Bright Lights, Big City: Adventures of an Urban Toddler

It was just around this time last year that a big truck came and carried all our things out of the city and into a house on a hill in the country.

Times flies when you're having fun, and this week we said goodbye to our hill and headed back into the city to start our next adventure.

Little Man's new home includes a pool, a playground within walking distance, and--to his absolute delight--an elevator. The windows from our fifth floor apartment offers a veiw of Husband's work (so we can spy on him while he's on the job) from one side and an honest-to-goodness construction site from the other side. It's like we live right across the street from Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site.

Husband and I had our concerns about how the move would affect our not quite two-year-old. He didn't care much for having his toys packed up (in fact, he pulled them out of boxes as quickly as I managed to get them in) and I assumed it would be a week or so before Little Man slept peacefully through the night in his new room.

All of our worries went right out the window when Little Man went to sleep like a champ the night of the move and woke up happy the next morning. Since then we've been exploring his new world--he loves walking the halls of our building, exploring the other floors, and pounding the pavement on the sidewalks in our neighborhood. We discovered a pond with some delightful ducklings and we frequent the smoothie shop where Little Man has become partial to the frozen treats.

Every morning when he wakes up, he watches the cement mixers and buses drive by. Every night after dinner, Little Man begins his refrain of "Ousa! Ousa!" ("Outside! Outside!") and waits patiently for his shoes and socks to find their way to his feet. And in between is filled with discovering a city that his father grew up in and his mother loves (even if she will always act like a tourist).

It's a good life our little toddler has.

Happy Mother's Day!

It's the morning of Mother's Day. The sun is shining, my child slept all night and woke up as a happy little person, and now he and my sweet husband are standing here with me, surrounding me with love.

Surrounding me as I stand in my bathrobe, wearing latex gloves, going through the very full trash can where my child deposited his favorite HotWheels camper--where it has inevitably fallen to the very bottom.

Thus is the glamour-filled life of a Mama Bear. But my kid's thrilled grin when I returned his (washed) camper was well worth it all the banana peels and coffee grinds.

Happy Mothers Day!

What's in Your Bag?

When I got into law school, I bought myself this Kate Spade satchel. It carried fancy pens and books with titles like "Contracts: Understanding the Legal Language" and "Fundamentals of Torts". That was a different life.

But becoming a Mommy doesn't mean you have to give up your fancy bags. My beloved Kate Spade is now a bonafide Mom bag.

Inside there are the baby necessities: diapers, wipes, and a snack of puffs to ward off an attack of the crankies. There are Mama necessities: too: wallet, lipgloss (okay...maybe 4 of them is a little overkill, but a girl has to have options) and cell phone.

Little Man's cell phone also lives in the bag, but the only person it calls is Mickey Mouse. Luckily, he is included in our circle of friends plan.

The iPod touch, which used to live in the bag for purposes of supplying music during study breaks is now used primarily for emergency episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse when car trips become too long or when Mommy and Daddy would like more than 10 minutes to eat their food when dining out.

On any given day, there are a handful of toys located in the various pockets--usually some assortment of cars and noisemakers. These toys generally alternate with the ones on the floor of the car and hidden in the hidey-holes of Little Man's car seat.

There's no competition: what's in my bag now beats anything.