100th post

I’ve had quite a few days in a row of posting here, which obviously isn’t the norm for me. I’m trying to decide if it is because I’ve had something to say, or because I’ve seen that I was creeping closer to 100 posts. In any case, here it is the 100th post. Now what?

I’ve decided that I would just recap some of my favorite posts. It seems that most of the posts that I really enjoy are not the posts with comments. For one reason or another, these posts clearly communicated something in a way that felt cathartic to me. They were/are posts that I go back and read periodically because they give me a warm glow, or perhaps I thought they were funny, witty, whatever. This is the part of the sitcom where they call it a new episode, but they really just have the characters sitting on a couch (I’m clearly envisioning episodes of The Cosby Show that have been in this vein, because I’ve seen every single episode of The Cosby Show at least twice...did you know that in the first episode The Cosby’s only had 4 children, the oldest, Saundra, did not exist yet?) reminiscing so they can show scenes from past episodes. Is that called recycling? I’m not going to rank my posts, but I will offer tidbits I feel are warranted along the way. Don’t worry, you don’t really have to go back and read the old posts if you don’t want to!

My first blog post makes the list because it was my first post of course. It attempted to capture the frantic pace of life I was feeling at the time. Two little kids at home, still breastfeeding and pumping for the youngest, working full time, just trying to juggle everything while staying relatively sane. Survival Mode.

How potty training a child can turn an otherwise reasonable adult into an incompetent fool also makes the list. At the time I was just so clearly fed up with the whole potty training process. It seems so foreign to me now that he is potty trained. I can see that I was wasting my time getting so worked up about it. It was never about me, it was about him, and when he was ready it just happened. Potty Training Drop Out.

I didn’t pick any of my other business travel rants because most of them are just very negative. Looking back I can see how unhealthy it was for me to constantly complain about travel. All it did was make me miserable. Must. Remember. That. The. Next. Time. I. Travel. For. Work. Still, this post makes the list because I still think it is incredibly funny that my colleague would chose to eat Slim Fast and Beef Jerky for dinner rather than to just go to a restaurant with me for 30 minutes! Slim Fast and Beef Jerky.

The post I wrote on The Boy’s last birthday makes the list because it just does. I felt like it captured many of the thoughts I was reflecting upon that day. We get so caught up in our kids’ accomplishments that we forget that we are learning and growing as they age as well. Every once in a while we need to pat ourselves on the back for the wonderful job we are doing just by taking care of our kids each and every day. It is no small feat, raising kids. Thank you for teaching me.

The gift bag post was selected because I feel it does a good job of challenging some of the backlash parents have towards the excesses of birthday parties today. Do I think birthday celebrations can be overblown? Yes. Do I think giving kids gift bags has to be a bad thing? No. We all need to stop looking at what everyone else is doing and just decide what is right for our own families. More importantly we need to stop judging other parents for what they do or don’t do in these contexts. What’s wrong with gift bags?

I so enjoy watching my kids play with Christmas ornaments. It isn’t that I am a Christmas freak, it isn’t that the toys are all that interesting, it just reminds me that I loved to play with the wooden ornaments when I was young. I thought it was extremely funny when The Boy proclaimed that “The snake ate the baby Jesus,” as he was playing with our ornaments last Christmas. Perhaps my story telling ability isn’t phenomenal, but in person this was hilarious! The snake ate the baby Jesus.

Turning off the television at our house in the morning, and ridding myself of my morning computer habit has made a profound impact on my life. It has been many months now, and my kids are watching far less television (A DVR’d episode of The Backyardigans some days after daycare, and an hour or so of whatever they choose each weekend morning), and the morning routine is much smoother than it ever used to be. I’m not going to say that mornings are hassle free, but there is no way we could go back to watching cartoons in the mornings now. The great no TV before daycare experiment.

As you might have picked up on from reading here I’ve been trying to be more positive since I read/watched The Secret. It really has had a profound impact on my life in more ways than one. I still find myself falling into the negative traps of my past, but I’m learning and growing. What do you want in your life?

The ode to my treadmill makes the list because my treadmill was my inspiration for my blog title. How can I not pay her homage? An Ode to my treadmill.

Finally I am going to select a very recent post. After reading the post that immediately preceded it a few times I decided that I needed to shift my attitude. The Girl is still a baby in so many ways, and I need to let her be one, stop willing her to grow up faster than she already is. On being 23 months old.

I hope this wasn’t too boring for you to read. I have most of my posts saved as Word documents so I can peruse them at my leisure fairly easily, but I hadn’t in a while. It has been a fun trip for me so far, thanks for reading!

P.S. This was more work to write than a normal blog post, so I take back my comments about recycling!

P.P.S. Tell me what you think of my new masthead. I've been meaning to customize it for ages, but finally got around to it.