Magic Cookie: Pitch Perfect

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Sunday, 23 June 2013

Family update

Posted on 04:44 by Unknown
Facebook keeps trying to get me to confirm personal information like where I'm "from" and where I went to high school. It has very plausible guesses and asks me to pick one. (I put "from" in quotes because they've nailed all three of the places I would say that I'm "from," depending on who I'm talking to.) It's creepy, but not at all surprising, that they know so much about me. There is certain information I withhold from Facebook on purpose, not that it matters much since they can figure it out with about 90% accuracy.

K is almost done with kindergarten! He has ten end-of-year thank-you cards to write this weekend, for which I am bribing him with blue Gatorade. (Every time we're at the store, "MOM! Pleeeease! All the boys drink it!" Since when is Gatorade a thing? For kindergarteners?) We went to his "end-of-year celebration" which consisted of an interminable slideshow and K showing off his work for the year. I smiled at Volume 1 of his writing journal, an illustrated report of our daily doings ("We went to Costco," "We visited Grandma"). I was dismayed at Volume 2. The writing was better, but every single page was about video games. ("I got into the biggest castle and defeated the Koopa!" "Today we got a new Megaman game. I am so excited!") EVERY page. Not sure what, if anything, we should do about that.

X continues to be ridiculously adorable and to act basically like a normal 2-year old, which is why I feel like I write more about K here than about X. But I'm more conscious with X that this is the last time we're going to have a toddler around the house. While folding X's laundry, I got an email from a relative with pictures of her son's high school graduation. I looked at the puppy pajamas in my hands (the shirt says "Best Friends") and imagined X, who just stopped saying "bummy" and "pobby" instead of "bunny" and "potty," as a teenager. Then I immediately put back my phone and went back to folding so I didn't have to think about that again.

JW is gearing up for another election day this Tuesday. It seems like they never end around here. It's a domino effect as one politician ascends to a higher seat and then we have a special election for their seat.

K and I made a list of "Spectacular Things To Do This Summer." I was hoping to cross berry picking off the list today, but K vetoed. He voted for the ice cream store instead. We'll see.

We're finally getting to that glorious stage I've heard about from other parents, where the boys will play together and entertain themselves for long stretches. Yesterday they played Legos on the porch for about twenty minutes! I actually sat down and read a book. Growing up isn't all bad.
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Monday, 17 June 2013

MILP Roundup #308

Posted on 18:12 by Unknown
The weekly Mothers In the Legal Profession Roundup is hosted on a rotating basis at the Attorney at Large, Butterflyfish, PT Law Mom, Attorney Work Product, BJJ, Law, and Living, Reluctant Grownup, and Magic Cookie blogs.
 
This edition of the roundup covers the week of June 10-16.

Izzie is weighing her job options.
Alice has thankful children.
Attorney at Large protests pinkwashing at the science museum.
Lag Liv is proud that her husband is back on the entrepreneurial horse... even though it means a lot of sacrifice.
Legally Certifiable takes a call from an irate would-be client.
Kate is trying to figure out what the near future will bring.
Grace has had a lot going on.
Mommy Madness reflects and eats ribs.
Butterflyfish is swimming in produce.
CP is struggling to stay afloat.
Daisy's little Gracie was baptized.
I pulled an all-nighter.
Cowgirl in the City is looking for book suggestions.
The Reluctant Grownup has a three-year old.

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Friday, 14 June 2013

Kid snapshot

Posted on 08:54 by Unknown
X and K have been walking to school holding hands. It is the most adorable thing. And it takes forEVER between K's dawdling and X's constant stopping to examine sticks.

In the Carnival of the Animals, the kids in K's class were all swans.


Words and phrases X shouts out when he's excited:
Easter beagle
Garbage truck
BAX-etball

X also yells the alphabet song and "Twinkle, Twinkle" at the top of his lungs.
When anyone starts a sentence with "Who..." X immediately shouts, "ME!"
If you ask X if he wants something, he will thrust out his hand and demand "FIVE."
X's favorite phrase is "MY turn," which he says instead of "Do it myself."

