I Nearly Fell Over!

Yesterday afternoon I was walking with my 4yo daughter when a white cat ran across our path.
F, the 4yo said to me "Mommy, I want a white cat" at which time I gave there the regular answer about family with allergies.
She then told me she would be happy with that cat.
So I explained the cat we had just seen was likely ferrel.

Her response? "My daddy eats ferrel cats."
As if it was the most normal thing in the world.
There is no appropriate response to that.

Mantra

I just realized that when I am stressed, feeling overwhelmed with work, home, the kids and everything I hope to accomplish I hum a specific tune. I found myself singing the words in my head and realized that during these times it's my mantra. 

"I can put the wash on the line,

Feed the kids, get dressed,

pass out the kisses

and get to work by five to Nine.

I can bring home the bacon,

fry it up in a pan

and never, never, never let you forget your a man.......cause I'm a woman.....Enjoli."

Well, if I'm honest it's the last part I sing over and over again, the section that says bacon, pan, man. 

Don't know the song? You can watch it on Yourube here. (Come back when you are done!)

http://m.youtube.com/watch?autoplay=1&v=jA4DR4vEgrs&desktop_uri=%252Fwatch%253Fv%253DjA4DR4vEgrs%2526autoplay%253D1

I was a kid when this commercial was on TV and it's practically burned into the back of my skull it was on TV so often. This woman was beautiful, capable, and somehow managed to hang clothes out to dry, rear children, and wear a white dress! If you google the lyrics to this jingle  (as I did today) it's likely that you will find blog posts about how jacked up and unrealistic this expectation is and how wrong it was that Maddison Avenue sold it to our mothers and all the young women and girls who saw it. Well, I don't know. I know plenty of amazing women who do the things this 1970's lady proclaimed to be capable of doing. She doesn't sing about the nights she is up with a sick kid, seeing a costume, soo tired she can hardly remember her own name, or that she fell asleep on the couch 15minutes after her kids are in bed. Seriously who in their right mind would?!? That would be one miserable jingle. Are the expectations she is singing about idealized? Yes. Is it hard as hell, and will some things fall though the cracks? Yep, most likely. So what? I'm not sure why having high expectations is a problem. Is it wrong to set your sights on a well rounded life, with a career, kids, and a happy marriage wrong? Should our daughters be striving for less?

Granted that something in the depth of accomplishment has got to give if you are going for a breath. Is that a problem? Maybe. I'm not sure it's worth getting mad at a 40 year old commercial. It still helps me through my days of running like a crazy person from kids to work to family to home to late night work to laundry to kids or whatever. Don't judge me. It's not like I wear the perfume. 

Happy Halloween!

Sexy Halloween Costumes part II

Less than an hour ago I posted about the sexification of Halloween costumes and was looking for an article I had read last year to include. Well persistence does pay off now and then and I found it! Seems it has been reposted and possibly updated this year. Yippy!

Enjoy it here http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/25/sexy-halloween-costumes-for-girls_n_2011943.html and be sure to look at the photos at the bottom which document costumes from teh early 1990's against today's versions. The mind boggles!

It's nearly Halloween! Time to pull out that sexy costume....?

I have always enjoyed halloween. When I was in my early teens I was especially sad that I could no longer trick-or-treat, and most halloween parties or too young for others. I put a lot of energy into decorating the house and figuring out a costume to scare the neighbor kids.

Some of my Halloween costumes over the years. (from top left clockwise: Where's Waldo?,  home made princess costume, Lunette, scary clown, home made bride, a 'mod') 

As you can see from my little collage above I have had some silly costumes, some scary costumes and some downright lame costumes. Yes, I have dressed up like Waldo. What's the big deal?  Recently, as my children have begun to pick their own costumes and we have moved from dinosaur and princess to other options I have been shocked and put off by the overwhelming number of the uber-sexy costumes made for girls of all ages and sizes. That may be the reason I found this bit on The Daily Show so awesome. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

A few years ago I had read something about the rise of hyper sexy costumes for women and young girls which included a then and now of simple things like a witch, strawberry shortcake and EVEN Spongebob. I have not been able to find that same article but I did find this very interesting commentary on the subject by Rebecca Hains an academic who writes about children's media culture.
http://rebeccahains.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/halloween-and-the-rise-of-sexy-costumes-for-women-and-girls/ The fact is, that 15 or more years ago there was a lot less pressure to be crazy sexy at halloween. It was a fun holiday in the fall. It's chilly and why in the world would you be uncomfortable for the sake of sexy? Ugh! Today the expectation for women, even the very young women is so different. So warped and strange to me. I guess I should be thankful my kids are asking to be things like zombies and possibly Darth Vader.

Mom always said that the way to a man's heart was through his stomach....And who wouldn't want to BE a sexy pizza? aka the object of his desire.

Making a list of movies for Halloween

My kids are not "normal" I know that.
They love creepy stuff including movies and stories. They also love spending time visiting graveyards. I believe this is directly inherited from my husband, but then again I have fond memories of walking graveyards myself as a kid so I guess he may be taking the blame for something they have inherited from us both.

My two kids nearly two years ago at Hollywood Forever on Halloween morning

When L was little she was the sort of child that would wait in dark rooms for someone to come in so she could jump out and scare them. At less than two years old! When she started preschool I had to warn the teacher that she might tell scary stories or pretend to be dead. 

People say things all the time. F is playing zombies and people say "oh, but that is so scary!" as if that child is not loving every moment of being afraid! Being scared for these kids is the same sort of adrenaline rush that other people get from ridding motorcycles or bungie jumping. 

So as October draws near they are starting to pull out costumes and watch scary movies. This morning we began making a list of movies to watch each Sunday of the month leading up to Halloween. 

Here is our list. 

1. Frankenweenie (short) 1984 

Walk like a Zombie

It's an autumn-ish Sunday morning and we are learning how to walk like zombies. Here is our favorite how to video. 

#familyfun #weekendswithathreeyearold #creepykids #pbandangst