New England Mamas

Puppy Love

Who doesn't love playing with puppies?  Who doesn't love finding fun things for the kids to do?  What if you could combine both of those things and tie in the fact that it's for a good cause? 

Last week a moms' group I'm in arranged an outing to a place called NEADS in Princeton, MA.  NEADS trains puppies to eventually become service dogs.  I say "eventually" because the puppies leave NEADS at 16 weeks to go live with families and have further training.   They do not actually become official service dogs until they're about 2.  Part of the training for the NEADS puppies is to become familiar with children.   They actually want the puppies  to be around kids. 

Do you get where I'm going with this?  Are you getting the same sense of excitment that I got when I saw the email announcing an outing to play and snuggle with puppies!?!?! 

Ski Lessons in Central Mass

My husband learned to ski when he was 27, and I learned when I was 14.  While we both enjoy skiing, we do wish that we had learned how to do it when we were much younger.  I know this sounds crazy but there aren't very many places to ski in NYC or the Chicago suburbs were he and I respectively grew up.

Sarcasm aside, skiing wasn't as big of a deal for either of us growing up as it seems to be out here in New England.  Seeing as there are so many places to choose from to ski, it only makes sense.  Armed with the knowledge that what you don't know not only sometimes can't hurt you, but can actually be good for you, we enrolled our 6 year old in ski lessons.   At 6 he doesn't really get that he might break his arm, but at 16 or particularly 26 he will! 

So where does one go to do ski lessons?  

Freedom and Equality at the Expense of a Little Negativity

If the non-stop barrage of commercials and automated phone calls from politicians, their families, and Curt Schilling related to the special election for US Senator from Massachusetts have left me with only one impression, it is that I disagree with Republican candidate Scott Brown's oversimplified view of the world. 

Thanking Shrinky Dinks for our snow-day sanity

I'm from the Windy City.  Contrary to what many people believe, though it is called the Windy  City because of politics not because of the weather.  (In other words, the residents are known for generating a lot of moving air.)  That being said, it is very cold.  Despite the weather, I only remember having a snow day one time growing up.  Even if I forgot a couple, it is clearly rare for a snow day to be declared.

That doesn't seem to be the case in Massachusetts.  Whether they're warranted or not, there has been at least one snow day every year that my son has been in school.  Sometimes I have agreed with them.  Other times I have been surprised, particularly when the snow day follows a day with open schools but far less pleasant weather.

This year though I finally decided to embrace the snow days.  

A mom's guide to Worcester First Night

New Year's Eve is almost here!

For many of us, gone are the days of fun parties, clubs and, quite frankly, just staying up to midnight. Why was it a good idea to have kids? I'm just kidding! Plus honestly, these days, staying up to midnight can be a feat and that has to do with getting older not having kids!

However, now that we do have kids, our New Year's Eve plans have definitely taken a different turn. I'm always keeping my ear out for fun New Year's Eve plans and recently have had a couple conversations about First Night.

A couple years ago we took our then four year old and 18 month old to First Night Worcester. I had been to First Night Evanston (IL) a couple times before having kids and enjoyed it. I suspected that it would be similar. Of course the key phrase was "before having kids and enjoyed it"!

So what exactly is it? 

Light peeping in Sudbury

I wrote about this a couple years ago here, but it's such a big part of our holiday celebration I wanted to write about it again.  What is this wonderful tradition?  It's the Sudbury Lights.

It was my six year old's first Christmas when I heard about the Sudbury Lights.  I saw multiple posts about it on my mom's group listserve.  What exactly was it though?

New New Englanders

Listen up all you're new New Englanders.  Yes, I'm talking about those of you who have just moved into the area and are trying to settle into New England.  I have important advice for you. 

The first Christmas that my husband and I were here, we decided to get a real Christmas tree.  Oddly no Boy Scouts knocked on our door to announce they were selling them and we didn't see any fliers advertising trees as fundraisers for different high school clubs.  It turns out our local grocery store was selling them in the parking lot.  I thought for sure they would sell out since they appeared to be the only place that had them, but they didn't. 

The next year we planned to get our tree from Petco since the proceeds that year were going to help greyhounds.  We waited too long and I really thought we would be SOL.  On Christmas Eve though, there were still trees to choose. 

Where was everyone getting their trees? 

Trot Trot Gobble Gobble

A couple weeks ago I was talking with friends about the upcoming holiday season.  One  friend mentioned that she was looking for ways to add in some exercise to make up for all the pieces of Thanksgiving pie she was sure she would consume.  "Just a little walking though.   Not like those crazy people who do turkey trots."  My ears perked up.  Turkey trots?  