I feel like we have mostly tamed X's violent nature... mostly. But rarely and unexpectedly, he turns on us. The other day he brought the snake stick up over his head and then whacked it down on K's back as hard as he could. I don't know what to do when I try to discipline him and he laughs. I gave him an extra-long timeout and tried to explain that hitting hurts people and that is not acceptable.



K was lamenting that his light saber hadn't arrived in the mail yet. I told him that once he had his light saber and his mask, he'd be unstoppable. He heaved a sigh and said, "MOM. A light saber and a mask don't make you unstoppable. You need ARMOR to be unstoppable." (I know what we're doing tonight. Cardboard + hole + aluminum foil and markers = armor!)

This morning when I was getting dressed for work in my most basic cold-weather work uniform of cardigan, shell, and pants, K said, "You look great!" He'll often give me unsolicited compliments on my appearance. And X has developed a cute habit of saying I'm beautiful, and I tell him he's beautiful too, and he laughs and says, "NO beautiful. YOU beautiful!"

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Tuesday, 11 June 2013

All nighter

Posted on 09:13 by Unknown
Yesterday I pulled a real, honest-to-goodness all-nighter. No sleep. I am too old for this shit.

You know what was worse? I sent the contract out at a quarter to five, and ten minutes later the partner responded! And at 6:30 he sent me a list of questions!

But I didn't respond to his questions at 6:30 because when I got home at 6 a.m. I immediately started unpacking backpacks and packing lunches and slicing strawberries and rinsing sippy cups.

Law students, are you listening? This could be your glamorous biglaw life one day. Study hard, kids.
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Monday, 10 June 2013

Monday night

Posted on 19:20 by Unknown
Around 7:30 p.m., when I was eating dinner in my office, a partner knocked on my closed door and then, as partners are wont to do, pushed it open. "I know you're really swamped," he said, "and I don't want to stress you out. Do you have any time?" I shook my head and shrugged apologetically, with a mouth full of tortellini.

And, miracle of miracles, he LEFT.

(But we'll see if he reappears tomorrow.)

Meanwhile, I'm drafting a contract that I would really enjoy if I had more than a day to do it, and in an effort to quell my anxiety, I am on my second dessert. As I am wont to do.

---

While I'm here, here's a weekend recap. The weekend turned out to be unexpectedly beautiful. Saturday was a laundry and grocery shopping day, with lots of playing on the porch. X's new Dora play kitchen, a freecycle find, was a hit. In the evening X noticed a FIRE TRUCK pull up outside our next door neighbor's house. We went out to see, along with several other neighbors and their dogs. It was just a malfunctioning carbon monoxide detector. Everybody was fine and the kids were all excited to see the fire truck and the dogs.

Sunday morning X and I made chocolate chip muffins. I didn't really need to use the stand mixer, but X loves it so much that I did anyway. I discovered after mixing up the dough that the giant bag of chocolate chips only had a few sad chips scattered at the bottom, so I took the kids out for a pajama walk to 7-11 and we took a long detour to the playground. After the muffins were eventually cooked and eaten, K and I delivered the leftovers around the neighborhood.

K set up a booth on the sidewalk: "Psychiatric help, 5 cents. The doctor is in." X had to have a booth too. Some of the neighbor kids came over to play in the driveway. They wanted to sit in the booths and K got mad and went inside. X rode the tricycle, and the scooter, and pushed the toy lawnmower. I chased him down the street to the neighbor's house. They were all still at our house.

K has been begging for months for a light saber to replace the one he got for his fifth birthday that mysteriously disappeared shortly afterwards, never to be seen again. I told him if he did three extra good things, he could get a new one. He enlisted X to help him pick up all the Legos without my asking, went canvassing for Ed Markey with Daddy, and cleaned up his entire room and the playroom. I told him I preferred him doing nice things for other people, but since I didn't entirely think the parameters through at the beginning, I deemed his light saber earned. Target was all out so he got a ninja mask and a promise that we'd order the light saber on Amazon.

