Author: The Jody

If you listened to WXLO this morning and heard someone give “brilliant” [their word] baby advice to Jen, that would have been yours truly. It’s hard enough going back to work after having a baby without thinking of all the bad stuff – like missing all the milestones. Junior went to daycare at 12 weeks, and that whole first day nobody was allowed to talk to me about him being at daycare (I sent out a company-wide email when I first got back, because if I had to talk about it, I would burst into tears.) I had all those same thoughts about missing the first rolling over, the first words, the first steps – but the policy of the center (Little Souls Center in Waltham, to give them a plug) was that until mom or dad mentioned it to the teacher, they would NOT say anything about the baby doing this or that. So if he took a step at daycare, they wouldn’t tell me unless I’d told them that he took a step at home.

If mama doesn’t see it first, it didn’t happen was basically the policy. So that was my advice to Jen this morning, and they liked it so much that I heard them pass it along to another mom going back to work next week.

I didn’t call to hear myself on the radio, but luckily I didn’t sound like an idiot. I always thought I’d make a great DJ, or at least a supporting one like Steve Donovan. Speaking of whom, I’m a little unhappy that the show isn’t “Jen and Steve” anymore, it’s “Zito and Jen”. Steve is my favorite part of that show, darn it! I hope someone from WXLO reads this.

Okay, for those of you who have been reading for a while, my house isn’t a showplace, unless you mean showing clutter and more clutter. And more clutter. So I feel the need to update all of you whenever I actually get something de-cluttered. Today’s success was the downstairs hallway between the kitchen and the front door. We don’t use the front door for a couple of reasons, but one of them is that it’s one of those views that you’d just rather not be someone’s first impression.

Well right now that hallway is empty. My recycling is gone, the soda storage area, gone, the bucket and mop gone and the little 3-shelf thingy covered with crap, also gone. Now I have to find new homes for some of those things, but I’m still pleased that I finally took a stab at that area. Only 150 more things that need the same level of attention!

I had heard rain predicted, so I knew that it probably would rain today, but that doesn’t make me any happier about it. I really did want to go over to the Bolton Fair for a few, and I know it’s rain or shine, but I’m not rain or shine. So after I go pick up a pair of jeans at JC Penney I guess I’ll just have to come back here. I washed the kitchen floor last night so I suppose I can focus on some other task in the house. Maybe more cleaning up the playroom?

I didn’t get around to doing anything painting-related up in that room, which is stinky because I don’t want to fill it back up until after I paint it. It’s not really a painting kind of day though, is it?

Junior wants to make cookies, so I think I’m going to send his dad to the store with him to buy the ingredients. His dad is the king cookie baker anyway. That will keep them both amused while I do other things, and then there will be cookies available! Woo! (Junior doesn’t EAT cookies, so the whole thing is kind of amusing. But we read the The Best Mouse Cookie Book for a bedtime story last night and he got baking in his head. Hey, he can cook lunch too, if he wants!

Went to the Ferncol fair again this year, and no cows gave birth. We went down for the dairy barn tour anyway, and I asked about last year’s fair calf and our tour guide said THREE calves were born over the weekend last year! She said our cow would have been out in the field anyway, because she was a year old. Awwwww, our baby is getting so grown up!

We spent a minimum of money this year, which was NICE. I only bought $10 worth of ride tickets (which worked out to 5 rides). I handed him the tickets, told him he had to decide what he wanted to ride, and that would be it. I have no idea how one goes about finding the oldest, rattiest looking rides, but they had. I went on the ferris wheel with Junior and actually had the thought “This is going to be a stupid way to die” as the thing shimmied every time we passed the motor. Ugh.

He also didn’t beg to play games because there were only three, and one of them was a balloon popping game and he HATED how loud it was. So that was a nice perk.

I’m starting to really freak about the people dying lately – they’re too young! Today we learned Robert Palmer died of a heart attack at 54. He was healthy, didn’t partake in all the typical celeb excesses (according to people who would know) and yet…he’s gone now.

I need to go home and listen to “Every Kind of People,” my favorite Robert Palmer song.