Mira, meet goat.
Goat, meet Mira.
I can’t help but wonder what each is thinking as they stare each other down.
Tales of one woman stumbling her way through motherhood.
Mira, meet goat.
Goat, meet Mira.
I can’t help but wonder what each is thinking as they stare each other down.
It’s obvious to anyone who sees me that I burn easily in the sun. Being fair-skinned, I’ve never been able to achieve those deep tans that others sport.
I’ve always known about sunscreen. As a kid, my mom would put a bottle of it in my backpack every time she dropped me off at the community pool, nagging me to use it. I, being the cocky, indestructible eight year old that I was, would tell her OK as she drove away, then ditch my backpack with my towel under a picnic table as I ran to join up with friends in the deep end of the pool. The sunscreen remained in my bag the entire day.
As you can imagine, I’d come home bright red nearly every day. Sometimes with blisters. As soon as the burn healed and the dead skin peeled away, I was right back out in the sun to burn anew. Burns hurt, yeah, but I was a kid and didn’t want anything to get in the way of play, and that included the time it took to put on sunscreen. Besides, I didn’t like how greasy it felt.
When I was a teenager, I didn’t want to burn but I sure wanted that tan. Tanned bodies filled the high school, and being ghost white made me stand out. (Well, stand out more than I already did.) I always had bad luck with tanning, though, resulting in either a burn or a pathetic light tan. When I had a part-time job at 16, I used some of the money to tan in a tanning booth. I still burned though. Let me put it this way: I burned so much as a kid that my nose is permanently red.
I look back on all of this skin damage, and wish I could go back to my old self and do some kind of scared straight intervention. It would probably involve vivid descriptions of what it’s like to have spots and moles removed (I was terrified of needles as a kid) and the phone conversation I had with my dermatologist’s office yesterday:
“Hi, I’m calling with the results on the skin biopsies we did. OK, the one on the right middle back was benign.”
In the one and a half seconds between that sentence and the next, I pondered her words. Why did she start individually? Is she required to go through each one, instead of telling me they’re all OK? Or maybe one of them came back with something wrong. OK, I guess I should be prepared for one to come back abnormal.
And then she continued, “The other five all came back abnormal. We call it neoplastic…” At this point my focus drifted off of her actual words as I remained on the words abnormal and neoplastic. We studied this in nursing school. It means pre-cancer cells. Five of six removed were abnormal. Five out of six. I wasn’t prepared to hear that. Sure, pre-cancer cells aren’t cancer, but they could be if I’m not cautious.
She continued on, unable to hear my chaotic inner monologue, “They’re pre-cancer cells, which means if they had been left alone they were more likely to turn into skin cancer. There are three levels of abnormal cells: mild, moderate, severe. So far, all of those came back mild, but the doctor now wants to see you every four months for rechecks and to remove any more that show any signs of change.”
I finally stumbled out, “Should I do anything?”
“Well, you’re at a much higher risk for skin cancer now, so if you’re not already doing it, protect your skin. Preventing further skin damage will help, although the past damage still keeps you at risk.”
At least those five abnormal spots were removed. But at the same time, I remember at my appointment that the doctor had mapped out several more to keep an eye on. He probably could have removed another six, but I’m guessing he didn’t feel like making me look like swiss cheese or want me to care for that many wounds at once. Now I look at all of these moles on my arms, legs, back, chest, and face, wondering when one of them might turn against me. Which one is harboring pre-cancer cells, just waiting for their chance to attack me?
I’ve embraced pale white as a lifestyle and fashion choice since my college years, and this recent news is reinforcing my resolve. I will wear protective clothing or sunscreen when out in the sun. I often forget to apply sunscreen when I’m out for short periods, which is something I need to be more consistent with, since that can cause damage, too.
And I’m going to make sure both girls put on sunscreen when they’re outdoors, especially Cordy, who inherited my pale skin. Mira has her dad’s olive-tan skin tone, but that doesn’t fully protect her, either. If they won’t wear it, maybe when they’re older I’ll take them with me for a mole removal, or just show them all of my small scars. They already complain like I did as a kid, but someday I hope they’ll understand that I’m only trying to keep them from going through the fear and worries I’ve gone through, and will likely go through again.
So if you ever need sunscreen, let me know. I’ll always have some with me!
She used to be scared
of the great porcelain god
refusing to go
The potty chair is
now OK, but the big pot
is still off limits
“Do you need to pee?”
sometimes results in success
Sometimes it’s too late
We have to ask her
because she will never go
without some prompting
She’s getting closer
to potty trained, with candy
for motivation
After several false starts and fall-backs and a total lack of interest and cries of “No, I want to be a little girl and wear a diaper!” Cordy seems to be more interested in potty training. We must always ask – she’ll never willingly offer up that she needs to pee. And while she’s still going through a few diapers a day, overall she’s keeping them dry longer now, thanks to potty breaks.
I’m so happy to see this change in her. I was beginning to think she would never accept the concept of peeing into a container rather than the sack strapped around her waist. I wondered if Mira would be potty trained before Cordy ever had any interest. But now she’s interested, partially because of our motivation, and partially due to the reward of one small piece of candy for each try.
I vowed to keep my child away from candy as long as I could. I did it for over three years before she had her first taste of candy, which just happened to be at school, where they reward kids with M&M’s. So I’ve now fallen into line and reward potty success with candy, but only if she asks. (And luckily, she forgets to ask a lot.)
