A Mommy Story

I still can’t quite put together fully coherent posts yet about BlogHer. It was a great trip, and I’m already missing everyone and wish it could have been a week long, although my liver would prefer to keep it at two days. So until a few longer, well-thought-out posts can find their way out of my head and through my fingers to the keyboard, let’s just go with bullets, OK?

• This being my sophomore year of BlogHer, I attended fewer sessions than the year before. It wasn’t that I was disinterested in the topics – I was actually sorry to miss some of them. But there were so many fabulous women to see, and so little time to do it. Some of these women I saw last year, and really wanted to reconnect. Others were attending for the first time, and I could barely contain my excitement to meet them and put a face to the person I’ve been reading about for so long. I’d link them all here, but every word would be a link.
• One of the best schwag items: the jump drive from AOL (and it’s a 128, not a 64!). Never turn down portable memory.
• The momosphere panel had too much to cover in too little time. It was hard to be called on, and by the time they got back to someone, their question was no longer relevant because the discussion had already moved on. We needed either a lot more time, or several panels to discuss the subtopics of privacy, diversity, advertising, popularity, special needs kids, etc. Or maybe we need another conference to really get in-depth on these topics?
• One of the worst schwag items: the Butterball potholder. Because nothing says, “after your little techie women’s conference, get back in the kitchen and make me a sandwich, woman,” quite like a potholder. I tried offering it to a couple of food bloggers, thinking they probably cook more than me, but they weren’t interested either.
• Bringing Mira to the conference was not the disaster I expected. Yes, I’ve complained she is a colicky baby, but for the duration of the conference she magically morphed into a happy baby. Turns out she may not be colicky – she’s just too cool for us. She was in her element amongst the crowds and ooohing admirers – our little social butterfly. Now that we’re back home, she’s crying more again. Can everyone from the conference please come to our house this weekend to give me a break from the crying?
• Bringing Cordy to the conference was exactly the disaster I expected. She did OK in childcare the first day, even though they lost her sippy cup. Seriously, folks, the kids stayed in two rooms – how do you lose a sippy cup in two rooms? And after we picked her up, she seemed off. I can’t describe it, but she seemed very not-Cordy as she sulked in the stroller at the cocktail party. She woke up screaming and crying that night, begging to go home. I think she was scared to go back to childcare for day two. So on Saturday Aaron took her shopping on Michigan Ave. and to lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, enduring her meltdowns all over downtown Chicago and at the Children’s Museum. She had a tough time on the drive home, too. Next year, she stays with grandma.
• I gave out well over half of the business cards I had printed off. Hopefully a few new people will stop by to visit my blog. I’m still sorting my ginormous stack of cards that I received, but I can already tell I will have several new-to-me blogs to add to Bloglines. There are so many amazingly talented female writers out there!
• Even though I missed out on most of the wild parties, I think I flashed my breasts more than anyone else. Being the social creature she is, Mira learned how to pull off in the middle of nursing to check out the sights, giving everyone else a chance to check out the sight of my nipples.
• The question I got asked the most by new bloggers (aside from “how old is your baby?”) was: how do you have time to keep up with writing and reading so many blogs without neglecting your kids? My answer was short and simple: become a lousy housekeeper. Also, a little time with Noggin or Playhouse Disney doesn’t hurt, either. I never said I was a perfect mother.
• Best cocktail party: the second night. Even though it was crazy crowded, it felt so much like the parties from last year. Fun, organic, great music, etc. And special thanks to the Canadian ladies for making sure no tray of food got past me (and to Sandra for feeding me an ice cream sundae when my arms were busy holding a nursing baby!). A hungry breastfeeding woman never misses a chance at food.
• All of the prep this month for BlogHer, the constant talk about blogging, and dragging him with me to Chicago convinced Aaron to restart his blog. So if you know anyone who likes comic books or superheroes, tell them to check out Underneath the Mask. (He’s my husband, therefore I’m practically obligated to throw in a shameless plug for his blog.)
• If anyone out there has any pics of Mira or Cordy, could you please send them to me or send me the link? I’d like to see how others captured the girls on digital film.

More to come in the next few days, including my talk with a reporter and my thoughts about selling advertising on mommyblogs (just in case you weren’t sick of opinions on this topic).

And one non-BlogHer note: Cordy’s big evaluation is this Thursday afternoon. At our house. So for this week I must be a good housekeeper – don’t want them blaming our messy house for her problems.