The Short Cup at Starbucks

I learned about the Short cup at Starbucks about a year ago and I'm still surprised at how few people know about it. So today, I'm spreading the word. Power to the people!!!

The Short cup is the secret cup at Starbucks that's shorter, and cheaper, than the Tall cup. When I first heard it I didn't believe it. How many times have I gone to Starbucks and asked for a "small" only to be told, "Tall?". Plenty of times. Unless you ask for it, they won't give it to you. And when you do ask for it, they whip the cup out of a secret cabinet or from behind the counter where it can't be seen. But it exists, and they won't advertise it. I only need a little coffee to get my battery charged up in the mornings. So if your like me, go Short!

Spread the word.

Seeing Double

Two completely unrelated things:

(1) I found out why the nanny needed to take yesterday off - she was interviewing for a part-time nanny position that she will likely accept. The catch? It's from 6pm to 12am, 4 days a week! I immediately felt horrible. As a WOHM, I am completely sensitive to the how moms feel when they are forced to sacrifice quality time with their kids in order to pay the bills. She must feel terrible to have to miss the evenings with her 12-year-old daughter. And her daughter must be upset too. Not mention that her days will be exhausting. How I wish we could pay her more so that she wouldn't need to work a double shift.

(2) Speaking of double, I swear that when I looked in the mirror today I saw a DOUBLE CHIN. I almost fainted. I just asked my co-worker and she says I'm seeing things and that I'm wearing the pregnancy very well, but she's clearly lying to be nice. I. Saw. It.

Ugh.

Role Reversal

I ended up having a bit of an identity crisis this morning. The nanny needed to take today off and, once again, Hubby was the one to step in and stay home with the girls. I feel like he's been doing that a lot lately; way more than I have. It's mostly because he has a crazy amount of sick/vacation time that he can use, while I have barely any. Actually, I have 180 hours to be exact and I need to save it for maternity leave (which is a whole 'nother story). Anyway, just last Friday Hubby took Giggles to her 2-year doctor's appointment, and a couple of days before that he came home early to meet a contractor who needed to come to our house. On Monday of this week, he was the one home to meet the Peapod delivery man and unload the groceries (that I was too beat to shop for over the weekend). All in all, it seems like he is doing a lot of what I feel that I should be doing, as old-fashioned as it sounds. Of course, I consider us fortunate that he has the flexibility to adjust his schedule as we need it, and I'm glad that he is happy to do it, but still...as he dressed Giggles this morning and they went off to run errands together (I dropped Chatterbox at school), I couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness in my chest that, well, Mommy should have been the one to hang out with the kiddies today.

Or is Mommy becoming obsolete?

Think....think....think!!!!!

So, I'm already angry with DH today and then while taking a mental break, before coming home to deal with it and him, I get a call "Hi, I'm calling from RC....are you coming to pick up your daughter?" WTF......I'm confused. What do you mean? Her father is supposed to come get her? Where is he? Is she okay? Is she feeling abandoned because she is the last child at her school? Is she scared? Is he okay? What's going on????? I just don't understand. I start frantically running out to the car while crying and calling H and not receiving any response from his cell phone. Then I see I have a VM waiting about 3 minutes after daycare called - it's H. I have DD and my cell phone died.

I fly home crying all the way because I am scared for her and all of the memories from my childhood arise like never before. Of all the things I hated and remember the most about the absolute worst thing about my childhood was when my mother was late picking me up from school - which was often. I felt so scared and abandoned when I was a child, and I have had nightmares since becoming a mother about being late to pick up DD that it all came to a head today.

H comes home about 2 hours after picking up DD and tells me that he hasn't fed her and then gets on me because I'm angry.

Am I crazy because I'm angry?!?!?! I DON'T think so. He needs a freaking slap upside his head. Think.....Think.....Think!!!!! H - don't be such a jack-ass!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love It! Thursdays: Frozen Dinners

I'm a little sick (again) and I'm tired -- no surprise about that -- and I have DD tonight while DH works late AND I have to figure something out for dinner. I open the freezer hoping that there is something there to cook and low and behold I have one more Bertolli frozen meals. Voila!!!!! Dinner is done. I think - thank goodness I have this one last meal because I would have really been stuck. That's the inspiration for my LIT post - the convenience of Bertolli meals.

