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    20 - Edie McClurg (aka Mom) 08 - Monk at a Starbucks on Lantau Island, Hong Kong 10 - The Hot Tamales Crew! 02 - The tall and groovy Lisa Ling (so jealous of her jobs)

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20
Sep, 2009

Home for 32 Hours and Nap Drama Ensues!

The last couple weeks have been so interesting and exciting and exhausting and… well, enough ands. I can’t say too much at this point, but I just shot a pilot for a new talk show. In the best of all possible worlds, the show will get picked up and I’ll have a regular national tv gig. Don’t jinx me though. I’m just going to sit back, relax and enjoy the waiting process. HA!

I interviewed for the pilot job less than two weeks ago. Booked it the day after the interview. Shot some segments here in L.A. two days after that. Flew to NYC on Friday, shot the in-studio pilot show on Sat (I was in NYC approximately 22 hours), flew home Sat night and now I’m home spending the day with my daughter before I have to leave again for a gig in Ohio. I’ll have to leave for LAX at 4:30am tomorrow morning. AHHHHH!!!
After the Ohio overnight, I’ll have the rest of this coming week at home with my little family and after that a little vacation before going back to work. I have a gig on Oct 3 in San Antonio with the Hot Tamales Live and Eva Longoria! It should be a good one.
Anyhoo, Aubrey was really excited to see me today, as was I, her. We did some painting, watched a Baby Einstein video with a snack and got snuggled in for nap time. She hasn’t fought a nap time for me in weeks. Maybe even a couple months now, but today was the day. I think she was just so excited to be back at my house with our dog, Bob Barker and me, that she decided to go a little kee-ray-zee.
This is a normal part of being a two year old. Tantrums come and go and she really doesn’t have all that many. I have to admit, I have a hard time not laughing at the things she says when she goes nuts. She fancies herself a real master manipulator and will say clever little things in an attempt to get me to cave in and forgo the nap. Today, when she was crying her little face off, trying to get me to come in her room and rescue her from the big bad nap time, here are some of the doozies she yelled out:
– I hungry! (she hasn’t quite gotten down “I am” or “I’m” yet)
– I need to paint!
– I see Daddy!
– I see Lee! (my boyfriend)
– I see Bob Barker! (our dog)
– I need go swimming!
– I take a bath!
– It’s ok it’s ok it’s ok!
– I see out the window!
– Read another book!
– I need Curious George!
– I want Time Out Chair! (that’s REALLY desperate)
I love that she thinks I’ll really fall for one of these. As if suddenly, I’ll think, “Oh my God! Aubrey DOES need a bath! I had better get her out of bed!” HILARIOUS!
My favorite of all time was the other night before she went to bed she exclaimed, “I need nuts!” She’s really into cashews right now.
I hope you’re all having a fun weekend!

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07
Sep, 2009

Oh POOP!


As if I haven’t embarrassed myself enough already, here is a true tale from the trenches of motherhood…

So I have a tendency to post things that many people would never admit to (pinching my child, having to leave a restaurant because my kid wouldn’t stop screaming, crapping my pants on Obama’s inauguration day) so why stop now?

My girl is 27 months old tomorrow. She has been going pee in the toilet for several weeks now and I couldn’t be prouder. She’s still wearing diapers and pull-ups but she recently starting telling me when she has to go! This is a GIANT leap for toddlerkind, yes?! I was excited when this started happening. So after a week or so of her announcing, “I have to potty!” and making it to the toilet successfully, I thought it would be a good time to start a little more poop talk as she was still happy to wallow in her own #2 for hours on end if I’d let her. My nanny told me that she was starting to talk more about pooping in her diaper though, so I decided to continue on.

When I started potty training, I asked for any and all advice and I read tons of websites and parenting boards. Many people and experts suggested letting a child of the same gender as you watch you sit on the toilet and go. I was raised in a super conservative family and like many fine Evangelical Christians, we were fairly ashamed of our bodies. This type of potty training wouldn’t have happened in our house. I’m no hippie, but I do want my daughter to feel comfortable and confident about her body and part of that is showing her my confidence and comfort with my body, teaching her the proper names for body parts and at this point in life, making potty training fun and no big whoop!

The “let your child watch you go to the potty” technique had worked like a charm for peeing. Aubrey loves to come into the bathroom with me and watch me pee. She even squats down in front of me and takes a good look at everything going on: “It’s Mommy’s gina! It’s go pee-pee! I see it!” I’m not trying to brag, but yesterday she even announced, “It’s CLEAN!” So there.

Anyway, this morning I thought she might like to watch the poo-poo in action too. She had pooped in her diaper a little earlier and I thought it would be a good opportunity to show her how Mommy does it and what big girls do with their poo-poo. You know, while it was still fresh in her mind. Well, I guess I was wrong.

Aubrey got into her regular front row seat to watch the action. She made her regular exclamation of, “It’s Mommy’s gina!” and when she saw the kids dropping into the pool…

well, the reaction was not positive. First she made a horrible face. I thought, well, she doesn’t like the smell – who can blame her? But then she ran out of the room and said something like, “I don’t want it! I get out.” I had successfully managed to terrify my child with my poop. Great.

This all happened this morning, about 6 hours ago from now. Since then, she has peed in her diaper throughout the day, not going on the potty once. When I ask her if she’d like to sit on the potty and try for a sticker (the photo is actually her with her sticker “chart” – we let it turn into more of a freestyle expression of sticker placement rather than a chart) she says, “No thanks”.

So a giant leap forward and, hopefully, just a small step back. I know with this, like everything else in motherhood, I need to have patience and just give it some time. Pushing (sorry, no pun intended) is not going to help anything and finding that fine line between pushing and encouraging will always be a delicate balancing act. Oh well. At least I have a clean vagina.


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29
Jun, 2009

The Beach, Poetry, Perfect

(Disclaimer: I can't figure out why the color of my text is showing up grey. Has something to do with the copy and pasted stuff

at the end, but I can't fix it and I'm sick of trying! I hope you can read it ok!)


Aubrey and I took a beach day on June 27! The weather here in SoCal was stunning and it was perfect for Aubrey's first time 

in the ocean. Aubrey has been to "the beach" many times here in SoCal, but usually just to walk or play in the sand or at the 

playgrounds. This day was the first time she played in the water and I wasn't sure how she would like it. She has a tendency 

to be a little hesitant in new situations, but if I push her, just enough, she almost always loves ANYTHING. I think it's all 

just part of being two years old. 


After settling on our blanket (this followed a great disaster in the public beach bathroom which I'll share on LAMomsBlog.com

soon) and a picnic lunch of sandwiches, Pirate's Booty, cookies, raisins and juice, I asked her if she wanted to go in the water 

and she said "no". Being the good mother that I am, I responded by picking her up, walking her down to the water's edge and 

putting her down. Luckily, she went nuts for it. This video is of her first moments with her toes in the Pacific. 


After this video was taken she couldn't get enough and I couldn't stop her from running, full speed, into the waves. It was a day 

of new experiences and discovery for Aubrey and a day of much needed peace and escape for me. It was truly one of the most 

joyful days of my life.


The afternoon reminded me of one of my favorite poems, by the great e.e. cummings. I hope you enjoy it too:


maggie and milly and molly and may


maggie and milly and molly and may 
went down to the beach (to play one day)  

and maggie discovered a shell that sang 
so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles,and  

milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;  

molly was chased by a horrible thing 
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and  

may came home with a smooth round stone 
as small as a world and as large as alone.  

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me) 
it's always ourselves we find in the sea


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