Girly girl

We finally got the last few months' worth of pictures developed yesterday. September and October were fairly eventful months for the bug--she moved into a new classroom, was visited by multiple grandparents, and gained a real understanding of the multiple-word sentence. She is also, occasionally, letting me style her hair in ways that involve more than a drive-by combing.

Matt notes that she is showing strong "girly-girl" tendencies: she cuddles her stuffed lion and dolly with extreme tenderness, and has a (to me) puzzling preference for all things pink. I allowed her to choose her own Halloween costume, and it's pretty spectacularly pink. You'll have to handle the suspense for a few more days until I have the time to get her into it and shoot some pictures, but it's pretty good stuff.

The grandparents enjoyed their recent visit, and the sunshine, as evidenced by this picture at the local park:



















After maternal grandfather attempted to wear her out in the sunshine, paternal grandfather took a shot at wearing her out during storytime:















A good time was had by all, and we really enjoyed the visit. Hope you all enjoy the pictures, and I'll try to post the next bunch before Christmastime for a change.

And while you're thinking about the post below...

Watch this ad.

A reason to celebrate Wednesday?

I'm still thinking through a reaction to this website:

http://loveyourbody.nowfoundation.org/index.html

October 18 is "Love your body day," and given all the media images that pressure women to control their appearance in various ways, it may be a worthwhile concept. I think it would go well with a "Turn off your TV and put away the Beauty/Fitness magazines Day," but that's probably my general bias against advertising coming through. I enjoy flipping through the occasional Vogue as much as the next gal but I'm not looking there for realism or a desirable self-image. Likewise, I tend to read fitness magazines for the articles so I pass by the ones that push products too hard, like Shape and Fitness, in favor of mags like Runner's World and Triathlete.

A thoughtful critique of advertising aimed at women is well-deserved, but the publicity surrounding LYB Day seems a bit hypocritical. My ambiguous reaction comes from a few different sections of the site, especially the "Order Products" section. While they're selling body-positive items and books, do we really need to buy stuff to love our bodies? And in the "Positive Ads" section: don't all makeup ads imply that women need to paint their faces to be beautiful? I do like the Girl Scouts and Kaiser ads, but they're not hard-selling products that alter women's appearances. I'd rather see a site with tactics that would enable women to love our bodies every day, and will start off the list:

1. Be a sharp consumer of media products, even when you're reading or watching for pleasure. There's nothing wrong with Cosmo or Self as long as you don't base your self-image on marketers' attempts to entice you to consume. Likewise, Oprah is not the goddess of all things feminine but she has some fun guests.
2. Question if makeup makes you look and feel beautiful, or just different.
3. Take a status report on your body in terms of health and fitness. Do you feel good? Are you in pain? Is there something you wish your body could do? And I don't mean "fit into size 4 jeans," I'm thinking more like "run a 10-minute mile" or "do ten pushups without stopping to rest."

I think about this because of the bug and because of my friends' daughters. If any of them tried to diet as pre-teens I would freak out completely, but body image pressures are felt younger and younger. What can we really do to help our girls be happy about what they look like?

Contrary to popular opinion...

Today's working mothers spend slightly MORE time with their kids than the stay-at-home moms of previous decades. Dads are doing more parenting and housework, too:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/us/17kids.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5087%0A&em&en=07f78e2f77facfe9&ex=1161230400

This data confirms a few things I've long suspected. What have working mothers lost the most of in the last 40 years? Time for exercise and personal relaxation. Working fathers are picking up the slack when it comes to childcare and housework--my parents always seem surprised at how much my husband cooks, for example, but it seems normal to me when I look at my friends' families.

Also, working mothers work more hours at paid and unpaid labor than stay-at-home mothers do. This makes sense to me because the unpaid labor tasks at home don't disappear when a woman goes to work. I know when I take time off when Miranda's sick, the house gets cleaner and I seem to have a bit more time on my hands at the end of the day after she's in bed. This is not meant to diss on stay-at-home moms in the least--they're still working 52-hour work weeks with no pay or benefits, while I get both as a woman in the workforce. Just saying there are reasons that lifestyle looks good to me sometimes! I am looking forward to reading the whole survey to see the data that underlie these conclusions.

jam-packed, fam-packed weekend

My parents arrived in town yesterday and plan to be here through Sunday morning. Matt's dad should be coming in Saturday morning and staying the night on his way to a conference in Tucson. So, there will be plenty of grandparent-related goodness and possibly even photos by this time next week. Have a fabulous Friday!

