Category Archives: Monkey

Monkey, Otter, parenting

Scylla’s Law…

2 Comments

Every single time my husband has left town, be if for business or pleasure, something has happened to make the time here without him more challenging. For example, my husband went to Thailand for a week or so the during my first year of law school. His friend was getting married, and he was invited to attend the wedding. I couldn’t attend with him because the wedding was scheduled over my first ever week of law school exams. We talked about whether or not it was more important for him to stay and help me through exam week, but ultimately decided he should go.

All would have been well, except that his mother fell and broke her arm the day after he left, and I was stuck caring for a child and his mom, while studying for and taking my first ever law school exams. Hence, that trip will always be referred to in my mind as the trip of resentment.

This theme continues whenever he leaves town. Somehow the universe decided that I am to be tested when he is away. Okay, that is fairly egocentric of me, I am sure the universe has better things to do than test me. Clearly, the universe just has a really sick and perverse sense of humor, and I make for a good laugh.

When Lee left for the Rails Conference a few weeks after Otter’s birth I had a heck of a time handling all the kids and pets on my own. The last time he left town for business I was in the middle of starting my own business and had to find sitters to watch the kids as I interviewed people. Oh yeah, and Monkey got sick.

SO… this time Lee is gone for four days, well, three and a half. Otter had been sick all week with Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease, courtesy of little Lily’s daycare center. We thought he was better, all back to normal, until four hours after his Daddy left town. He yawned, and I saw blisters inside his little mouth.

Well…. fuck.

I promptly canceled all playdates and got some low acidity yogurt to tempt him with. Of course, all he wants to do is nurse. Now he has a racking cough, a crackly little voice, and sore blisters inside his mouth. His plaintive cry of “Mama” is heard constantly through my house. Monkey’s nose began to run this morning and she claims to have been sneezing all night.

So, Murphy’s law is “what can go wrong, will” and mine is “what can go wrong when your spouse is out of town and you are alone with the kids, will.”

It sucks, but hey, I have my own law!!

Monkey

Standing up instead of standing by…

5 Comments

Monkey won an award yesterday for standing up to a bully.

Apparently a second grader named Dillon was pushing her friend Anthony in the back and she got up in his face and told him to quit. Her friend Jasmine backed her up.

The school, which has a zero tolerance for bullies policy, gave her a stuffed tiger at an awards ceremony, with the ribbon on it that says “Stand up citizens don’t stand by.”

She is very proud of herself, as are we. Actually, I am incredibly proud of her, as it is hard to stand up to a bigger kid when someone small is being pushed around. Our culture is usually more willing to look away, than confront the problem. I am glad my daughter is willing to confront it.

However, now I am thinking I need to get her into some boxing classes, just so she can back herself up, when she once again decides to tell off a bully who is older and bigger than her. If she is anything like me, she will likely be telling bullies off for the rest of her life.

Activism, conservation, environment, Monkey, Otter

Baaoon Mama… Baaoon!

7 Comments
99 dreams I have had
In every one a red balloon
It’s all over and I’m standin’ pretty
In this dust that was a city
If I could find a souvenir
Just to prove the world was here
And here is a red balloon
I think of you and let it go
— 99 Red Balloons Nena

Whenever I hear this song I think back to my youth, and get a sense of freedom and joy, an overwhelming desire to spin.

That desire popped, much like a balloon, as soon as I learned that we are depleting our helium reserves in the U.S., and the helium balloon, that amazing anti-gravity children’s toy, may not be around for my grandkids. Imagine not seeing the wonder in a baby’s face as he tries to figure out why this thing goes up… instead of down.

Helium is non-renewable and irreplaceable. There are pockets of the gas in Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma and Russia has large pockets of natural gas, helium included, but there has not been a push to extract it. Further, a great deal of Helium is lost in the process of separating it from oil and natural gas. As the oil and gas are brought out of the ground, the Helium comes with them, but it is not captured as it releases, so it drifts up into the atmosphere and … away. The world’s largest pocket of Helium is located in the Texas Panhandle, and at our current rate of use, that reserve will be depleted by 2015.

In personal terms, this means Monkey will probably not have a balloon arch at her prom, and Otter may not be choosing a balloon from a vendor at a carnival by the time he is eight.

Helium can be produced directly in nuclear fusion reactors, and is an indirect side effect of fisson reactors, but the amount created by both these sources don’t begin to reach our current use. Basically, it has taken billions of years for the Earth to create our Helium stores, so it’s not really a build on demand kind of resource.

Helium can be recycled, and the larger industries users, such as NASA, do recycle it. However, any Helium released into the atmosphere is lost to the Earth forever, and there are no small users currently recycling the gas. To learn more, read up on the issue.

If we are not careful with our Helium, we will be waving goodbye to a childhood tradition, in addition to a scientific resource. This is such a amazing substance, with nothing else like it on earth. It is our connection to the unbelievable, the fantastic, the magical. Let’s do our best to keep it around.


“Bbvvoomm… Ma ma na… Baavmmm”