I often joke that I have OCD. When in reality I am probably offending people who really have OCD when I say that - because in truth, what I have is the inability to let go of an idea when it takes hold. Seriously. I am like a dog with a bone. Coupled with a Type-A personality, I can get pretty damn obsessed with getting things right, even when they don't matter.
OK, maybe I do have OCD.
Anyway.
What happens when you see perfectionism sprouting in your son? In all things except the need to keep his desk clean, of course. I *really* wouldn't mind some more perfectionism in that area.
But here is where the struggle comes in for us as parents.
He is supposed to do his homework, and do it well. He is supposed to read his assigned library books, and read them well. He is supposed to try try try, at all things, and try it well.
How to find the balance between encouraging him to do well, and cutting him a break? Sometimes he gets so wrapped up in making it *perfect* that I worry that we expect too much from him. Not just in his schoolwork, but in life.
And then I watch him do *just enough* to get by - and I think, OK, NOW, now is the time to encourage him, suggest places he could push himself harder.... and all I ever feel like is some crazy stage mom.
How do YOU do it?
I know we all struggle with balance in this issue. I would really like to find it.
No, I won't be in Houston in a few weeks, I will be home, crying on my husband's shoulder and wondering why I made family time a priority this year. (JUST KIDDING, HONEY.) But I know the rest of you attending the Mom 2.0 Summit will have a wonderful, collaborative and stimulating time. I certainly did last year.
Bonus this time around? The fabulous Tracey Clark and other Shutter Sisters put together an exhibition of other mom photographers - some of them being my most favorite shooters in the whole world, if you want to get technical about it. A preview + silent auction to raise money for Haiti was held last night at FotoFest.
You may have seen me tweeting about the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day we all had yesterday. It was so bad that Declan wrote several poems over dinner. Poems = BAD DAY, people. I am sincerely glad that he is learning to express his feelings in creative ways (yes, there were severals drawings to accompany the several poems too) - because there is NO WAY my son will ever grow up to be an emotionally repressed man.
"Horrible Day" Oh today was a Horrible day Horrible day Horrible day Oh flies in my ears Being called a jerk Being yelled at Even though I only did One thing right I handled it all Alright.
Just when the whole family was wallowing in our despair, an email came in from the east coast.
See, my nephew is almost 5 and adorable beyond words. Here is HIS story. HIS words and drawings about HIS day. And OK, maybe it's a little crackly cause it was pulled off cellphone recordings, HIS voice made OUR day MUCH MUCH better.
January has always been the worst month of the year for me. Coming off the holidays, coming off the flip in light, making my night terrors surge in frequency, not to mention just the plain old winter BLAHS. Yuck.
Luckily, I made it through this January with ZERO night terrors, first time EVER. And even though I definitely slept pretty bad and OH YES have the winter blahs, it is now February, which means next month is March, and after that April, and you get the idea, so I am ready to celebrate!
Time for some MUSIC. As if you didn't know, I give away 3 mix CDs every month to friends of this blog. Check out previous Greeblemix CDs for an idea of what they are about. And seeing as I am so happy it is NOT January anymore, I am letting the comments roll for an additional day. ___________________________________________ GREEBLEMIX RULES 1. Comment as often as you like, up until midnight TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2009. 2. No anonymous comments. Please make sure your email address is easily accessible through your entry! 3. Winners from last month, please take a month off. 4. Wednesday morning, I will use Random.org to randomly select three winners. Three free mix CDs, three winners! 5. Winners must be willing to give me their snail mail to send the CD. 6. No need to have to have a blog to enter. We are equal opportunity around here. ___________________________________________
How was your January? Do you get the blahs? What are you looking forward to in February?
And what do nerds do when they get together? Pullout laptops and look at each others' photos. Look at Brian's. He's awesome. And lazy. At least in respect to photography. Get off your ass, Brian! I want more shots like this:
But beyond that, we had a really interesting conversation after I made an offhand comment about how techdudes need to dress up more when they appear on TV.
Brian shrugged and asked... "why?"
