Blog Tour: Naptime is the New Happy Hour

Have you ever met someone and your first impression was, “Holy crap, chica- could you tone it down a notch?” Then, of course, you find that you are crossing paths with said chica at least daily. At first, you want to hide when you see her. Then, you chat a bit more, overhear her talking to others, and maybe even get to meet her kids. And slowly, you realize that not only does she not grate on your nerves, but that you might even want to be her BFF. Ok, maybe not that last one- but you definitely want to make sure that you do cross paths with her on a regular basis. She’s a hoot!

Such was my experience with Stefanie Wilder-Taylor’s new book, Naptime is the New Happy Hour- and Other Ways Toddlers Turn Your Life Upside Down. I had missed the boat on her first mommy book, Sippy Cups are not for Chardonnay, but was introduced to it during the explosion of media coverage on moms who have a drink at playdates via Melissa’s blog. So, given the chance to review her book on the ups and downs of having a toddler in the house? Yes please, sign me up! And bring me a glass of wine while you’re at it.

As soon as the book arrived, I cracked it open and prepared myself to be amused. I was not. In fact, I kept thinking that Wilder-Taylor was trying way too hard to make me laugh. I must be a Brit at heart because I like subtle, dry humor. I’m not much for in-your-face-without-a-break type humor. But, the good folks at MotherTalk had asked me to write a review, so I continued turning pages.

And I am so glad that I did.

After the first couple of chapters, I really started to warm up to Stefanie. I laughed along with her descriptions of playdates, outings, and gatherings with a toddler (and other parents- my gawd the other parents). And I found myself nodding and reliving my own experiences as the pages continued to turn. I’m not sure if it was an acclimation to her comedy style, a change in delivery, or divine intervention, but by the end of the book I was almost wishing that I lived in LA again so that she and I could do coffee.

I even found myself stopping to revisit places where we disagreed. Stefanie can’t stomach Thomas the Tank Engine. In our house, however, Thomas is king. So, when she started in on Thomas being a snore, and stuffy, and pretentiously British, I took offense. How dare she criticize my son’s favorite character? But then I stopped to realize that I, too, find things about the show to be ridiculous. Like the way that many episodes have the engines getting lost. How exactly do these engines get lost on the tiny island of Sodor? Trains, on tracks, in a geographically limited space getting lost. I believe that makes them completely daft, not stuffy. But I started to realize that Stefanie and I are more alike than I thought. We both spend way too much time analyzing our kids' shows.

Wilder-Taylor is one opinionated mamma. But I admire that. Sure, I disagreed with her on some stuff, but do you actually agree with your friends 100% of the time? If so, then you need to grow a spine and form some opinions of your own. Bottom line, if you like a bit of snarky mommy humor to get you through the day, read the book. If people being brutally (but comically) honest rocks your boat, you might want to skip it.

And if you’re in the snark-loving camp (like me), make sure to follow her blog.

In the interest of full disclosure, in exchange for agreeing to write this review, I was provided with a copy of the book and a gift certificate.

Drip, Drip, Drip

That sound you hear is my weight loss bucket slowly filling. Or emptying. Or...gah...whatever it is supposed to do when you're losing weight. Today's weigh in showed another 0.8 pounds lost. A small amount but moving in the right direction. I'll take it. Our WW leader said that with the nursing, I should only aim to lose about a pound a week. But we are also working on a slight step-back of my points because the more the girl is eating, the less she drinks, and the less I need to produce (and the less points need to go into my pie hole). I removed one point last week and I think I will do that again this week. I am still nursing, afterall. And there's no way I'm going to let go of more than a point a week. So, the weight melts off slowly...drip, drip, drip.

Are you now picturing me standing in a puddle of melted fat? Yeah, I got that image after reading the last line, too. Sorry 'bout that.

The other thing that goes drip in our house is the sound of Gabe peeing in the potty! Yay Gabe! It has happened all of once but that is more times than none. We have all the rewards in the world, and the kid just doesn't want to do it. And I'm not going to force the issue. But we did make sure to celebrate that one time.

Heartfelt and Heartbreak

Heartfelt

My little girl turned six months last Thursday, and she's as pleasant a kid as ever. Everyone who meets her asks if she really smiles like that all the time. And I can truthfully say, yes- she does- unless she's hungry. Then it's all about the food and the food must happen NOW. She is babbling constantly and it ranges from an almost growl to a shriek to a string of syllables that sound exactly like language but with no discernable meaning whatsoever. Yesterday she went for a while saying a two-syllable "word" that sounded exactly like bruh-ver and I decided that she was saying "brother" over and over. Gabe liked that idea. And she is one strong baby. And hungry. Did I mention hungry?

And Gabe is becoming a new child every day with the things he says and does, thus amazing the socks off of me. He'll be three in May and already recognizes written words (not sure if he's technically reading), does 60 piece puzzles with ease and asks for more, and will talk the ear off of anyone in range. That is if you want to hear everything and anything about Th*mas the T*ank Engine or eggs. He is still fascinated about baby birds coming out of eggs and so Easter is just the holiday of all holidays in his book. Eggs? Everywhere? And bunnies? Wow!!!!!!! In fact, today at grandma's house, he decided that the basket full of (non-breakable) eggs was a duck's nest and that he would sit on the nest to hatch the eggs.

Heartbreak

On a sad note, I'd like to ask for prayers for my friends D and D. Last June, they adopted a sweet little boy, B, and this weekend he passed away unexpectedly. It turned out he had a medical condition that had escaped detection. Needless to say, D and D are devastated and everyone who knows them is in shock. B was only 9.5 months old. If you could stop for a moment to say a prayer, send a thought, or whatever you might do in such situations, please do. I couldn't make the viewing, and I'm not sure that I would have been strong enough for it anyway, but I have been thinking about them all day and can't wait to leave here and go hug my kids really, really tight.

Is it wrong?

...that I like to eat dessert while watching The Biggest Loser?

The Eating Machine

My little girl has turned into an eating machine of mythic proportions. I know that periodically kids get into an eating frenzy of sorts when they hit a growth spurt. For Gabe, the frenzy would last a couple of days, and then he'd be back to his old self. As of today, SC has been feasting like a mad woman for four days. It's like she can't possibly be filled. A bottomless pit. All the cereal and milk in the world is just not quite enough. She is typically a good eater, but everyone has noticed the dramatic increase (I thought perhaps I was imagining things). She may soon eat the dog if we're not careful.

On the other hand, I have gotten quite into the groove of WW and have been finding it pretty easy to stay within my daily allotment. Yes, I am aided by the nursing (10 extra points per day- yee haw!), but I am still trying to make sure those extra points go into something nutritious and not just into a killer ice cream sundae. (As a side note, a float made with low fat ice cream and diet root beer totally rocks my world.) This week I was even able to bump up the weight loss a little. I had been losing exactly 1.6 pounds per week for the last three weeks. This week I lost 2.2 pounds. It feels good to be past the five-pound mark (finally). The only sad part is that I need to lose another 22.4 pounds to have my BMI qualify as "overweight" instead of "obese." Well, that's just my current total loss times three-ish. Can I do it? YES I CAN (we watch a lot of Bob the Builder). I can already feel the difference in my clothing with seven pounds gone. Ten more and I might just be able to get into those 16s!

R.I.P. Gary

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If you understand this image, you may be interested to know that Gary Gygax has died.

I did not embrace the RPG world until graduate school, but I have taken many a fantastic journey through the realm of "creative group storytelling with dice," (how I describe gaming to non-gamers).

May all your hits be crits, Gary.