These meals can feed two adults as a main course or an entire family as a side dish. As you can imagine, they are quite often main courses around here. They're so inexpensive (I think I pay about $7 or $5.50 on sale) and they're very tasty and of course super convenient. The meals come in a variety of pasta dishes and best of all - DD likes them, and sometimes that's a difficult task.

So, I give Bertolli frozen dinners

It's A Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood

Imagine my delight to come home from work yesterday to find that: (1) one of our neighbors brought us some fresh-cut flowers from her yard; and (2) hubby had taken it upon himself to display them nicely for us in the kitchen.

It's a beautiful day for a neighbor.

Men Having Babies...!?!

I'm sure by now most of you have heard about the man, once a woman, now having a baby. If you haven't, the story in a nutshell is that a transgender man became a man about nine years ago by undergoing extensive hormone treatments and sexual reassignment surgery to remove her breasts and possibly add some body parts. The man, however, kept all of her reproductive organs. The hormone treatments allowed her to grow facial hair and soon the woman looked like a man. Later, the woman legally changed his sex to that of a man, meaning his driver's license and passport all identify him as a male. The man marries a woman, and because he is legally a man, there was no problem getting a marriage license (at least that's what the media is saying, but I can't confirm any or all of the above). They decide to have a family by using artificial insemination but discover the wife cannot conceive. The husband with all his female reproductive organs in tact eventually conceives and is now expecting a healthy baby due in July.

By no means do I mean to trivialize the emotional pain or the steps taken by a transgender person to finalize the sexual reassignment process, but that's generally what happens in most cases. While in law school I wrote a legal article on this very topic and the legal aspects of it all interests me greatly so when I hear things like this in the news, I'm pretty interested. So today, another story pops up on one of the news channels and while I was watching a the segment on it, in walks Oldest who decides to plop himself right next to me on the couch. The first thing he sees on the screen is a big photograph of man, with his shirt off, and his hand on his very pregnant belly. His reaction, "WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THAT!? Men can't have babies!!!"

What do you say to a six year old about this topic? I consider myself to be pretty liberal, but I must admit, I'm not sure exactly how I feel about all of this and I definitely do not know what to say to my six year old that analyzes every single thing almost like an adult. (I must say, the boy is pretty smart which can be good and not so good sometimes). While I'm thinking about what to say, he came up with the perfect answer, the picture must be fake. So I jump right in and say, yep, they just wanted to see what a man would like if he had a pregnant belly and I change the channel. Oldest decided that he didn't think it was funny because men are not supposed to have babies.

I'm not sure if that was the right answer, but for now, it was. I'm not ready to address these issues with him yet. Just the other day while I was looking for socks for Daughter, Oldest saw the section on training bras. Of course he had a lot of questions all while he took them off the hook and examined them. "Why are they so small?" "Why are they in the girls section?" "Do little girls wear these things too?" "Does Daugther need one??" Good grief, I was out there quick.

These conversations will come soon enough but I'm going to wait. Kids these days are growing up much faster than we did and are exposed to or discussing issues that we never did at that age. Training bras, maybe that's okay. But transgender males having babies, not so much.

Good Times.

Despite me being beyond exhausted from the pregnancy, yesterday was a good day.

First, I came home from work to find our cherry blossom trees in full bloom. I love them. They make me happy.

Aren't they making you happy too?

Then last night, at approximately 9:19pm, we became the eBay auction winners of the stroller that we wanted! Yahoo! We saved almost 50% off of the retail price. Gotta love the Internet. It was my first time actually participating in an auction on eBay -- I usually just use the "Buy It Now" feature. The even better news is that we lost an auction over the weekend for the same stroller from another seller and so I was bummed. But we got an even better deal last night than we would have the last time, and the one that we won comes with the manufacturer's warranty.

Now if I could only stay awake for it, I'm sure today is going to be a good day too.

Excuse Me While I Get Mushy for a Minute...

Do you ever have one of those moments? You know, one where you witness your husband do something as a dad that just warms your heart? I experienced one of those moments on Monday...

