May 9, 2008
This week I would like to dedicate my “Walk of Shame” post to Kathie Lee’s Today show segment on “Mommy Bloggers.” If you somehow missed the segment, you can see it here.
Shame on Kathie Lee for not researching the subject of blogging before actually participating in a segment on it.
Shame on Kathie Lee for expressing an opinion when she had no idea what she was really talking about. She should have deferred to her partner, Hoda Kotb, stuck with the script or actually allowed Heather Armstrong to speak. I know I would have liked to hear more about her actual experience as a “mommy blogger” instead of hearing about Kathie Lee’s assumptions.
Shame on Kathie Lee for not even realizing she has her own blog.
Shame on Kathie Lee for accusing Heather Armstrong and other “Mommy Bloggers” of violating their children’s privacy when she was notorious for “yakking” about Cody and Cassidy ad nauseum for 10 years of Live with Regis and Kathy Lee.
Shame on Kathie Lee (and the Today Show) for dismissing the impact of blogging on our culture and diminishing the role of women in general (”yakking on the phone”). Considering that 152,005,525 people visited WordPress.com-hosted blogs in April, it appears as if Kathie Lee’s segment just confirmed how out of touch she is.
What were your thoughts on the Today Show segment? What do you think about blogging and “mommy bloggers”?
Mary Kate
May 8, 2008
Are you struggling to communicate with someone in an unfamiliar language? Well, I do and I have a really great computer translation site that I use that you might find helpful, Babel Fish Translation*. It has definitely made communicating with my mother-in-law a whole lot easier.
I may have mentioned once (or twice) that my mother-in-law watches Becca when I am working and that she only speaks a little bit of English. This wouldn’t be such a big deal except that I don’t speak a lot of Spanish. Over the years, I have managed to pick up some rudimentary Spanish (Cuanto tiempo Becca durmió? - How long did Becca sleep?) and situational Spanish (Cómo usted dice esto? - How do you say this?- pointing to an object) In general, this has worked out pretty well for us. But every once in a while, we run into a situation that requires a more sophisticated vocabulary and I have found that the Babel Fish site allows me to do that (it offers 36 different language translation options).
While I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the translations, I do know that they have definitely helped my MIL and I through some very sticky situations. I will type in the 2-3 (or 6-7) sentences and then read it to my MIL. Sometimes it is necessary for me to repeat what I have said (my pronunciation is horrendous) and a few times it has been necessary for my MIL to read the actual screen. But in every case, it has helped us to talk about our feelings and Becca in a way that we couldn’t do without the site.
What tips/tricks do you have for translating between languages (or dealing with your MIL ;))? I would love to hear them!
Hasta luego,
Mary Kate
*like all of my reviews (so far 
), I was not solicited to review this site and did not receive any compensation (in any form) to review it. It has been a lifesaver for me and I thought other people could benefit from it as well.
May 7, 2008
Click here for other amazing Wordless Wednesday participants. If you are participating in Wordless Wednesday, leave a comment so I can check out your picture of the week!
Happy Wordless Wednesday!
Mary Kate
May 5, 2008
Last night I had plans to go see a movie with my best friend. Because I don’t get out much (surprise, surprise), I thought I’d get a little “dolled” up and at least make an effort to not smell like spit up.
I should preface this story by saying that I was definitely NOT one of those people who had a baby and immediately lost 40 lbs, walking out of the hospital in skinny jeans. I was swollen for weeks after giving birth and I’m still a good 20 lbs heavier than I was before I got pregnant. And to put things in perspective - John Patrick is about to turn 5 months. So all of these things have gotten me a little down and somewhat self-conscious. And I’ve been struggling with being a Mommy but also being a woman and wanting to put myself back together a little bit.
Back to the story…..