To play along for Haiku Friday, follow these steps:
1. Write your own haiku on your blog. You can do one or many, all following a theme or just random. What’s a haiku, you ask? Click here.
2. Sign the Mister Linky below or at Jennifer’s blog with your name and the link to your haiku post (the specific post URL, not your generic blog URL). DON’T sign unless you have a haiku this week. If you need help with this, contact Jennifer or myself.
3. Pick up a Haiku Friday button to display on the post or in your sidebar by clicking the button at the top.
REMEMBER: Do not post your link unless you have a haiku this week! We will delete any links without haiku!
First off, did you know you’re a really smart bunch of readers? Thank you so much for sharing your frugal tips! There are many I had never thought of, and yet not one person told me to do something like washing out and reusing sandwich baggies. (Seriously? People do that?) I’ll be putting several of those tips into practice immediately, and I’m grateful for all of the advice.
Now, moving on to the real purpose of this post: Stefania over at CityMama is having a contest to help promote the new Being Savvy blogs, and I wanted to let you know so you could enter as well. As I’ve mentioned, I’m the editor of Being Savvy Columbus (hey Columbusites, have you subscribed to it yet?), and I’m really enjoying sharing the best of the city with everyone.
It’s kind of like being paid to go have fun with your kids – I’m required to go out and find the best of Columbus, which means I have to actually, you know, GO OUT and investigate new places to play and learn. Oh, the horrors, right? Actually, I’m finding all kinds of fun off-beat locales and I’ve learned I don’t know as much about my own city as I should. That’s changing, though.
There are several other cities in the Being Savvy blog list, written by some amazing bloggers you may already know, and I wanted to take the chance to mention them all here:
Kim Mordecai (Sacramento) (coming soon!)
Leticia (DC Metro)
Casey of Moosh in Indy (Indianapolis)
Colleen (Delaney Diaries) (San Antonio)
Aimee of Greeblemonkey (Denver)
Rita Arens of Surrender Dorothy (Kansas City)
Kelly Leahy (New Orleans)
Amy Davis (The Lovely Mrs. Davis) (Atlanta)
Heather Gibbs Flett(Rookie Moms) (Oakland/Berkeley)
Whitney Moss (Rookie Moms) (Oakland/Berkeley)
Kim Prince (San Fernando Valley)
Amelia Sprout (Minneapolis/St. Paul)
Nina Moon (Los Angeles)
Katie Mother Bumper (Toronto) (coming soon!)
If your city isn’t represented here, tell Stefania you want to see it in the list. Want to write it? Let her know that, too.
And if your city is here, be sure to check out your local blog. Maybe even talk it up a little, and in doing so enter CityMama’s contest.
Finally, I’ll ask a favor: would you like a pretty shiny button to add to your blog? If so, leave me a comment or e-mail me at amommystory [at] gmail [dot] com so I can send you the code for our Being Savvy buttons. Let me know which city blog you want it to link to.
I KNOW my smart and savvy Columbus bloggers will help me out. Right? Right? I’ll bake you cookies if you add a button. Wait…that’s not really an incentive, is it?
My best chance to ever wear a bikini was when I was a kid. I had no body image issues, and I was pretty fit thanks to a merciless workout of climbing, running and jumping all day long, and little time to eat because there was so much to do and see!
And yet the one time in my life when I could have pulled off a bikini, I never did. That’s because I was a tomboy who loved to be rough and tumble, and thought bikinis were too girly. I wore simple solid color or patterned one-piece swimsuits instead.
As a teen, I desperately wanted to wear a bikini, but thought my belly was too big. Looking back now, I can laaaaaaaugh at how I thought I was so fat, because really? A size 10? It isn’t fat. I bought a cute two piece when I was a junior in high school, determined to shape up enough to go to the pool and flaunt my teal bikini. But it sat in my closet all year, because even though I fit it, my belly was still a little too poochy for me to feel comfortable.
I stuck to my reliable one-piece suit for my early 20’s also. (The one in the picture above.) And then after I became a mom, and added several more pounds and loose skin, I did what I thought I’d never do: I bought a swim dress. (The picture to the left is nearly identical to my swimdress.)
I have to admit, I looked fabulous in that swim dress – it’s a flattering cut that hides the hips and upper thighs. I could walk proudly on the beach without feeling the least bit self-conscious.
But there was only one problem: I looked good in it only while it was dry. Getting it wet negated the entire effect, and also left me with a heavy wet skirt clinging to my legs awkwardly. Swimming was also difficult, because more than once the skirt would float up, giving the appearance of some sadly deflated floaty around my waist.
I’ve lost some of the baby weight that has so badly affected my self-esteem (wondering how my Hot by BlogHer mission is going? I’ll have an update soon!), and I’ve decided that swim dress will be finding a new home at Goodwill. I don’t want it anymore. I have the confidence to go without the bulky skirt, and my new healthy habits will ensure that my one-piece looks better and better on me as the summer progresses.
Will I ever wear that bikini? Probably not. I don’t even think I want to wear a skimpy bathing suit anymore. But a tankini? That’s a possibility, maybe even this year. Because while I’m not as interested in showing off at the pool anymore, I still want to be comfortable and look good.
This post was written for Parent Bloggers Network as part of a sweepstakes sponsored by BOCA to promote their new Balanced Living group. (Don’t we all need a little more balance in our lives?) You can participate by writing a post about your swimsuit before midnight tonight.
Copyright © 2024 · Luscious Child Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in