Sunday morning I took the girls to a(nother) birthday party and one of the party favors was, of course, a helium-filled balloon. Giggles clutched hers the entire way home but Chatterbox let hers go in favor of rifling through her candy-packed goodie bag. So...when we pulled into the driveway and I opened the back door to get the girls out of their carseats, Chatterbox's balloon escaped. OH. THE HORROR. You have no idea how crushed and upset she was to watch her balloon float higher and higher until we couldn't see it anymore. She was absolutely devastated. And of course, salt was only rubbed into her wound when she realized that Giggles still had hers.

Anyway, she told hubby about the balloon when he arrived home and then asked us about it all day and again before bed. He told her that he would try and see if he could find it the next day. So, Monday came and the day passed and I came home from work to see that hubby had stopped on his way home from work and bought two brand new helium-filled balloons for the girls. Chatterbox was beside herself with delight. And I was just so touched that hubby: (1) remembered the balloon incident; and (2) actually stopped to replace it.

It was a small thing, but it's times like these that you realize just how full with love for your husband your heart can get...Until he uses the last of the toilet paper on the roll without replacing it and you completely forget how wonderful he was just hours earlier.

But, for that one moment, he is just the best husband and dad in the world.

Meme-ries...

Ok, I am only about two weeks late in responding to this tag, but better late than never, right?

Thanks to Kim at Hormone Colored Daze for the tag!

Here are the rules:

A. Post the rules at the beginning.

B. Answer the questions about yourself.

C. Tag 5 people and let them know in a comment on their blogs that they have been tagged.

What Was I Doing 10 Years Ago?
I was in my junior year of college. I had just broken up with a long-time boyfriend and found out that I wasn't accepted to the sorority that I had applied for. It was a rough semester!

Snacks I Enjoy:
Most anything. I love snacks. I've nicknamed myself "The Snackmaster." Being pregnant all the time doesn't help. Here are some faves: Doritos; dry Frosted Mini-Wheats; ice cream bars; Bagel Bites; Saltines and white cheddar; french bread and Alouette Creme de Brie; Starburst; Mike and Ike's.

Five Things on my To-Do List Today:
(1) remove this doggone chipped polish from my fingernails;
(2) type up the list of rules for the children's room at my church;
(3) put away the clothes that have been sitting on the chaise lounge in our room since last week;
(4) call one of my best friends to wish her a "happy birthday;" and
(5) call my old OB to see if she'll deliver me even though I've been going to a new OB for this pregnancy (it's complicated).

Things I Would Do if I Became a Billionaire:
Call my husband. Breathe a sigh of relief and do a happy dance. Give my job notice. MOVE to Miami where our family is. Set up trust accounts for the kids. Start shopping and pampering myself immediately. Buy my mom her dream car. Buy her the B&B she's always wanted to run. Donate money to and volunteer at charities that help homeless, hungry, and/or abused children. I could go on.

Three Bad Habits:
(1) I'm often late to things;
(2) I'm horrible at budgeting; and
(3) I overcommit myself.

Five Places I Have Lived:
1. Montreal, QC
2. Trinidad, West Indies
3. Gainesville, FL
4. Harlem, NYC
5. Silver Spring, MD

Jobs I Have Had:
1. Concession stand attendant at a skating rink
2. Telemarketer
3. Librarian's assistant
4. Receptionist in the student mental health center at my university
5. Associate at a NY law firm

Things People Don't Know About Me:
I'm very tired. People think that I'm this superwoman who does it all with all this magical energy and a big smile. The truth is...I'm so tired.

How's that for a depressing answer? Here are some things that are a bit more fun:

1. I want to go to cooking school one day;
2. My great-great-grandmother was Portuguese;
3. I did a dance number to "I Wanna Have Some Fun" by Samantha Fox during a musical production in elementary school;
4. "Raspberries" (hearing or seeing them) make my lips hurt; and
5. The fact that my two bottom front teeth are crooked runs on my mother's side of the family.

My turn! I tag: AShorterStory; Jessica at APISS; Tanyetta at Days Like These; Dee at Tifi; and 3xMom at Confessions of a Three Time Mommy.

Ok, just watching that Samantha Fox video again after all these years made me realize how inappropriate that was for an elementary school number!! What was my teacher thinking? See for yourself:



SEE!