I Have a Superpower

I've always wanted a superpower. Today I found out that I actually have one. It all started when I realized I was thirsty. I went into a local bakery and spotted an Honest Ade Cranberry Lemonade. Immediately, I started salivating. I knew I needed it. I hadn't even handed the money to the cashier. I couldn't wait. I cracked open the beverage and before I knew it it was gone in three sips. I have this to say about you, Honest Ade:

Apparently I can destroy beverages. I'm a pregnant superhero. Now I wanna know, what superpower do you have?

Judgment

Something has been on my mind lately. It's been itching to come out. But I couldn't quite figure out how to say it. I finally have the words. It's about judgment.

The truth is we all judge one another. I notice myself doing it. I see a mother on the street, and I don't agree with what she's feeding her kid, or the way she's talking to her child.

Recently, I've been judged. And guess what? I didn't like it. Not one bit. In fact, I feel like I've had the wind knocked out of me. It wasn't from one source, but from multiple parties. Each time I was judged I got angrier and angrier. What does this person know about me or my life? They don't know what my experience is.

I try as hard as I can to be the best mother that I can, to maintain order in my life, but not everyone will agree with my choices. Not every person is going to understand the way I parent, or the way I live my life for that matter.

We don't know what other people go through in life. We can't know what it's like to be them or have their experiences.

But when we judge people, we don't try to understand them, we simply apply a label to them:
"lazy" "mean" "push-over" etc.

Each time I was judged, I found myself wondering this:

I wish this person would try to understand where I'm coming from.

Though I know I will continue to judge others, because we all do it, I will try to better understand where the person in question is coming from, rather than applying a harsh judgment to them. I will attempt to do this because of how terrible I'm feeling right now, because I am so angry. I feel misrepresented and misunderstood, and I don't wish these feelings on anyone.

A Few Random Annoyances

I would like to express my dissatisfaction at the fact that all the maternity pants I own fall down constantly. I would also like to express my fear that the terrible twos will never end. Ari doesn't want to listen to me or do anything I tell him to do. That is all on this rainy Thursday. Wait, one more thing. Whatever you do, do not go to the grocery store hungry.

I Voted in My Pajamas

Despite my previously failed attempt to vote, I finally made it to the voting booth! Wil watched Ari, while my mom and I headed to the polls.


After I voted, one of the women volunteering at the polls looked at my outfit (which consisted of black tank top, blue and white pajama pants and a black winter coat) and my large pregnant belly and said:
"That baby is cold!"
"Actually, I'm always hot." I replied.
She laughed.

I'm so glad I got to vote! Thank you to everyone who harassed...I mean encouraged me to vote today!

Did you vote?

I Tried to Vote But...(Warning: If You're Gross Tolerance is Low Do Not Read)

Despite my level of extreme exhaustion, my mom convinced me to go out and vote today. We were all set to go. I managed to finagle Ari into the stroller after he danced around a tree that resides outside our building. We began to walk to the voting polls, and all at once I turned to my mom and said "Do you smell something?"
"No," she replied "Do you?"
"Yes, " I said tentatively "It smells like...dog shit!" I looked down at the stroller and my suspicions were confirmed. The area of the stroller where Ari rests his feet was covered in dog shit and so were the bottom of his sneakers as well as his jeans.

I wanted to cry.

So we did an immediate U-turn. I tried to come up with a plan for how to rectify this situation. First I called my dad to see if Ari had extra shoes downstairs. Hearing the urgency in my voice, he immediately came up stairs to see what was going on.
"I'll go hose down the shoe and the stroller." I said to my mom.
"No, no!" My mom said "Dad and I will deal with this. You're pregnant. You don't need to be touching dog shit."
"Um...okay." I said feeling insanely guilty. Once again i wanted to cry.
"I wanna go upstairs and see Egreck!" Said Ari
"I'll get him upstairs and give him a bath." I said to my mom, the tears already starting. I just wanted to vote, but at this point I was emotionally exhausted.
When I got Ari upstairs, I told him he had to take a bath.
He screamed "I don't wanna take a bath!" I managed to get him into the bath and then I started crying. Wil heard me and came in immediately.
"What's wrong?" He asked
I told him the whole story and he rubbed my back.
"Did you step in dog poop?" He asked Ari
"Yeah!" Said Ari proudly.
Needless to say, I didn't get to vote.

Halloween in D.C.!

Over Halloween weekend, we visited Wil's brother, his wife and their baby in Washington D.C. We drove down with Wil's parents, and as we passed through different cities, I made Ari repeat the names of each of them.
"Ari, we're in Philadelphia. Can you say it?"
"Phil-delfff-eee--uh!"
"Ari, we're in North Bethesda, can you say it?"
"Norfff Beffesssa!"
"Ari, We're in Washington, can you say it?"
"WASH---ton!"
"Good job!"

By the way, for those of you that are curious, Ari decided to be Buzz Lightyear for Halloween.


Here are some things we saw:


Ari did pretty well on the car ride, but when there was traffic he got restless. I wish I'd had some distracting car toys. He was uninterested in books or drawing.

Have you been on any trips with your kids lately? What do you find to be the ultimate travel toy(s)?

Box Art Courtesy of Fresh Direct

I previously wrote about what fun Ari and I had painting cardboard boxes with water colors.
Ari just wanted to share with you all the box gallery we've created courtesy of our used Fresh Direct boxes. For those of you that don't live on in the NYC area, Fresh Direct is an online grocery service where one can order his/her groceries to be delivered to your home. Now you may be thinking, "is Fresh Direct paying you to write this?" No, I just want to inform the people who don't live in New York what I'm talking about so they're not confused.

The Fresh Direct groceries arrive in cardboard boxes. Needless to say, we have a ton of empty cardboard boxes lying around that eventually make it to recycling. In the mean time, we've decided to make them look pretty. Ari wants you to take a look:




Now, you also may be thinking "Hey! That looks like a lot of fun! Why don't you send those pictures to Fresh Direct?"

Well, my great friend Josina suggested the same thing. I'm going to follow her advice and send these along. Let's see what Fresh Direct has to say...