Of course I get all impassioned! It's a sign of respect, both for the audience and the guy himself! Duh! I *almost* whipped out my favorite quote from the Brendan Fraser flick "Blast From The Past" that "good manners are just a way of showing other people we have respect for them... and a gentleman someone who always tries to make sure the people around him or her are as comfortable as possible." And seeing as Brendan Fraser is my new BFF, I am allowed to quote him at will.
Brian saw my point, but also felt that maybe the people in question were doing one of several things: pushing buttons on purpose to change perceptions, just being an artist - which brings an artistic temperament, or maybe - they just. didn't. care.
And should we care? Why do we get dressed up for certain things? Is it to make US feel good about ourselves? Or impress OTHERS?
Which makes me wonder why we do ANYTHING, but that's another blog post.
What do you think? How do you handle it? Do you walk the walk, or are you a button-pusher?
Over MLK day weekend, my family and I were lucky enough to be hosted by Winter Park resort, as part of a group effort from Colorado Ski Country USA to show off how families can have fun at resorts all over Colorado.
From the get-go I was honest with them about my lack-luster skiing abilities. I mean, seriously - have you SEEN the Terror On The Mountain video? Grace, agility + snow are not words meant to be in my vocabulary.
Luckily, Winter Park has a bunch of other activities for people like me, so Bryan and I did a snowshoe tour while Declan entered his very first day EVER at ski school. (More on that later).
Bryan has been trying to get me to go snowshoeing for YEARS, he was always the more adventurous one of us.
What I learned? I LOVE SNOWSHOEING. It was perfect for me. Tromping around in the snow, requiring pretty much zero skills other than the ability to walk like a duck, and taking photos of nature? PERFECT.
We even saw a porcupine sleeping way up in a tree.
And here, you can turn your head sideways for the closest thing we got to "Terror On The Mountain Part II." I think it's an improvement at least.
After all this snow plowing, we had lunch in the newly-finished village area next to the ski slopes of Winter Park. And I have to tell say - THANK YOU WINTER PARK, for this addition. Because while WP is so close to Denver (an hour and a half), the one other time we had been there, I was frustrated with the lack of restaurants, and particularly the lack of retail near the resort. They now have a nice balance. Sure, they definitely maintained the small-town feel that WP is so famous for - but it's a nice step into the next century.
Speaking of the next century and whiz bangy stuff. Remember how Declan was in ski school all day?
Well, he also had a *GPS tracker* on him, which I know was for safety and all, blah blah blah, whatever, what WE loved was we could log-in on the Flaik ("flake") website when we got back to the hotel and SEE exactly where he had been on the mountain (actually a ton of places, see below) and how fast he was going (not very).
And as I mentioned above, we were much happier with our dinner choices this time around. A few restaurants have exported from Denver, like Cheeky Monk and Lime, plus comfort food from Doc's Roadhouse and several other places we didn't have time to try over the course of the weekend. [Next time.]
The next morning was all about TUBING. If you have never been, you cannot go to Winter Park and skip TUBING. Have I mentioned we love TUBING. You can probably see in my header right now that we enjoyed the TUBING. But here is one extra special cute-as-hell photo of Declan to convince you. That we like TUBING.
Oh, and a video as well. Of the TUBING. And the CACKLING. What is up with the CACKLING?
There are *two* TUBING places, one family-owned, the original, which is the first you see and one is Colorado Adventure Park, which is the one we went to this time around and has more things to do. But, I would say both are great, and they exist on the same hill. [So pick whichever has the shortest lines, basically.]
In between all this extracurricular fun, Bryan did manage to get some snowboarding in, and I rode up and down the lifts, taking photos. By the way, people like getting their photo taken on lifts.
And here comes the part where those of you paying attention to the news will know that I pay attention to the news as well. Intrawest, who has a deal with the City of Denver (the real owner of Winter Park, making it truly "Denver's Resort") for operations over the next 50 years is in a bit of trouble. As in they also own Whistler-Blackcomb in Vancouver, the site of the Olympics next month, and plan to auction off *that* resort DURING the big event. Seriously. This was all announced 3 days after we got back from Winter Park. Folks here in Colorado are calm (as we usually are) - but I couldn't help emailing my rep at Winter Park and offering to auction off *her* resort right here on this blog. Seriously. [She laughed, but declined.]