So last night I took a shower. I put on my pre-pregnancy jeans. (Ok, I couldn’t breathe, but they were buttoned at least!) I straightened my hair, actually put makeup on and wore a cute new top with an empire waist to hide the fact that my stomach is still a big mess. I was starting to feel better. And yes, I’ll say it. I was looking good (so I thought). I listened to my IPOD all the way to the theater and “Seal” got me into the going out on the town mood. I was feeling like I was back. In my head, I was telling myself, “Ok, I’m not a size 8 but I look pretty good for a Mom and I’m getting back to my old self slowly.” I met up with my friend, saw a great documentary and then we decided to go for a couple of drinks afterward.
As we left the theater it happened. The mother of all insults. The big one. The big Kahuna. The usher at the theater said……………….
“Goodnight, and Congratulations!” At which point I saw the look of horror on my friend’s face as she asked “for what?” This is the point where he pointed at me and said “because she’s PREGNANT“.
So self-esteem shot…….
Someone pass the donuts.
Jen
May 3, 2008
wah, wah, wah…
As my eyes adjusted to the dark, I tried to figure out what was the best course of action. Was this an attention-seeking cry or a problem cry? I decided to give it a few minutes and see if Becca would settle back down again.
Wah, WAH, WWWW-AAA-HHH rattle-rattle
Clearly, she wasn’t settling down. When I walked into her room, I could see her sitting up in bed, crying and flapping her arms. When I reached down to pick her up, I could feel that the outside of her sleeper was wet and her mattress was wet. There was actually a puddle of urine in her crib. Ugh!!!!
It was 2 a.m. and I needed to be up by 6 so I needed to resolve this situation pretty quickly. As I changed her clothes, I questioned whether to change her sheet, tempted to just bring her into bed with us. I pondered my options as I balanced the diaper in my hand. It was diaper was filled to the brim with liquid and must have weighed a few pounds minimum. I didn’t dare to wrap it closed (like I normally would) for fear that urine would squirt in every direction like a burst water balloon. In the interest of keeping Becca in her own bed, I changed the crib sheet (a ton of fun at 2 a.m.), wrapped up all the bedding in a dry towel and rocked Becca for a few minutes before putting her back to bed.
As I rocked her, I drowsily tried to figure out what happened. In the effort to night wean Becca, I had given her quite a bit of juice/water right before bed. As I changed her into her pjs, I had questioned whether or not to change her diaper and opted not to change it (it didn’t feel wet). Now I wondered if maybe I should have changed it.
When Becca calmed settled down again, I carefully placed her back into her crib, covered her with a dry blanket and stumbled back to bed.
Mary Kate
May 2, 2008
Life is always just a tad bit different living in NYC.
My daycare has a policy that parents must put little scrub-like booties over their shoes before entering classrooms. I think it’s a brilliant policy. Can you imagine walking all over the streets of New York then walking into an infant room and seeing babies crawling all over the floor? Yuck! So everyday I either put on the booties before entering John Patrick’s classroom or I take my shoes off.
Remember Monday? Remember how it rained and rained and rained? Well, this threw me off for some reason. I think it was dealing with the plastic cover over the stroller. Why do they make those so complicated? Anyway, after a long battle with 5 pounds of plastic, bundling John Patrick, and gathering up bottles, messy clothes, pacifiers and a gigantic diaper bag, I felt pretty ready to make the 4 block trudge home in the rain.
As I walked home, getting more and more soaked with each step (of course I don’t have a rain coat on or an umbrella), I happen to look down only a block away from my house. Low and behold, what do I see on my feet? You guessed it, the bright blue booties over my rain boots. As I laughed out loud, the first thought that popped in my head was - I’m doing the mommy mush-brain walk of shame today!
And you know what I love about New York? No one on the street even gave me a second glance. Because somehow here walking in the rain with paper scrubs covering your rain boots isn’t all that crazy. Ha!
Jen
May 1, 2008
According to Dr. Sears, I am on the right track in my attempt at raising Becca to speak Spanish and English. He confirms what I have read and heard from others:
- Each parent should speak one language - The child connects the language to one particular parent and does less switching between the languages. This has been harder to do then I expected. Since my MIL speaks mostly Spanish, I find that we often speak Spanish or “spanglish” at home.