Mourning the Loss of a Pet

Nice cheery post for around the holidays, right? Sadly we just lost our beloved golden retriever a few days ago.  It was completely unexpected.  He developed a rare and fatal cancer.  He was diagnosed and three hours later he was gone.  We were shocked.  The day before we had taken him for a walk, and he had seemed fine.

While we were relieved that at least it was quick, we are still devastated.  And Thanksgiving is this week. Which brings me to the topic of my post.  I'm writing this on behalf of other pet owners who have lost pets.  I think that it can feel funny to admit how upset you are over pet loss much less how scared you are about the upcoming holidays.  It's just a dog, right?  Except it's not.  It's a loved member of your family.  It's someone that you see every single day.  It's someone who loves you just for being you and is always happy to see you.  You can't pick your relatives, but you can pick your pets. 

As we were planning our Thanksgiving menu today, I realized how truly empty it's going to seem without Merlin.  It's already too quiet here.  There isn't going to be a special bowl fixed with turkey and stuffing this year.  He won't be there to beg while we cook or just plain be underfoot.  When the kids inevitably spill something on the floor  we will have to clean it up instead of letting our furry friend feast on it. 

Then there is Christmas.  What do we do with his stocking?  It's sad to get the catalogs of dog toys and realize that this year we won't be buying any for him.  I found the Orvis Dog Catalog on the counter when I got home from the animal hospital.  It was open to the senior dog bed I had planned on ordering for him.  I don't have any advice to give except to say that I'm going through it too.  We're trying to come up with some special way to honor Merlin this holiday season. 

Beginning of the School Year Fatigue?

Ever since my older son was born I have been looking forward to him going to kindergarten.  Relax!  I'm kidding!  In all honesty, kindergarten did hold a certain appeal to me for a variety of reasons.  First of all, I just loved kindergarten myself and I was looking forward to my son being able to experience it. Second, can we just say the bus?  Yes, I know that a lot of parents don't like the bus.  In fact, reactions to the bus seemed to be almost on the same level as formula feeding. However, in our town, all the kids go to one big kindergarten only school and the buses therefore are kindergarten only buses.  My child would get to have a wonderful time at kindergarten, and I wouldn't need to drive him.  What else could I ask for?

In the middle of the summer, we found out that he got off the waitlist for full day kindergarten.  Seeing as getting a spot in full day kindergarten is like winning the lottery, I quickly accepted it and hoped that our lines hadn't been taped.  Who knows who may have tried to impersonate me and deny the acceptance so their child could get in off the waitlist!  I'm kidding!  But we did quickly accept the spot. 

The morning of the first day of  kindergarten came this week.  All of the sudden instead of being the relaxed Zen mom, alright I'm not ever really that, I was rushing around the house trying to get lunch packed, the backpacked packed, the name tag found etc.  Basically stuff I thought I had prepared for the night before but actually putting it together took forever.  I got him off without a problem but had used the time I normally prepare for our day to prepare for kindergarten so my younger son and I were over a half hour late to meet friends at the park.  Yes, I used to run late all the time when they were babies, but for the past year and a half or so I'm pretty much always on time. 

The afternoon came and all of the sudden it was just my younger son and me.  He didn't have his brother to play with him.  That meant I needed to do it.  Sure, I play with my kids every day, but not the whole afternoon.  Late afternoon came, and we had a bus mishap:  my older son was put on the wrong bus.  It was his birthday too.    Everything ended up being fine, but I put on my best performance ever to not act as a panicked mother and freak out my kids and everyone else's. 

The next day was pretty much a repeat of the day before except fortunately everything went well with the bus and I didn't have an hour worth of forms to fill out like I had the previous evening.  I went to bed at 8:30 pm which is early for me.  Friday was the last day.  This time I sent in a lunch ticket.  Again, pretty much the same as the day before had been. 

Last night my husband commented on how tired I looked.  I commented on how exhausted I felt.   There was no denying that I was just wiped out from the week.  I know that it will get better.  I know that when I no longer have a birthday cake in my fridge my son and I can put together his lunch the night before so at least that will be better.   I think what I was just so surprised by was that I was on major mom mode the whole day.  I did even touch on getting him to Tae Kwon Do this week or the fact the my husband had two soccer coaching meetings this past week in the evening. 

Somehow I had foolishly thought that I had made it past the rough part of  parenting schedules only to realize that things had just shifted.   It's like when you think that when your child is out of diapers that you'll suddenly have all this money when in fact the money is just being spent differently like on swim lessons and/or preschool. 

Words of advice from any of you seasoned moms out there?  I would greatly appreciate it.  For the record, my younger one will be starting preschool two afternoons a week in a couple weeks.