Now. To bring this all full-circle. For those REALLY paying attention, you will remember that Declan was actually *conceived* at Whistler-Blackcomb on a ski trip on Feb 8, 2002 [Yes, I *do* know the date] - almost exactly 8 years ago. ALSO, you may have heard the screaming in Denver yesterday when it was announced that our very own Editor-in-Mile-Highness, Amber, is headed BACK to Vancouver to cover the Winter Olympics! SERENDIPITY, PEOPLE! The Circle of Life! I feel like holding Declan up like Simba! [And I am really sure Winter Park is THRILLED they picked me as their Colorado snow mama right about now.]
OK, Aimee. Focus.
What was I talking about?
Oh, yeah! Fun in Winter Park!
The other cool new thing up there is the Fraser Valley Rec Center. Brand new, with huge pool, huge slides inside the pool, and just one huge rule: NO CAMERAS. OK, there are more rules, but that was the one I heard about within 5 seconds of taking my camera out was: NO CAMERAS. I managed to sweet-talk my way into getting a shot or two anyway.
So, net-net?
Clearly we had a great time. We'll be back. We liked the convenience of the village, the convenience of their new concierge-esque Custom Delivery Service (as in, for $29 for 4 people, they bring your boots, rental and lesson paperwork and lift tickets to you, NOT KIDDING), the convenience of walking across from the hotel to the slopes, the convenience of having Declan in ski school while we did our thing... can you see convenience is big with me?
And hopefully we'll make is convenient for you to get there too. Winter Park is giving away a family 4-pack of tickets through the Mile High Mama's site. Contest deadline is February 15th, so get over there.
OK, and also, I really had to let you know about all the FREE stuff going on up there every night of the week as well.Oh, and if you are ever going up for some TUBING, you know who to call.
WINTER 2009-2010 FREE ONGOING FAMILY ACTIVITIES
MONDAYS ICE-SKATING LESSONS TIME/DATE: Saturdays - Wednesdays, December 19 - mid-March, 4:00 - 5:00pm LOCATION: Village Ice Rink & Gazebo TUESDAYS ICE-SKATING LESSONS TIME/DATE: Saturdays - Wednesdays, December 19 - mid-March, 4:00 - 5:00pm LOCATION: Village Ice Rink & Gazebo
WEDNESDAYS ICE-SKATING LESSONS TIME/DATE: Saturdays - Wednesdays, December 19 - mid-March, 4:00 - 5:00pm LOCATION: Village Ice Rink & Gazebo
THURSDAYS KIDS’ NIGHT OUT TIME/DATE: Thursdays, December 17 - April 8, 5:30 - 8:30pm LOCATION: Kids’ Ski & Ride School - Blue/Green Rooms
DISCO SKATE NIGHTS TIME/DATE: Thursdays, January 7 & 21, February 4 & 18, 6:00 - 8:00pm LOCATION: Village Ice Rink & Gazebo FRIDAYS COWBOY SING-A-LONG TIME/DATE: Fridays, December 18 - April 10, 4:00 - 5:00pm LOCATION: Village Gazebo
MINI RAIL JAM SERIES TIME/DATE: Fridays, January 15 - March 19, 4:30 - 6:00pm LOCATION: Bouncer Terrain Park near Discovery Center SATURDAYS FIRESIDE STORY-TELLING TIME/DATE: Saturdays, January 9 - March 27, 3:00 - 4:00pm LOCATION: Discovery Center Plaza ICE-SKATING BLADE CAPADES (GAMES) TIME/DATE: Saturdays - Wednesdays, December 19 - mid-March, 4:00 - 5:00pm LOCATION: Village Ice Rink & Gazebo
MEET WINTER PARK WILLIE TIME/DATE: Saturdays, December 12 - April 10, 4:00pm - 5:00pm LOCATION: Village Gazebo SUNDAYS FREE ICE-SKATING LESSONS TIME/DATE: Saturdays - Wednesdays, December 19 - mid-March, 4:00 - 5:00pm LOCATION: Village Ice Rink & Gazebo __________________________________________________________
P.S. If you need to see ALLLLLLL the Winter Park photos, here is a slideshow. I warn you. There are a bunch of us TUBING.