- Speak the minority language at home - A number of people had mentioned that when a child starts school it can be hard to maintain the second language. So I was thinking it might be helpful to switch exclusively to Spanish at home once Becca is in school. This definitely encourages me to do that (and it encourages me to improve my own Spanish).
Becca has been making progress with speaking English and Spanish and seems to respond to both. Right now, I would say that she has more Spanish words than English. I am okay with that because she is being exposed to English and I know she will definitely pick it up at school. I also want to make sure that she is exposed to her Mexican culture and her Irish-American culture. It is important to me that she is proud of her heritage. My biggest concern right now is that she is exposed to quality Spanish and quality English. If she is just learning ’spanglish’ than we are wasting our time.
Mary Kate
P.S. If you would like to read the rest of the article, click here for the link.
April 30, 2008
Playing in the Grass after dinner
Click here for other amazing Wordless Wednesday participants. If you are participating in Wordless Wednesday, leave a comment so I can check out your picture of the week!
Mary Kate
April 28, 2008
I was honored to be tagged by Jersey Girl89 of My Dirty Little Secret for this meme because I think she is pretty cool.
(By the way, the pictures in this post are from Omar and my current project -random info #3.)
The rules:
a. Link to the person who tagged you.
b. Post the rules on your blog.
c. Write six random things about yourself.
d. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
e. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment at their blog.
f. Let your tagger know when your entry is up.
I am not sure how fascinating my responses are but here are six bits of random information about me:
- This is my third attempt at writing this post. I spent 20-30 minutes yesterday morning writing this and I have a clear memory of clicking “publish” when I completed the post but can’t seem to find the completed version anywhere. I guess it disappeared into the ether. Last night, I rewrote the post but I clicked “refresh” at an inopportune moment and ended up reverting back to an earlier draft. ARGH!!!! So here I am again- one last time!
- At some point in my life, I have lived in a suburban, rural or urban area. I lived in Passaic County until I was about 13 and currently live in a suburban area (I have 4+ malls to choose from within a 10 mile radius of my house). In Middle School, my family moved to a town in Maine with a population of <2,500 (It had two traffic lights, one that blinked on Sundays and I had to drive 45 miles to the nearest mall.) I then attended College in Westchester County and lived in Stuyvesant Town and East Harlem (I didn’t need a mall because I could get anything my heart desired in a 10 block radius of my house).
- Omar and I are in the process of putting together a swing set for Becca. We are at the point in the project when I can not envision it ever being completed. I am also worried that it might be too big for our small yard and I am not 100% sure that our relationship will survive this particular project.
- I was a clown in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and have the Clown College certificate to prove it.
- I also walked in the St. Patrick’s Day parade a few times with my dad. I am sure if I looked though a few boxes I could unearth one of the sashes that I wore. I guess I have a thing about parades.
- I have a strange irrational fear of being accosted by a Mud Monster thanks to watching this movie with a babysitter when I was 10. I remember watching in shock and horror as the Mud Monster jumped from around the corner and his hand continued to move after it was severed (The severed hand is the left picture in the the bottom row. Somehow it doesn’t look quite as scary here). For years after watching this movie, I hesitated before walking around any corner and hated turning off the light at night.
Choosing who to tag is tough. I enjoy memes but I am not sure that everyone does. I decided to tag a few of the blogs who I enjoy reading. So even if they don’t complete the meme, they are definitely worth checking out:
Amy of Adventures in Being
Jen of Amazing Trips
Danielle of New Mommy Rant
K8Spade of Rockin the Suburbs
Michele S of Three + One = Four Times the Fun
WWA at Woman With a Hatchet
I am excited to see the amazing and interesting random information that they share!
Mary Kate
One of Becca’s favorite activities is to grab my keys and walk around the house “unlocking” things. It is just a reminder that she does not miss a trick!
