Mommy Wisdom 1-30-09

1. If you keep your baby's diaper rash cream in the bathroom, make sure you warn any guests that Desitin is not toothpaste, even though it has most of the same letters as "dentist."

2. Never assume that your children (of any age) realize that they cannot actually walk on air.

Mommy Wisdom 1-29-09

1. Always coordinate spaghetti night with bath night.

2. If you sing often and randomly, your children will also start to burst spontaneously into original songs, as if they're living in a musical. This is highly amusing and worth it.

Snow Day Fun

I'd like you to meet Captain Awesome and Super Flame Boy.


What? Did you expect pictures of snow or something? ;)

And the winner is...

Kate, for "Hiccup-Stopping Pantoum!" I like how she tied the "shocking regularity" in at the beginning and end, and that she chose not to do any traditional rhyming, but used repetition instead to hold the poem together. And hey, it's about a guy who can stop the hiccups! That's a pretty cool power! Kate, please E-mail me your address so I can mail your prize! Thanks for participating!

Thanks also to my husband and dad for playing! Justin, I love your poem and you're my very own personal Captain Awesome. My dad gets big props for his creative rhymes like, "napalm, qualm, psalm" and "balm." My rhymes like "drive" with "alive" just don't compare. My dad's limerick was also a big contender simply because he used the word "ballyhooed." I used the word "poop" in my poem. ;)

This was fun and I hope to do it again in the future and hope that more people will play along!

Third Contest Submission

Actually, three submissions in one! By David (my dad) who is a college level English professor.

Haiku
Superpowered Dad
Soothes fears and fends off panic
Leaving calm behind

Limerick
There once was a PopPop called Dude
Whose powers were much ballyhooed
He’d fix and he’d calm
He’d apply easing balm
And all sorts of troubles he’d soothe

Villanelle
PopPop’s power is to calm
the fears and nerves that jangle life
and ease all troubles with a healing balm

When fears leave sweat upon your palm;
And your heart knows only strife
PopPop’s power is to calm

If decisions leave you filled with qualm
Seek out PopPop’s sound advice
and ease all troubles with a healing balm

When your heart burns like hot napalm
Over troubles with a spouse or wife
PopPop’s power is to calm

He tells a story like a psalm
Suggesting ways to guide your life
and ease all troubles with a healing balm

So when fate leaves you with deep qualm
Remember that to soothe your life
PopPop’s power is to calm
and ease all troubles with a healing balm

English teacher note: Villanelle: 19 lines of any length divided into six stanzas: 5 tercets and a concluding quatrain. Lines 1-6-12-18 are the same, as are lines 3-9-15-19; rhyme scheme aba in tercets, abaa in concluding quatrain. (Who thinks up this stuff????)

Second Contest Submission

Hiccup-Stopping Pantoum
By Kate

"With shocking regularity
each hiccup trips and trifles,
and wouldn't you know
you're fixated on each agitation,

each hiccup that trips and trifles,
and it perplexes me,
your fixation on each agitation.
Relax, I've said. Take your time.

It perplexes me, so I say
put your heart back in your chest and
relax. I've said take your time,
but you're gasping, trying to

put your head in your chest, so
suddenly I'm all sobriety and steady stature,
and you gasp, trying to
see why each time this works, when

I'm all sobriety and steady stature,
and wouldn't you know,
each time this works,
with shocking regularity."

And the background info:
"This is actually about my husband's super power, which is the uncany ability
to cure me (and only me) from hiccups. This is accomplished with a dead-pan
stare that creeps me out - very unlike his usual demeanor. I hope someone
else's super power counts."

Thanks for indulging me and playing, Kate!

Inauguration Day

Actual politics aside, no one is denying that today my kids saw history happen. This was the first inauguration that either of them has been around for, and I am excited that they will grow up never knowing a United States that had only elected Caucasian men to its highest office. I tried to base my vote on politics alone, and I won't get into the actual politics here, but I do want to say that I am proud that my country is now in a place where we *can* elect a Black man to the presidency. I am hopeful that my kids will be surprised when they learn of the significance of today, because they've grown up seeing all types of people doing all types of jobs.

When Justin got home from work, he asked Alexander what he did today. Alexander said, "I watched Barack Obama become president. He's an old man. He made some promises." Well, I don't know what's up with the "old" part, but I guess to a three year old, most people are old. I guess my kids might someday want to know what they were up to on this historic day, so I snapped a few pictures of them watching the inauguration.