Vacation? What's that?

I like to be busy. A day where I have nothing planned is pretty annoying and I wake up irritated. Vacation is no different- when we go to Disney I want to DO stuff! I walk more at Disney then I probably do the entire rest of the year combined. By the time the 10 pm Spectro Magic parade starts, I'm  exhausted! It's worth it though. And yes, I take my two year old. He loves it. I figure he has the rest of his life to sleep. This past vacation week was no different, aside from the fact that daycare was closed. And hubby was at work, A LOT. And we now have TWO kids. So I stacked our schedule- no fewer than two events per day. We went to Davis Farmland- twice. The Mystic Aquarium, Il Forno, Dean Park- too many times to count. Swim class, playdates, shopping- I made sure we were BUSY. By Sunday evening I was completely exhausted, but it was well worth it. All three of us survived vacation, and actually enjoyed it!!!!! Going to work this morning was pretty amazing though- in the car by 6:40- coffee, ATM, and daycare by 7:10, work at 7:30. Ok, I was a bit late- 7:33.

You know what? My forty-plus high schoolers are way easier than my two munchkins. Apparently work has become mommy's vacation.

That Mom

So today I had a revelation- nothing terribly exciting- I didn't redesign the cloth diaper to wash itself, or anything truly helpful. I was just driving to the park and thinking about this long a-s-s week, and realized that all of a sudden I'm THAT MOM. You know, the one that other people look at with pity? No, just kidding. The mom that is always toting around a diaper bag, is adept at picking up a toddler who just dove headfirst off the play structure platform while the baby is in the carrier, and doesn't bat an eye when projectile vomit makes an entrance. The one that even schools another mom who is allowing her ten year old to run through the playground full of toddlers with a sharpened stick (I blame Hunger Games. I would blame Lord of the Flies but no one reads it anymore!) plowing little kids over. Really lady? Get off your phone and note that your child is leaving a wailing trail of small children in his path (expect my kid- he thought it was pretty funny); don't act surprised when I point this out. She got sort of snotty until I asked for her name and address so I knew where to send the medical bills for when my kid gets rushed to Mass Eye and Ear because she can't tell her son to stop. Snarky, yes. For the greater good though. There was a collective sigh of relief when they left. Wait, back to my revelation. I just might have turned into the mom I loved to hate. No, I still don't have healthy homemade snacks for my kid, but I did remember a camera, baby wipes, antiseptic wash for M's constantly skinned knees, and my phone. Which I used to ask another mom to bring a blanket for my shivering infant. I can't remember EVERYTHING. So far this week my toddler has smeared multiple servings of "chock-late" ice cream on his face, visited sea creatures, goats, chickens, and even touched a snake. We've been the park multiple times, celebrated birthdays, taken tubbies, and are still standing. Barely. He's actually asleep, which is good, because tomorrow we do it again- animals, running, lunch, ice cream. We'll load up the generic mom SUV and hit the road again.

That said, how many days are left before daycare reopens?

Yeah. I don't think so.

There are four different types of bullying- since y'all aren't actually sitting in my psych class today I will spare you the rest of the power point- and it's prevalent in our society, many times without even realizing it. One of my students was really into giving examples of what is bullying vs. what isn't. I certainly am not an expert, but as an employ of a public school system I am pretty savvy. We are constantly on the lookout for behavior that can be termed bullying, especially when it comes from the world of everyone's favorite timesucker  social networking site, Facebook. Yes, it's outside of school, but yes, it's still my responsibility to be aware of it, and report it. What struck me this week however was how bullying is evident in all phases of life. We may call it something different- maybe you have a friend that's "headstrong", "domineering", "a control freak"- but really, they can tend to be bullies. Hell, I am pretty sure that I have inadvertently bullied someone else in my life time- not on purpose, but let's be real. Last week I saw it first hand. One person says one thing, somebody else jumps in, and then more and more people are throwing around their opinions. That's great, the more the merrier! And then comes THAT person. The one that puts things out there as the end all, be all. In my world, the sanctimommy. Again, I can handle that. Until you use inflammatory language that does nothing but instill fear and generate a knee-jerk response. Yeah, that's my deal breaker. I don't give a hoot what you are actually saying, no one is going to hear it, simply because of word choice. That's the line. Don't poke it, tiptoe over it, nothing- at least, not when I'm around. I was FLAMING. Hopping mad. Angry. Irate. Breathing fire. I was really ready to say things that would potentially have me banned from social networking until 2020- but then I drank a little more wine (hey it might have been kosher but it still did the trick!) and tried to exercise restraint. Which I sort of did, at least publicly.

I guess I'm that mom- loud, brash, and a little wacky- but totally the one you want in your corner.