I have mentioned age 7 has put us into completely new territory with Declan. New levels of maturity. As in, we can play board games and not only does he GET IT, he KICKS. OUR. ASS.
Which is making me nostalgic for when he was a baby. Hell, even *Declan* is getting nostalgic for when he was a baby. Thus, there has been lots of swapping stories lately, stories from when he was leetle little.
I was thinking back the other day, and remembering that Declan's first word was actually, "hi." I know, ADORABLE, right??? People at the time told me it was an indication of how friendly he would be.
This weekend at the Chicks Who Click Denver conference (which was awesome, by the way), Melanie Mills talked about personality styles, and had us pick our favorite shape, and surprise surprise, our traits matched up with what shape we chose. Later, my husband, who is as silly and outgoing as they come, picked the squiggle shape - just like I thought he would.
Declan? I guessed he was a squiggle, since he is so much like his dad - or possibly a circle because circles are really inclusive - and any kid whose first word was *HI* has to be inclusive, right???
Nope.
"Mama! I can't pick a shape because my favorite shape isn't even on here! MY favorite shape is a RHOMBUS."
Holy cow, folks. You go crazy for inspirational photos. We had very close to *1,000* votes.
And while you liked all the photos A LOT, this one clearly spoke to you.
I mean how could it not? The moment when a mother touches her newborn for the very first time? *I* nearly cry every time I look at it. And I wasn't even there. But I am very glad that Casey from Moosh In Indy was, and that she shared it with us. [Moosh's blog is great by the way. Check it out if you have never read it.]
Casey, email me [aimee at greeblemonkey dot com] and we'll get you going on that awesome $250 camera rental prize.
Speaking of, thanks again to the wonderful Pro Photo Rental for supporting this contest.
See you next month? Date for the next contest is February 15th. ___________________________________________
Have a great weekend, y'all. Wish me luck - I am a speaker at Chicks Who Click Denver, along with many other lovely ladies:
So, this morning started out pretty rough. Mainly because of my son, who - by all accounts is a really lucky little dude. A lucky little dude with a nice house in a nice neighborhood who eats nice food and visits nice places. Don't get me wrong, we're not rich by any stretch of the imagination. We're just... lucky.
So, when my kid keeps handing me lists of things he wants for Christmas, in January, that include laptops, and projection screens, and a bevy of other several thousand dollar gifts, it is time for us to have a talk. And show pictures of the devastation in Haiti. And discuss how lucky we are. And remind him, that while it's really fun to dream of all those things we'd love to have, it's important to remember what other people *don't* have.
As the big, glassy tears rolled down my son's cheeks, I hastened to tell him *I* knew he was a good person, that we all just need a reminder sometimes of how lucky we are. And I told him about what we had been doing on Greeblemonkey this week, turning my photo contest into a fund raiser for Haiti - and I asked him if he could, for his *next* list, think about all the things the money we raised would buy for those people who lost everything.
He thought that was a great idea.
And *I* think YOU ALL are awesome. Thanks SO MUCH for sharing your photos, and for commenting on the CD contest post. You pushed my contribution total to $121 even, where I was planning on contributing $250 - so I am going to go ahead and double down (or whatever) and make your entries and comments worth $2. Thanks again. And if you are able, please contribute something yourself.
And, OF COURSE. The Greeblepix finalists. Seriously. You all are amazing. So, there was no way to get down to 10. I did 15 finalists this month. Ha! Thus the beauty of having your own contest, being able to bend your own rules.
Now, I turn it over to you. VOTE! Spread the word! Get others to vote! The winner will receive a $250 camera rental from Pro Photo Rental, so help these talented folks out.