Saturday I spent X's entire naptime cutting fabric panels. Sunday night I ironed and hemmed. I'm finally making those curtains that I bought the fabric for months ago. I am DIY-challenged, so this is a big step for me.

And I didn't do any work all weekend. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. So here I am.
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Friday, 7 June 2013

You might be a corporate lawyer if...

Posted on 13:21 by Unknown
There's a store near me with a big sign outside saying "CAMBRIDGE BARK AND LOAM."

No matter how many times I see that sign, at least 60% of my brain remains powerfully convinced that it ought to say "Cambridge Bank and Loan."

(It's like those experiments where they see how fast you can identify the color when it says "yellow" in blue print. It just feels wrong.)
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Things I might tweet if I used Twitter

Posted on 08:19 by Unknown
But I don't because I would only have inane things to tweet. Like:

This morning I went out at 5 a.m. and literally saw a bird with a worm in its beak.

Today is National Donut Day. I was thinking I'd go to our local donut place and buy a donut for each of us for dessert. And then I thought while I was there, I probably wouldn't be able to resist getting a donut to eat for right then too. And then I saw a link at the bottom of the screen to an article called "Four Things You'll Feel Right Before a Heart Attack." (#4: Sticky glaze on your fingers.) So maybe not the best plan.

That would be too long to tweet anyway.
OK, bye.
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Tuesday, 4 June 2013

Throw pillows

Posted on 13:02 by Unknown
Somehow I have accumulated lots of home decorating blogs on my RSS feed, despite my own home being filled with plastic toys and unadorned Ikea furniture. Talk about aspirational reading.

Every single one of these blogs prominently features throw pillows, with at least half a dozen in every room. I think throw pillows are pretty. I understand how you can change up the decor just by changing a pillow cover. I get how they have a big impact without having to spend much money. But what do you do with all these pillows all over your house? Don't they get in the way when you try to use your furniture? If you have one of those hotel-style beds with ten pillows, do you sleep on a giant mound of them, or toss them aside every night and put them back every morning? I just saw a picture of a beautiful entryway with a little bench... with three throw pillows on it. How do you sit on the bench?

I may be biased against throw pillows because my kids THROW them. The few we have are usually on the floor. Any attempt to put them back on the couch is immediately thwarted. The couch cushions themselves are frequently on the floor. X gets very upset if you try to put them back so you can actually sit on the couch.

Also, while I appreciate the aesthetic qualities of small animal figurines, bowls, books that you have no intention of reading, and other purely decorative items, and the art of "styling" spaces with all these items so they look just right, I can't imagine going out and purposely buying a bunch of stuff I have no use for just because I think it will look pretty on a shelf. If I love it, yes, but that doesn't happen too often.

Not criticizing these blogs, which I enjoy reading, or the people who write them, whose skills I admire. I would love it if somebody came and rejiggered our house to look like the ones on the blogs. I've picked up some tips and inspiration, but clearly it's not all sinking in.
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Monday, 3 June 2013

Things I see on the Internet that annoy me

Posted on 14:14 by Unknown
Peak/peek/pique: You get a "sneak peek" into something that "piques your interest" because it can help you operate at "peak efficiency." For some reason people tend to use "peak" exclusively.

"First world problems": This is so dismissive. We're all happy that we're not living in a slum with inadequate food and healthcare. We're still allowed to be dissatisfied with parts of our lives.

Instructions telling us all how to behave according to our genders: Just stop already.

Also, speaking of things I see on the Internet, I have seen a zillion references to the cute Cheerios commercial with the interracial family and how everyone is outraged over racist comments on YouTube. I think it's great for interracial families, and from a capitalistic point of view for Cheerios, that there's so much vocal support out there. But honestly? Most people who comment on YouTube are terrible, terrible people. I say this based on my experience primarily using YouTube for yoga videos, where I try not to glance at the comments because they go into unnecessary detail about the yoga instructor's figure and its effect on the viewer. If we're going to get outraged over YouTube comments, prepare for constant, massive anger. Anyway, yay interracial families, and while I don't much care for Cheerios, my multiracial children love them so yay Cheerios too.
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