  K is in the throes of the Terrible Threes, throwing tantrums left and right, but all is forgiven when he says "sock pocket."

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Corporate law in a nutshell

I usually probe K for details about his day. Today he turned the tables on me.

K: "How was your day? Tell me EVERYTHING you did today."
Me: "Everything?"
K: "Everything!"
Me: "Well, I did a lot of work --"
K: "What kind of work?"
Me: "I read a lot and learned things."
K: "Like what?"
Me: "I learned about... uh, securities filings."
K: "What's that?"
Me: "Well, some people have a business. A business means they sell things and get money. Sometimes when they get money, they have to tell a bunch of people called the SEC. But it's hard to talk to the SEC and my job is to help with that."
K: "What does SEC mean?"
Me: "The Securities Exchange Commission."
K: "The Sec--"
Me: "So, did you do macaroni art today?"

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Community involvement

Last fall, I ran unsuccessfully for local office. (48-51%!) Now I have two opportunities, both related. One is to join the board of a local nonprofit that I volunteered for in the past. The other is to join a town strategic and planning effort. I can only do one at most.

I went to the nonprofit board meeting last night. It seems like a great group of people and I fully support the organization. The board is already pretty large and active. I'm not sure what I would really contribute, other than another person willing to work. They officially meet once a month on a weekday evening, but in practice it seems to be about 2-3 times a month plus additional time for projects individually or in small groups. The board focuses heavily on fundraising.

I think I'm more interested in joining the town committee, but it seems like a bigger time commitment with more scheduled evening meetings. The town committee has the potential to give me some insight and input into town government. It also has the potential to be bureaucratic and pointless. If I'm interested in running for the same office again in two years, then I really should do it. (I'm not sold on that, though. As my campaign manager JW will tell you, I HATED being a candidate, but did it because it was something I cared about and I thought that I could make a real contribution. Then again, being on this committee would definitely help me decide whether I wanted to run again.) The committee work would be over at the end of September.

Either opportunity would be good for me in various ways -- more involvement with the community, meet people, learn stuff. Being on the nonprofit board might indirectly help with work, since I work with nonprofits fairly often. Being on the committee might put me in a position to help the nonprofit, which will be affected by the committee's decisions. My civic-minded husband would like to see me do one, even though he would never push me in any direction. I also started getting to know people in town, and had people in town starting to get to know me, through the campaign. If I don't get involved again, I feel like I'll lose that.

But I'm reluctant to add another commitment to my life. Work is demanding, the kid is demanding, the marriage is mostly on autopilot, and I'm starting my exercise routine again. I know it's not much, but even juggling work, home, and health sometimes feels overwhelming right now. I feel like adding something would tip the balance from overwhelming to impossible.

I have until the end of the month to decide.

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The thrill of the first time

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: JW <jw@mail.com>
Date: 2010/1/14
Subject: I just looked up a law!!!
To: CM <cm@mail.com>


49 C.F.R. § 1244.9 !

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Post-holidays

Christmas:

K had fun at Grandma and Grandpa's, as always. It was his first Christmas when he understood what was going on. He was wary Christmas morning when all the grown-ups kept asking him a little too enthusiastically, "Do you think Santa came?" He scowled at everyone and silently ate the leftover carrot and cookie scraps left by Santa and the reindeer, but perked up when he got his stocking. K's haul consisted mainly of way too much Thomas stuff, plus various motor vehicles. He got so much that we actually didn't give him our present -- an engine shed and a new piece of track -- and decided to save it for his birthday instead.

I cut down considerably on my usual baking and candymaking. I made peanut butter kisses (using Hershey's Meltaways -- big mistake, but Target was all out of the normal kisses) and rugelach (which turned out fine despite my dough troubles), and included some imported torrone from a shop in our neighborhood. I also made a separate batch of biscotti for my mother-in-law, who is perpetually dieting but will eat those.

New Year's:

Dr. Mrs. and Dr. Mr. CT came to visit! We haven't seen them in so long. I really miss having them in town.

My brother, my sister-in-law, and their 18-month old daughter came to visit too. It was fun having both kids in the house. K enjoyed having a playmate. As soon as he saw his little cousin, he complimented her pajamas and offered her a train to play with. He also bossed her around and scolded her all weekend ("M! Don't step on the tracks! DON'T DO IT!"), but she didn't seem to care.

Instead of exchanging Christmas presents, the grown-ups decided to get a babysitter and go out for a fancy dinner. We went to L'Espalier, which used to be my go-to special occasion place. Now that it's moved from a Beacon Hill townhouse to a hotel, it's lost a lot of its charm for me. Still, it was a great dinner and a nice chance to be an adult for a few hours.

To figure out whether I should be drinking wine at dinner, I peed on a stick. JW was getting a little excited, but I cautioned him that it was probably a false alarm. It was. But it occurred to me that (1) I really don't want our next kid to be timed so that I have maternity leave through the dead of winter, and (2) if I could go back in time, maybe I should have tried to get pregnant last year and have the kid this spring or summer. (Although now that I think of it, that would have put me in my first trimester during the bar exam. Not ideal.)

Back at work:

Things have been busier and I've been getting lots of new startup technology clients, which is exactly what I wanted. I got a "you didn't get a bonus" memo, which is fine since I was nowhere near making my hours. The new first-years are arriving and I'll be going through training with them. It'll be interesting to see how, if at all, things change once they arrive.

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