Recovery season

After the Boulder Backroads last month, I knew it was time to enter a "recovery period" in terms of my training. I have no more triathlon or running events on the horizon, and thus nothing to train toward at this point. The simultaneous arrival of wet, cold weather and my husband's unexpected business trip have led to a rather more thorough "recovery" than I had in mind. As in an extended visit to couch-potato land with only a few gentle workouts over the last few weeks.

This would be a great time for setting some personal fitness/ health goals to begin working toward next summer. My problem is twofold: I'm uninspired at the moment as far as long-term goals, and I'm time-crunched for the foreseeable future (until, say, January). I know I need to get my butt moving again, but none of the off-season activities I was hoping to participate in fit in with my work schedule.

The masters' swim class I hoped to join runs too long for me to do it in the middle of the work day, and no other city recreation-type classes are available that fit my schedule. (Must be at work by 8, must stay until 5, lunch must be 12-1, NO schedule flexibility.) Ditto yoga and Pilates, although there are weekend classes available so I'll probably try to pick one of those up by late December. The bug's at an age where I can't take her in the jogging stroller anymore because she wants to get out and explore, but she can't go fast enough for me to get a workout that way. We do go for walks and hikes, but it doesn't count toward running time, for example.

I don't mean to whine, but I could really use others' suggestions. Here are the constraints:

• I can often work out over the lunch hour but 40 minutes is the absolute maximum time I have. That includes warm-up, cool-down, stretching, etc.
• As I'm single-momming it a good part of next month due to the rocket man's business travel, the only time I can work out in the house is 8 p.m.-10 p.m.
• Workouts outside the house will be erratic until January, between the weather and the single-mom situation. I can take the weather, just not the weather in conjunction with a tantruming two-year-old. Thus, I can't take regularly scheduled classes at the rec center, through city recreation, or anything fun like that. Maybe by spring.

So, all you athletes out there: How can I spend my copious free time recovering? What are your favorite recovery season training activities? Any thoughts on how to get around my schedule constraints? How do you get in QUICK workouts that are still worth the effort? Do tell.

When Matt leaves, chapter two: approximately 3 a.m. every night since Thursday

"Mommy?"

[from dead sleep] "Ummmm...."

"Mommy? Mama? MOMMMYYY??" Followed by a stream of heartfelt sobs.

"Yes, bug, I'm coming."

Tramp, tramp, tramp.

"Cuddle? Cuddle more?"

I pick her up and try to calm her down. Big heaving sobs, eventually calming down to sniffles.

"Mommy no trip?"

"No, honey, mama's right here."

"Daddy trip?"

"Daddy will be home soon, honey."

"Cuddle Daddy?"

"I bet he would like that too. He will be home very soon."

"No crib? Mama snuggle?"

Big sigh from me. "Okay." I haul her into my room and we snuggle back to sleep until the alarm goes off.

When Matt leaves, chapter one: Daddy's tripping!

"Where's daddy?" (with hands over eyes, as if playing peek-a-boo)

"Daddy's on a trip."

"Daddy trip?"

"Daddy's working. He had to go far away and work on rockets."

(hands off eyes, big smile) "Daddy rockets!"

"That's right. Daddy will be back soon and he loves us very much."

"Daddy tripping on rockets! Soon!"

Well, not quite. But close. This conversation has repeated over, and over, and over since Matt left last week. It probably gets repeated so much because the bug cracks me up every single time. The visual images I get of "Daddy tripping on rockets" are absolutely sublime. I truly think she believes that one of these times when she takes her hands off her eyes, he's going to be home.

Great response to a controversy

I've been in discussions and blog comments with numerous people over an article posted in Forbes magazine in August, entitled: "Don't Marry Career Women." Forbes got so much flak over posting this article initially that they quickly posted a rebuttal right beside it, but I thought the rebuttal was pretty weak.

One of the Catholic websites I found recently is promoting a book that puts an end to this nonsense about educated women and marriage. Take a look at this excerpt from: "Why Smart Men Marry Smart Women."

For my single women friends, there are some great stats to support the fact that you're as desirable as we all think you are. For my married friends: see, we knew our husbands were smart to choose us!

midweek blues

Wednesday morning always feels as though the weekend could not possibly be further away. The bug was down with a cold late this weekend, so I spent Monday afternoon at home with her. She was a sheer delight after some cold medication and an unusually long nap. We made balls and snakes out of Play-Doh, watched some cartoons, and had snack while cuddling. Many more of my days should be spent like this: productive work in the morning, mama-daughter time in the afternoon, family time at night. I really need to find a job that's 75% time or so before too long or I'm going to miss even more of the bug's toddlerhood.

She's feeling much better today, especially when compared with her mama. I seem to have acquired her mild head cold and the accompanying bad attitude. Any of you have suggestions about how to banish the midweek blues?